red_satin_doll

Thank you VERY MUCH to everyone who voted in

btvsats20in20 Round 15! I won Close Crop, Light Texture, and 3rd Place Category Set. Congratulations to

crazycordy,

sweet_lyri,

midnightisclose!

Congratulations to the winners at

whedon_elite Challenge 135 :

nadya149,

dixon,

harlequinss_s,

hermionesparkle,

heterodynes,

sweet_lyri; and for my Banner Maker's Choice Award,

teragramm. Congratulations! The theme this round was "red heads", check out all the winning entries and banners HERE.

My entries for Challenge 135 after the cut. Fandoms: BtVS, Avengers (MCU). Many many many thanks, as always, to my beta-Muse

velvetwhip for her input:

1 - 4

Arranged roughly from most painterly/stylized to photographic/realistic. I'm really pleased with how #1 and it's alts (below) turned out. I layered several textures by

lookslikerain that give it the look of a post-impressionist oil pastel by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas or Toulouse-Latrec.

Alts and extras:

5 - 10

I couldn't resist stealing

teragramm's idea to make the Buffyverse ladies redheads. (Teragramm's are much superior, of course.)

11 - 15

16 - 20

1) For

slayerstillness Challenge 60 vote for your favorite icon for the third place position.

BTW, did you vote at

btvsats20in20 Round 15 yet? Good. Now have you signed up for Round 16 yet?

2) And by the by, did you know that

dragonyphoenix posted the artwork she commissioned from me for her excellent Anya/Snap crossover fic, The Letters (84 Charing Cross Road)? (TTH post here.) But you will have to read the story to find it because it's intergrated into the text. And FYI, the actual text of the artworks is entirely her concept. I just followed marching orders.

At AO3 she also included a marvelous story banner by Restfield aka

rbfvid.

3) My friend

kerkevik_2014 has been writing up a storm - a very quiet storm that snuck up on me and took me entirely by surprise. His latest is a Buffy/Faith fic, "Casablanca" (not to be confused with

shapinglight's fic) that is poignant and mournful and like all of his work is a prose-poem unlike anyone else's.

Last year I sort of asked him to write Buffy more often (actually I may have whined about it a little, but never mind that.) He's come through while remaining true to himself in his own beautiful way. This story is actually part of the birthday gift for

elisi, the 22'verse that includes stories of Spike and Illyri, Riley Finn, Xander and Buffy, etc. Also worth a look - a charming, gentle Tara, Dawn fic (post The-Gift): Like Seeing Your Very Own Self Looking Back at You.

See, not every post I put up is longer than the Constitution. Some are only as long as the Gettysburg Address. "Short and sweet" is a relative thing.

A collection of "random" pieces I have loved this year - click images or go to original links to view full size:
(ETA: This was a post that was meant to go on the

buffyversetop5 and I hit the send button a couple of minutes too late. *Note to self: learn time management techniques!*)

Gift to me by the amazing spikesredqueen February 2015

1) Birthday Banner for me by

spikesredqueen (February)
SRQ knows my love of the Buffyverse ladies. This pairs beautifully with

teragramm's WInged Buffy banner, no? And well-done manips never fail to impress me (because I've seen far too many bad ones).

MORE after the cut:

2) I Walk Alone art picspam set and banners by

comlodge for

seasonal_spuffy Round 18 (May)

comlodge took the "simple" flipbook concept and turned into something incredibly sophisticated; then she converted merged the images at my request into a single banner for my LJ. I know of few artists (if any?) who can combine luminousity and grunge effects in a single image.

3) Look Both Ways by

boiiko - the rightful winner of the

seasonal_spuffy Round 18 Banner Poll, and the only banner for the SS banner poll I've seen done in a hand-painted style. (It was actually done on computer, but it sure fooled me.) Almost elegantlly spare, the composition is deceptively "simple" and packed with layers of complicated emotions. More, please.

4) Out of My MInd from the btvs episode poster series by no-literally on tumblr. This is an ongoing project and every one of the posters is a masterpiece of graphic design; but I chose this one to display because of the incredibly clean, simple graphic that, like the other images on this list, is deceptively complex. Look close at the text and you'll see Spike's dream of kissing Buffy, floating above Spike's head - the dream and the dreamer visualized.

5) Wrecked from the btvs episode poster series by maradyeries on tumblr. , Haunting, jaw-droppingly gorgeous work in the style of "modern-day aesthetic" gifspams popular on tumblr right now.

And for my very last fandom award and icon challenge of 2015 it's only fitting that the marvelous

tempertemper made the banner:

Banner by tempertemper for slayerstillness on LJ Dec 2015 - my last award of 2015

My Entries & Alts:

1 - 5

My original intent was to only use caps amoung the examples Starry provided; it didn't quite end up that way. Nor did I recall planning on making them so consistent color-wise. I did want to use unsual or rarely used caps as much as possible and I think I succeeded, especially with the two images from Where the Wild Things Are. The girlish pigtails bely the fact that she is someone who possesses a great deal of power and knowledge passed on by her mother and the women of her family. Tara's own power and knowledge are terribly underplayed after S4 and this is something I will never be happy about. Because it ends up being a double-whammy of the show's "issues with powerful women".

6 - 12

If I could resubmit these, I'd switch out #6 for #5; the rest I'm satisfied with.

You know the drill:

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

~ Take what icons you like for personal use but please credit if used :)

~ No hotlinking!

~ Comments however are appreciated :)

~ All artwork by yours truly except where otherwise indicated.

** Deadline for submissions to

slayerstillness Challenge 54 "Roy G Biv" is today Friday Oct 9th midnight at your timezone. For this
challenge we may submit up to seven icons rather than the usual five, one for each color in the rainbow. There are 31 entries so far and I love
the theme so I'm expecting a real humdinger of a contest.

** Breaking news: The deadline for the banner contest for Round 19 of

seasonal_spuffy has been EXTENDED one week to Sunday Oct
18th (PST). Which means that anyone who said they wouldn't entering due to lack of time? Here's your chance. It's also a great opportunity to
PROMOTE the upcoming comm so by all means reblog, retumble, tell your friends, whatever it is the kids do nowadays.

A word to the wise: Don't make the mistake I made the last time and submit more than one banner and end up competing against yourself. One of those first time-y novice mistakes.(In my own defense..~~.I'm awful at making decisions~~ I did not yet have the most amazing wonderful erudite Muse-Goddess

velvetwhip in my corner at the time. Now I do, and my life is all the better.)

Speaking of last round, I never did post the banners and icons I made for Round 18's competition:

1

Spuffy Hand Banner v.1 - 3 (2015). 750x300

All banners on this post by yours truly. Click the images below to view full-size:

2 - 3

Spuffy Hand Banner (what else could I possibly title it? I think that says it all) is still one of my favorite and, I dare say, best things I've made yet. I was nervous about entering the round because it's difficult for me to express my views on Buffy&Spike. How in the world could I encapsulate my complex feelings for two insanely, deliciously complex characters in a single banner? But this is IT for me in terms of my feelings for the pairing. I was determined to avoid using the flaming handfasting in Chosen because I've seen it used so often in fanart, but I wanted to depict Spuffy hand imagery and I couldn't not use it. There's "iconic" and then there's beyond "iconic". Know what I mean?

For this particular project I got a lot of my inspiration from the music I was listening to at the time. The lyrics in this banner are from "Flaws" performed by Bastille (Writer: Daniel Smith Copyright: Wwkd Ltd.) The backdrop is one or two of my sweetheart's photos of - you guessed it - a New England autumn sunset that's come in handy so many times before and since. In this instance I used it as a backdrop then I layered it over the screencaps a second time, turned in a different direction to "fill the gaps" and create continuity across the image. Then I used Sharpen, Glow and various other filters to make the caps look less photographic and more painterly.

The cap from Listening to Fear was the most difficult to adjust in terms of brightness and contrast because that scene is so damn dark. Layering on the cloudscapes was pretty much a necessity. It ended up being my favorite portion of the banner - the icon I made from it (#8 below) is still one of my all-time favorite icons I've made.

I entered both 1 & 2 to the contest; I have no idea what I was thinking. I also entered my first version of this design which was very bright, over-saturated, had a triangle in the center and was just a hot freakin' mess; I'll be damned if I'm going to repost it here. I have no idea what I was thinking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Round 18 spring 2015 entry banner 2 lyrics by Bastille and Hozier

4 - 5

That Sad Earthly Scene v.1-2 (2015) 750x422 & 750x400
Figuring out sizing and proportion was something I was still strugling with at the time.

My second-favorite design. I was intrigued by the resemblance between the Normal Again and Beneath You images. Madness, insanity, depression, the damaged caused by experience and memory, by a life of violence, is another of my favorite themes when thinking about the Buffyverse although part of my interest lies in how Mutant Enemy sometimes gets it all wrong.

Add the handoff of the amulet from Chosen, an image of a shattered mirror by Lauren Elisabeth Photography, and stir. I was really pleased with how the images came together here. The place where their hands come together and the glow from the amulet just happened to fall pretty much in the center of the banner; and the fact that Spike's face seems to be tucked into or leaning against his own body from the later episode was pure serendipity. Lyrics on #5 from "Flaws" and "Take Me to Church" by Hozier. (Writer(s): Andrew Hozier Byrne. Copyright: The Evolving Music Company Limited)

#4 was preferred by the voters in the poll over 5 by a slight margin; I think the voters were right but I really do love both versions for different reasons and go back and forth as to which is "best" - probably six of one, half a dozen of the other. Once again I submitted both versions to the poll. What in the world was I thinking at the time?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Work I Have to Do (2015), 750x300

I wanted to compare Buffy's sacrifice in The Gift with Spike's in Chosen because they are after all parallel events. This is perfectly obvious and yet somehow doesn't get discussed all that much. Or when it does, it's in terms of a competition: this person's sacrifice was just "suicide" and therefore not really all that heroic compared to that person's sacrifice, blah blah bitty blah. Whatever.

The design turned out to be rather simple - the image of Buffy leaping into the exploding portal is well, a gift to the fan artist because it's such an incredible visual. Layer it with the image of Spike's soul "effulgent" in Chosen, add a Shine filter, balance warm and cool color layers and tah-dah! It just glows. Instead of song lyrics I used dialogue from The Gift and Chosen. Once again, the way that the lines in different fonts and colors intersect with one another ("This the work I have to do" / "I have to do this") was a very happy accident.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

round 18 spring 2015 entry banner 7 lyrics by Joseph King and Isaac Slade

7
How to Save a Life (2015), 532x512

This banner received zero entries in the poll - and it shouldn't have. This was the first banner I made for the round, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to make anything in time (hah); so I adapted the composition of the awards banner I made for

oh_cheezit for Round 6 of

btvsats20in20, using a different image of Spike. So it wasn't a strict cheat in the sense that yes, I had to go back to my original source images and make the whole thing from scratch; but I was ripping ("riffing"?) off my own work - and I did it better the first time.

Lyrics: "How to Save A Life" performed by The Fray (Writer(s): Joseph King, Isaac Slade Copyright: Aaron Edwards Publishing, Emi April Music Inc.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Icons from the banners: I wish #9 had come out a bit better (there are superior icons of that image out there) but I was thrilled with how well #8 worked as an icon.

8 - 11

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12 - 16

12 - 16 is based off a banner idea I rejected; more The Gift/Chosen parallels. Good idea but the execute of the banner was a mess (to be polite), so I settled for an icon instead. I'd still like to return to the idea for a banner at some point. Dylan Thomas' poem seemed like a natural here. Light texture in #15 by

colorfilter.

Check out my Resource post for some of my image sources.

A Vague Disclaimer is No One's Friend:

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

~ Take what icons you like for personal use but please credit if used :)

~ No hotlinking!

~ Comments however are appreciated :)

~ All artwork by yours truly except where otherwise indicated.

Current Music: "Tightly", Neko Case

THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who voted for my icons at

slayerstillness Challenge 52 ! Wow! Thank you

starry_night for the Mod's Choice Award, and congratulations to

tempertemper and

sweet_lyri! Banners forthcoming from

tempertemper and I can't wait to see what she comes up with. I feel like Pavlov's Dog, slavering eagerly for an impending treat (the banners). Just call me Fido. Except unlike poor Fido, I know TT will deliver the goods. Speaking of banners.....

7f67b8bf-1d58-402b-8344-7c42e68c3f19_zps54aa5c79

Something to Sing About (v.2), 2014 Click image for full-sized version

My newest friend in fandom

sandy_s was admiring the WIllow icon I made for

whedon_elite Challenge 110, whilst I was swooning over her entries for 127 and her "Echoes" Spuffy userpic. I asked if she wanted to see ones of Buffy I'd made for

slayerstillness Challenge 37.....

....and then I remembered that I had never gotten around to posting the icons from that challenge or the beautiful awards banners

starry_night made for me. I'm sure Sandy had no idea what she was getting herself into *lol*. So without further ado: the awards banners are by

starry_night, all other artwork by yours truly. The Icons eminently snaggable and I have a veritable treasure trove. ( FYI: I despise the term "icon dump".)

I love how

starry_night coordinated colors and patterns individually to each icon. My favorite banners are 2nd place and the rich "tobacco brown" color, and Most Creative with a bokeh pattern that wittily matches what's in the icon itself. Did you see the warm tangerine glow of her banner for

comlodge or the frost pattern that echoed

rua1412's distinctive textures?

Click banners for full-size images:

Banner by starry_night for Challenge 37 Dec 2014

My entries:

1 - 5

6 - 12
Yes, I duplicated a few images; you noticed? I have no idea why Starry let me get away with it, other than she was being super-generous.

This was a special challenge for me in a lot of ways. When it began, I had just lost a friend in fandom (how is neither here nor there at the moment) and I used this challenge to push myself through a period of intense grief.The person I'm speaking of had been very supportive of my artwork and so I had them in mind the entire time and kept asking myself, "What would she think? Would she approve of this?" I tried out new-to-me techniques and came out with a set of entries and alts I'm immensely proud of. (That this person had not passed away in fact is neither here nor there now.) I decided to focus on Buffy, my favorite fictional character, and dive in deep. (That this person was not a Buffy fan, making this an altogether strange "memorial" is neither here or nor there either.)

1 - 2 ) Probably the simplest icons I made that round, so the 2nd and 3rd place awards stunned me. The Dawn icon I literally threw together at the last minute because I realized I wanted to do something with Dawn in it and I liked the image. #2 is the only cap from that heartbreaking scene in Listening to Fear that I could make a decent image from. I had wanted to depict Buffy crying but had to go with this. I also had to make the scene look like daytime light in order to make it visible; the caps are incredibly dark and this is deceptively warm and sunny. But I like it that way.

3 - 4, 12) The one moment in BtVS when a character shattered the "fourth wall"; it's been done as a gimmick countless times before and since (Garry Shandling, anyone?) but this is one of the few instances I can think of when it's genuinely unsettling. The camera is uncomfortably close to Sarah's face and we are "in her space" as she calls us out on our passive complicity. As viewers we are "enjoying", are "entertained" by her pain and trauma; and unlike her friends we've been in on the secret from the beginning. I love Sarah's face as Buffy (and specifically as Buffy); and unlike so many caps for the series, this image is relatively good quality, clear and well-lit.

5) Another image that I've reused in other projects and dearly love, Buffy in her own dream at the beginning of Nightmares; I layered two photographs my sweetie took of New England sunsets over Buffy. Yes, the clouds were really that brilliant and fluffy and I only slightly adjusted the saturation.

6 - 7) These Joyce & Buffy icons were two of my favorites going into the challenge; I absolutely teared up while I making them. And made tons of alts, which were nothing more than small tweaks to coloring, sharpness etc. I made versions that included text (see alts) from The Gift, "I just wish my mom was here." What Buffy says to Giles (again) in Intervention, that she feels that being the Slayer is turning her into stone, was also on my mind. I wanted to compare/contrast Joyce who is dead, "cold as stone" but very much alive in her daughter's memory; and Buffy who is alive but feels herself to be a dead thing. Her depth of feeling indicates to me that nothing could be further from the truth but it's what she believes about herself. (I have strong words for Xander Harris and Riley Finn and their entitled manpain but I will keep them to myself at the moment. In the interest of the children.)

"Sing" on number 3 and it's alts refers both to Buffy's lament "Something to Sing About" and "Sing" written by Joe Raposo (1971) and made famous by the Carpenters, a song I grew up with thanks to Sesame Street and probably had on my CD player when I was making this set.

9) Another of my favorites, "Normal Again grune wall" is still in my userpic gallery. The look of this icon was inspired by

tempertemper's 1st place Willow/Tara icon for

slayerstillness Challenge 32 from Oct 2014, believe it or not. I even asked her how she got the look of the icon, attempted to duplicate it to the best of my limits and got something completely different. I'm still really pleased by the balance of sharpness and blur and how palpable it seems: Buffy dirty hair, her gritted teeth, and tensed muscles are all very sharp, contrasted with her hand flapping impotently against her attacker. It's an incredibly sad image; that the girl who went up against Angelus ("Take all that away and what's left?" / "ME.") is reduced to this, even if it's an hallucination, and that she should find this state of affairs preferable. Of course it also speaks to Joss Whedon's fascination with tearing characters down to a state of complete powerlessness and then seeing how they react. Which he does over and over and over.....ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

11) I actually had

snogged on the brain for this one, due to the rivulet of blood effect. Sarah's hair reminded me of a needle piercing her skin; the effect was surprisingly easy to create. I probably should have kept this one to myself but it was just weird enough that I decided, what the heck. It's weird. I'm weird. And that's ok. But OTOH, I thought 13 would be "too weird" to submit, although it's one of my favorites. Go figure.

And I did promise a treasure trove of alts. Challenge 37 was a special free-for-all: we were allowed to enter as many as we wanted instead of the usual five. My habit at the time had been, 5-9x the number of alts per entries needed. I entered 12. You do the math, Gentle Reader. This only represents a fraction of my alts btw. You're welcome. (And I wonder why it took me nearly a year to post these?)

13 - 19

20 - 25

26 - 32

I might like the b/w versions better than the sepia ones. It's a toss up.

33 - 39

40 - 47

This was the round I finally got in the habit of saving icons with and without font. In case you hadn't noticed.

A Vague Disclaimer is No One's Friend:

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

~ Take what icons you like for personal use but please credit if used :)

~ No hotlinking!

~ Comments however are appreciated :)

All artwork by yours truly except where otherwise indicated.

* NEWSFLASH! This just in! Congratulations to

fassy,

sweet_lyri,

crazy_cordy and

emmatheslayer for your wins in

whedon_elite Challenge 126 and THANK YOU for the Best Crop Award for my favorite entry of my set this round! A gorgeous, dynamic set of winners - banners will be forthcoming posthaste!

Congratulations again to the winners in

btvsats20in20 Round 11,

killing_kurare,

kwritten,

starry_night and yours Truly. Here are my banners for the winning entries inclung BMC award. This was a fantastic round in terms of quality and artistry, and making banners is a wonderful chance to really appreciate the icons anew.

scenerybannerKK1.2.png

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGES or go to winners post here

Banners for

killing_kurare:

Banners for

kwritten including Banner Maker's Choice Award for her entire AC Set. I love the cinematic quality of her cropping her focus on Dawn's face. That episode and especially that scene is incredibly underrated IMO - it's the entire Bangel saga compressed into one episode, ending in a little girl having to kill her first love. And having just worked with some very dark and grainy screencaps from that ep, I'm in awe of the lovely "finish" she achieves here. (How in the world does she get those clear colors and that dewy look in ipiccy?)

Banners for

starry_night

And finally, banners for your's truly - THANK YOU to everyone who voted for my icons!

I think I've mentioned this before, but my first place category winner was my homage to

sweet_lyri's style of wrapping a figure in shadows until it's nearly submerged; I wanted to give it a try but never imagined it would be one of my most popular icons this round. And I did not see the third place category win coming at all and I'm tickled that it's the Joyce icon; it and the Uncle Enyios icon were two of my favorites of my set.

Background image of bonfire from my own photograph, 2015. All icons by their respective artists.

VOTE HERE AND NOW AT

btvsats20in20 Round 10: THEMES & CHARACTERS .

Remember that each post has 20 choices for you to make. You will in essence be voting on each icon twice (or not, as the case may be.) Last round we had four participants, this time it's eight. (Count 'em! Eight!) Last round I also waited until the last minute to really and truly promote it which is inexplicable (and inexcusable) given the amount of time and care that goes into making the entries. This round, I intended to promote early and often.

Also inexcusable and inexplicable? I never showed off the lovely awards banners

starry_night made for me, nor did I properly thank her and everyone who came out to vote in Round 9. So herewith, the banners (click to view full-size):

starry_night knows what I like, and I love the Summers women, oh I do indeed. These banners are so pretty, soft and feminine; you'd never know that the context of both of these is sacrifice, death and grief. More images after the cut:

In terms of Joyce especially this was a "transitional" round for me. Up to this point I'd not done any icons of Joyce alive successfully, only as a body, a ghost, an absence; even if she was alive, her face was out of the frame (6-10 below from Round 5.) I made one last try at the "Buffy & her dead mother" theme ("Shocking") but also two of Joyce from Blood Ties (Category 1 & AC1): alive, warm, a bit careworn and worried for her daughters. I've been wanting to for ages, inspired by

debris4spike's Joyce icons that captured her elegance and beauty; but I couldn't quite "grasp" her somehow, not until this round.

I really hesitated about the "Shocking" icon.

iconsoleander did such beautiful, heartrending icons for The Gift (particularly her Category set) in Round 2 last July and I still had those in mind as examples I couldn't hope to improve upon. But I also had in mind the Buffy & (dead) Joyce icons I made for Challenge 37 of

slayerstillness back in December (1-5). As I recall I was mourning a friend here on LJ who I thought had died 0 then discovered they hadn't, setting off another round of mourning of a different sort.

1 - 6

7 - 12

I think I may prefer the SS ones aesthetically, but I've gotten this award and more to the point, I'm making icons of Joyce as a living person, I'm reading

velvetwhip's gorgeous Answering Prayers, and I am done - for a while at least - the "dead Joyce" theme.

I also hesitated about the Drusilla one for very different reasons. One of course is the very disturbing, phallic imagery, but also the layers of victimhood that form the subtext of this icon. This image captures, to my mind, a lot of the sickness and depravity that Dru has been both a victim and perpetrator of.Vampires are victims, are violated - with the possible exception of Ford in Lie to Me, what vampire in the Buffyverse "agreed" to be killed and turned with anything approaching full knowledge and consent? And Drusilla, sadly, was the one most horribly victimized of the Buffyverse "Fang Gang"; in this shot the tables are turned and she is a victimizer, licking the blood of the dead Slayer Xin Rong off of Spike's finger - and so death, violation, perverse sexuality are interwoven and repeated from person to person, from generation to generation.

"Best Love" was perhaps the biggest surprise of all the ones I won here because it was the simplest Icon I made, the one that had no special effects and I said, oh well, it's not great but it's something, throw it in. No one will look at it. (There's at least one of those in every single round, at least for me. Anyone else?)

Banners by starry_night, do not steal, deface, claim as your own, repost to fanpop.com or any other archives/sites without express permisson of the artist.

When the incredibly talented and generous

comlodge put out an open offer to personalize the FFL picspam banner set she made for Round 18 of

seasonal_spuffy, I asked if she could put the top two close up images of James' and Sarah's faces into one banner, perhaps with a ghost image of the two of them on the back porch step in the center? And could she please keep that pretty watercolor blue at the top, and that nifty framing device? She could, she did, and did she ever. Behold the glory:

I Walk Alone variation by the Goddess

comlodge (2015), personalized for me. Click to view full-size and appreciate the fine details; it really needs to be seen full-size.

You can see all of the banners and icons she made me below the cut, here in my scrapbook album - or better yet, check out the originals at

comlodge's journal here and here, leave her feedback about beautiful they are, request your own personalized version if you like, and tell her that I sent you.

This is my favorite version of the several alts she made for me and I've added this below the cut on my Welcome Post, where the Winged Buffy she made me exactly two years ago also holds pride of place. (Has it been two years, already? Surely not.) But I certainly might switch it out with any of the other, equally beautiful alts. Each one has slight differences to the other and I love all of them.

Thank goodness she came out to play for this round of

seasonal_spuffy, which would have been poorer without her contributions. She captured so much of what I love about these two characters, as indvidiuals and together.

1 - 4 banners, click to see full-size

5 - 9 icons

All artwork in this post courtesy of comlodge, 2015; do not steal, deface, claim as your own, hotlink, or archive to other websites (Fanpop, etc) without the artist's express consent.

kikimay and

snogged both celebrated birthdays recently, as have

angearia,

teragramm,

leni_ba (far and away my favorite Bangel(us) author),

pocochina,

frelling_tralk,

comlodge,

chic_c,

boot_the_grime and

quinara and what have I done for any of these wonderful folks? Nothing, nada. I suck as a friend (but if only people would stop being born, please, it's so overwhelming. ;-P)

This really doesn't make up for any of it, but

kikimay has been requesting that I post the remainder of my Buffyverse in Wonderland artwork, and since she's been having fabulous adventures lately and deserves celebrating, here it be. If I don't post it all at once I never will:

Teasers:

willowPG_white rabbit banner1167x888.png

buffyandthewhiterabbit708x650_1.2trianglesigned.png

buffyjabberwockygreenyesv2.5april2015editbyredsatindoll1046x1085.png

Click all banners below for full-size versions. Fanart by me, 2015, unless otherwise noted.

Willow in Wonderland Banners 1-3; icons 5-7.

ProphecyGirl_BrokenScreencaps_whiterabbitwillow_signed.png

If #2 looks familiar it should - it's the banner version of my Mod's Choice winner at

slayerstillness Challenge 38. (Click #4 below to enlarge

tempertemper's fabulous banner.) Tip o'the nip to my beta-Muse

velvetwhip for her inspiration; I was working on the icons for that round and came across the texture in #1 that is a "handwritten" fragment of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Gabrielle mentioned an interest in AiW, and away my brain went hippity-hopping from there.

**************

Prophecy Girl Down the Rabbit Hole Banners 8-10; icons 11 - 15:

buffyandthewhiterabbit708x650_1.4downtext.png

10.

Once I started toying with the idea of Wonderland, the notion of Buffy literally going "down the rabbit hole" to meet the Master seemed a natural fit.

Indecisive as always, I suspect #8 is the best version; I thought I would like #9 more than I do. I found the triangle texture on forwallpaper.com but like almost everything on the internet I suspect it originates elsewhere.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

***************

S5 Buffy and the Jabberwocky Banners 16 -17; icons 18 -20.

16.

buffyS5jabberwockyposterlarge_1.3greeneyes1400x1418byredsatindollapril2015edit.png

17.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? / Come to my arms, my beamish boy!"

The "Slayer" in Carroll's poem is male but thanks to the long hair and slight figure, as well as my fascination with the Buffyverse, I can't help but see one of Buffy's predecessors in Tenniel's illustration.

velvetwhip noted that the original versions of 17 didn't quite work but it took me a while to understand why : it was too pale and lacked contrast (see #18 below).

18.

19.

20.

Fanart by me, 2015, unless otherwise noted. Original illustrations by John Tenniel (1, 3, 8 -20) and Salvador Dali (2, 4, 5). Photo of SMG 16 -20 by Greg Gershon.

Snaggage of icons warmly encouraged but please give proper credit, and do not hotlink, post to other website without permission or claim as your own. Capiche?

Finally it's here (after two extensions graciously granted by

starry_night)! My Season 5 (BtVS) set for

btvsats20in20 Round 9.

TEASERS:

10 Themes
Half and Half	Rotate 90	Frame	Lemon & Lime	Shocking

Blood	Close Crop + Two	Love	Lips	Group

5 Category \|HUSH
Cat 1	Cat 2	Cat 3	Cat 4	Cat 5

5 Artist's Choice
AC 1	AC 2	AC 3	AC 4	AC 5

Screencap Sources: Bloodqueen, Pretty as a Picture , Leave Me the White, SMG France. Wooden frame in Frame icon from Your Picture Frames. Texture in Cat 2 snagged from teragramm.

MANY thanks to the wonderful

starry_night for extending the deadline (twice); and I cannot heap enough praise on my beta-Muse

velvetwhip for once again whipping me and this set into shape - her screenname is very apt because the "whipping" was a most gentle one but she provides what I need time and again. I nearly gave up on this round and three or four days ago I was ready to. That I didn't is due largely to her generous assistance, guidance, ideas, meta analysis, and encouragement to motivate me.

Alts & Extras:

1 - 7

8 -14

15 - 21

15 -21) Image from Buffy vs Dracula, this set is, appropriately, very German Expressionist cinema (Nosferatu, Pola Negri, etc.) Also, kikimay asked me to post more close crops of Sarah's face so here you go.

The only guideline or focus I had going in to this was my usual: "Women of the Buffyverse". I consciously focused on the ladies and very much wanted to make some decent icons of Joyce and Dawn, who have been difficult for me to icon for some reason. I also tried to use images from the show I haven't seen capped often or at all. So for example, "Group" is the Maclays because I've seen a lot of icons of the opposite image, the Scoobies protecting Tara, from that episode. I've seen tons of Spike in FFL icons but precious few if any focused on Drusilla herself. And et cetera.

The relative absence of Willow here (in relation to her importance that season) isn't planned or meant as a snub of the character; I think because I've done a lot of Willow icons I ended up "giving her a break". I meant to make an icon of Glory, and also of Joyce and Dawn together but didn't get to those. I have meta thoughts about quite a few of these - the Drusilla one deserves it's own post - but for now I'll let you folks and the images do the talking.

I am "borrowing"

starry_night's rules for my own artwork

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

~ Take what you like for personal use but please credit if used :)

~ No hotlinking!

~ Comments are appreciated :)

I've been woefully unable to produce anything new the past few days but fortunately I still have some hidden goodies to share. These are the banner versions of my "Family" icon for

btvsats20in20 Round 8. These images made me decide on Season 5 as my claim for Round 9 (and I have ONE - count 'em, ONE! - icon finished. Um...yay?)

Click all to see full-size. You'll like, I hope?:

buffywillowdawntaratoughlovespiralblendbannersignedbyrsd_873x576_april2015desaturatedsoftfinal.png

1 - 2

When I was working on my Family icon for the last round I happened to notice how nicely the images from Tough Love and Spiral happened to match up. Season 5 was all about Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn for me, so I loved the congruency and parallels here. At the very last I added Joyce's words to Buffy from Listening to Fear, which ties the image together visually, emotionally and thematically. (Joyce is so very underused throughout the entire series; ironic that her presence is more powerful in her absence after the Body.) It's a reminder of what tied all four of them together and bond them to each other - in blood and in bond.

I love the way Dawn and Tara's light brunette locks blend together as their hair falls past their shoulders; how Buffy's hand seems to be an extension of Willow's arm; the way red from the background of the Tough Love image glows like a spot of blood on the side of Dawn's head and Buffy's fingers (a happy accident for me), echoing Dawn's real wound, Tara's shirt, and Willow's hair.

*********

3 My icon for Round 8; I made it after I cropped the large banner and realized it could just fit the icon format. I can't decide which of the square banners below I like best - they each have their charms - , so I'll let you decide:

Click to see full-size:

toughlovespiratextlbanner1.1byrsd2015.png

4 - 5

6

*********

These image demonstrates how Season 5 complicated the roles of "heroes" and "damsels" (as it did so often); Tara was Glory's victim but also a hero, choosing to sacrifice herself, returning the favor Buffy and Dawn extended to her when they clamed her as their own ("Family"). Dawn enters the show as Buffy's damsel to be protected, yet defended her mother and fought the demon in "Listening to Fear", and was ready to throw herself from the Tower in Chosen until Buffy intervened. Conversely there are many times during that Season when Buffy and Willow, a powerful Slayer and Witch with years of experience fighting evil, are left to watch helplessly as people they love are harmed or die.

Yes, I got teary-eyes making these. I'd forgotten what Season 5 had been all about for me when I watched it: these four characters, my beloved girls, rag-tag heroes fighting against hopeless odds. The "femininity" and domesticity of Season 5, the sense of family; how happy I was to see Joyce get a bigger role onscreen and my hopes were ripped away. It was the season that my love for Buffy Summers became absolute; she passed from being a character I was interested in to being mine, a part of my heart.

I love all four of these girls fiercely - in part because of how fiercely they love each other. Not "perfectly", not in a LIttle-House-on-the-Prairie-Hallmark-card way; real, deep, messy "weird love".

All artwork here by me 2015; enjoy but do not hotlink, archive elsewhere without my permission, post to other sites or claim as your own.

Firstly: A joyous Easter to all my friends who celebrate the holiday!

As I don't have any easter rabbits lying about, here's a decidedly different sort of bunny. My Mono+Text icon for Round 8 of btvsats20in20 started as a banner when I had intended to go with an overall "Buffyverse in Wonderland" theme for my Wiffy set. Several variations, actually, but this one is my favorite, dedicated to the lovely

velvetwhip,

kikimay,

snogged, and to all the Alice in Wonderland and/or Wiffy fans in the house:

Teaser:

Click images to enlarge:

buffyandwillowinwonderlandseason1banner1000x439_v2_2015.png

Prophecy Girls in Wonderland, Season1, (2015)

Original White Rabbit Illustration by Sir John Tenniel for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

Prophecy Girls in Wonderland, Season5 (2015)
Original Alice in Wonderland Artwork by Harry Roundtree, 1928

All artwork by your's truly; do not steal, hotlink or post on fanpop or other archives.

Please don't forget to cast your votes in Round 8 of

btvsats20in20 for Themes, Category Sets and Artist's Choice Sets, then sign up to join the fun in Round 9. And for heaven's sake if you haven't visited the artists' individual journals to check out the sets in their original context and give feedback, please do so. Awards are great but feedback is coin of the realm; and the icons often look very different in their original sets than when they're sitting cheek to jowl with the work of other artists (and vice-versa).

If you have done any or all of the above, thank you!

ETA: My entries for Round 8 of

btvsats20in20. I forgot to link back to the comm when I posted this last night/this morning, sorry!

I had initially meant to stick to a "Buffyverse in Wonderland" theme but my guiding inspiration this round turned out to be the Pop Art theme and the Category theme "movie genres". My Category icons were inspired more by movie posters than by the films themselves.

MANY kudos, kisses and roses to my wonderous Muse,

velvetwhip for all her help, ideas, support and inspiration. I can't begin to thank her adequately.

TEASERS:

10 Themes
Pop Art	Family	Food	Grey*	Duplicate

Name	Stolen Claim	Wild	Monochrome+Text	Evil

5 Category \|MOVIES
Cat 1 Sci-Fi Thriller	Cat 2 Romantic Comedy	Cat 3 Bergman Drama	Cat 4 Slapstick Comedy	Cat 5 Indie Prestige Drama

5 Artist's Choice
AC 1	AC 2	AC 3	AC 4	AC 5

One of my goals this round was to include images from all seven seasons of the series. I don't ship "Wiffy" (or "Billow", take your pick) sexually / romantically - but if it's a choice between that and hatin' on the ladies, I'll chose the love. (It's astonishing to me how often fans of one character hate on the other.) I certainly "ship" their friendship - the most important friendship in the Buffyverse - something fierce.

* The look of my "Grey" icon was inspired by

spikesredqueen's gorgeous entry in her Lorne set.

"Stolen Claim" can be considered "Chosen" or "Bangel", works either way.

Some alts, not including banner versions:

1 - 4
4 was almost my Stolen Claim entry; I went back and forth on that one a lot. I don't do many romantically het shippy icons so I'm pleased with how it turned out.

5 - 9

10 - 14
I loved making these "movie posters". For the "prestige drama" I wanted to include text from the movie "The Hours" (Always the years, always the love, always the hours) but couldn't get it as I wanted. I like #5 just as much as my Cat 1 icon for the clarity of Buffy's face, but the entry version is more "atmospheric".

15 -18
My Evil icon could have fit very nicely into the movie genre set as "Horror film" (think schlocky 1980's slasher flick VHS graphic art.) "Dark Willow" seemed too obvious a direction to go for the Evil theme.

19 -24

25 -29
I couldn't resist making a personalized icon for

beer_good_foamy, who wrote the best-evah meta essay in praise of Beer Bad.

30 - 36

37 - 43

No, you don't need this many alts of this image, but that's ok - I do.

ETA 01/16/15: Round 6 Voting at btvsats20in20 open until Jan 18th. Thank you everyone who has voted and commented!

Many many thanks to

velvetwhip for her boundless support and encouragement, for the brainstorming sessions and her absolutely invaluable Willow expertise!

This is the first time I've been comfortable enough to make Dark Willow icons; I've needed to tap into a little of that dark side apparently.

TEASERS:

10 Themes
Accessory	Purple	Quote	Reason	Profile

Out Of Character	Soft Glow	Bored	Outfit	Re-Cast**

5 Category \|HOLIDAY TIMES
Cat 1	Cat 2	Cat 3	Cat 4	Cat 5

5 Artist's Choice
AC 1	AC 2	AC 3	AC 4	AC 5

* Reason: In 2014 I came out of the closet as a Buffy/Tara shipper. This year I'm coming out as a Buffy/Willow shipper...and by "ship" I mean "relationship" in the broadest sense.
I love Buffy. I love Willow. Their friendship was one of my favorite things about the show; it's not only central to btvs, it's absolutely essential - just as the friendships and love I've found in this fandom are likewise absolutely precious and essential to me. I want to celebrate and appreciate, not waste time mired in pointless and tone-deaf fandom wars.

** Aly Sheedy. (The Breakfast Club, War Games; she's adorable and quietly intense on this 1975 segment of the game show "To Tell The Truth", after her novel She Was Nice to Mice was published when she was all of 13 years old. It's a historical novel about Queen Elizabeth told from the POV of a mouse who lives at the castle. Which seems like a Willow Rosenberg type of project. Except that I suspect Willow would hide her manuscript away in a drawer because somebody laughed at it.)

Ironically Alyson Hannigan was already a "recast" of Willow; Riff Regan played her in the unaired test pilot, but I couldn't find a decent photo of her to work with.

Alts/Extras:

01-05
I've never seen this image of Aly used in icons, and I have no idea why not; it's utterly adorable.

06-07
The inspirations for my AC set. I wish both of these had come out better, and I couldn't find another theme to fit them in.

08
My alt Reason icon, and one of my favorite icons I've made this round. Buffy & Willow (or "Wiffy") fans unite!

09-12

13-14

15-18

19-22

23-26

23 was my alt Outfit icon; my entry version is a bit more visually arresting, and has a nice lesbian subtext (it could be an icon for an Impala/Willow shippy fic). But the alt version, with the mummy's withered face frozen in anguish, is sadder and more interesting on a meta level. 25 and 26 attempt to blend a quote from Reptile Boy with an image from Grave; it doesn't quite work because the context the image - a pile of burning books - is unclear.

27-28

This is the first round that I started by making the AC set; I've wanted to have an aesthetically coherent AC set ever since I saw

spikesredqueen's pretty Cordelia AC set for Round 1. So I collaged them together in a row as single images to apply text and effects to all the icons at a time. Then of course I proceded to make at least three more variations, and mixed and matched to come up with the final set of five.

As one does:

29-33

34-38

39-43

44-47

I used the "Oh my goddess" rather than the "White Willow" cap because I think the White Willow cap looks just plain silly.

Thank you to everyone who cast votes for my icons at Challenge 107 of

whedon_elite, thank you

fassy for being so courteous and helpful to this easily-confusable newbie, and congratulations to the winners of this round:

sietepecados,

everythingshiny,

julie_izumi and

marishna! So many marvelous choices here, it maked voting terrifically hard.

This comm represents a somewhat different aesthetic style than I'm accustomed to, so I'm also very grateful again my friends and especially

rua1412 for their encouragement. I had no expectation of winning because I'm not up to the same skill level - and that's not intended as a put-down, just the fact that I haven't really fully mastered all the tools I have in ipiccy at my disposal never mind PS-E. I haven't logged in the hours yet, and mastery only comes with time and practice. My entries this round:

thehavesticonbyredsatindoll_v2ipiccyequalize

thehavesticonbyredsatindoll_v2ipiccyequalize

1-3)

I didn't plan the way the layout of colors and only noticed after I'd made them how they went from very cool but somewhat hard blue to softer, slightly warmer lavender, with the Willow/Nightmares icon containing both colors; probably the result of working on the rainbow set for

btvsats20in20.

Alts/extras:
thehavesticonbyredsatindoll_v1pbcrp

vampwillowiconlavenderbokehx2lightleak_adjwarmertone

4-8)

Buffy_5x22_The_Gift_323_dragoniconapocalypsenow3

9-13)

But first, a word from our sponsor: I need to give proper congratulations to the winners of Challenge 36

rua1412,

sweet_lyri,

tempertemper and

debris4spike, and a huge round of applause to

comlodge for her amazing banners. They reflect an aesthetic that is at once Victorian and contemporary, painterly and cinematic all at once; and that reward repeat viewings with their attention to detail, ornamentation, warm colors and sophisticated font and texture effects. Wonderful.

Her use of "frames" and warm Old Master's color palette inspired me to try to do something on a larger scale. I was also inspired by

tempertemper's Bangel icon for SS Challenge 24 in May. I had no idea how she got an image inside a frame atop a realistic looking wallpaper. I've been wanting to do a proper gold frame around the fanart of Buffy that Megan made as a gift for me back in September but didn't know how, nor could I find an image I liked or that fit the size of her poster. This week I've been goofing off, experimenting with dodge and burn tools in ipiccy per

rua1412's suggestions, and I made another Buffy poster with my usual color variations and tried again. After a day or two experimentation I think I got it right, albeit with a new poster I made rather than Megan's.

And because I was just telling

velvetwhip how hard it is for me to sit still and read long multi-chapter fics on the internet (thanks, ADD!), it seems that the same might be true for other folks with my commentary so I'll have the images visible and the commentary hidden. To read or not is your choices Gentle Friend but enjoy the pictures either way:

Click to enlarge - it's worth seeing the details but they're fairly large files, so be warned:

1037x1216buffydarkgiltframecropped_zps6b828511

buffybeautywallpaperrectangle_zpsf99cae63

f4c1d2c6-6e61-4813-bc93-4f3ebce6c6e1_zpsa90483f7

01-03

04-05

The photographs of the vintage-style wooden frames on all the images come from VIctorian Frame Company, which has some very high-quality images of their reproduction period frames. The outer borders on 2,4 & 5 are "Victorian wallpaper" images that I found on the internet. I don't know who the creators are as I've misplaced the links, so f any one knows I'd love to give proper credit.

For the first time since I got the news of her passing, (20 days ago, really not that long at all) I sat back and didn't ask myself "Would she approve?" because I know she would. She said to me months ago in reference to some of my icons for SS, "If this is what you can do with ipiccy, imagine what you could do with a really good program" like Photoshop or Gimp. It turns out I've still got a lot to learn and master in ipiccy, and even Photobucket's crude suite was useful here.

#1 made entirely in ipiccy ; for #2-3 I took the poster sans frame to Photobucket to apply the vintage San Carmen filter once or twice, then brought it back over to ipiccy to apply the wall and frame layers. This is the first time I experimented properly with dodge and burn tools in Paint mode, after a recent conversation I had with

rua1412; I was able to achieve somewhat more precise control than using the generic exposure and saturation filters. The various bokeh and light leak effects are all pre-set options in ipiccy.

For #1 I was trying to avoid cropping the poster in Layer mode, which meant I had to stetch/pull the image inside to fill the gold leaf frame, and squish the frame a little because it's a bit more square than the rectangular poster. The decorative scallop on inside edge of the frame made it possible to mask any slight gaps or imperfections in matching the images that would have been visible with perfectly straight edges.

Cropping in ipiccy Layer mode is incredibly tricky because when I'm working with layers, the program does not allow me to see anything except the layer I am currently working on, so I have to guess if the crop will match the space, then hit the "edit mask" button and try again if it doesn't. Also, there are no guidelines or grid for me to go by when I crop, so if I want to achieve a straight edge I have to eyeball it. All of this means that I end up cropping less often than I should and sometimes back away from ideas, try to find a workaround, smudge, blur or mask the imperfections with other layers and textures, or simply learn to live with them.

The final step was to crop out the white background around the frame with the basic crop tool.

#2 - I bit the bullet and cropped the poster art to fit within the dark wood. I decided I wanted to emulate

tempertemper's aforementioned Bangel icon and cover the white background with a "Victorian" wallpaper image I found online (again, I would love to credit the maker if anyone has a link.) Then I applied the wallpaper image over in texture rather than layer mode, set to darken or multiply. This works only if the images are compatible sizes, which these were, in order for the texture pattern not to appear distorted.

Texture mode allowed me to erase rather than crop the portions of the wallpaper that covered Buffy and the frame. Erasing and repainting around the edge of the picture frame was the most time-consuming element of this step, but the idea of cropping the wall "in reverse to" to make it fit around the frame was too headache-inducing to consider.

#3 then is just #2 with the wallpaper cropped off.

The poster images of Buffy is not "perfect" by any stretch of the imagination. I could never figure out how to eliminate the pixelated edges without making making features look too smudged out. Hence the light leak textures, which don't solve the problem and only distract a little. I was less bothered by the edges on her face oddly enough than her hands and fingers. My original thought was to throw up one of these unframed fanarts and ask "What can I do within ipiccy or photobucket to fix this, if anything, folks?" and concrit is still warmly appreciated.

I also found a very pretty "cathedral" frame shape on the Victorian Frame Co. site, so I meant to try to cut her hands from the image altogether, but then it didn't look quite right and so:

buffycathedralframebeautyinlay1_zps83ccc041

06-07

The frame photo is the same in each. I put the two images together in layer mode; the frame itself set to multiply to keep it as dark and opaque as possible over the other layer. This time I didn't crop either layer; the space within the frame was white so that posed no problem in terms of Buffy showing through the frame. but then her arm and shouder show through the frame slightly on the right side. I had no idea how to fix that without going back and cropping.

#5 is another wallpaper pattern set around #6, again in texture rather than layer mode so I could erase the pattern from within the edges of the frame, choosing a file size compatible with my poster to avoid image distortion. A lot of painstaking work around the edge of the frame, although a little bit of light and softness doesn't bother me and it gives it depth. #5 was the first of the "wallpaper" versions I completed but I wasn't happy with the pattern and I didn't care for the color/tonality of it or the frame itself. And I still had the issue of the underlayer being visible through the frame. For #7 I experimented in texture mode with the wallpaper image in #2 & 4 above; when I set it to Overlay, it looked as though the pattern on the frame was actually incised into the wood which was a thrilling happy accident; and it lent a warmer, redder tone that suited the image better. It also slightly conceals the transparency on the right side of the frame that bothered me.

I added the same wallpaper image a second time to get #4, this time erasing the pattern from within the edges of the frame, and doing the whole erasing/repainting process along the edges.

Happy holidays or whatever you do or do not celebrate this year, a nice cuppa raised to pickamix's memory, I'll be back after the holiday with some more art and don't forget to vote in slayerstillness Challenge #37 in between all and everything you do.

I hope everyone reading this is exactly where they want to be, with whom they want to be with, or will be very soon.

New Sunnydale HIgh, same old problems:

I tried this joke in icon size (my latest alts/extras post) for Round 5 of

btvsats20in20; works better large I think.

kikimay paid me a great honor by chosing my Surprise/Listening to Fear blend icon (#19 in my last post) from my last set of alts as her new default icon. This is the second time she's snagged one of my "rejected" alts, so hello to the motivation to continue sharing.

These are the S6-7 alts for Round 5 of

btvsats20in20, with the exception of #1 (Tara from S5). BTW, the voting topped out at 24 participants - almost made it to my prophesied 25! The current voting polls are closed to new votes but

starry_night will be posting tiebreaker voting shortly for individual icons with sets.

FYI: bangel_4e just posted the sign-up post for Round 6 and I'm already nervous and excited about it. M'lady snogged requested that I chose Season1 btvs as my claim and how could I refuse her?

Teasers

001

002

003

004

005

006

007

008

009

010

011

012

013

014

015

016

017

018

019

020

021

022

023

Table generated using angelamaria's Icon Table Generator.
Icons by their own makers.
************

You know the drill right? Want, take, have, but give proper credit and feedback is always a lovely thing. Don't steal, hotlink or archive on other sites without my express consent beforehand, lest I set the Hounds of Hell upon you - and a hideous plague of boils. IF I'm in a really charitable mood.

****************

#1 - alt of my #19 entry; one of the few times this round I went for the more complicated gussied-up version for my entry over the simpler one which shows off Amber's beauty to better effect and with less distraction. Explain to me what I was thinking when I made that decision, please?

**************

#2-5 - the first icons I made for this round, when my primary ideas were: 1) OMWF, 2) "Dance Without Sleeping" by Melissa Etheridge - #3 was the only icon I kept that uses lyrics from that song; and 3) Buffy hairporn. 2-3 here are among my favorite things I made this round. These icons definitely helped me settle on the idea of a muted rainbow. I never got #5 to my liking - her hair looks fantastic whipping around in the cap but I couldn't quite capture the effect in the icon to my satisfaction. But hey, shiny!

*************

#6-11 came from a screencap of a Dead Things outtake I found on smg-france.net thanks to

starry_night's rec. (I don't recall ever seeing photos of this outtake before much less a clip online. Anyone?) Sarah runs through a gamut of facial expressions in what can't be more than seconds, but that particular image just struck me as so pretty I had to make a go of it. I feel pretty comfortable calling these "Not Too Damn Shabby Considering the Source Material"; it's somewhat ironic that the thing missing in these icons is the definition of her nose, which is so distinct in the other icons. Without that, these could be of almost any generically pretty girl. #11 was going to be an entry up until the last minute when I had the usual crisis of confidence re: lack of intergration of texture and image.

***************

#12-18 I worked on these icons from the balcony scene in Dead Things right after the OMWF icons; I was originally going to stick to muted effects, and use the colors in the cap itself for my yellow icon, but it's obvious that this is where I went "astray". 12 was very nearly my "indigo" entry for the longest time. I used my Goffe Street auditorium photos for the textures in 13, and a blown-up detail from one of my sweetheart's semi-abstract equine paintings for #14 for the scarred and "painted" effect on Buffy's face. But my favorites in this set are again the simplest, 15 & 16.

I had fun at least, but I'm a little uncomfortable, in hindsight, with the fact that I was focused on the image itself, on Sarah's face (and her earring) as an objet d'art that I wanted to experiment with and make "pretty" ; and that I completely ignored or just plain forgot the actual context of this moment (which isn't pretty or pleasant at all). And isn't that, in essence, the definition of "pornography" - not in terms of fun, consentual adult "erotica" but in terms of "dehumanization"?

OTOH:

I've been known to do that a time or ten.

***********

#19-21 From Lessons; these were among the only alts I made that were never contenders as final entries. 21 was a lot funnier in my head than in actual execution; too bad because this round is the first

btvsats20in20 set I submitted with no humorous icons. I think I felt the absence more keenly than the lack of greenery. #19 was an accident: I added a dark blue background to the original cap then meant to erase a portion of it but my hand (or the mouse) slipped and I ended up with this pattern in the background; if I had tried to draw that on purpose I would have made a complete hash of it. I added some light leak filters and voila! Accidental-on purpose background effects. Interesting as opposed to good.

Nothing to say about 22 except I can see the influence of

tempertemper's recent Darla and W/T icons in the coloring (or lack therof). 23 is my #7 entry without text. I really like the way this turned out although it's not a dynamic image per se; but I love the way her body emerges from (melts into?) the shadows. This icon, and #2 & 7 of my entry set were actually cropped from a finished banner; I couldn't have achieved that exact look overwise.

Just what the title says - and don't forget to add your vote at all four parts of Round 5 of

btvsats20in20 if you haven't done so already. The voting has stalled out at 22 voters - so on the one hand, go fandom! On the other - get the heck over there, fandom, what are you waiting for?

I've split the remainder of my alt/extra icons chronologically by season with slight exceptions to be explained. Any and all of these, with a few exceptions (3, 5, 15) were nearly entries in my Round 5 set; I am simply that indecisive. A huge inspiration for me this round was the 1992 Melissa Etheridge single "Dance Without Sleeping". My original plan was to make a set focused on OMWF and Buffy hairporn from that episode. (

kikimay will understand) Even though my plan didn't eventuate the song is a perfect fit for the episode, for Buffy and the 'verse in general*

Thanks also to

eilowyn's beta advice after Round 4; I tried to keep her thoughts in mind while making these especially in terms of use of textures and color.

001

002

003

004

005

006

007

008

009

010

011

012

013

014

015

016

017

018

019

020

021

022

Table generated using angelamaria's Icon Table Generator.
Icons by their own makers.

As ever all icons are made by me but for the taking with proper credit; feedback is lovely and much appreciated; stealing, failing to credit or archiving on another site without express persmission is not.

1-18 are all season 1 or 2 icons; 19-22 skip to S5 & 6 - or rather, 19 merges seasons 2 & 5. (The only S3 icon I made was the Amends #16 icon of my final entries; I didn't make any S4 icons.) 1, 2, 3, 5 or 6, 17 - 18 were all in rotation as entries until the last minute; #1 & 5 especially. I like both of those but worried that the textures were distracting and not really adding anything to the image or saying anything. I likewise replaced 15 with the more distant crop at the last minute. 18 I excluded because it would have been the only icon to not have someone's face in it.

I've not done a lot of early-seasons Buffy; this round convinced me I want to do more. Focusing on the late seasons as I tend to, it's easy to fall into the same trap I see with fans who have only seen "certain" episodes or seasons of the tv canon series (or deny those seasons existed) and miss the whole story on either end. It's not that I missed anything but I've forgotten how young she was, how tender, but also how she walked into Sunnydale with a suitcase full of baggage that only got bigger and heavier with every day, every death, every Apocalypse and every trauma. In other words, I just wanted to take her up and hug her and make the hurt go away. I can't not feel for her. Buffy Summers brings out my Inner Mama Bear.

And of course there's the aesthetics of it, taking pleasure in her face - not because Sarah's the prettiest woman but there's just something very particular about her features, and her performance. (Making icons of Aly as Willow is the same sort of pleasure, and I think there are surprising points of similarity or at least congruity between them. They are not really similar but they are "not the prettiest" in similar ways.) Kristine Sutherland, Michelle and Amber OTOH are no less lovely or perhaps are more so but are somehow harder for me to grasp fully and do them justice.

15-22 all involve Joyce in some way, but mostly as an absence rather than a presence. After focusing on close ups of faces for so many icons, hands suddenly became very important here. I do love the richness of hand imagery in btvs, and the Summers women have such visceral ways of connecting.

I'm always going on about the absence of Joyce in the show, how I wanted more of her in it (and why aren't there more icons and fanfics about her?) And I admire

debris4spike's Joyce icons and the attention she pays the lady but when I tried to make icons with her myself, I could only render her as an absence or at best a partial presence. And as much as I love their interrelationships and the moments when they do truly connect, 15-22 are all about the failure connect. The only ones we see Joyce's face in here are 20-21, as a dead husk; those icons are as much portraits of Dawn, whose face we don't see, only her hand. It was important to me to get the detail of her ring in the image, which made the hand more particularly her's. 22 reverses this a bit and we see Dawn's face and Buffy's hand. Unlike the Body icons they are physically connecting, but emotionallly disconnected; and in between them is Joyce's presence, again expressed as an absence or negation.

18 owes a debt to

pickamix, who altered one of my Vamp Willow icons from Round 2 with permisson by removing a red soda cup in the frame. and I wanted to try the same to remove a red straw from the green cup here thanks to color matching tools in ipiccy.

* (I did not however watch the original video on repeat - perhaps if I had the results would have been more light-hearted. Unironic lesbian interpretive dance? Complete with fog, overexposed blue lighting and that damn belt buckle? Sorry Melissa, you're no Ellen.)

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June 2021

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Page Summary

Congrats to the winners of btvsats20in20 and whedon elite!
Here be a tiebreaker....And shout-outs to fiction by Dragonyphoenix and Kerkevik2014
5 FAVORITE PIECES OF FAN ART: ALL BANNERS (& POSTERS), ALL THE TIME
Oh, Tara:My last award for Slayerstillness of 2015
The deadlines are a-comin' just around the bend....But wait, is that a reprieve I spy?
Something to Sing About: Awards banners by starry_night and my icons for Slayerstillness # 37
BANNERS FOR ROUND 11 WINNERS, BTVSATS20in20!
VOTE NOW AT ROUND 10 OF BTVSATS20IN20! (Who needs a preamble, we've got art!)
I Walk Alone (but not without friends - A Gift from Comlodge)
More Buffyverse in Wonderland (Willow, Buffy, The White Rabbit & the Jabberwocky)
btvsats20in20 ROUND 9: BtVS Season 5
Keep Her Safe (Buffy, Willow, Tara, Dawn artwork from Round 8 btvs20in20)
Buffy & Willow in Wonderland Artwork
btvsats20in20 ROUND 8: "Wiffy" (Buffy Summers & Willow Rosenberg)
btvsats20in20 ROUND 6: WILLOW ROSENBERG
My entries and alts for whedon_elite 107
Speaking of Slayerstillness - Congrats to the Winners of Round 36, and some unrelated pretties
Snark Attack or, I knew I'd misplaced my sense of humor somewhere nearby (Lessons, The Gift)
Part 3 of 3 of my alts/extras for btvsats20in20 Round 5 (souper-dooper pimpage at no extra charge)
PART 2 of 3: btvsats20in20 alts & extras, early-seasons Buffy, the Summers Women

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Style Credit

Style: Ivory Alcea for Mobility by branchandroot
Resources: Mitsuba Aoi

Page generated Jun. 18th, 2025 12:42 am

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Entries tagged with setting: s5

Congrats to the winners of btvsats20in20 and whedon elite!

Here be a tiebreaker....And shout-outs to fiction by Dragonyphoenix and Kerkevik2014

5 FAVORITE PIECES OF FAN ART: ALL BANNERS (& POSTERS), ALL THE TIME

Oh, Tara:My last award for Slayerstillness of 2015

The deadlines are a-comin' just around the bend....But wait, is that a reprieve I spy?

Something to Sing About: Awards banners by starry_night and my icons for Slayerstillness # 37

BANNERS FOR ROUND 11 WINNERS, BTVSATS20in20!

VOTE NOW AT ROUND 10 OF BTVSATS20IN20! (Who needs a preamble, we've got art!)

I Walk Alone (but not without friends - A Gift from Comlodge)

More Buffyverse in Wonderland (Willow, Buffy, The White Rabbit & the Jabberwocky)

btvsats20in20 ROUND 9: BtVS Season 5

Keep Her Safe (Buffy, Willow, Tara, Dawn artwork from Round 8 btvs20in20)

Buffy & Willow in Wonderland Artwork

btvsats20in20 ROUND 8: "Wiffy" (Buffy Summers & Willow Rosenberg)

btvsats20in20 ROUND 6: WILLOW ROSENBERG

My entries and alts for whedon_elite 107

Speaking of Slayerstillness - Congrats to the Winners of Round 36, and some unrelated pretties

Snark Attack or, I knew I'd misplaced my sense of humor somewhere nearby (Lessons, The Gift)

Part 3 of 3 of my alts/extras for btvsats20in20 Round 5 (souper-dooper pimpage at no extra charge)

PART 2 of 3: btvsats20in20 alts & extras, early-seasons Buffy, the Summers Women

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