35 icons for TVRealm Mini Big Bang

[jacquelee]

I’M BACK!! Well, okay, I was never really gone - my challenge and especially icon burnout lasted about 2 minutes, but those were scary minutes, I tell you!
Anyways, here are 35 icons for Babylon 5, Birds of Prey, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who and Farscape.



The goal was to make at least one icon I will use myself for every one of my favourite shows, so I wanted to make a few icons for all of them (went alphabetically there - obviously LOL), but I just learned that I only need 25 icons to complete this challenge, not 50 and I frankly don’t think I can gush out 15 more ‘good’ icons (especially when I have to use textures) in the few hours I have left to work on them till the challenge closes.
Will get to the other shows in due time.

Also, I can’t believe how much my icons are improving in this short time (still not a month since I got PS Elements). Especially because I always feel like they’re not improving at all, but then I look at those I made just a week ago and go ‘crap, I made THAT?’. LOL Now most of them still suck but I think I succeeded in my goal to have at least one useable icon per show. :)

A/N: I made the Buffy set with john_scorpy in mind, but sadly it contains a few spoilers, hope you don’t mind. ;)

Prompt used for all of these : The beautiful Textures Waves collide by ladykillers.



Babylon 5

Beauty	OTP #2	White Star	Valen	Quote

Birds of Prey

Still kicking	Bystander	Last Chance	Grieve	Quote

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Comfort	Surprise	Tease	Lean on me	Goddess
Don’t leave me	Touchy	Fantasy	Feisty	Quote

Doctor Who

Exactly	Finally together	River	Seperate Worlds	Quote

Farscape (J/A kissing)

First kiss	Dirty Mist	Don’t talk	Merry Christmas	Morning after
Hope	Lips and Tongue	A Human Reaction	Kiss the Princess	Quote

Comments

[midknight-starr.livejournal.com]

Great sets! The only show I'm not familiar with is Bird of Prey, I love the other shows!

In the Bab5 set, my have is Beauty.
In the Bird of Prey set, my fave is Bystander.
In the Buffy set, my fave is Fantasy.
In the Doctor Who set, my fave is Separate Worlds.
In the Farscape set, my fave is A Human Reaction.

Awesome job on all of them! :D

[jacquelee]

Thank you! Well, Birds of Prey is a really short bad series and I actually only like ONE scene. But that scene is AWESOME! ;)

And you listed exactly my favourites. :D I'm so happy to have at least one good icon per set. ;)

[midknight-starr.livejournal.com]

I think you did very good on all of them, those are the ones that stood out to me in each set :D

[neonspider]

O.M.G. You're totally right, this might be the fastest progress on icons I've EVER seen. I mean so many of these are so amazing already! I thought *I* was really fast, yet I made crappy icons for at least half a year before getting the hang of it (and I iconed really actively too, so it's not like my slowness was because of the lack of practise!).

'Hope' from the FS set is the crown jewel here IMO, can't find one fault in it, it has perfect contrast, amazing image quality (so sharp yet not pixellated, just the right parts very smooth), lovely vibrant colors, lovely use of light, everything. Awesome job!!

Yet by no means is it the only great one here! I'll list some other favorites:

- Valen: did you make that cut-out/mask yourself? It looks so perfect and natural. But even if you didn't it's still an awesomely skilled icon; the coloring is great, and I especially love how you worked with the texture here. This is what I mean by not 'just slapping on' the texture; the character interacts with it, it looks like he's inside it yet still clearly visible.

- Surprise: this one has really lovely more natural coloring. Their skins are such a pretty tone, and it's so bright! Love it. Great image quality here too.

- Don't leave me: Ok, so I have a bias for icons that have this specific crop and style, but anyway it's a really lovely looking icon. The soft yellow of her skin is such a nice combination with the pink/violet of the background.

- Fantasy: AMAZING use of colors and light, so bold and vibrant! Love the gradient style of going from dark of one corner to the brightness of another one.

- Feisty: I might very well snag this one, really like the crop and the colors. The halo effect around her is interesting and makes her stand out :) Great brightness here too, plus that she's irresistibly cute here.

- River: Great contrast and coloring!

- Lips and tongue: AMAZING coloring here, this is just my cup of tea, really bold and distinctive. Nice crop too.

- Human Reaction: love the brightness of their skins, looks really pearly and great. The icon has a lovely shine too, looks so sunny and happy.

I can't help wondering what might have happened if this progress had been made a week or two ago, you know. I'm pretty sure you'd still be in that certain competition, and not just for a few weeks either ^^ Anyway, I can't wait to see more icons from you. Also, don't be afraid of textures, I like what you're doing with them, especially on the Valen icon!

[jacquelee]

Thank you very much!

Wow, so much feedback! :D
You actually mentioned a few here I wasn't sure about at all, and Hope wasn't on my fav list at all (though I see what you mean, I should REALLY concentrate on contrast, coloring and lighting instead of trying fancy texture and artsy things all the time lol).
Valen was at the top on that list of icons I wasn't sure about, made that very early (I think it was even the first one), and though I do like it, I thought it was pretty boring. But your right, the mask is pretty good (if I may say so myself, my masking improved A LOT with the new program), and that texture bleed through effect is fast becoming my favorite.

Also River was a pain in the eema. First time I tried to cut together more than one image and it was so hard. But it's definitely a technique I would like to pursue.

And with Lips and Tongue I tried that 'coloring huge bits of the icon in a specific color' thing the first time. Glad you liked it!

Also, I'm glad that you liked Fantasy and Feisty, those are the ones I thought you'd probably like best. ;) And yes, I LOVE her in Feisty too, she's SOOOO cute! That whole scene is fantastic (Fantasy is from the same scene), and definitely very iconable.

Thanks again for your feedback and I'll get back to you regarding Giles icons (just made 5 but they're all from the same cap - I LOVE experimenting LOL).

[dizzydame.livejournal.com]

OMG, these are awesome! Totally swiped the Hope one!!

[jacquelee]

Aaaaaww, thank you so much, that's a very big compliment for me!

[ghanimasun]

Gorgeous icons, you are making tons of progress in your skill!

Beauty (B5) is simply stunning, Ivanova has perfect coloring and the texture accentuates the bits of her dress you can see. (I'm probably gonna snag this one)

Of the BtVS icons, I especially like Surprise (lovely crop and coloring overall), and Don't leave me (love how the background is so light so that all the focus goes to Dawn's face and her emotions; the crop works really well here).

My favorite of the J/A kissing is either First Kiss (love how you focused on them in the circle, and the texture colors them nicely) or Hope (nice coloring, and the background texture provides a nice bit of color that definitely adds to the icon).

[jacquelee]

Thank you!

Yay for Ivanova! I love her so much! :D
And I'm glad that you like First Kiss, I feared that one was an example of good idea, bad execution. I liked it but it's a bit... awkward I guess.