Time to hone your "but *I* like yours!" skills, guys

[taotrooper]

icon love meme

I had to restrain so badly and not to put humor samples.

I feel a bit strange by looking at those iconmakers and then looking at my icons. Mine look like someone puked a bag of skittles on them in comparison. Probably people don't use that kind of colors and textures anymore. I have no idea what kind of techniques and trends others use anymore, as I've been off the "scene" for such a long time. I wouldn't know how the fuck they get those smokey or pastel colors. My resources are years old and I don't know which ones to get.

So out of the loop. I like making icons, but at the same time I feel like I'm stuck in ancient times and no one remotely cool that isn't in my flist would like mine. There's also the fact I haven't learned to color manga so I've been wussing out on that area. This is why I want to make more FMA icons but I haven't dared. I wouldn't know how to put shadows and lights. Could I get away with simple-colored manga stuff? Or should I not even bother?

Oh, and I don't want to do icons of CLAMP lately. Which probably disappoints those watching mine and hamsterfactor's icondork because of that fandom. At the very least, I should tackle FMA as I still like it tons and maybe no one will icon the manga ever again with the new anime.

Funny enough, I've felt the same about fanfiction. Instead of writing for my older fandoms -except Okami, but there's no solid fandom for it-, I want to try it with my newest ones. But I feel so intimidated! Ace Attorney don't seem to care about genfic, and I haven't poked TotA but I doubt there's a lot of that either. And I have plotbunnies for the pairings I want to write about, sure, but I've never written for non-canon pairings and I wouldn't know how to do anything that isn't OOC or silly humor. I feel awkward. A-any tips for that, by the way?

(Oh, and I feel like a hypocrite because I once said I don't like to use fanart for icons, yet I want to make them now -with doujinshi, however; I wouldn't feel Kosher in using online website art, especially Japanese. But only with game icons. Might be the lack of canon expressions to use in RP what warmed me up to them.)

tl;dr: I've been an awkward turtle when it comes to participate in fandom the past few months, mostly because I'm afraid people would think I suck balls.

Comments

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Ace Attorney don't seem to care about genfic
I'd love AA genfic. I probably should start writing some, too. But I haven't even checked the fandom yet...

I can't help you with the non-canon pairings bit. I tend to go with silly humour for those, myself. ;P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I love making icons, but mine have never been more than average at best. I admit, though, that a lot of the popular trends I've seen haven't been ones that appeal to me a lot.

[sha-chan.livejournal.com]

You are awesome, Kiri Dx *gives you cookies and chocolate*

YOU SHOULD WIRTE THOSE FICS, I'd love to read them.

[the-great-elk.livejournal.com]

meh. Your icons are still awesome and useful and not gaudy or painful to look at or boring. Which is really all I care about :/

[paella]

Eh, I get the same feeling when I look at a lot of those icon memes. I didn't have internet there for two years, and I had no idea what the "trends" or whatever were, and just went my own route. And quite frankly, I hate most of the trends that are popular. It's only recently that I've grown to like some of them, and that's saying something.

Manga icons are kind of a weird subject, I've noticed. Some people say you can't colour them without shading, and then others say it looks ridiculous if you do shade them. Personally, I don't since I'm lazy. *hit* But, you do what you want and you like. Whatever seems right to you is what you should do.

Honestly, people don't care as long as they like what you're making, I've noticed. If it has the character they want in a funny little pose, they're happy. Some will like your colouring, others won't. It's kinda like art or drawing in the sense that some people may like it a lot and others aren't moved by it.

And I love your icons. ♥ They're adorable and sweet and very original. ♥

And.... pretty much same things I said about icons apply to fanfic. Just do what you wanna do and people will either like it or not. You can't knock what you haven't tried.

tl;dr - Do what you like, not what other people seem to think is good. ♥ Too many people think this stuff is serious business when it's just hobbies. Have fun and be happy doing it, that's what's important. ♥

[starlightfairy2.livejournal.com]

From last I read of your writing...you're amazing. I don't think that's any reason for you to be discouraged. I know exactly what you feel. I had an experience with a Beta Reader a few months ago that left me petrified to write again. But I got over it. I mean, who should honestly care more about what you do than yourself? If people don't like it...then forget them. I'm sure you do it for your own self-enjoyment too.


Hope that helped. <3

[hamsterfactor.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I miraculously posted a bunch of icons at icondork just about now and I know exactly how you feel. I swear I don't know how to make icons any more and I'm thinking I was probably never any good at it? Who's going to want to grab those anyway? I feel so self-conscious I don't eevn want to pimp the post anywhere D:

Also, dude, I don't know shit about coloring manga, I just put some colours on it and hope it doesn't look like complete rubbish D:

And by the way, I seriously think your icons are awesome and completely original, which I can't say about most people (including me). I bet people don't even remember I make icons lol.

[hamsterfactor.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I pimped it at hagaren_manga :x I'm going to regret that.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

There's not a lot of fanworks for Apollo Justice compared to the rest of the series. And it's mostly BL, unsurprisingly.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I like that you make icons of non-trendy series you like when you do, however. I think having a soul and making icons of stuff you enjoy is more important than being an artsy-fartsy trend-follower. Which is why I'm not that good at this, I suppose.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

*munches*

I need motivation :(

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

T-thanks ;;

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I think I'm so self-conscious because in my previous fandom, it was suddenly VERY common to shade your manga icons/graphics -like, it became a fad overnight. I even remember that there was even a bit of wank when a girl started copying another one's style. So seeing all these elitist people taking five hours doing one icon was extremely scary for someone like me, who was not a BNF of iconage but not entirely unknown either; and I never have the ability to tell where the shades/lights go even IRL art. After a while I stopped doing manga icons, and then the fear spread to my other fandoms.

But you're right. I really wish I could be more confident and wouldn't crave so much for positive feedback/attention. To do what I can and how I want just because I like that. I guess it's real life issues affecting my fandom experience, and that sucks. But thank you ♥ I'll try.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Well, I've never had problems with my writing even if I'm sort of average, and I'm used to low feedback since I never write the most popular characters/pairings (I'm actually surprised when I get reviews from strangers!). I've suffered from writer's block, especially because I lost most of my drafts last year and I can't go back to my old fanfics.

It's more that I want to try to write for new fandoms and I'm afraid of making a fool of myself. That's why I can bring myself to write down my ideas and delurk. That's pretty much it.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I saw your post before my Internet died last night, actually! I have no idea if they're good either, but I thought the manga ones were cute ♥ I was just glad to see you posting again, really.

Like I said above, I blame CLAMP iconmakers for showing off their mad shading skills. I should just... ignore that trauma and paint how I feel like it. And I'm seriously doing more FMA manga icons to balance the millions for the new anime.

Y-you were tons more original than me in the old days, but... thanks ♥ And I do remember! I'm always wondering how many of the people who friended the comm is in only for you and if they're sick of only seeing me, lol.

Oh, and I need to ask you this since it's also your icon comm and all. Would you feel uncomfortable if I start sharing icons with doujinshi artwork? I mean, none of it will be porn, and it's only from game fandoms. Probably most of them will be for gag anthologies anyway. I feel like a hypocrite for changing my mind after all these years...

[the-great-elk.livejournal.com]

Nawww... Thanks for making me that Nastume icon~ ♥

[sha-chan.livejournal.com]

What would motivate you? ;o; *cheers*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

See, now you make me feel guilty, because I just made icons of Dollhouse, one of the current trendy shows! But...uhm...I made them because I kind of hate most of the iconsa for it that I've seen around.

[paella]

Yeah, trends are weird in that respect. You're out if you don't follow them, but if you look like you're copying - which is what you're trying to do anyway - then you're shunned and yelled at for it. RL or online, people tend to follow those rules and it can get pretty annoying. I can't say that I don't follow trends, but. It's better to just stick to what you like and be comfortable. People get way too serious about stupid crap.

No, attention and positive feedback is what you should receive. ♥ A lot of this creative stuff - hell, anything you do really - is so that someone might see it and like it. Even if you weren't really fishing for praise with it, it's still very nice to get some sort of reward for it. It makes it feel worthwhile. ♥ But, doing something you don't want to do merely for praise just... kinda puts a sick feeling in your stomach. Just make sure you're happy while you do it, otherwise it's not worth whatever praise you may or may not receive. ♥ And lol wow am I getting srz bnz about this wtf.

[hamsterfactor.livejournal.com]

And I'm seriously doing more FMA manga icons to balance the millions for the new anime.

You and I both, sister! Plus, I swear to god I can't do anime icons at all, for some reason.

Aw, don't worry about sharing doujinshi icons too much. I say just try to credit when you can and go ahead and make/upload them. I'm fine with it :)

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

But that's normal! When I used to make icons of Cardcaptor Sakura, for instance, I normally was doing anything that wasn't Sakura or Tomoyo. I don't dislike the characters, but everyone else would use the same old images and nobody else, and I thought it was lame/unfair. So, I can see making icons of popular things in that tone.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

A miracle D: If it was that easy, I'd be doing it already.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's getting a bit srs XD My fault for starting that rant, sorry

It's true it should be for fun. But at the same time, one publishes/posts their fics/arts/icons because they want to see reactions, or otherwise they wouldn't bother or keep it to themselves. Part of the fun should be seeing others going "oh, I like this series/character/pairing, too!". It just sucks that it's also an ego boost issue. But yeah, I could never become someone who only writes/draws what's popular just for having 100 reviews/comments.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I like how my anime icons turn out, but it's been one episode of this and there must already like 215356 posts. And ever since we're off the loop and the icontest comm died, I only see FMA manga icons like once every three months! WTF! Time to hunt for raw volumes again.

[paella]

Naw, I went that way myself. XD ♥ STUFF LIKE THIS HITS HOME WITH ME, SO.

Yeah, I understand and it's very true. I hate it when I don't get any responses sometimes, especially when I put a lot of work into it. It's just a weird line you have to hold there, but if it's a hobby it should be fun, and that's what matters to me. I don't want to be sad doing something that should be enjoyable.