Challenge #14 Results!

[kerravonsen]

The results of Challenge #14 "Cut-outs" are:

Embodiment of style
First:
by vilakins

Second: (a three-way tie)
by sallymn
by sallymn
by kerravonsen

Third: (a multi-way tie!)
by sallymn
by siluria
by siluria
by siluria
by cryraven
by taibhrigh
by cryraven

I Just Like It
First:
by sallymn

Second: (a tie)
by sallymn
by siluria

Third: (another tie!)
by taibhrigh
by kerravonsen

Mod's choice
by siluria


Thank you, everyone!

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

Now, discuss!

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

That one of vilakins is gorgeous! - and siluria's are just the brilliant sort I'd love to be able to do, but muck up the cutting out.

And thank you all for the votes. I admit I have decided to use the Stargate/Emerald City one myself - it isn't the most brilliant job of making an icon I've ever done, but I think it worked well and I just... like the idea (I wonder if anyone's written a SG1/Oz crossover???)

I think for me the hardest part of this one was matching the texture/pictures I wanted (I might add the one that didn't do too well was the hardest, but then I don't think it quite worked anyway). I try to pick 'background' layers that are not too dissimilar in colour to the 'main' picture so my less-than-brilliant hand for masking/cutting doesn't show up too much (for instance, the Stargate publicity picture showed a nice, fairly neutral scene of lake and mountains, which meant cutting it out wouldn't be too obvious). The Bertie one was just from an add for art deco wallpaper, which I thought suited the period (I then recoloured it to cover the dark green bushes behind Bertie :)

I lost the actual yellow brick road on the Stargate one - it was hard finding an Emerald City that would fit, that would work exactly where I needed to put it, and that didn't have Dorothy et al where they'd stick out like sort thumbs :( But I decided that the text would alert people to exactly where that alien-looking place really was...

Blakes jaw is a tad sharp on his icon - there was a white patch just around the lower part of his face, and as I said, masking is not my strong point - but the rest of the Blake picture, and the Liberator one, were on dark backgrounds, which made throwing a starscape behind them easy.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you! It looks rather like my late Tessa, but actually was a picture of a cat with dark points, which I found to show someone what the kitten will grow into.

I love your SG1 one! It deservedly did well. :-)

[hooplasugarlump.livejournal.com]

I really love the positioning in your Blake icon, and will be stealing inspired by it the next time I sit to make some pictures.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Cropping is one of the most important things for me (and the only thing I ever got dragooned into doing a tutorial for too :)

[siluria]

Awwww, thank you xxxxxxxx And you should use your SG icon - it's very pretty indeed!!

I think for me the hardest part of this one was matching the texture/pictures I wanted

Have to agree with that one. I've amassed a fair collection of textures that were good for this type of challenge, but getting backgrounds and subjects that worked out wasn't easy. I scrapped my favourite subject because I couldn't find the background that would work. I then had to start thinking the other way round and trying to see which images could work with the backgrounds I had.

The effectiveness of the cutting out is definitely aided by the background you choose. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, those edges will just not look good on the wrong background. The B/W especially was really not working on anything other than the one I went with, even similar B/W swirly backgrounds weren't working because of the shade differences.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

B/W can be a pain - if the original picture's very dark, I cheat a tad by using lighten only which covers it it, then a very fuzzily feathered edge around the light bits. But to do that, the texture put on has to be fairly darkish too...

With backgrounds, I've saved a heap of pretty 'icon textures' over the last couple of years, but most of the time I still find myself googling for a wallpaper or fabric ad, or a specific little picture (like Oz), or...

[siluria]

I have a lovely stock icon of Stonehenge that I use in making both icons and headers. It's huge so I usually find a great colourwash in the sky or the stones to change hues and add warmth, but it also makes good backgrounds too.

[siluria]

Thanks so much for the mod choice! :) That icon was actually the easiest to make because the two photos are from the same shoot, I just wanted to add a bit with the light textures - I seem to have a thing for light textures of late...

The others were all a lot harder. I didn't know whether to go for subtle or brash backgrounds, and then found that it was a nightmare actually matching images to backgrounds that worked. I got rid of so many images I'd already cut out simply because nothing matched them.

When cropping I generally zoom right in and use a soft eraser to take out what I don't need. I never manage to get sharp edges, but I find that if you get a background that's similar in shade to what you've erased from immediately around your subject, then any slips aren't really that noticeable. The hardest thing I find is always trying to erase white and use a dark background - I've never really had that turn out well, even with painstaking pixel by pixel erasing.

I thought everyone did really well with the challenge and I really liked the spread of textures and ideas that were used. It was actually really hard picking just 3 for each category, I almost asked my other half to help me choose!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I thought that mod choice one was brilliant - exactly the sort I look at and think "I ought to do that, and then simply... can't...

[siluria]

Thank you xx You should have a go, I can send you the original images I used if you want and you could give it a go, I'll give what limited advice I can :)

I take a lot of cues from other icon makers, and from icon styles that particularly catch my eye even if the subject isn't to my liking. I then tend to fiddle with things because I can never emulate the originals and so something different comes out at the other end. Don't ever ask me to recreate something, I'd have no idea, I've had to start saving the working files and copy the finished icon out. I've always envied your ideas, and I love the text you come up with. I love text on icons but can never find the right thing to say, or the right font to do it in.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

:) I might have a go at the effect sometime...

I have a folder labelled 'need text'... and sometimes they're in there for a long time before I think of something to write on them...

[kerravonsen]

I loved that one because it was "ooh, I'd like to try that myself" kind of icons.

[siluria]

Thank you! I do find myself quite often trying to emulate styles without trying to blatantly copy them, and I usually end up with two extremes - something so bad, or something so different that I may as well not have bothered! :)