Secrets post

[apologizeg]

1.

2.

I wish I had more friends in the icon community but there's no point in making friends with someone as boring and dull like me : C

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I'm annoyed with Adobe's current Photoshop pricing model. I don't do graphics professionally, so can't justify paying a monthly subscription fee from now till the end of time. I'm using GIMP which is free, but really miss Photoshop. And all the good tutorials are PS based, so I feel stuck in my icon making level.

6.

I made so few icons this year not because of real life but I was battling depression and thought everything I made was turning to crap. It's like I almost forgot how to icon and then I felt my motivation for this leave me and I kept thinking: "what's the point of this?"

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Sometimes when the most praised makers and my favorite icon make an icon I don't like, it makes me a little happy, because it shows that they are only human too.

9.

i want to make icons again but whenever i think about it i get flashbacks of what happened when i first started and i don't want to go through all that drama again (even though it turned out well in the end)

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There are some makers I'd like to know more than just commenting at lj occasionally. I'd love to have real time chats at skype or something, either as a group chat or individually, but I'm afraid that it would be weird to suggest :p

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I wish theseasonwheel had voting (for placings). When there's voting, it pushes me to make better things.

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I hate that I see something to improve in almost every icon.
As a beginning iconer, I was easily impressed and so many icons made me go 'WOW'. I miss that feeling of being inspired by everything and appreciating every icon I saw! My insp folder was full of icons that now look imperfect to me, but I love that I loved them at the time.
Even now with bestof_icons nominations and votings, I'd LOVE to reward things like creativity, and having a good idea in the icon, but I can't, cause there's so much that just looks 'off'. So, I'm voting for the icons where I see the most successful execution, even if it means the icon is not the maker's most creative effort. I'm honestly sorry about this! And I'm not saying my own icons are perfect either, I see flaws in them too but I try my best to fix them before posting (not always succeeding). I realize I'm part of the problem that icon makers feel a lot of pressure to keep up good standards.

15.

I know this sounds awful but I just don't think I'll ever improve as an iconmaker, sometimes I wonder why I just won't quit this hobby.

Comments

[apologizeg]

1. https://i.imgur.com/VDDp9C0.png

[apologizeg]

2. "I wish I had more friends in the icon community but there's no point in making friends with someone as boring and dull like me : C"

[(Anonymous)]

honestly you can still be friends with someone who is "dull and boring", I'm pretty dull and boring and I have friends. you could still make some effort to be overly friendly, like I consider myself friends with tturners because she's SO sweet and friendly all the time and I just reciprocate and it builds something so *shrugs*

[apologizeg]

3. https://i.imgur.com/NDxy1Wl.png

[(Anonymous)]

you really don't need others to do exciting adventures, except maybe skydiving where you probably have to do tandem diving

look at your budget and see where you have a little bit of extra money and then set it aside and take an adventure trip one day. think of something your school would go on a field trip to and try to do that yourself. see if you enjoy it and go from there.

[(Anonymous)]

op
Idk... I just think all of this would be much more fun with a friend. I'm a very nervous and insecure person so while I enjoy solitude at home, in the outside world I prefer to be with someone so we can figure things out together, and so that if I don't know what to do / where something is / how to do something then at least I'm not the only one who looks clueless. Not to mention that people traveling alone are prime victims for all kinds of crime and scams.
Money is not really a problem cause I basically just save everything I earn, but it doesn't really help me much unless I find a way to actually buy friends...

[(Anonymous)]

I understand what you're saying but if you really do want to do it, you will probably have to make the first step yourself. But I do believe there are sites out there for people who are alone who want to find a like-minded partner to travel with, and I believe you can pick individuals and correspond with them like pen pals before you commit to anything.

[apologizeg]

4. https://i.imgur.com/crlXnSo.png

[(Anonymous)]

are you me nonnie? I do it too!

[apologizeg]

5. "I'm annoyed with Adobe's current Photoshop pricing model. I don't do graphics professionally, so can't justify paying a monthly subscription fee from now till the end of time. I'm using GIMP which is free, but really miss Photoshop. And all the good tutorials are PS based, so I feel stuck in my icon making level."

[apologizeg]

If you're a student, I think you can get a big discount?

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

it's still $20 a month which is still out of a lot of students budgets

[(Anonymous)]

are you that seriously opposed to running a pirated copy?

[apologizeg]

6. "I made so few icons this year not because of real life but I was battling depression and thought everything I made was turning to crap. It's like I almost forgot how to icon and then I felt my motivation for this leave me and I kept thinking: "what's the point of this?""

[apologizeg]

7. https://i.imgur.com/4uNOhQm.png

[(Anonymous)]

Same tbh. But, it's not all bleak. Even after icons you'll still have your PS talents. Have you tried getting into Tumblr graphics or some other type of image editing? Maybe photography?

[(Anonymous)]

yeah I'll really miss it when it's gone too nonnie, and I am active on tumblr, I just really prefer making icons and they aren't the same size and don't have the same seriousness on tumblr

[apologizeg]

8. "Sometimes when the most praised makers and my favorite icon make an icon I don't like, it makes me a little happy, because it shows that they are only human too."

[(Anonymous)]

I think we all feel this way a little? like a lot of icons by some very well regarded makers make me go ???? BUT it's quite clear they have some serious skills even if it's not my taste and it's a good reminder that even if I don't love my icon 100% it might be someone's else's taste instead.

[apologizeg]

9. "i want to make icons again but whenever i think about it i get flashbacks of what happened when i first started and i don't want to go through all that drama again (even though it turned out well in the end)"

[(Anonymous)]

you should, we need all the makers we can get. nobody has time for drama much anymore and tbh the only makers who get shit are either rip off artists or the ones who make zero effort to improve or take feedback

[apologizeg]

10. "There are some makers I'd like to know more than just commenting at lj occasionally. I'd love to have real time chats at skype or something, either as a group chat or individually, but I'm afraid that it would be weird to suggest :p"

[(Anonymous)]

Wich makers? I actually think it's not a bad idea and I'd be interested :)

[(Anonymous)]

What about a discord server for iconmakers?

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

that would be fun!

[(Anonymous)]

da

what's that?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yes,please!!! A discord comm would be wonderful!

[apologizeg]

11. https://i.imgur.com/51zfHIv.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, I see it differently.
Let's say there's X number of contestants who 'have a chance to win', and Y number of contestants who don't.
What does it take away from the enjoyment if there are extra Y sets in the comm, in addition to the X really good ones? To me, a round with X+Y participants is always more enjoyable than a round with only X participants. The more the merrier.
But then again I barely care about the voting or winning part anyway, to me it's not a competition but a creative challenge where the fun part is creating the set and the winning is when you create something you're proud of.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

I can see where they're coming from though because it can be a real motivation for a lot of makers to try to get into the elite comms, and so you tended to really push yourself extra hard because you were up against some really good makers instead of knowing you'll be better than a few makers by default. The playing field was really flat as opposed to nowdays where you have some really amazing makers, a few really good ones, some decent ones, and some horrible ones, and since there are so fewer comms almost everyone enters into most challenges which means not only is the playing field really not very even, it's super broad as well

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt
I agree with your first point, that the getting into the comm can be a huge motivation to do better.
But when/if you actually get in, I don't see much difference from there on - is elite_inspired really more inspiring than iconsomething was? To me those are/were two very similar comms, and I'd push myself to do well no matter which one I'm entering. Similarly, 20insp was amazing, but 20muses was right up there on that same level of fantastic, inspiring comms that would push me to do my best. But this must be a personality thing. I'm a perfectionist so I already take too much pressure to do my best, even if I don't like any of the already posted entries at a comm...

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I really don't see elite as being more inspiring, just that like I said it's more of a narrower more even playing field where you really know the quality expectation is there. It really boils down to what you like as a maker. Not everyone likes it, clearly, or it wouldn't have died out.

As an aside, as an icon collector, I always liked elite comms because I didn't have to follow a ton of comms just to get good icons from good makers, and it exposed me to good makers I wouldn't have otherwise noticed.

[apologizeg]

12. "I wish theseasonwheel had voting (for placings). When there's voting, it pushes me to make better things."

[(Anonymous)]

you would get along well I think with the secret above yours!

[apologizeg]

13. https://i.imgur.com/1FbF1oS.png

[(Anonymous)]

didn't we all do that?

[apologizeg]

14. "I hate that I see something to improve in almost every icon.
As a beginning iconer, I was easily impressed and so many icons made me go 'WOW'. I miss that feeling of being inspired by everything and appreciating every icon I saw! My insp folder was full of icons that now look imperfect to me, but I love that I loved them at the time.
Even now with bestof_icons nominations and votings, I'd LOVE to reward things like creativity, and having a good idea in the icon, but I can't, cause there's so much that just looks 'off'. So, I'm voting for the icons where I see the most successful execution, even if it means the icon is not the maker's most creative effort. I'm honestly sorry about this! And I'm not saying my own icons are perfect either, I see flaws in them too but I try my best to fix them before posting (not always succeeding). I realize I'm part of the problem that icon makers feel a lot of pressure to keep up good standards."

[(Anonymous)]

honestly as long as you're not publicly calling out the little issues you see in a relentless way I don't think you're part of the problem. you're entitled to not like icons for whatever reason you prefer, and to vote for whatever inspires you.

[apologizeg]

15. "I know this sounds awful but I just don't think I'll ever improve as an iconmaker, sometimes I wonder why I just won't quit this hobby."

[(Anonymous)]

+100

[(Anonymous)]

Whoever you are, I'm 100% sure you already have improved a lot from your first icons. It's almost impossible to keep doing something and not improve. Sometimes we are our worst critics and it's hard to see your own progress, but don't let it get you down, just keep trying and you'll be making stunning icons sooner than you think!