I got an award banner!

[freecat15]

For most of you this is probably as normal as having breakfast, but for me it's not! only three weeks after downloading GIMP (and never having done anything like it before!), I participated at whedon_elite 's latest icon challenge, and one of my icons won the mod's choice! I never even thought anyone would vote for one of my things, and I made a happy dance each and every time it still happened, and then this!

And now I even got an award banner made by the wonderful red_satin_doll, and isn't it beautiful?
(Okay, I have no idea if this is the common thing to do, but I post it here. I'm pretty proud of it, okay?)

Comments

[double_dutchess]

Congratulations, you have every right to be proud! You did a great job bringing out Buffy's (or no, really Faith's) glossy lips in this one. My favourite was your Giles one though.

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

Mine too, though the Faffy lips one was a pretty close second.
Giles looking so damn happy with this rose always gives me a shiver, and I'm too much of a drama girl not to prefer it to the lips, I guess...
Thank you so, so much for voting for it! Had I been cursed, the voting would've given me enough of a happy to lose my soul :)

[chasingdemons.livejournal.com]

Absolutely you should post it and be proud. Congratulations!

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!!

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Love the lighting! You should be proud of yourself. GIMP is not the most intuitive thing to learn. Congrats!

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! To be honest, without some tutorials on youtube I never would've understood the layers and masks thing...So yay to people taking their time to share their knowledge!

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

Congrats! You did a great job! I use PS, so I know nothing about GIMP, but teaching yourself any a/w program is never an easy task.

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!!!

I'm not really teaching myself, though, but watched some tutorials for the basics, layers and masks and such. Without them I wouldn't have been able to do anything. I feel I kind of only scratched the surface of possibilities, though, and am nowhere near what you can do (and probably never will be:) ! The challenge (and the current, too) are kind to beginners like me, I guess. Or maybe it's just that I can focus on certain aspects?

Anyway, thank you so much for giving me the joy of the mod's award!

[rahirah]

Congratulations!

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!

[braxen.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Well done! No need for you to stick to writing. :)

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Writing is still what I prefer to do in general, but this playing with pretty pictures is so much fun, and you have an immediate (well, hours later...) reward of having made it even prettier. Sometimes. Plus, I can do it even tired, since I don't have to battle the second language, and it doesn't require so much thinking like writing does.
I'm glad you like it :)

(Costed me precious email time, though, so in the end you have to pay for it :( )

[braxen.livejournal.com]

Since I have been so good at writing to you lately. Talk about wasting precious time; playing with dollies... ;-)

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

:D
Hugs!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome sweetheart, and congratulations again! You did a fantastic job with the deep shadows and the glossy lips - I had to work hard to get the background to coordinate to my liking.

I love making banners but posts like this definitely make it worthwhile. Half the reasons I make icons in competition is to get pretty banners from other artists!

And btw, maybe you'll turn your hand at it at some point? That Spike banner you made the other day would have made a super awards banner IMO.

I'm still in awe of the fact that you just started teaching yourself Gimp a week ago. It's taking me YEARS to get where I'm at with iPiccy and I'm just starting to learn PS. I certainly never made anything a lovely as your icon a week after jumping in. I couldn't even begin to teach myself Gimp, I had no idea where to begin. I can't wait to see what you do next. And you're a writer on EF? you'll be able to make artwork for your own stories. Can't wait!

[freecat15.livejournal.com]

But your background brought it out so much better!
I'm happy to have made you happy :) And pretty banners are the best!!!

Oh, but I'm nowhere near good enough to do such things! The banner has been really just the very first try of a b/w icon for the challenge that just was too small to look good, so I turned it into a banner. I'm still gaining experience...

And actually it was three weeks that I worked with GIMP when posted the icons. Don't make me better than I am :D Also - these years haven't been wasted, your fantabulous!!!

Thank you again!!