Feb 3rd is the deadline to send nominations to darkgoddessgege for Round 11 of  the rwsawards, so it's your last chance to nominate your favorite authors and artists in buffyverse and SPN fandom.  Check out the list of current nominees here.

I noticed that at the moment there is only nomination in the "My Marker" (best beta) category, foxstarreh. It's possible that there are other nominations pending in that category but if you have a muse who has shaped your work to be the best it can be, by all means give them a little love with a nomination. Betas are unsung heros, serving as muses, editors, collaborators, teachers, sounding boards, task masters and selection committees.

I wanted to nominate velvetwhip in this category for all the work she does as a beta for my icons and artwork, but she has already maxed out on the number of nominations she can receive. As well she should. But it's worth pointing out that art betas are just as eligible to be nominated in this category as writing betas. (And yes, I have confirmed that with darkgoddessgege.) I am well-nigh certain that I'm not the only person using a beta-muse for help with my artwork because all artists (visual artists, writers, etc) need feedback. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum.

So, I'm not feeling "Christmassy" this year, at all. But I do wish everyone a peaceful day and a peaceful season. Whatever you celebrate. (I was raised Catholic, I've been pagan, now I'm atheist, and I have friends all across the spectrum.)

dragonyphoenix asked me a while back to do some graphics for part 3 of her buffyverse/potterverse crossover fic "The Letters" (Severus Snape/Anya, Cordelia). It was the first time I've been commissioned to make fanart without having read the story first.  Dragony told me exactly what text she wanted to see on the graphics, including the brilliantly funny RSVP from Cordy.

sparrow2000 posted an amazing end-of-the-year fic rec list; some I've enjoyed, a good many others I've missed and must make amends for that. Because all the stories sound wonderful (and she hasn't steered me wrong yet.) She was also kind enough to name-check me and my artwork on the list! Thank you very much, I'm honored!

I will end up doing a recap of the year here in fandom in the near future but I want to say "THANK YOU" to the folks who have been so incredibly supportive of me in my growth and struggles this year. Special thanks and love to velvetwhip for her guidance, friendship and for being in my corner.

I have to admit I'm glad 2015 is almost over.

And finally - I've read issue 22 of the season 10 comics and I have one thing to say, one really essential thing that NO ONE is talking about - WILLOW DOES NOT HAVE BLUE EYES, PEOPLE!

*Actually, Buffy's eyes also look suspiciously sort-kinda blue on page 23, which is weird because they were green in the rest of the story. But the color is just muddy enough that I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But Willow's eyes are absolutely blue - clear, beautiful, unmistakeable blue. The first issue that actually features Willow in any significant way this season and they can't get that one basic thing right. *le sigh*

Entries for whedon_elite Challenge 127 "Close Crop" due Sunday October 4th 3pm EST.  There are 25 gorgeous entries so far, but more are always welcome. And in case you're wondering, the icons do not have to be close-ups of faces, although the examples and most of the entries are; they can be close-ups of anything.

Entries for slayerstillness Challenge 54 "Roy G Biv" due Friday Oct 9th midnight at your respective timezones. According to starry_night there are 21 entries so far but again, the more the merrier!

Entries for seasonal_spuffy Round 19 Banner competition due Sunday Oct 11 midnight PST. The theme this 10th anniversary round is "Look Both Ways".

Entries for btvsats20in20 Round 13 due Monday Oct 19 midnight at your time zone. Sign ups are open until then; themes posted here.

And finally - the brilliant beyond belief* clockwork_hart1 created a "multi-fandom" Gods and Monsters ficathon and I'm calling it ongoing because there are tons of great prompts and new ones being added constantly; so fill a prompt with a fic or artwork, and check out the works of art on the masterlist.





Gods & Monsters ficathon
[click on the picture]

If you don't believe my "brilliant beyond belief" description then please read her Buffyverse/Doctor Who crossover fic (death) for my birthday. Dawn is the Tardis. Dawn slides under and then there are hands on her chest and water spilling up her throat and for a moment Dawn is as big as the room and spreading further outward, as far as she can reach. (I fear Lucy might think I haven't read it because I didn't comment but oh goodness, I have. Or rather I didn't read it, I made it part of my life because her prose slides under my skin as easily as Dawn submerges herself beneath the water.)  If "I'm not familiar with fandom X" is worrying to you, don't let it put you off; I haven't seen any of the new Who series myself although I'm vaguely aware of the players. (Seven and Ace were my Doctor and companion, when I was in college and introduced to the series.)

* slayerstillness Challenge 45, "Potentials" (focusing on the Potential Slayers), entry deadline has been EXTENDED 24 hours to May 30th Midnight at your time zone. (or basically, through today, Saturday).

* whedon_elite Challenge 118, "Age of Ultron", is a "provided caps" challenge. Check out sweet_lyri's, fassy's and naive_astronaut's wonderful entries here ,  here, and here; leave feedback, and/or add your own entry icons. Deadline Sunday May 31st 3pm EST.

Recently tempertemper said she was taking a page from my book and promoted icontest voting specifically otherworldlyric and slayerstillness. I have to admit I had already stolen that book from velvetwhip, who tirelessly promotes fandom activity of all sorts; but I'm very glad to be part of the chain. Shall we call it a library book and simply pass it around?

tempertemper also made a wonderful point about supporting icon/art communities that I think can't be said often enough. There are so many people in this fandom and so few voting at art competitions. As a visual artist I of course vote at fiction contests but I think writers oftentimes feel shy or uncertain about voting in art contests. Maybe a grade school teacher made a cruel remark about one's abilities. Maybe one has heard one too many "experts" insist that you have to have a particular sort of education in order to be able to "understand" art. This really shouldn't be so - art belongs to everyone and we all live, breathe, take in visual images every day. We are all incredibly sophisticated and well-educated simply by dint of exposure.

So in that spirit, here are some worthy art challenges in need of your vote:




**   slayerstillness Challenge 43 "Helpless" Wonderful work and one of my favorite buffyverse episodes - how do the entries end up so often looking go great and of a piece with one another as a group? I'm side-eyeing at least one or two in a "I don't know who made this but back off because I WANT this one" kind of way. *lol*

** otherworldlyric Challenge 200  "Working for the Weekend" I really have to thank tempertemper for bringing this one back to my attention. Some of my first awards were in this comm but I have not participated in a while, and have been very remiss in terms of voting and promoting it.  This comm is also one of the most overlooked in terms of participation overall, which is a shame.

** whedon_elite Challenge 116 "Spring Time" My love of the sepias and desaturated tones is well-known but it's nice to try something different and really welcome springtime in bright, light tones;  the really interesting challenge is to come up with something "pretty and light" that also carries emotional weight. It's been a long, hard winter this year, hasn't it?

Finally, speaking of springtime, congratulations to all the winners of  Round 68 of character20n20. setentpet asked meto make banners for those who had requested it: roseemrys, punk4life1315 and spikesredqueen, and the gorgeous clear, springtime colors and the change of season inspired the colors and design of my banners. I indulged myself in a tie for Banner Maker's Choice: spikesredqueen and x_lostinthesun. Check them out here.  I used a photograph I took in 2013 of roses in my landlord's yard as the base.

       

Title courtesy of the lovely and witty pickamix who asked me to do just that for two new comms: 


           

                      b_verse_pub|Profile|b_verse_pub|Profile|b_verse_pub                                               secret_slaying

b_verse_pub, "an oddly polite Buffyverse hangout"for polite and friendly discussion of the Buffyverse (no flames, no rudeness, and no trolls, open to all (and check out the amazing pub graphics)

and secret_slaying, an anonymous BtVS/AtS TW challenge/awards comm that accepts work in all media (text, images, videos) made specifically for the challenge. Round 1 prompts are up and due December 15. Guidelines and prompts here, detailed rules are here ; incredible graphics also by pickamix and shaketheangel. (LOVE the banner that looks like a cork push-pin board.) Like icontests such asotherworldlyric, the entries will be voted on anonymously, unlike any contest I've seen so far, (fr'instance the SunnyD Memorial Fanfiction awards, etc) works in all media are accepted, so check it out!

And speaking of the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards and otherworldlyric.......  (How did you know I'd work them in somewhere?)

 * Voting open at Round 30 of Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards until NOVEMBER 30th; list of worthy nominees for your consideration here and the Rules here.  Full disclosure: I'm still combing through the awesome stories; it's a great opportunity as always to check out fics I might have missed otherwise. Or have been tripping over for months and never got around to reading and how the heck did that happen, I wonder to myself?

* Vote for your favorite 3 icons out of 11 fab entries at otherworldlyric Challenge 187, then get your entries ready for Challenge 188: The Love You Save May Be Your Own by Etta James (the Lioness!  A little bit of Etta makes everything betta.)

*  Vote now at slayerstillness Challenge 35 Least Favorite Eps challenge for 1st and 2nd place (no 3rd place this round) plus Best Crop, Colour and Most Creative.  I have a ton of admiration for fanartists who can take an episode (or character) they hate and not only spend quality time with it but turn it into gold, as the 11 entries this round are.

Then prep your entries for Challenge 36 "Ye Olde Vampyre Gang" dedicated to flashbacks of the Fanged Four pre-Sunnydale. starry_night helpfully provided a list of all btvs & ats episodes with fanged four flashbacks plus some sample caps to choose from. I'm expecting awesomeness to the nth degree.

** 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?

1) Thanking: My personal Miss Psycho Pep Squad velvetwhip. For reasons. For everything.


Everyone who has helped me learn how to improve my art skillz: chasingdemons and comlodge, spikesredqueen, rua1412, eilowyn, and kwritten for introducing me to ipiccy in the first place. (If I've forgotten anyone please forgive me.) Ok, I did some thankin' yesterday but it bears repeating. The sheer GENEROSITY of folks in this fandom is overwhelming. My real life has been all kinds of suckitude; being here on LJ, diving into making art (aka keeping myself distracted) has been my bliss.Comlodge, debris4spike, and Chasingdemons all checked out ipiccy to make comparisons with gimp/PS and give me their reactions.

2) Pimpage happens here: My homegirl eilowyn made me an incredible gift: a Buffy Summers fanmix, with musical tracks by Coldplay, Florence Welch, Imogene Heap, Regina Spektor, Metric and more;  with incredible "album cover" art. I'm listening to it right now for the umpteenth time - Rilo Kiley's heartbreaker "A Better Son/Daughter" as a matter of fact. Perfect song for Buffy - keep fighting, keep smiling, keep hauling that load even if it kills you (and it certainly will). The entire mix is everything Buffy is - brave, frightened, loving, determined, uncertain, strong  -  everything all of us are: human. (Speaking of, "Human" by the Cinematics puts me in mind of Spike, actually, but that may be partly because of the lead male vocals. "I've been breaking my back with the weight of your heart." Break my heart now, why don'cha?) I'm not sure what I did to deserve such a wonderful gif but I'm grateful - and already addicted to it.



clockwork_hart1's "Conclusive Etymology of a Summers" is a lovely and tender portrait of Buffy's relationship with language beyond my ability to do justice with my own words: her wit, her stubborness, her intelligence, her hope; her silence in response to the fears that grip her heart.  This story completely owns my heart, so here's a piece of mine: my first fanfiction poster.




Go read Lucy's fic, it's beyond wonderful. Then check out her multi-fandom icons and her other fics, including the delightful Buffyverse/Whoverse crossovers: the sensual "Teaching the Stars how to Set Themselves on Fire" (Dawn/Amy Pond); two Buffy/River Song fics, the funny/sexy "Straight on 'til Morning" and the answer to my request for "more, please" with it's prequel: "Greet Me with Nights and Summer"; Buffy/River Song plus wise, wry Dawn, slightly-befuddled Faith, a shout-out to Tara, badass women with swords and an apocalypse-y setting.  What more could I desire?

**

kikimay's fics and fanvideo: The epilogue to her post-series Fuffy fic Eros which is incredibly sweet and has a lovely Buffy/Giles scene. Fluffy Fuffy can be hard to get right, but if you've been reading along, Kiki makes sure it's well-earned. Our beloved Slayers deserve a little happiness, oui? (the entire story is rated NC-17 but this chapter is safely teen and up.) Her second fan video, "Bad Habit" takes on a serious subject: the ways that the Buffyverse women punish themselves and "self-mutilate" either literally or symbolically. It's been a while since I've seen a truly meta buffy fanvid that engaged larger social and psychological issues. She says she has plans to make a third video, inspired by "Conclusive Etymology of a Summers". I approve of this plan.

**

beer_good_foamy's latest btvs S6 fic, "Building Character" (thank you kikimay!) that rewrites S6 and Buffy's resurrection in a way that is probably more realistic - and subtly horrifying, or at least extremely ambiguous - than canon. It also builds on a series-wide subtext that becomes text in S5 - the "constructed" or created individual, the "doll" (shades of the Buffybot, April and Dawn). The gang tries to put Buffy together again, however much they think they "know" her, how much is unknown and left blank?

**

Don't forget to vote at slayerstillness Challenge 27, Hair Porn; deadline is midnight tonight, the 8th, in your time zone.  And check out the beautiful btvsats20in20 entries for two Season 5 episodes by starry_nightstarry_night (Intervention) and iconsoleander (The Body). Deadline for Round 2 entries is tomorrow, and I'll be able to start my entry post as soon as I get this post up. (The word "gulp" comes to mind.)

**

3) Finally, Wishing spuffy_luvr a belated Happy Birthday (July 1st.)  She hasn't been active in fandom since last fall, as far as I can tell, so I am also remiss in not dropping her a line because I miss her presence, the conversations and rants about: Spuffy canon vs fanon, fandom, politics, pretty much anything and everything - she brings intelligent, wit, and an independent, iconoclastic, no-nonsense attitude to everything in her sights. And the fic: she's known for her long Spuffy works but excels also at funny, sexy, tender Spuffy ficlets in which both partners in the 'ship are treated with affection and respect. The "it could have been canon" series she wrote for sb_fag_ends in October is all kinds of wonderful, and includes meta as well as fic. "No Earthly Remains" is something of a departure, focusing on Willow, Faith and Buffy post-Chosen; it stands next to kwritten's "You're Here, Too?" (Buffy, Anya, Willow) as one of my favorite fics dealing with the friendships of btvs' women, and Buffy's trauma and grief after the fall of Sunnyhell.

ETA: "Conciusive Etymology" poster Nominee for Best Banner in Wicked Awards Round 11:  

A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend: It goes without saying but just in case: "Don't even think about stealing or defacing my artwork or ye will be plagued by boils and all manner of afflictions".  The Miss Psycho Pep Squad icon is totally snaggable however. Have a nice day!

1) That otherworldlyric extended it's current icon challenge  #170 for one week (aka, until Friday the 25th) because there was only one entry? Normally I'm begging for extensions on these challenges so I should be all over that, except...the prompt is George Thoroughgood's "Bad to the Bone"and I'm not moved or inspired in any dimension. This is probably another case of "familiarity breeds contempt" - and in this case, possibly testosterone poisoning. I've read the lyrics multiple times trying to find inspiration to subvert it, to remove it from the familiar context - and I only need two consecutive words from the lyrics. Gotta be something I can do with it:

was born

the day

to the

bad to

before I

woman beg

girl squeal

tell ya

Nope, I'm just not feeling it this time around. But maybe some of y'all can find what I'm missing and embarrass me with your brilliance.  (I'll just be over here washing down the aftertaste of testosterone with a bottle of estroge....and a Samuel Smith's organic double chocolate stout for a chaser.)

2) That my my recent post after a longish absence (moving! packing! tired! busy! Excuses: get your red hot excuses!) has over 100 comments in the thread, which is funny and wonderful because I thought no one would respond to it that silly thing. My f'listies are made of awesome. Further proof? Y'all made Vastra and Jenny a part of my life. Victorian interspecies lesbian detectives? Samuri swords and bifurcated tongues? BEHOLD THE AWESOME WHICH IS, WAS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

Either I need to do more polls, or I need to talk about Orphan Black and interspecies lesbians more often. Maybe both. Speaking of OB, did I also mention....

3) ....that I forgot to credit the lovely eilowyn for encouraging me to watch Orphan Black, which is my New Favorite Thing. Because she said kind and loving words that flattered my soul and she's one of my personal heros and role models - one of my real life Buffy's - so how could I resist? My first reaction to the pilot was "Ringer meets Dollhouse." But much, much better.

4) And that I've only seen the first three episodes of S1 and Tatiana is my New Favorite Actress and Cosima is my New Favorite Character - along with Felix. (Felix is LOVE.) And that Cosima is*BIG SPOILER FOR OB* a lesbian and my heart is EXPLODING WITH JOY. (And OMG what the hell is that - not who, what - at the end of S1 ep 3? the bleached blond who looks like a cross between an anime villain and a prehistoric leviathan? What is this even?)

6) Even BIGGER explosion: kikojutsuka (aka lanoyee ) linked to a Reddit convo with OB creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, and Graeme said this: "The Cophine relationship, we really loved anyway and to see it get that much support and to see that people thought that it was an important relationship to be on TV made us want to continue it and bolster it. And yeah, why the hell is that? Why do lesbian characters always die in TV? RIP Tara."

Oh fuck YES and THANK YOU FOR GETTING IT, Mr Manson. And thank you for honoring Tara.

 

Now I've got a serious hankering for some crossover fic.  And hey, speaking of crossover fic...

7) clockwork_hart1 is accepting/filling multi-fandom fic prompts - femmeslash, gen, het, threesomes, you name it - and knocking it OUT OF THE PARK every single time. She has stories for fandoms and characters I'm not at all familiar with, or characters I am but wouldn't ship together otherwise except her writing is so lovely and universal in moods and themes, so evocative/poignant/sexy/funny/yummy that it doesn't matter. I can think of exactly three other times I've experienced that in fanfiction, and the other times were some ten years ago.

8) FYI: when your heart explodes with joy, hardwood floors are a lot easier to clean up than rugs or "vintage" linoleum. Trust.