Hello LJ world
Dec. 21st, 2014 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
double_dutchessAlways doing the unfashionable thing, I finally gave myself an LJ account as a Christmas present. A very cheap present it was too, because I don't expect to be posting enough to merit a paid account.
I know BtVS fandom on LJ is no longer thriving as it once was, but I still look forward to making new online friends, connecting to existing ones, and getting better access to all the Buffy (or actually, mostly Spike) related goodness that can be found on LJ. I like all of BtVS and AtS, but Spike is the main reason for me to be in the Buffy fandom.
Due to a severe lack of time outside the holidays I won't be posting much, apart from the occasional vid or image. I don't manage to make more than 2 or at most 3 vids a year, but I still have some old stuff that I intend to post occasionally to make up for my lack of productivity. Also, I will do my best to comment on other people's work, but I'm afraid I won't have time to write anything longer or more thoughtful than your basic variations on "I like it".
Anyway, LJ here I come!
I know BtVS fandom on LJ is no longer thriving as it once was, but I still look forward to making new online friends, connecting to existing ones, and getting better access to all the Buffy (or actually, mostly Spike) related goodness that can be found on LJ. I like all of BtVS and AtS, but Spike is the main reason for me to be in the Buffy fandom.
Due to a severe lack of time outside the holidays I won't be posting much, apart from the occasional vid or image. I don't manage to make more than 2 or at most 3 vids a year, but I still have some old stuff that I intend to post occasionally to make up for my lack of productivity. Also, I will do my best to comment on other people's work, but I'm afraid I won't have time to write anything longer or more thoughtful than your basic variations on "I like it".
Anyway, LJ here I come!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2014-12-29 04:53 am (UTC)Most of her icons can be seen by following her "icons" tag
http://teragramm-icons.livejournal.com/tag/icons
but she forgot to add the tag to this wrap-up post for 2013:
http://teragramm-icons.livejournal.com/13414.html
And while I'm here pimping, her W/T banner for Lady Callie's Fic "Enchantment Passing Through" was very influential to me - still one of the pieces in my head when i think about the artist I want to become:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/teragramm4/media/banners/minibangbig.jpg.html
I've forgotten all sorts of talented people btw:
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Date: 2014-12-30 12:35 am (UTC)That banner is lovely, by the way. I can see how it would be inspirational!
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Date: 2014-12-30 02:26 am (UTC)And I'm flattered to see my own icons there I am so glad you like them! they look soooo much better as userpics than they did on my journal. :D
One small correction on the Buffy one: The image is from Prophecy Girl, not season 2.
I still need to get used to actually selecting specific icons when I make a post, though -- I keep forgetting and then ending up with my default one instead.
There's no "should" as far as this goes and honestly, there are a lot of folks who have over 100 icons in their userpics and basically use about 5 or so.
That banner is lovely, by the way. I can see how it would be inspirational!
Another fanart that inspired me greatly is a drop-dead gorgeous Spuffy banner by Mary5959 done in 2007, who has not been active in a while but was doing fantastic manips some ten years ago - this one looks like a pen and ink drawing: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/mary5958/9856659/112792/112792_original.jpg
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Date: 2014-12-30 12:45 pm (UTC)Oops! Correction made, thanks for pointing it out.
And I do love the possibility of choosing an appropriate icon for each post; I just have to remember using it before I hit the "Post Comment" button!
That Spuffy banner by Mary5959 is indeed gorgeous; the hand drawn/painted effect is really amazing.
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Date: 2014-12-30 06:06 pm (UTC)coolness. I almost deleted that icon altogether btw but I'm glad not that I didn't; she looks very good on you. :D
And I couldn't help but notice
the hand drawn/painted effect is really amazing.
I don't think I've seen another fan art like it, even within her own oeuvre (if I can find a link to her scrapbook albums, I keep misplacing it) She did many wonderful manips of Buffy, Spike, and Dawn, but this was the only one I've seen that looks entirely like it was hand-drawn. More to the point, it's superbly done overall.
If she were active in fandom I'd ask her to make an icon with it for me, or make it myself with permission. Which reminds me of your own comics icons - I am THRILLED that you credit the original comic artists, and in fact need to do the same on my one comics icon from Jo Chen's artwork for The Chain, so thank you for reminding me of that.
But it's also ok, I think, for you to add that you made the icon itself from the original art. You deserve credit for that process if someone else snags them - for cropping, selecting the image, alterations in contrast, brightness, text etc.
The other purpose galleries serve is advertisements for your work - portfolios if you will, so if that icon is properly credited people know you as someone who does that work if they're looking for a comics icon.
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Date: 2014-12-30 10:22 pm (UTC)About my comic icons: I'm perfectly happy with only crediting the actual artists, because my own contribution is minimal in comparison. And to be honest, the idea that anyone else might want to use my icons had not even occurred to me yet!
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Date: 2014-12-30 10:37 pm (UTC)Me too. I generally have far more alts and extras than I ever show. It was when [Unknown site tag] snagged one of my Dawn & Buffybot alts that I thought was a failure - but she loves it - that I realized I can't predict what will speak to other people.
in fact I've made it my default user pic, because it fits perfectly with my banner.
Speaking of which, I'm sure there are ways to make that banner more visible (the current template kind of hides it) but html is NOT my bag. Actually,
And Deb's icon is one of the best I've seen of that moment - there's a real depth to the shadows, and I've seen lots of that moment (in fact, I've tried making one myself to no avail.)
BTW, thanks to your example I've credited Jo Chen for the artwork on my user pics page. I've only attempted making comics icons (comics? What comics?) a couple of times, for an icon challenge prompt, and I found out that having good material to start with is essential.
But it does require some skill on the part of the icon-maker - I especially like your Illyria comics icons. They would have been great entries in the recent slayerstillness Illyria challenge:
http://slayerstillness.livejournal.com/tag/challenge%2034
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Date: 2014-12-30 11:23 pm (UTC)About my banner: it is basically just a background image, and this causes it to be hidden when scrolling. I couldn't find any templates I liked that would allow me to use a "proper" banner. I may have to ask
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Date: 2014-12-30 11:29 pm (UTC)Tell me about it - I went through two or three templates before I settled on the one I have now, and I haven't wanted to change it.
Folks have told me to use html to customize it and I say thanks no thanks, I like this fine. I guess I'd rather put that time into my banners and icons.
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Date: 2014-12-30 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-31 12:11 am (UTC)I've tried to make some other comics icons but none have come out to my liking - except the variant versions of the Chain icon, actually, with and without the "photo collage" effect in ipiccy. No one else uses it so I've sort of made it one of my signature effects but it has to be used sparingly. It's perfect on images that look like drawings of paintings not (ironically) like photographs.
I made it for Round 1 of
which incidentally go very well with the Prophecy girl icon
I didn't notice that before - great eye! Wow. It;s funny I LOVE cool colors and deep jewel tones, blue and greens and purple is my favorite; but when it comes to icons I tend to make more in warm tones, there's something about warm colors that attracts the eye especially when you're working that small.
ETA: my alts for the chain icon and all the round 1 icons are in my PB album btw:
http://s133.photobucket.com/user/RedSatinDoll/library/BUFFY/Buffy%20ICONS/Btvsats20in20?sort=6&page=1
Of the alt versions I especially like this pale blue one: http://s133.photobucket.com/user/RedSatinDoll/media/BUFFY/Buffy%20ICONS/Btvsats20in20/thechainipiccy_zpsca8401a6.png.html?sort=6&o=16
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Date: 2014-12-31 01:00 am (UTC)I noticed you had a few "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" icons in that album, and I've snagged one of them just in case -- I've been thinking about making a vid to a song of that title, and I could use the icon to go with it. It's likely that I will never get around to making that vid, but if I do, at least I'll already have the icon. (I'll be archiving it offline.)
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Date: 2014-12-31 04:23 am (UTC)THANK YOU, and I agree. There's a darker brown version of that one but in this instance the cool one does work better given the context. That was made when I was first learning ipiccy and have no idea how I made it and couldn't reproduce it later, alas. (Do you suppose I write things down as I work? Of course not.)
I noticed you had a few "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" icons in that album, and I've snagged one of them just in case
*SQUEES* Those icons are my first true "blends"! I made them from images I had left lying around after btvsats20in20 (the same round I made The Chain icon); and the strange blue "floral" pattern in some of them is a texture I made with a photograph I took of an almost empty jar of homemade yogurt. (really)
I was actually inspired to include the text because of an unfinished post-series fic I'd been working on at the time, my favorite line from it in which Giles is observing Buffy: "La Belle Dame Sans Merci in blue denim, with mischief and murder in her eyes."
By all means, use them - and if you ever do display the icons and/or the vid somewhere online let me know. I love that
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Date: 2015-01-02 12:54 am (UTC)Thank you, and I will! But I have to warn you, I have many vid ideas and way too little time to execute them, so most likely it's never going to happen :-(
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Date: 2014-12-31 07:34 pm (UTC)I just discovered a "Buffy movie poster" on tumblr thanks to
http://buffy-mf.tumblr.com/post/106353608321
Her name is Cecile in France or Buffy-MF. That's a really fine manip isn't it?
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Date: 2015-01-02 12:59 am (UTC)