Icon progression post 2013

[neonspider]

So, I thought I'd make a progression post again just to get sad about how little progress I've made compared to 2011 and 2012. 2013 has been much less about technical progress and more about settling on a style and playing with it.

Thanks rocketgirl2 for the codes!

? J a n ?

My icon year had a good start. My remake icons were much better than the originals. In fact when I look at these I'm pretty sure they're better than my recent stuff. I had a lot of fun with coloring in January. Lots of pink, yellow and purple, sometimes vibrant, sometimes vintagey. Continued the 'colorful grunge' thing that I developed at the end of the last year. Icon posts: Multifandom remakes + Rose Tyler set

? F e b ?

I made LOTS of icons in February! My 20inspirations set was a snoozefest, but I like what I made for the7days this month. Lots of text and some fun compositions. There was also the first missingfaction activity (I was SO flattered to get invited there btw!) which produced some icons I really like; especially that Penny&Leonard icon cause it sorta summarizes my style, I think. There was an awesome Farscape battle where I really liked many of my results too though stylisitcally it was all over the place cause I tried to make equal amount of icons for each theiconquest class. Icon posts: Martha Jones set + icon dump

? M a r ?

This was a good and prolific month, I played with text and colorings and compositions. I made two of my personal faves of the year: the silhouette Doctor, and that pink and yellow 11. I also made one of my most overappreciated icons (imo) - that closecropped Martha. The image quality is baaaad (what you get when you put topaz on an MQ cap), the contrast is weird and there's nothing particularly interesting about it, yet it's probably the one that I've gotten the most PSD requests for??? :D alright.. Me and vampire_sessah also started a shared BSG iconing project (that would later inspire watchnicon). I'm sad that the BSG iconing didn't really work for me, my icons for this project were my fugliest fug of the year tbh, so... HUGE props to anyone who freewillingly icons BSG! It did also lead to my only good blending icon ever though. Icon posts: Farscape set, battle + icon dump Multifandom icon dump (this was technically posted in April but all the icons are from March)

? A p r ?

Text round at 20inspirations! I loved this round, it was so challenging. Lots of vintage colorings and lowish contrast in this one. There are technical flaws but I tried my best and I like the vintageyness and the texts (mostly) and that Enjolras propaganda poster icon, though all in all the texts in the set weren't as creative as I would have liked. According to comment counts this is my best liked set. I'm not sure if it's really that good or if everyone just shared my les mis mania at the time. Also these calculations should probably use some sort of comment deflation factor towards the end of the year. Icon posts: Les Misérables text round set

? M a y ?

Stressful month! I really struggled through that Donna set but in the end I liked my results. It doesn't really have any single icons that I'd pick into my top 5 of the year, but as a whole it's good. (except for the category set haha I CAN'T do obscure cropping, nope). I'm particularly proud of that weird Donna&TARDIS one with the drawn lines; it's not the most eye-catching of them, but it sure is one where I tried something different. Icon posts: Donna set

? J u n ?

Inspiration void continued, but I managed to make an SPN post for 20inspirations. I was afraid everyone would hate it for the reasons it actually got positive feedback for (the weird colors and complexity), so that was a lovely surprise. The icon dump had some nice icons too. My fave is that Rose icon for elite_inspired. Technically it's far from perfect, but I love the composition&texture use and it's close to what I'd like to do more now. Also, made some random Sayid icons and they had the only sort-of interesting cropping I did the whole year, lol. Icon posts: SPN set + icon dump

? J u l ?

This might have been my best icon month, I had all the time I needed to icon and it was just wonderful. I made icons for ALL THE THINGS, including but not limited to: - request icons - a gift activity; I was really insecure about my icons at the time (because they were all for such amazing makers), but now I like most of them. That faceless DW one seems to have gotten the most love, which was another awesome surprise. - a Les Miserables battle (didn't love the icons I made for this tbh, I was trying some grungier texture use and muted colorings but my results were blah and LQish) - a forgotten fandoms battle (I like most of what I made for this, everything was very bright and pastelly) - a turbo_rumble entry that I'm particularly proud of. It includes many of my favorites of the year, thanks to the inspiring & challenging themes. This was the most inspired I was during the whole year, and I guess it worked for others too cause the rumble went really well. Oh and July was the time of magicawards too. I can't even say how shocked I still am about my absurd successes there. I really don't know why I won that much, but if even one person thinks I deserved some of it, then that alone makes me incredibly, unspeakably happy and moved. Icon posts: Request fills (most of the contents of this August icon dump were from July)

? A u g ?

Another favorite came to be: that geometric textured Claire. I know it's technically bad cause she's all covered in the textures, but I just love the way it looks anyway! :D Then I started modding and participating in watchnicon. The iconing started well and I really like the vibrancy of that running scene icon and the text on some of them (but there was a lot of bad text too). However for some reason I just got really stressed out and the icons started getting worse and worse. Some of them are downright fugly and that was depressing cause I felt like, now that I had just won so many things I should be nothing short of perfect to live up to it right? Yet I felt like I had completely lost my touch, so that sucked :p Icon posts: Icon dump, but most of these were from July

? S e p ?

Iconing was such a struggle, and most of my icons were crap. This sample includes pretty much all the good ones o_O This is when I turned into a couch potato (watching shows more than iconing them. I blame Ben). The rumble round at capchallenge started and I managed to pull myself together enough to enter that. I love the Elementary icon. For some reason I actually won with that awful Ben blocking icon?? my theory is that it only won cause my icon had two Bens, and the more Bens the better ^^ At the end of the month I made some ugly grunge icons for a missingfaction activity. They're so dull that I intentionally left them out of my next post, lol. Well I love that faded vintagey grainy wide crop icon, but LOL I just noticed that I forgot to include that one in the activity submission, and it was the only one I liked! wtf me :D well here it is anyway. Icon posts: Icon dump

? O c t ?

A bit of a comeback this month, I made a set I was actually really happy with! The style was mostly really vibrant and texture-heavy, compositiony things. Lots of cyan and lime (kinda obvious choice with LOST but I like it anyway). In the ac set I even tried my hand at really simple icons with natural backgrounds. It was a nice contrast to the complexity of the category set. It was also supposed to be an experiment, to see which style would be preferred - but the result was that the category set won in votes and ac set in comment love, so I guess they were both good in their own ways? and that's the best result really cause I enjoy using both styles :> Also, I see development towards more contrast and clearer, more saturated and defined colors, as opposed to the kinda-vibrant yet kinda-faded and low-contrasty stuff I made earlier. Icon posts: technique20in20 set

? N o v ?

I basically stopped iconing, because I was really busy at uni. (also felt guilty cause I may or may not have skipped an exam just get to finish that last 20in20 set, oops.) I made one small set for watchnicon. There was one half good icon in it. I also made a new default icon for myself, because I needed more Bocke in my life. I love the super saturated colors, but mostly I just use it for the subject :3 So yeah nothing really awesome this month. Icon posts: -

? D e c ?

Same as November, busybusybusy. Exams and all. I got some random icons made but nothing that really counts, except maybe the Rose that I just made for capchallenge. Looks like I'm still all about vibrant candy colors. Which was the case in January too and pretty much throughout the year, so... like I said this is barely even a progression post :p Icon posts: -

? 2 0 1 3?

My best months were maybe January-August, with July possibly being the peak. Then I just started being a bad!iconer for some reason. I'm really quite envious of all the other makers who are posting things that show real progression. But umm maybe next year? Despite the disappointing later months, all in all this has been an INCREDIBLE icon year for me. I just love icons - making them, seeing everyone else's work, using them, coming up with and participating in challenges, interacting with other makers, getting to see how everyone's skills and styles develop. I've also gotten far more love and appreciation this year than i would have ever imagined, and while that's far from the reason I enjoy the icon community, it has indeed given me a much needed confidence boost that will hopefully help me push my creativity much much further next year. Now I'm just full of motivation and I'm determined to kick some icon ass in 2014 and I hope a lot of fellow makers stick around here at LJ and do the same! :D

Have an amazing year 2014 everyone!!