Having any fun yet? My entries for Whedon Elite Challenge 115

[red_satin_doll]

My entries for Round 115 of whedon_elite, "Blondes Have More Fun".  Congratulations (rather belatedly) to the winners fassy, rua1412, xlittledreams and sweet_lyri!  I'm fond of several of the icons from that round but decided to snag xlittledreams' warm and softly glowing Tara "Family" icon for myself *points to userpic*.

Link to winners banners for that round. One of the nifty things about being the "official banner maker" for WE is that I can prepare in advance. I found a photograph of a woman's blond hair spread out fantastically around her (I suspect digital altering was at play) and used that for the base; I like the contrast of the somewhat rough antique wood frame around the fine silken hair. (Click images for full-size)

   

My own entries for that round:




      1 - 4


All the times I love playing with Buffy hairporn - but leave it to me to de-emphasize her blondeness for this challenge. Which no doubt cost me dearly in the voting (why do I do things like that to myself?) For some reason I decided that that fact of Buffy's blonde hair is a given whether or not we can see her hair in the image (I'm stubborn); but I wanted to deconstruct the challenge theme as well. "Blondes have more fun" - when I think about Buffy during her seven years in Sunnydale, "fun" is not much in evidence in her life.

And perhaps any "fun" she had prior to that was something of a mask for the deep unhappiness within her family: We're going to look like a normal happy family and have fun even it if kills us. The few things she took genuine pleasure in were slowly sheared away - her dad taking her to the Ice Show, for instance. (Was she ever able to look at a bouquet of flowers again without thinking of the day she found Joyce's body? Am I overthinking the subject of Buffy Anne Summers?)

I'm less than thrilled with #1 - I realize the use of the inverted portion is a bit unsophisticated and passe. I do like the brick wall texture behind her and yes that is an added texture; the original cap didn't offer much detail. I like that 2 reminds me of a 1970's record album cover art, but that I also managed to preserve the tears in her eyes and her shocked expression.

3 is my one-person campaign to turn the entire Buffyverse into a series of ancient, crumbling frescos or decaying manuscripts. The texture makes the icon look like it's being peeled away from the way, suffering rot and decay (in reverse of that moment in Bargaining when her decayed corpse is reanimated.

4 Has nothing to do with the other three, as I actually went for conventional pretttiness for once, but with a twist. This image is from Tough Love; I wanted an icon of Buffy and Willow (whom she is trying to prevent from attack Glory) but couldn't get both of them in the image to my satisfaction. I focused on Buffy's profile and added the blue coloring and at least two textures, water drops and the spiral in the foreground, plus some glowy-ness. I imagined Buffy as something of a water-sprite here but my wonderous beta velvetwhip said it reminded her of Illyria. Many many thanks as always for her generous feedback and critiques.

Alts/extras:

5 - 10


11 - 15


16 - 20

Someday Buffy dear, I will stop torturing you for my own twisted pleasure. (I am a sick little puppy.)

  21 - 25

I actually like 24 - 25; there's something almost "Klimt-ian" in the textures and gold coloring to me.


26  Yes, that is a reference to Florence Welch's song "Rabbit Heart"; the lyrics have all sorts of crazy-perfect applicability for both Buffy and Willow in The Gift and in Bargaining.



Don't forget to cast your votes in Challenge 116. (Only 12 people have voted thus far.) And then enter Challenge 117. I love the theme of this one, "The Summers Home". Sense of place is incredibly important to the Buffyverse; fans talk about whether they love the library or the Magic Box best, but the Summers residence is the heart of the series for me.

And FYI - the voting post for Challenge 43 of slayerstillness appears to still be open if you can slide your vote in last-minute. If you've already done so, kudos and thank you!

Comments

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the unique take you took on the challenge.

Also, passe or not, the 1st icon looks really awesome. I like the jagged edges of the writing. It matches the jagged edges of Buffy's image.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Thank you sweetheart!

I don't use that text very often because it can be a bit over the top, but here it felt perfect. You zeroed in on exactly what I was hoping to achieve.

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's amazing work, can I snag the 15th?

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Please do with my blessings, and thank YOU for your comments!

[double_dutchess]

Like snogged, I love your entry #1 too; I really like its rawness and vivid colours. But my absolute favourite is #4 -- I completely fell for its prettiness. (I meant to place it at number one when voting, but I accidentally listed my top 3 in reverse order... Oops.)

Of the extras my favourites are #9-10 (you know I never get tired of broken glass) and #23. I also like the "Klimt-ian" gold effects in #24-25, but I think I would have preferred them to have a bit more contrast.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh thank you for your kind words! #4 was clearly the most popular of my entries and something rather different for me stylistically. I had more realistically colored versions but Gabrielle assured me that she liked the bright blue on best.

(I meant to place it at number one when voting, but I accidentally listed my top 3 in reverse order... Oops.)

I've asked the mod about that because I realized I'm not sure I was voting correctly. Is it 321 or 123?

#9-10 (you know I never get tired of broken glass)

Did I know that? you probably saw my banners at seasonal spuffy right? (yes, this is the same image from the banners.) And I do love playing with images of shattered glass, just finding textures and overlays that I can make look convincing is very hard.

but I think I would have preferred them to have a bit more contrast.

Thank you for the very specific feedback it really is helpful to me! You speak as one artist to another, very much of the good. :D

Something along the lines of this, perhaps?

[double_dutchess]

I've asked the mod about that because I realized I'm not sure I was voting correctly. Is it 321 or 123?

I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be listed in order 123. The 321 bit is what confused me too, but I think it refers not to the order but to the weighting of the top three: number one gets 3 points, number two gets 2 points, and number three gets 1 point.

Did I know that? you probably saw my banners at seasonal spuffy right? (yes, this is the same image from the banners.) And I do love playing with images of shattered glass, just finding textures and overlays that I can make look convincing is very hard.

Yes, I saw those, but I was mainly thinking about the artwork you did for kikimay's Dreams and Mirrors story!

Something along the lines of this, perhaps?

Wow, I love the brightness of the yellow! Moving from Klimt into van Gogh territory now :-)

But I should have been a bit more specific. What I actually meant was more contrast in the gold bits, rather than in the image as a whole. Something along these lines:



(My sincere apologies for messing with your icon, but it's easier to show than to tell!)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

You altered it? OMG it's awesome I love what you did to it! HOW did you achieve that? (you probably have photoshop?)

I much prefer your versions to mine because now I can see exactly what you meant, AND - my natural impulse is actually to make muted icons so yours is catnip to me. I like. Please feel free to use it if you want.

Maybe we could collaborate sometime?

I think it refers not to the order but to the weighting of the top three: number one gets 3 points, number two gets 2 points, and number three gets 1 point.

Ok now I think I understand, thanks!

I was mainly thinking about the artwork you did for kikimay's Dreams and Mirrors story!

I'd forgotten about that artwork!

[double_dutchess]

You altered it? OMG it's awesome I love what you did to it! HOW did you achieve that? (you probably have photoshop?)

Thanks, glad you like it! But what I did was extremely simple: (1) select everything except Buffy's face (2) increase contrast of the selection (3) reduce brightness of the selection. That's all; no need for anything but the most basic editing program. I used paint.net -- it's free software and you can do all the important basic stuff with it. I use it for most of my quick & dirty editing. Photoshop really would have been overkill for what I did here!

And I love the idea of a collaboration, but I probably won't have time to do much of anything until summer...

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I thought your work was absolutely outstanding, if that means anything. And I do think Buffy's blondeness is a given.


Gabrielle

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

if that means anything.

It means everything to me.

And I do think Buffy's blondeness is a given.

they probably meant it to be hair porn, like that round of Slayerstillness a while back (I did Beer Bad icons for that one, as a matter of fact - tangled matted hair. If I can deconstruct a theme....)

Or maybe I'm being a bad sport, I certainly don't mean to be. *slaps wrist*

Tuesday - Wednesday, May 5 - 6

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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