Challenge #10 Results!

[kerravonsen]

The results of Challenge #10 "Fancy Frames" are:

Embodiment of style
First:
by sallymn

Second: (a tie)
by siluria
by siluria

Third: (a huge multi-tie!)
by sallymn
by sallymn
by siluria
by vilakins
by kerravonsen
by kerravonsen
by kerravonsen

I Just Like It
First:
by kerravonsen

Second:
by sallymn

Third:
by vilakins

Mod's choice
by sallymn

Thank you, everyone!

I've also revealed the entries in the challenge entry post.

Now, discuss! Techniques, difficulties, questions...

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

This one was (again) a bigger challenge than it looked, because like most people I tend to see the frames as 'extras'…

I actually did several versions of the buttercup one. The picture itself needed little other fiddling with the balance, then than a shading out of the shadow (learned in the 'reflections' challenge :) I used two separate brushes to make the big white 'frame'; the inside one was a simple border, the inside one just needed a little erasing to make it look like the petals were outside…

The black and pink one is a picture of silent star Louise Brooks, which I 'overexposed' a bit, then put a purple-red gradient over (I have no idea why it then went pink, but I thought it looked lovely with the clear-cut profile). Put the 'internal frame' brush on in a matching pink, erased where necessary, and again used the reflect thingy to shadow where it goes behind her.

The 'chocolate rose in a milk vase' and the Dr Who ones were pictures I'd had for a while but never quite worked out what to do with, and are really very simple variations on above (with the rose, I think it's the picture that makes it, not what I did). Much of the detail on the rose one (which was a fairly big picture) was lost on reducing, but screening and then just a little burn seemed to keep enough of it. The frame is a brush by creamuts, again with the spot over the petal erased.

[kerravonsen]

Can you explain a bit more what you did to get the shadow in the buttercup? That's one of the things that's really cool about it. You really give the illusion of the buttercup coming out of the frame, in 3D.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

The shadow was part of the original buttercup picture, but much darker and sharper (especially after I fiddled with the contrast), so I lightened it by adding a transparent layer and using the white-to-transparent gradient just over that corner and erased it outside the shadow. I then added another transparent layer and put the inner border on that, over the buttercup, then erased where it showed over the petals themselves, but left it over the shadow (and, although you can't see it, the stem), which made it look like that part of the flower was in front of a thick border edged with green, while the rest of the flower looks was back a way (sorry, the explanation isn't great - I tried reading a web tutorial on doing these 3D things and trying to adapt it for GIMP, ended up mostly guessing :)

[kerravonsen]

Ah. Yes, I think that's clearer now.

[kerravonsen]

Thank y'all for voting my mountain your favourite! I think it's the picture that makes it, but I can also take credit for that, as it was a photograph that I took myself (my favourite photograph ever). New Zealand, South Island, a place near Queenstown.

I cropped and scaled and sharpened it a bit.

The frame was a brush by sugarplumkitten. I played around a bit with different versions of it, one green and one brown, both colours picked with colour-selection from the image itself. What I ended up with was the brown border in difference mode over the green one, which surprised me with how nice it looked.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I have a few of her frames too - they're unfussy and pretty, which I like :)

[ozsaur.livejournal.com]

This was such a hard challenge to vote for. Not only did all of the icons fit the criteria in a lot of creative ways, but these are some of the prettiest icons yet.

I would like to throw a couple of questions out there for the group, though. Do you all feel like you've been learning from these challenges? Have you started using any of the techniques regularly that you didn't use before the challenges?

[kerravonsen]

Not necessarily regularly, but I am using them. And, yes, I'm the mod, but I'm still learning stuff! I just get to choose what I learn... 8-)

Though if anyone has suggestions for techniques they'd particularly like to dip into, I'd love to hear them.

[ozsaur.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily regularly, but I am using them.

Cool! Some of the challenges you've come up with has produces some amazing icons.

[siluria]

I have to agree with the point about the voting being hard! :)

As for techniques, I'm definitely having to do stuff for the challenges that I wouldn't normally be doing, or working out how to do. I wouldn't say I'm using the techniques in normal icon making, I tend to go for stock images for these challenges and very rarely make stock icons for myself. I do think it's good to be challenges though because I'm getting more confident with the programme I use and that's a big plus for improving in other areas! :)

[ozsaur.livejournal.com]

Cool! It's good that you're becoming more confident with the programme that you use. I didn't even think about that when I asked my questions, but it makes sense. Thanks!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Sorry I'm late... definitely, I regularly have to push myself to do things I'd never even think about, let alone try, were it not for these challenges (the reflections, for instances, I was sure I couldn't. And once I learned it, I used it to change and improve my beloved default icon, covering up what had been a glitch in the photo). So it helps my other icon making that much more...

[siluria]

Congratulations on the winners! And the fact that kerravonsen made the icon from one of your own photos is fantastic :) I particularly liked that there was a border but that the image wasn't lost behind it at all.

The icon with the photograph was made because I loved the frame, I just had to do a lot of searching to find a perfect image to go in it, and then there was the difficulty in rotating the image to the right angle! :)