neonspider (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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neonspiderwebs2015-12-28 04:53 pm
neonspider) wrote in neonspiderwebs2015-12-28 04:53 pm
Entry tags:
- anime: free,
- anime: my neighbor totoro,
- movie: pacific rim,
- movie: star trek,
- movie: the matrix,
- tv: arrow,
- tv: buffy the vampire slayer,
- tv: doctor who,
- tv: game of thrones,
- tv: lost,
- tv: misfits,
- tv: once upon a time,
- tv: orphan black,
- tv: parks and recreation,
- tv: pride and prejudice,
- tv: project runway,
- tv: sense8,
- tv: supernatural,
- tv: teen wolf
132 icons: Teen Wolf for episodes20in20 + end of year icon dump!
Fandoms:
Teen Wolf [41]
Orphan Black [18]
Parks and Recreation [16]
Once Upon a Time [12]
LOST [10]
Pacific Rim [10]
Doctor Who [6]
Supernatural [4]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer [3]
Free! [2]
Misfits [2]
Arrow, Game of Thrones, The Matrix, My Neighbor Totoro, Pride & Prejudice, Project Runway, Sense8, Star Trek [1 each]
OMG, I made it in time after all, didn't think I would tbh. This is for
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episodes20in20 and my claim was Teen Wolf 5.10 Status Asthmaticus. I used a randomizing system to pick my episode but I got a little unlucky here because once I rewatched the episode I noticed how goddamn DARK it was! D: but a claim is a claim and I didn't want to chicken out of it so... here's my attempt to make bright and colorful icons out of not the easiest material, lol. Most of these were made within two days and that's a crazy fast iconing speed for a sluggish maker like me! that's why this set is quite simple. this episode probably had some other characters too but I focused on my faves Malia, Scott, Liam and Lydia.(The weapon in my weapon icon is barely visible but she is holding a gun and that's like the only weapon cap in the episode :p)
| 10 THEMES | ||||
| first scene | hair | b&w on color | far away | fake background |
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| shadows | weapon | fave character | muted | one word |
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| 5 CATEGORY / SAME PICTURE | ||||
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 |
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| 5 ARTIST'S CHOICE | ||||
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 |
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+ GIGANTIC END OF YEAR ICON DUMP
including this awesome Teen Wolf battle which was in August and I still hadn't posted them here... :p This post also contains countless icons I've made for challenges that I've failed to enter either because I couldn't get all the icons done, or because I didn't think they were good enough. it's quite shocking actually to see how many of those I made. I really hope next year I'm gonna be more successful at actually entering the things I start iconing for! This dump spans my entire year basically so there are some clusterfucks when I really struggled with iconing (and everything), and then some that were made with lots of iconing mojo. 2015 wasn't as prolific as some of my other icon years and I had longish breaks with no icons, but um it seems that I did make a bit more than I remembered. damn I should have made more icon dumps to avoid a post of this size :s well too late now, here they are anyway!
Teen Wolf
[021-025]
[026-030]
[031-035]
[036-040]Teen Wolf, Orphan Black x4
[041-045]Orphan Black
[046-050]
[051-055]Orphan Black x4, Parks and Rec
[056-060]Parks and Rec
[061-065]
[066-070]
[071-075]OUAT
[076-080]
[081-085]OUAT x2, LOST x3
[086-090]LOST
[091-095]LOST x2, Pacific Rim x3
[096-100]Pacific Rim
[101-105]Pacific Rim x2, DW x3
[106-110]DW x3, SPN x2
[111-115]SPN x2, BTVS x3
[116-120]Free! x2, Misfits x2, Arrow
[121-125]GoT, The Matrix, My Neighbor Totoro, Pride & Prejudice, Project Runway
[126-130]Sense8, Star Trek
[131-132]Snag all you want, credit if you want to, but don't hotlink and please don't use my icons as bases or resources
Feel free to watch the comm :)
And in case this is my last post of the year, I want to wish everyone a super happy new year! ♥
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snagging some of the Teen Wolf, shall credit of course ♥
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Anywho, stunning colors and compositions as usual ♥
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and thanks for the lovely feedback ♥
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Saving a lot! ♥
P.S: PYDIA! ♥
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(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)
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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! ♥
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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 :> )
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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!! :)
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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!
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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!! ♥
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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. ^____^
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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.)
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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
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
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
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
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...
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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!
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I saved almost all of them. Will definitely credit <3
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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
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I took a few Orphan Black icons, and will credit when using. Thank you!
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