Showing the Ladies Off (and pushing our comfort zones)...

[red_satin_doll]

** Pirate Bride snogged returns to the world of fanart after an extended hiatus with this: "Mr Gunn Will See You Now" ("Fifty Shades of Gunn") a Gunn/Willow banner that is incredibly erotic.  To call it "yummy" almost sounds dismissive; "perfectly scrumptious" works better. And yet, it's pretty much worksafe. (Unless a pretty lady in lingerie and a bare leg is a no-no in your office. Or implied interracial shipping. Or looking at fanart or anything not related to work and really, is this the kind of workplace you want to be in?) I've never considered that pairing but looking at her banner it suddenly seems perfectly right. Where's the faction for this ship? And, tell me again why m'lady has been away from fanart and denied us these lovelies for so long?

** Working in the Key of Light: Happy birthday to pickamix, who started things off by giving all of us a gift: "Light Willow".  A total turnaround aesthetically from a Mistress of the Dark Art(works): astonishing, unexpected and gorgeous. I'm kind of beyond words here because everything about it could have been, in lesser, hands, cliche - the butterfly wing texture; in her sure hands, nothing here is cliche, all of it is absolutely, meltingly lovely. It was the second thing to greet my eyes Sunday morning, after a proper cup of tea, and I began to tear up. Then I simply sat with it, studied it, took it all in - the way Willow emerges from the light, the way the texures wrap around her, embrace her. I could go on all day about it.

****

What unites these two artworks in my mind is their shared elegance: visually clean, uncluttered, nothing out of place. Simplicity of composition that belies the work that surely went into making both of these. Both of these have room to breathe and yet the composition in each one directs your eye exactly where the artists want it to be. You can roam around, you can go deeper (I can study these for quite some time to suss out the subtle, almost hidden layers), but your eye is not likely to fall off the canvas. That takes a sureness of touch that comes with talent, yes, but also intellegence and conscious practice of the craft. There's no way around it.

The presence of negative space in both goes a long way towards achieving that elegance; and this is a quality I need to study and learn from. My sweetie once described my writing as "too much velvet" for her taste.  Too many adjectives, too much description, too much verbiage in general.  And I find myself doing the same thing with artwork, especially now that I'm discovering layers and textures and oh boy is it easy to fill up the spaces and just because I can doesn't mean I should. Knowwhatimean?

****

Yesterday I thought to myself that if I were a fic author and received either of these artworks as a banner to go with a story I'd die of happiness, aka jump up and down and grin and hug myself uncontrollably. Silently, in my chair, so only I would know. (Ok, the grinning and hugging would actually happen. The jumping would be entirely mental but it would be intense.)THEN I'd show them off and say "Look what I got, y'all!"

But of course, I'm not not a fiction author, and not much of a writer at all, currently....

And then LOOK WHAT I GOT, Y'ALL!

"....yellow is the color of intellectual energy, positivity, but also jealousy and illness and in the yellow shirt there are birds flying (freedom) except that you go on and see the shape of the knife buried in the flesh and all the blood spilling. It's broken freedom and innocence lost...."

kikimay not only snagged my "There Once was a Girl" icon for her default icon, which is an honor all by itself; she wrote an analysis/interpretation of it! MY ARTWORK HAS BEEN META'D! And of course her commentary is as intelligent, concise and elegant as her prose. I always imagined I'd be writing the meta about someone else's work, never the other way around. Eventually I decided I wanted to provide the pictures to compliment for other people's words, instead of asking other people to provide them for me. (And at that point I knew velvetwhip would be the first second recipient. it had to be her. ETA: clockwork_hart1 was actually the first person I made a banner for. Mind like a sieve over here.)

Now Kiki has provided the words to compliment my picture and so it goes. And this is addition to the honor of a Mod's Choice Award at slayerstillness. The little icon that could.

I died of happiness....

...but then I came right away back because I've got to finish my set for Round 4 of btvsats20in20, which is due Sept 27th. Have you seen the awesome entries so far by spikesredqueen, sweet_lyri, pickamix, snowpuppies, teragramm, killing_kurare, and oh_cheezit? Plus I needed to cast my vote on the current challenge of slayerstillness, which I missed the boat on entering; therefore, doubly important that I participate as voter.

It's nice when we the artists vote for one another but there ARE MORE THAN 15 PEOPLE IN THIS FANDOM. I know there are. And if you can't or don't want to make icons, by all means vote. Your opinions count and don't let "Well I don't know anything about art" nonsense (because of some stupid thing your parents or your fifth grade teacher told you as a child) hold you back. YES YOU DO KNOW ABOUT ART. Of course you do! You're surrounded with it, you've taken it in your entire life. It's no different to voting in the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards even if you haven't written any works of fiction yourself.

My sweetie has a classmate in art college ten years ago who was a wonderful artist (pastel was her preferred medium and she could make a pastel painting look like it was done in oils), and just the sweetest person imaginable. One of their professors told her in class, in front of everyone, that she "lacked artistic intelligence".  Need I describe my feelings towards this arrogant jackass in minute detail or can you just pick up the vibe of my loathing?

We all have "artistic intelligence". We just need safe space to practice it and express it, as artists and appreciators. (Without people to appreciate, there is no point!) I can say without hesitation that participating in icontests, and thanks to the wonderful community of folks here, I've been pushed farther and faster just the last six months than I could have imagined possible. And I haven't even begun to skim the surface of what's possible.

But I've gone on long enough, Gentle Reader: goest thou and vote, create, offer feedback and share the love - do your part to keep this fandom alive and lively. What medium of expression have you not explored, or are just beginning to? What holds you back? What ideas do you have for bringing new excitement to this fandom and what about it continues to excite you and keeps you interested?

Comments

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

It's nice when we the artists vote for one another but there ARE MORE THAN 15 PEOPLE IN THIS FANDOM. You are so right!

and I find myself doing the same thing with artwork, especially now that I'm discovering layers and textures and oh boy is it easy to fill up the spaces and just because I can doesn't mean I should. Knowwhatimean? Yes, I do know what you mean I find I have that problem when making banners. When it comes to icons I usually have the opposite problem and I find my icons are generally on the minimalist side.

Well I don't know anything about art" nonsense (because of some stupid thing your parents or your fifth grade teacher told you as a child) hold you back. The only thing you have to know about art is if you like it or not. I did have an 8th grade teacher who told me I was horrible at making color decisions. She was probably right but who gives a crap. ~_^

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

You are so right!

But of course. I try to make a habit of it. *lol*

One day I started counting the number of votes cast in all the challenges where they're visible and realized, wait, it's only that many people? If each artist pimps the challenges even once and draws their friends...but I don't think a lot of people do promote them? Which is fair - I just had someone befriend me on the pretext that they weren't interested in my icon challenge posts (and lately I'm kind of bored myself), and there doesn't seem to be the same interest in art as in fiction in this fandom.

I'm curious how many people vote in fic contests like SD memorial, averaging out the fact that there are more categories hence more entrants who all are presumably voting.

What the solution might be I have no idea.

But we've already talked about that before so, stopping now.

Yes, I do know what you mean I find I have that problem when making banners. When it comes to icons I usually have the opposite problem and I find my icons are generally on the minimalist side.

I have several posters/banners that I've not posted here yet, including some I did for my Tara claim of btvs20in20, but they are rather minimalist; some have no text. And I'm really surprised by that. (My poster for Gabrielle's Soft and Pink is cluttered but there's a purpose to that, to imply the chaos of Mr Gordos world.)

But posters are very new for me, icons I've been making longer and my style has shifted as I've had better tools to play with. When I just had photo bucket and started doing OWL challenges I was constantly seeking out icons that had lots of negative space. My older Normal Again icons look very different to what I'm doing right now. Once I switch to PSE I imagine there will be another shift as I get used to the tools. (toys, who am I kidding?)

I did have an 8th grade teacher who told me I was horrible at making color decisions.

And adult is telling a child that they suck at a thing which they have no experience with and couldn't possibly have achieved mastery yet. Methinks there's more than a little projection going on there. Hmmm... (you showed them all, didn't you? Your mastery of color is marvelous.)