split_loyalties | 208. Icon Progression 2021

2021 Resolutions

The icon resolutions I made at the end of 2020, for 2021, were:

1. Finish re-uploading all broken upl.co and photobucket links in old icon post.

2. Post my textures!!

3. Install and try to figure out the Photoshop CS4 I bought a few years back.

4. Brush up on animation, and carry on working on text and composition.

5. Continue trying to actively comment on people's entries, not just when I want to know the fandom(s).

January

I started off 2021 with an entry for

stocklove_ic C11 (Winter Wonderland) using some of my own photos and only really tweaking the lighting and colouring a little bit. The next entry was for

elitesimplicity C281 (Too Soon) and I chose Anne With an E, and played around a lot more with lighting and colouring, and a bit of composition and textures. The last icons for January were for

capicontest C117 (The Great Outdoors) and again were mostly only lighting, colouring and cropping jobs.

# of icons: 11

Icon Posts: none

February

I did a lot more experimenting in February! I actually did attempt to switch over to PS (CS2) but I found it too different and I was too set in my ways, so I returned to GIMP. I did update it from 2.8.6 to 2.10.22 though, so I still had to adapt to a few changes. I was very proud of the remakes I did for

bestof_icons though, and also the Bridgerton icons for

capicontest C118 (Heather and Moss), although I did struggle a bit with the new sharpening settings. Other entries this month included

capicontest C119 (Painted),

elitesimplicity C284 (Hairporn – I had recently rewatched Jane the Virgin which has some of the prettiest hairporn out there) and

perioddrama_ic C39 (Animated – I iconned Brave, and started using some textures I hadn't used before).

# of icons: 17

Icon Posts: none

March

In the process of making the Stardust icon for

capicontest C121 (Two Fonts) I finally figured out how to warp text in GIMP(!!!) so March saw some of my most 'complex' (for me, anyway) text composition work to date. I updated my 2021 Scrapbook and was reminded about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel which I had never iconned before, just in time for

elitesimplicity C286 (Never Iconned Before) – I love the rich colours and gorgeous costumes in this show! I entered

stocklove_ic C17 (Wild and Free) with some more icons made from my own photos, but again these were pretty simplistic. My entry for

perioddrama_ic C40 (Girl Power) was more complicated with some more text composition work - and as I had recently read the Bridgerton book series, was made up of more Bridgerton icons. The

itsabattlefield Big Battle 20 (Favourite Period Drama Male Characters) led to yet more Bridgerton icons, but also interspersed with some other old favourites like North and South, Persuasion and Outlander – I kind of had to enter to enter since I suggested a few of the characters. The icons for this were a bit of a mish-mash of styles and some I am happier with than others, and it was also the biggest set I had made in aaages so I was rushing a bit to finish.

color_inspired C223 (Raspberry Reveillez) was yet another challenge that really spoke Bridgerton to me (and/or I had it on the brain already), but I rounded off the month with an entry to

itsabattlefield Small Battle 43 (Odd Cropping), having started at Timeless rewatch at the time.

# of icons: 35

Icon Posts: One

April

I moved into my new house at the end of March/start of April, so didn't make any icons.

# of icons: 0

Icon Posts: One

May

May was still pretty busy with the house so quiet on the icon front, but I did finish my

bestof_icons 2020 remakes. I also learned a couple of new techniques/tools – Alpha to Selection, Grow, and Fill With BG Color – which I used in the Tahani icon remake.

# of icons: 3

Icon Posts: none

June

Another month with no icons, this time due to a short holiday and a busy workload. I did however make a tutorial on how to warp text in GIMP.

# of icons: 0

Icon Posts: One (Tutorial)

July

Having made the text tutorial, I then had to give it a go myself. In fact, all but one of the icons I made this month had text, and that one that didn't was a textless alternate! I remember when I used to avoid text like the plague, so this is big progress! Also, all the icons for this month were Bridgerton, because the first few were for

color_inspired C230 (Summer in London) which made me think of the Season in Regency/Victorian/Edwardian England, which led me down a complete Bridgerton rewatch to find some good quotes.

# of icons: 8

Icon Posts: none

August

August was a fairly quiet month for me for icon-making, but I did manage a few icons for

capicontest C129 (Pride), a random non-challenge Bridgerton icon, and a Luca icon for

movieslims R36 C1. There was some good colouring and use of textures, and a couple of icons with text in the mix though, so not a bad effort.

# of icons: 5

Icon Posts: none

September

September was pretty busy with work and a quick holiday, so the only icons I made were for

movieslims R36. I was super happy with the idea I had for the polaroid icon, but sadly didn't have the time to execute it to a high enough standard so I was eliminated, and the icon I made for the comeback round was pretty rushed too, very simplistic, and didn't get me back in the round, although I was happy with the colouring on that one.

# of icons: 2

Icon Posts: none

October

October was all about cropping, thanks to

somein30 R11. It was the first 20in20-esque challenge I had entered in AGES, but the bug really bit me on this challenge! Also, I definitely still had Bridgerton on the brain because they made up the bulk of this month's icons, with the exception of a couple of Frozen II icons.

# of icons: 18

Icon Posts: One & Two

November

I adore making icons where the negative space/background matches a character's outfit, so I had a lot of fun entering

capicontest C135 (Costume Party). R37 started at

movieslims (The Witcher & You) so I started watching The Witcher in order to participate (it was on my to-watch list anyway) and after running out of time a lot in the last round I gave myself more time and ended up with (I think) much better results.

capicontest C138 (Emojis & Clip Art) gave me the excuse to start watching some other shows (Why Women Kill and The Queen's Gambit) after making a couple of icons there - usually I watch something and then icon it, but this time it was the other way around. Finally I entered

your_favourites C133 (Animated Sidekick) and after having a Pascal icon as one of my userpics for the last couple of years, and adding a Bruni icon last year, it had to be those two – with bonus Maximus as an alternate. I had been looking through my old posts and tutorials and was reminded of a green Pascal icon I had made several years ago too, which probably helped. Though I didn't make any text icons this month, I did work a fair bit on composition and using next textures.

# of icons: 12

Icon Posts: none

December

Sadly I ran out of time in December for both challenges I entered at

movieslims R37 (The Witcher and You) this month, and was eliminated in after the first one, and then didn't get back in with the comeback round - wasn't surprised with either result really, although I did like the colouring of the Yennefer icon. Fortunately the Ciri icon has been suggested in my 2021 Remakes thread, so I'll look forward to that!

# of icons: 2

Icon Posts: One

Overall

# of icons: 113

# of icon posts: 5

Busiest month: March [35]

Quietest month: April & June [0]

Most iconned: Bridgerton [37], Disney [13], stock [8], Timeless [7], Anne With an E [5]

Main new fandoms: Bridgerton, Disney (specifically Luca and Frozen II), The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, The Witcher

Total number of icontests I placed in: 13 / 27 (including 3 non-voting challenges)

Biggest achievements/progress made/observations: Text and composition were definitely my biggest achievements in 2021, and being more brave with both of those! Figuring out text warping was a massive eureka moment which I'm really proud of, and making a tutorial for the method will be super helpful for when I inevitably forget after a break from iconning again. I also tried to mix up my texture use a bit, which I think helped with the compositions, and the cropping round at

somein30 was great for challenging me to go beyond my usual centre crop + negative space. That being said, that's still my favourite technique by far, I can just add a bit more text and textures to it now!

My personal favourites:

2022 Resolutions

I actually think a lot of my 2021 Resolutions are still applicable (with the exception of the Photoshop one, because I tried it and didn't like it), so…

1. Finish re-uploading all broken upl.co and Photobucket links in old icon posts - I did make quite a bit of progress on this in 2021, but I still have about 80 posts to go.

2. Post my textures!!

3. Brush up on animation, and carry on working on text and composition.

4. Continue trying to actively comment on people's entries, not just when I want to know the fandom(s).

5. I also want to make sure I don't leave entries (particularly LIMS entries) until the last minute, because clearly I end up with sub-par icons I am not very happy with.

208. Icon Progression 2021

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