holy crap these are all so pretty *_____* I love your vibrant coloring so much! Can't wait to see what you'll come up with in 2016 :D
snagging some of the Teen Wolf, shall credit of course ♥

wow, thanks for the super lovely comment :) so glad you like them and I'm extra pleased you even found something to snag!! ♥

I didn't know you liked Orphan Black??

Anywho, stunning colors and compositions as usual ♥

Oh yeah I watched OB (well the first two seasons) in the summer! I probably forgot to mention it :o I loved the show but somehow haven't managed to watch s3 yet. I even claimed it for that one 20insp round (that's why a lot of those OB icons are so complex - one of the styles I got was 'multiple images' and I really tried to go with that :D). But then it was too much and I couldn't finish the set :c

and thanks for the lovely feedback ♥

Let me know when you've finished S3 and maybe we can do a battle? :D

That would be awesome :> I'll see when I have the time to watch it, and where I can find it, so it might take a while but I'll definitely keep this in mind!

Do you have Netflix in Finland? Because it's in Netflix Norway :)

WOW! I adore your vibrance colours! The Same pic category is amazing! All of them are so creative and unique!

Saving a lot! ♥

P.S: PYDIA! ♥

Aw, thank you so much! tbh a lot of people managed that category challenge a lot better than me, since all of mine are basically just slightly different takes on the same style :D

(hehe, YES PYDIA! I was so sad when s5a didn't have any Peter in it D: but wow it seriously surprises me that someone is actually using a pydia icon by me. Out of all the ships I like this one is probably the creepiest so I didn't think anyone but me would find use for those xD)

wtf is this sorcery? seriously, how do you manage to make such amazing colorings and compositions??

From episodes20 set I love first scene, hair, b/w on color, word and my favorite one is fave character (love the vibrant pastel coloring here, too bad I don't watch this anymore or I'd be using it for sure, snagging anyway). I also dig the close crop in ac 1.

The rest of the post is absolutely stunning, I love everything, but specially anything from Lost, Parks & Rec and Doctor Who. Saving lots! ♥

Edited 2015-12-28 07:57 pm (UTC)

Thank you so much for the super lovely comment! ♥ I'm so happy you like them :> especially surprised you like fave character, which I struggled with a bit. it was hard to find a cap since there was barely any Lydia in this episode and the caps that she had were all dark and colorless so it was a real challenge for sure...

yay I'm so happy you found something save-worthy! (now that you mention it though, we never seem to watch the same shows! It's such a shame, I'd be using like a hundred icons by you by now if there were more fandoms we're both into. But thankfully there's LOST at least, I still need to upload the latest ones I've saved :> )

Your icons are always radiant in the best of ways. SERIOUSLY. THOSE MAKO ICONS. LOVE. But everything else too. :D

Thank you so much, this is such a nice thing to hear! :) glad you like them ♥

I simply adore your coloring style and composition skills! My favorites are b&w on color and 111. I also love the vibrant coloring on the Pacific Rim icons :D

Aw, thanks! I'm really happy with those two myself tbh, 111 was made for a Doctor Who rewatch project but I had forgotten to post it after both of my rewatch partners got less active at LJ. I was really happy when I found it and the other lost & dw icons on my abandoned watchnicon folder :D

The Pacific Rim icons were done during one of my least inspired iconing phases, when i genuinely thought that I've totally lost my touch, so I'm honestly super surprised that some have liked them! This is so encouraging to hear, so thank you!! :)

These are all so gorgeous, love the vibrant colours! Snagging some Lost, Once and Pacific Rim ones, thanks. :)

Aw, thanks so much!!! I'm so glad you found something to save even! :)

Well daaamn, gorgeous as usual. I feel like it's been a billion years since I've commented on your icon posts, so this is long overdue, and you've come up with some truly amazing stuff as usual.

I love the silhouetted look with the faint pink outline in 'far away.' Gorgeous composition and vibrant blue coloring in AC4. 29 is just beautiful to look at, between the colors and the grungy texture use. She looks illuminated by light and stars.

Orphan Black! I'm thrilled that you iconned OB because I love that show dearly. ♥ Lovely cropping and pastel coloring in 43. I like the dramatic contrast and blocking in 45. 47 is just insane and warped-looking and bloody, which is almost kind of perfect for Sarah and Helena's relationship. I love the gradient use in 50, especially how soft that greenish yellow on the left makes her hair look. It all blends in kind of seamlessly, and as a result the icon kind of looks like a painting. Beautiful muted pastel coloring in 53 and 54.

Speaking of shows very near and dear to my heart, ahhhh Parks and Recreation! This post just keeps getting better and better. And it's chock-full of Jean-Ralphio, so just an utterly superb win on all counts. I love the minimalist look and far crop in 62, the pastel coloring (and general adorable look) of 64, the wispy hair painting in 66, the crop and coloring in 69, and the fun and zany text work in 72. It's great to see those next to 73 and 74, two much "quieter" icons that really suit Ron. I especially love 74 with that center crop and the toned down muted coloring. You've really highlighted these characters and their personalities through the icon techniques.

I love how intensely vibrant 78 is, and her hair looks like a waterfall. The whole thing has a very painty look that I'm really digging. More fantastic vibrant coloring in 100 and 105. I don't know how you add so much color without going over-the-top. I'm jealous, I really am. I love the yellow/blue color scheme in 106. It's really cute how the background objects are all blue to match the color you made her cardigan. Fantastic composition in 114. The black and white really adds something to it as well. It has a classic vintage kind of look (it also reminds me of the blocking styles from earlier iconning years, which is pretty cool because I'm forever nostalgic about that time).

So yeah, this is a really stunning post and I can't wait to see more wonderful icons from you next year!

omg, you're still around! That's super fantastic to see. Have you made any icons recently? Anyway, I'm absolutely stunned that you chose THIS particular monster of a post to comment on, any of the others I've made lately would have been so much more normal-sized, so yeah I'm super pleased you actually wanted to look at and comment on that many icons :o

this comment though ;__; thank you so much for taking the time to write this, I read this like three times, all the lovely words mean so much coming from one of my forever faves ♥ also I was totally trying to go for an 'old school blocking' style in 114! I wasn't around yet when it was the trend, but I've seen some of those icons, like vetica's early work, everything by prettybutt, etc, and it's so goddamn inspiring, and I wish I had started iconing earlier so that I wouldn't have missed that wonderful period. Hee, I'm so glad someone likes 78 - it's one of my rejects for a challenge, I scrapped it because of the floating head syndrome (srsly what happened to her shoulders??), but then I looked at it again and decided that I liked the coloring so I'd post it here, floating head or not xD

Orphan Black and Parks&Rec were some of the best shows I watched this year! I ADORE Jean Ralphio he's like the most ridiculous over the top character ever and I love his singing and how dumb and terrible he is, so yeah there's a lot of JR in my p&r icons :D glad you liked those!

thanks again for the wonderful feedback!! ♥

I've only made two in the past few months. My iconmaking has been abysmal this year. Real life has just been all kinds of crazy. But seeing posts like these is so inspiring and makes me want to get back on the horse. That reminds me, I still need to get my last icon post out before the new year starts. It'll be the puniest thing ever, sigh.

Yeah, that early stuff was what motivated me to try and get better. A lot of those iconmakers were just so creative and had the craziest compositions. There are so many greats that I'd love to still have around, but I have a ton of their icons saved in my inspiration folder so at least I can always peruse through that. ^____^

Thank you so much! :)

Wow, you made it! That is a stunning set, I love your bright colors.

My faves are the "mysterious" ones, far away and ac4.

I love how different the category icons are - not a lot of people chose a cap with only one person on it. It's much harder to make those look different and interesting, but yours are both.

It's really hard to pick, because I want to pick every single icon, but of the rest, I like first scene, hair, fave character, bw on color, muted and weapon best.

I always wonder how you do that flat-face coloring like on fave character and fake background. The closest I got to it (I tried!) is this:



I'm not sure I succeeded? (Can you give me a hint?)


The icon dump contains so many awesome icons, too. I especially like 24, 33 (sourest wolf LOL), 44 (woah coloring), 46, 49, 62, 73, 69, wee parks and rec!, 81 (lovely grunge texture wrapping around her), 92 and 93 (damn i love that coloring), 97, 111 (I've seen a lot of icons of that motif but this is wow!), 113, and 132.


(I made over 1000 icons this year, omg. This includes alternates, sometimes up to 5, but still. Even if I exclude those, I have made over 600 icons this year. (And 90% of those for the Librarians. Oops.) I have made almost all of them for challenges, though, so no icon dump necessary.)

Thanks, I wasn't 100% happy with the episodes20in20 set but am still glad I made it in time :) special thanks for listing those favorites even from my icon dump, I'm always surprised when people care to look at so many icons!

Sorry for replying so late, I didn't know how to reply to the coloring tips part, I'm terrible at giving advice cause I feel like the best way to learn is just to experiment around... I like that your example isn't an exact replica of my icons, it has your spin on it which i always appreciate! anyway, I'll try to give some tips and links for inspiration:

I think the key to that 'flat face style' is contrast more than coloring. If you want this effect, you want to do anything that darkens the shadows and brightens the midtones but not the highlights, so that the midtones and highlights blend into each other while the shadows are clearly separate. This can be done in many ways and I try to vary it up too so that I don't always go about it the same way. Usually I play with different gradient maps on different layer modes but the constant is that usually the gradient maps I use have brighter colors in the middle and darker ones at the start and at the end. I'm pretty sure I learned the use of the basic copper gradient that comes with PS from one of my old favorite makers called fuuurs; you might want to check out some of her tutorials, she posted them at bourbonate.

Other non-gradient map techniques that can also achieve this effect include:

1) brightening eeeverything quite a lot and then using selective coloring in the 'blacks' section and making the blacks really dark; <--- a lot of people use this technique, I think, but a special nod to absolutelybatty at reflexive_verb whose amazing tutorials encouraged me to play more with selective coloring

2) using a color range selection where you select midtones and then make any adjustment layer at all where you brighten things up; <-- I learned this trick from raiindust who is too awesome for words and posts at aintafairytale, there a LOTS of great tutorials there but I can't seem to find the one I'm looking for rn. Maybe it was just a psd. But anyway, totally recommend checking out her comm because there are lots of fantastic things there. :)

3) making a normal coloring and then using a color range selection where you select the shadows and make any layer that darkens these shadows. for example, in 93 I just made a black color fill layer and set it on soft light and that gave me the cartoonish effect I was going for.

4) the film grain filter can also push the icon a bit closer to this style, cause with the right settings it can brighten the midtones quite nicely while also making things more vibrant. This I learned from the brilliant theotherayn who posts many fantastic icons and tutorials at bittergraced.

these are just some ideas though, you could use almost any adjustment layers to achieve contrast like that. The coloring part is basically what you already did in that icon: using masked layers to color each part individually.

however, there are some risks with this coloring style - it's not the easiest to use and even when it works it's not to everyone's taste cause the result can look very unnatural :p I mean usually I read that you should try to keep things HQ and preserve details in the cap whereas the entire idea of this style is to erase detail to a degree where live action subjects start looking like 2d/illustrations. And the contrast part of it is a very destructive technique, meaning that it super easily makes things very sharp and LQ looking, which is why I need to do all sorts of manual fixing afterwards to salvage some of the image quality. Don't get me wrong, I obviously like the style a lot, but I'd imagine that a lot of people don't! but with this disclaimer in mind feel free to experiment with it, I hope some of these tips will be helpful but I'm not the best at explaining stuff...

Thank you thank you thank you! I don't think you're bad at explaining them at all!

I don't think I have seen any of those tutorials or comms before. Soooo much to read!

I know how to do the gradient map thing, mostly, but none of the others. I am glad that you told me what to look for in the effect (lightening the midtones), that is really the most helpful. I also noticed that whenever I tried to achieve that style, I used a different technique. That was confusing, but I think I understand it now.

I like that your example isn't an exact replica of my icons, it has your spin on it which i always appreciate!

I can't (and don't want to and won't) do exact copies of anything. But of course I couldn't get it to look exactly like I wanted to, either.

however, there are some risks with this coloring style - it's not the easiest to use and even when it works it's not to everyone's taste cause the result can look very unnatural :p

Yes, that is true. It's always great to know more techniques, then I can start experimenting and combining them and finding out what suits me best.

I think I have learned a lot this year, but the general consensus in the icon maker community is still that I'm not good enough. I guess that is totally true, seeing as there are still a lot of techniques I don't know yet - or at least don't know how to use well. But I think I am at least developing something like my own style by now, and I'm looking forward to making many icons again this year. Still so much to learn, yay!

the orphan black icons are so amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saved almost all of them. Will definitely credit <3

Thank you so much, I'm very glad someone had use for those OB icons :)

Bless you for the icons of Newt and Hermann. ;)

Aw, thanks :) Newt and Hermann were one of the various OTPs I had during last year and I love both characters on their own too. ♥

Took #83. GORGEOUS Swan Queen icon. I'm always on the lookout for beautifully made SQ icons like yours. All your icons are so well done and colorful. I will definitely be watching this comm.

omg, thank you so much for that seriously amazing compliment, and for being a fellow swen of course :D ♥

I absolutely love your composition skills and amazing muted and vibrant coloring! Saving #111, it is so beautiful! ♥

Thank you so much! And I could say the exact same thing about your compositions & colors, so that means a lot ♥

Love your sense of color. Couldn't resist this one of Mr Darcy. Thanks very much!

oh my god I was so not happy with that icon, so it's super encouraging to see someone liked it enough to use :) Thank you!!!

Another wonderful batch ♥ I love the vibrant colors! Snagging #31 and some of the Lost ones and credit of course :)

Thank you so much for another lovely comment! :)

OH, YOUR COLORS. YOUR COLORS THAT ARE UNIQUE, AND OH-SO-YOU. *bows to your amazing skills* No one comes close to what you do in the icon world, and can I be totally selfish and honest when I admit that I'm THRILLED that you still continue to icon LOST?! Because any fandom you icon is totally honored, and Lost is my favorite of all time (GEE, CAN YOU TELL) and I just have no words, SAVING ALL.

omg, this comment :> yeah I hope I can keep iconing Lost, I kinda dropped it after watchnicon died :( but, hopefully I can keep iconing it in some other way!
and thank you so much, I don't even know how to reply to your overwhelming praise tbh ♥__♥ I'm just happy you like my stuff, and that someone stills loves LOST as much as I do! :D

This is such a beautiful, vibrant post 😍

I took a few Orphan Black icons, and will credit when using. Thank you!

Thank you so much!! I'm glad you like them! :)

Great icons! Saved some! :)

Thank you so much, I'm glad you found something to save! :)