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hsapiens
hsapiens
25 September 2006 @ 04:20 pm
Looking for honest, constructive opinions  
I'm looking for a community that offers brutally honest feedback on icons with an eye towards helping a person improve. I've reached a plateau and a sameness to my icons; I'd like to go further. I ask for constructive criticism on my icon posts, but I think people are too afraid I'll get pissy or that they'll hurt my feelings or something. The comments I get are the, "These are great!/I like ## and am snagging!" variety. I'm not complaining - they're certainly good for the ego - but I need critical feedback to fuel improvement.

Anyone know of any communities like this? Have you gotten similar help? Or is this more like writing and one gets an "icon beta" to help? [livejournal.com profile] jalabert is my current icon beta but she limits her input (mostly) to the icons I make for her. More Voices = More Viewpoints To Consider.

Any other suggestions? I've friended people whose icons I like and stuck them in a filter, "Inspiration," to make it easier to look at examples I like. I spend time trawling fandoms, looking for interesting icons. I have gone through innumerable tutorials, etc. If you've got another cool idea for spurring creativity, please feel free to share. I feel as if text and cropping are especially weak points for me. Maybe I have others I'm blind to? I won't know until someone points it out to me. :)

And yeah, I should be writing up a "here's what I did on vacation" post. That's on my To Do List, as well.
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Mish: Brian -- So Lickable[identity profile] hsapiens.livejournal.com on September 29th, 2006 07:42 pm (UTC)
That's great! Actually I was sorta going to suggest you to do that, but I didn't want to sound too..uhmmm...imposing?

Feel free to say whatever comes to mind without worrying about editing. I don't view these as commands but as suggestions. I'm good at deciding to do what I want to do. I threw open the door, looking for any and all ideas anyone offered, because I'd tried everything I could think of and had reached a deadend.

I know that what you're doing for me takes a lot of time and I totally appreciate it. Whether or not a particular suggestion applied to a particular cap would make a particular icon better isn't exactly what I'm worried about. For instance, maybe the head was cut off in the original cap and I can't do what you suggested but your mentioning it means I know to look for a better cap. Or, whatever. The point is I wasn't satisfied with my end product and that is what you're looking at and helping to identify how it could be better.

You're helping me develop an eye for composition, pointing out some of my weaknesses; you're giving me awareness and tools for improvement. That is invaluable. *smooches*
[identity profile] paddies.livejournal.com on September 29th, 2006 07:52 pm (UTC)
You're helping me develop an eye for composition, pointing out some of my weaknesses; you're giving me awareness and tools for improvement. That is invaluable.

OMG OK. :-)

And btw, if you have questions about anything I say, or even, you know, random questions, feel free to ask...I'll try to answer if I can. :-)

Also, because I was alone at work - and bored out of my fucking mind - I played around with one of your icons...;))

I couldn't do much (since I didn't have the original file), but still...

.....

/random
Mish: Brian -- So Lickable[identity profile] hsapiens.livejournal.com on September 29th, 2006 10:07 pm (UTC)
Yes! See, that's what I think text should look like and...continually fail to do on my icons. I know that if I did it (and, actually, I did *snort*), I'd think, "but is it legible?" and I'd continue to make it bigger until it almost covered the image. I can read it, yes, but I worry it's because I know what it says and that others won't.

Sorry work is so boring -- but for my sake I hope you're still there and can peek at the file. What size font is the bottom line? I'd like to get a better feel for sizes. If not, don't worry about it. I've got some memroeis devoted to text and I can compare to the examples there and guess. :)

I'm sure, as I play around, I'll come up with questions. Again? Thank you for taking the time to tutor me. I am grateful.
[identity profile] paddies.livejournal.com on October 1st, 2006 01:53 pm (UTC)
I know that if I did it (and, actually, I did *snort*), I'd think, "but is it legible?" and I'd continue to make it bigger until it almost covered the image. I can read it, yes, but I worry it's because I know what it says and that others won't.

Big text is cool too, I love it when it's properly placed and when it "suits" the icon. The secret - imo - is that if you know you're going to make an icon with text, and you want the text to be legible and "prominent" (so to speak), you have to make (crop, especially) the icon to fit the text, not the other way around. ;-)

What size font is the bottom line?

Ack, I'm home now and I don't have the psd file... but I seem to recall that it's "times new roman" 9 or 10 px.

*smooches* ♥