Post 1 of 2 today: Icons for my favorite Watcher

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone! Today's my posting day. Yay! Thanks to the mods for keeping the tea party going at Summer of Giles! And thanks for everyone for making this such a blast!

This time around I'm thinking in colors instead of words, so instead of fanfic, I'm pleased to offer a set of Gilesy icons. This is my very first time creating icons for LJ (I've just created a PhotoBucket for this purpose and read about uploading icons), so please let me know if anything's amiss. Also, I'd love to get honest feedback, including anonymously, if that'd make you feel more comfortable.

All icons are snaggable; please credit because that would just make my day to know someone out there is using an icon I created! :)


1-4.


5-8.


9-12.


Extras:
10-variant              A pair of Buffy icons cut from a larger piece


6-variant                4-variant


1-variant                12-variant

Comments

[chasingdemons.livejournal.com]

Icon-making is a skill onto itself, and you definitely get it! My favs: 1, 7, 11, and 10-variant. Love what you did with the coloring on 11. 10 has a lot of emotion. 1 is just so classic Giles. And great artistic effect on 5. Really great coloring on all, and they make a cohesive set.

Critique: I would love to see some text on a few of them. You who are so good with words. I might have made 12 a tiny bit brighter, too.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

There are skills and tricks involved! This time around I mostly worked with hi-res photos, thinking I could resize as the last step, but lo and behold a lot of the details in a 600-pixel-wide image just doesn't translate onto a 100x100 pixel canvas. Some of the more subtle effects (a 20%-transparent layer of the same image with watercolor effect applied, screened on top of the main layer, for a soft glow) is entirely lost after down-sampling. Well, lessons learned. O_o

I've added some lighter variants at your suggestion. 12 somehow looks especially "flat" when comparing with the high-res photo.

Thank you so much for your comment!

[chasingdemons.livejournal.com]

and behold a lot of the details in a 600-pixel-wide image just doesn't translate onto a 100x100 pixel canvas

Yes, I have learned that too. Many times. :) My rule of thumb is that the less you have to resize and rotate, the better.

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

These are super. Love number 1 - so English Giles. Number 10 is my fave, I think. How different things would have been if he'd got to keep Jenny. :D

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm fond of #10 myself. Of course, Giles and Jenny look great together, which made myself easier. I wish we didn't lose Jenny so soon. Oh well.

[double_dutchess]

Great job! My personal favourite is #3 -- Giles and his true love :-) I also really like #7 and 10-variant. And the image you picked for #8 -- love Ethan's expression!

I'm not really one for subtle shades myself, but in a few of your icons I feel the colouring and contrasts are a bit on the harsh side (in particular for #1, 4, 9). But I guess that's largely a matter of personal taste. In #8 I think it actually fits very well.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love musical Giles, and pairing him with Ethan. :)

Rookie mistake: I spent the majority of my time on the icon set working in high-res. Some of the images had way too much "content" to effectively down-sample to 100x100 pixels, and everything looked too sharp and too crowded in the end. I do love the high-contrast, saturated look (like Fujichrome Velvia slide film), but you're right -- some of them are a bit much.

I've since added a few variants, but idk -- my whole focus on the news ones was on "a lighter, gentler touch" that I think any "vision" I had got lost in the process, if that makes any sense. Clearly there's much to learn! :)

Thanks again for your comment! :)

[double_dutchess]

I actually really like your 'soft' variant of #1. But it's definitely true that it's the vision that has to come first. If you get out of touch with that, then you're not likely to be happy with the result, no matter how technically perfect it might be.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

I think another thing I neglected was that with writing, I always needed multiple drafts and revisions. With these icons, I was tweaking up until I posted them, where everything was too new, too immediate for a more cool-headed self-evaluation. Looking at the above icons today, I think I should've done a number of them differently. :)

[double_dutchess]

I do that all the time too, and then often I have to come back to change or repost things (even re-upload new versions of vids, that's the worst). I really should know by now it's a mistake, but I still can't resist!

(edited typo)

[littleotter73]

Very cool set of icons! I am particularly fond of #s 1 & 7. And, of course, being a B/G shipper, #12. I also like the aesthetics of the icons cut from the larger piece.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

BTW, I've since added a lighter variant of #12 at the suggestion of chasingdemons. Should look a little less gloomy. :)

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, June 24, 2016

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User chasingdemons referenced to your post from The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, June 24, 2016 (http://su-herald.livejournal.com/880421.html) saying: [...] [Images, Audio & Video] Icons: Giles [...]

[lycomingst.livejournal.com]

The many moods of Giles, very nice. 8 ]

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Giles is a man of many moods. All of which pretty. :)

[shapinglight]

What lovely icons. I wish I could make them as good as these.

My favourites are 9-12. They capture the Giles/Jenny relationship and Giles's priorities so well.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The two of them just look so good together.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

OOH! Fabulous.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

They are all wonderful, but I especially love number 1 and it's variant and number 10 - they are extra wonderful.

Lovely work my dear.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm fond of 1 and 10 myself. :)

[katleept.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love #12!

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Hey, these are great! I can't believe it's your first batch. I love that you included some of him on the guitar and with Jenny :sniff sniff: 3 and 12 are my faves, both 10s, variant number one.

I was thinking the same thing about 1, 4, and 9, but didn't know how to put it into words, as Double Dutchess did. I'm a photoshop rookie, too. So I'm glad to know that using high-res images might be an issue for me, too, as images often look very different for me when I shrink them down. Also, TBO, I have no idea how you did that line and color variant effect on 3, lol.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I fell out of practice, though I'd been trained in Photoshop more than a decade ago. There's more to icon creation than photo editing, though, as I found out in the process of making these. Loads of fun, though! :P

There are multiple ways of changing the color of an image or part of an image. You can adjust the color temperature of an image by dragging along the color slide bar ("Color Correction"), or add a layer with a color gradient and instead of using "Normal" on how layers combine, use something like "Screen" which overlaps the two images together. Or just make the color layer the top layer and adjust its transparency. The effects are different in each and fun to play around. :)

When in doubt, I usually duplicate the layer and go wild with the copy, apply all kinds of effects, slice it and put the pieces back, etc., knowing that I could always go back to the original image should an experiment fail. :P It's pretty neat to try different things.

[thenewbuzwuzz.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I really like almost all of them. 2 somehow doesn't work for me visually, but that's about the only one. I especially like the guitar ones (4 is my favorite). The second Buffy variant pleases my little Spuffy heart (and is pretty). And the Jenny ones are pretty expressive, too! I guess people who pay more attention to Giles would know if that was canonically Drusilla-as-Jenny, and in that case these two might be creepy or bittersweet. I can't make out the writing in 5. Was that something from Hush?

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The first Jenny image (#9) is Drusilla during the torture/interrogation, the second is actual Jenny. #5 is from First Date (7x14), where Giles draws a series of graphic stick figure flashcards for Chao-Ahn, the Chinese Potential. In this one, a Bringer is killing a girl, and the text says "Bringer". I thought it was hilarious (appalling, but hilarious too). :P

[thenewbuzwuzz.livejournal.com]

Ohh. Right, that was a thing. Thanks for clearing it up for me. :)

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

No problem. Giles does this stick figure drawing thing a few times. There's an early season episode showing him with impressive sketching abilities, but I much prefer the latter season contradiction canon that he can't draw. :)

[thenewbuzwuzz.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I really like almost all of them. 2 somehow doesn't work for me visually, but that's about the only one. I especially like the guitar ones (4 is my favorite). The second Buffy variant pleases my little Spuffy heart (and is pretty). And the Jenny ones are pretty expressive, too! I guess people who pay more attention to Giles would know if that was canonically Drusilla-as-Jenny, and in that case these two might be creepy or bittersweet. I can't make out the writing in 5. Was that something from Hush?

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

They all are fab. Snagging #7 and #11, because I sooooo relate to Giles there =)

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you! *does a happy dance*! :)

[dhw]

These are amazing! I particularly love no. 8. Ethan's expression is hilarious.

Very nice work. =D

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm fond of #8 as well. I love Ethan and Giles together. :)

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

These are gorgeous!
I especially love the ones with Jenny and those with guitar! The coloring of #8 and #9, and #2 and #5 work great with this artistic effect!
The pair ones are fantastic even single, but as set they so wonderfully show the disruption Buffy must feel between Giles' expectations and her feelings for the suffering vampire (what ever they may be)! Wow.

[the-huffster.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh pretty. Especially love 5-8, particularly 5. They're just so appealing. I mean, all of them are but especially those set of 4

[quaggy]

These are all wonderful, but I love the variants especially.

[il_mio_capitano]

I like 11 best as I haven't seen that sort of cut before. The picture in 6 always makes me think he is about to punch her.

Nice work!