vilakins | Return of the icon meme

The icon meme is going around again (or maybe just still going around).

1. If you'd like, comment to this entry saying 'ICONS!' and I will pick 6 of your icons.
2. Make an entry in your own journal and talk about the icons I picked.

astrogirl2 chose these:

Six icons

This is Sofiya, an Amur leopard, who looked so cute and furry and sweet, I had to have her. The icon is by quarryquest from a photo by jeppy on naturesbeauty. I love her expression and spots.

This one's from a digital painting of magnolias I did last year for naarmamo. I was experimenting with a limited palette and trying to make the colours look like thick oil paint, and thought the simplicity and bright colours would look good in an icon.

Mince pies! These are traditional Christmas pies here, small and sweet and filled with fruit mince: ground dried fruit and nuts and usually some sort of alcohol if home-made. These came from Pandoro, a local Italian bakery, and I took a photo on one of my plates and iconised them because they stand so well for a NZ (and possibly UK?) Christmas and also Hanukkah because of the Stars of David Pandoro used (pure coincidence). You only get mince pies at Christmas, and I assure all those fruitcake-hating Americans that they're delicious.

Ah, one of the WPA retro icons I made from posters done during the great depression. I love the style and limited colours. Now I have more icon space, I might take a couple more myself.

Vila in pencil, but not. This was a go at a tutorial on how to turn photos into "pencil" drawings.

Another naarmamo drawing turned into an icon. This one's of my hand-painted coffee cup with my weekend cappuccino in it; full-sized picture here.

sallymn chose these:

More icons

As I said above, one of the WPA retro icons I made from posters done during the great depression.

This is Hurley from Lost. I love Hurley; he's sweet and funny--and "Dude" is a common reaction from him. :-)

Rodney McKay from SGA: a geek whose password was used by John Sheppard in an ep, impressing with his unerring memory of such a long string of numbers. However they all have a typical Rodney meaning: Isaac Newton's birth year, Albert Einstein's birth year, Rodney's own birth year (showing that Rodney ranks himself with these geniuses), and the number 42, which is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. :-D

This was scanned from the cover of one of the old classic SF magazines I bought a couple of years ago from a pawn shop. I liked it for the green alien, and the fact it's watching TV and In Space!

Latkes are potato pancakes and very yummy. They're basically the same as German kartoffelpuffer, small roesti, and various other European potato pancakes. They're traditionally served at Hanukkah...

...at which nine candles are lit day by day. This pretty icon I found on a comm, by someone no longer on LJ. I've hardly used this one, but it got a few outings last year when Hanukkah and Christmas coincided.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, that's not actually a pencil drawing? That's kind of cool. :)

Yep, it's fiddling in software, like the comic-book-style icons I've made. :-)

I do like that pencil effect :)

ICONS!

I was inspired by that icon! :-)

OK, though I do know about chocolate fish of course; I just thought you could talk about them. :-)

Americans do have mince pies. They just make them in standard-American-pie-size. :)

Is that right? Huh, I never heard anyone mention them. And they call them that too? Are they served at Christmas or any time?

Yes, they're called mince pies. Thanksgiving and Christmas, mainly, sort of a general fall thing. Maybe a little more Thanksgiving (http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110005950). They're sort of old-fashioned (and Thanksgiving isn't that commercial), so they probably don't show up in too many exported TV shows or movies.

Then my icon has international relevance!

Indeed. :)

I've never seen star-shaped rather than round mince pies before, though. It certainly adds to the interest. In the UK, they seem to be "spreading out" from their traditional appearance just before Christmas, as I've already seen some on sale in my local supermarket.

That's scary. So far it's very Christmas-free down here. I give it another month or so. :-P

Christmas in the UK now seems to officially start in October. There are already office Christmas parties going on by Halloween.

Oh bloody hell, both to that and Halloween now being in the British calendar. Some kids do it here, but it's not a big thing, and I hope it stays that way.

According to the charity shops it starts in September, all the local ones have had their cards on sale since the first week in September.

Occasionally mincemeat will show up in US supermarkets in the late fall, otherwise if you want mince pie (large or bite-size) you have to make the mincemeat too!

Mincemeat is the Trustee's favorite kind of pie, and he's an Anglophile, so last year when I managed to score a jar of mincemeat, I made tiny ones in miniature muffin pans.

I've had those small ones! The usual size is 2-3 inches / 5-8 cms across, and made in what used to be standard muffin trays. My mother made her own fruit mince (buying would have been cheating) but I've bought some very good stuff in the supermarket before Christmas. One I used filo pastry cut into squares and put in 3 layers in greased muffin pans, then gathered over the mince like a money bag. They were great, even if not authentic. Our are made with short or flaky pastry depending on preference, but commercial ones all seem to be short these days, and I like the flaky version. Filo was an easy way of achieving it without much butter.

I can look at your pictures any time and they make me happy every time. Do you how much you make me happy? Icons and all! :-) Thank you!!!

[big grin] Thank you!

That Vila icon is fantastic. I particularly like the way the black and white adds to the emotion in his face. Not a look I associate with Vila, but I like it.

Thanks! I'll have to see which photo I used. [goes to look] Oh yes, this one (http://www.framecaplib.com/b7lib/html/chars/images/gambit/alone/gambi037.htm)! It's a fairly thoughtful expression in the original but looks more cautious and sad in pencil.

It's a technique that finds the lines between colours, so I had to fill his eyes in again and that may have made a difference.

[Edit] And thanks for letting me know you like it. I should use it more often, :-)

I make my own(with ready roll pastry I must admit)with so much brandy added to the commercial mince they must not be put near a naked flame. I have a cutter set with a star, New Moon and circle and triangle and use each shape for 3 pies, my tin holds 12.

My mother just used a circle. I mostly see circles and 5- and 6-pointed stars. We always had brandy or whisky in the mince too. :-)

Return of the icon meme

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