Daddy's Home - Thank you for Voting my Icon Best Crop at Slayerstillness 51 - icons plus banner art!

[red_satin_doll]

But first a word from our sponsor: Cast your votes for the top three icons plus Best Crop and Color NOW if you haven't already at whedon_elite Challenge 125, "Muted Coloring.". There are 20 lovely icons to choose from, and only ten votes cast so far so more are definitely welcome! Now back to our program:

THANK YOU for voting my Angel and Drusilla icon "Best Crop" at slayerstillness!  And congratulations to teragramm and tempertemper for their beautiful winning entries!  I was tickled to see everything I voted for on the winner's slate. Not that I need anyone else to vet my choices, but I like seeing these things go as they should. Nevermind that there wasn't a bad icon in the bunch.

Check out the complete set of winning icons here - I love reading starry_night's reasoning for her Mod's Choice Awards; then see all the awards banners here. I didn't choose a BMC this round because it simply didn't feel necessary (go the the banners post and all will be explained.)

           
I adore teragramm's Helpless icon. Truly, madly, deeply.

killing_kurare's wonderful set for Round 11 of btvsats20in20 inspired my Daddy's Home icon; I actually had the phrase in mind from the episode Ted and thought about making a Ted/Joyce icon to match but didn't have time.  The "flame" texture is by pensnest, which I found via colorfilter's journal, set on Lighten or Screen.


Banners by your's truly, icons by their respective artists. For the background image I cropped a photograph of a trumpet flower in our yard that I took this afternoon, pointing my Nikon Coolpix upward on macro setting to keep the blossom in focus and the sunlight-dappled trees in the background blurred. This accounts for the natural "bokeh" effect in the lower portion. I wanted to capture the elegant simplicity of the flower; it's texture and form remind me of a parasol made of the most gossamer silk, it's edges billowing slightly in the breeze.


The gold frame around the icons is meant to be a punning reference to the phrase "gilding the lily". The flower isn't a lily but the phrase became my mantra anyway when making these banners. What I had in front of me was already beautiful - the flower, the icons - so don't overwhelm, overwork or overdo.

My entries (1 - 4) and alts:



      1 - 4


  5 - 8

I suddenly realized that I've never seen a smushname for Angelus-Drusilla. "Dangel" perhaps? "Drangel"? "Drungel"?

        9 - 13

Now that I'm looking at these again I'm sort of kicking myself for not entering 12-13. I think I was bothered by the fact that I couldn't get the area around Giles' mouth right with that one. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have let it bother me so much because I like the color and luminousity of it otherwise, especially on the right side of the image.  Textures in #3 and 12 - 13 a combination of textures by colorfilter and lookslikerain.


The father/daughter icons (Angelus-Dru and Giles-Buffy) were obviously the ones I lavished the most attention on; which is contrary to my usual habit of focusing almost exclusively on the women; but I do seem to have this "thing" about surrogate (not biological) fathers and daughters (BtVS, Doctor Who, Moulin Rouge).  My father died when I was three and I had two abusive, shitty stepfathers after that. Analyze away, Dr. Freud.

A Vague Disclaimer is No One's Friend:

~ Want? Take, have for personal use but please credit if used.

~ DO NOT RE-POST TO OTHER SITES (INCL. FANPOP) OR LJ COMMUNITIES WITHOUT MY PRIOR PERMISSION!

~ No hotlinking!

~ Comments however are appreciated and feedback is coin of the realm; leave a little and make an artist's day.  :)

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

You know that, as always, I think your work is absolutely superlative!


Gabrielle

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Thank you m'lady! And you know that your support and encouragement are absolutely essential to me, oui?

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the win!

You know, looking over 9-13, I'm so glad you entered 3 instead, because it really is my favorite. It's perfect: Buffy is hovering between real and a ghost, the green is just jarring enough to inspire discomfort but soft enough to not take attention from the figures. My next favorite would be 10, which is closest to 3. But because it's more muted, it's less impactful.

- In 11 they're too close to show the "distance", and the image becomes a little claustrophobic in its realism.
- In 9 Buffy is so dark it loses the magical balance of 3, and she dominates over Giles.
- 12 and 13 are too contained by the frame, whereas 3 has this wonderful space between them that feels vast and forlorn. And I appreciate the emphasis of the message in 13, but ironically, the caption fills up the space that illustrates the distance between them.

So don't doubt yourself! I think you made the right decision in entering 3!

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I love the crop on 1,7 and 8. I love that cap and your cropping was inspired. I don't know how you chose which one to enter because all three are great.

Thank you so much for the kind words.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Thank YOU so much for the kind words! And the lovely, melancholy new icon - I had a totally different banner design ready to go and I changed it to this design because I thought the first version distracted from your artwork

I actually didn't call on my superb beta muse to help me with the choices this round - I just flew by the seat of my pants; "flew" is an exaggeration, it was the middle of the night and I was operating on fumes; I think the exhaustion makes the choice easier sometimes in a "oh whatever let's go with this one" way. I really wanted that text on the icon. (To be honest I thought if I won for anything it would be the Buffy/Giles one, which was my favorite of my entries.)

[kikimay]

DAT CROP GIRL! Congrats on your win!

I think you chose the best alt for the Giles and Buffy apart icon one, but you totally have to use more the shade of green in 13, it's so beautiful!

I can't see icon number 6. Is it just me?

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I can't see icon number 6. Is it just me?

Not just you it disappeared for some reason, sorry! It was the Angelus/Dru icon without text - I fixed it so it should be all good now, thank you!

you totally have to use more the shade of green in 13, it's so beautiful!

Thank you! I'm not sure I can ever get that exact shade (and luminosity) again but I'll try. The color is mostly from the texture I used.

How are you? I see you post about HP now mostly but I'm not in that fandom. Have you seen the preview pages of S10 #19? I just saw them yesterday and I have....issues.

[kikimay]

I'm good, thanks! And you? I actually posted something about me the other day, but only for friends. I know, I feel guilty that I'm not so present in the Buffy fandom these days, but I read all the HP books and I fell in love, especially with Harry himself.

I didn't catch the preview pages! I've only seen some things on tumblr and Giles seems adult again (Except that, if I know my chickens, it won't last)

[sandy-s.livejournal.com]

I love #8...gorgeous and just the right balance of light and view of the characters... :o)

[emmatheslayer.livejournal.com]

such awesome icons

[double_dutchess]

"Daddy's Home" is a very well deserved win, I love it! But I'm sad that #3 didnt make the top 3, because I really loved that one too. (And I agree with feliciacraft's assessment on why it was the best version to enter; like her, I prefer it above the alts.)

Oh and before the winners were revealed, I thought the Helpless icon might have been one of yours. So I'm not surprised you like it so much!

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your wins.
You did a great job with your icons and with your banner-making skills. :)

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, September 8

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User rbfvid referenced to your post from The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, September 8 (http://su-herald.livejournal.com/821386.html) saying: [...] Icons: Slayerstillness Round 51 Icons and Banners [...]