Doing the 2014 Icon Progression Post

[ladyofleithian]

Can't say I did many icons in 2014 (didn't help that I kind of...fell off the face of the Earth for a bit -- metaphorically -- thanks to college work). Nonetheless, I think it'll be fun to see where I started and where I ended up.

January:



Can't say I found a common theme among the January icons, but I know that they started out with really bright colors. Very saturated, really. A little less so towards the end of the month, but it's still there.


February:











(Jesus, that's a lot of icons I made in February)

Anyway, February just seemed to be a whatever-the-fuck-I-feel-like month. This was when I started iconning Big Bang Theory, and when I ventured back into the KOTOR realm with iconning the Exile (KOTOR II is a great game. Woefully incomplete -- though the cut content mod's been released, which is awesome -- but still a wonderful game). It just seemed to be trying different techniques and finding out what stuck. I found out that the inverted layer can actually work, as well as stock stuff. Also I used a lot of overwhelming green in some of the icons. No idea why.


March:









Not as much icons as February, but still pretty good. Still going with the same trends -- the use of the sort of "wide screen" look to compensate for the fact
that some pictures were too big to icon, overwhelming use of colors (vivid colors, lighting, and the return of the overwhelming green look), etc. Though also where I started
doing more different things, e.g. the color in the bottom right (though I don't know how I feel about it. They look a little too green for my taste).


April:





In which I start using black and white more. There's some vibrant coloring in there, yes, there's some stuff I haven't tried in there, yes (the Tauriel and Legolas icon), and one of my old
tricks I just discovered from February (the Anakin/Padme icon), but mostly black and white. Also some stuff I haven't tried earlier in the year, like the radial blur and the lens flare (hell, I don't
think I've used the lens flare since 2011. Strangely, I think it kind of works here. Kind of).


May:











Vibrant colors are back! Also, a bit of motion blur getting involved, and an introduction to new techniques (the alternating color blocks and the silhouette, for instance), lighting, and red-black duotone.


June:




Not many icons. I can see some new techniques in there, though, like the text on two different levels, and the division technique in the "Birth of Sandman" icon, and some recurring themes, like lighting,
black and white (and a dark black and white, which gets a bit more prominent later), and the widescreen icon technique.


July:







Still some vibrant colors in there, but most of the colors seem to be quite a bit darker. Also, new techniques like spicing-up-the-widescreen-view-with-a-texture and another
text-on-two-levels icon.


August:

No icons for this month. Mostly because of my vacation to London with my mom, as well as college work starting up again.


September:

Again, no icons. Probably because of college work, and stress.


October:





When I finally made a comeback. My icons here were a little bit darker (mostly due to the subject matter), but you can still see a bit of my old tricks, like the red-black duotone for the Jamie icon, and the lighting on the Rachel icon.


November:

Looks a bit like a synthesis of my style from the beginning of the year and my October style. Still got some vibrance and lighting in there, but some of them seem a little bit darker. (Also, more spicing up of the widescreen icon!)


December:





Another bit of synthesis. Some vibrant icons, some dark icons, two coppery icons, and two black and white icons. But the lighting's still there, and I think I did that pretty well.

So I think my overall icon progress went from really-really-bright to still-got-some-vibrancy-in-there-but-definitely-a-little-darker. Wish I'd done more, but I guess that's my only real complaint. Can't wait to see what I make next year!