Peg Kerr's Journal

I'll probably write about this when I do my digital collage tomorrow, but...

I spent too much time this week doing something I've wanted to do for a while: making a bunch of new icons so that I could create a custom Pride and Prejudice mood set.

( Here's the mood set )

(I am particularly fond of one icon in particular: 'pissed off.' I find it amusing, because what is written on that icon doesn't seem to fit--unless you know the book, and you realize the exaggerated politeness of the words cover the fact that that's the most pissed off that character is in the entire book.)



I'm using a different method for creating icons now, and they're not perfect. In some cases, I probably tried to squeeze in too many words at once, and so the words are a bit small. But I don't care. I might change one or two of them, but I'm still pleased with them, and picking the correct phrases to fit each mood was a lot of fun.

Here is the second set. Again, you are welcome to take, with credit. A comment letting me know which ones you have taken would be nice.

( Harry Potter icons: M-Z )

For quite awhile, while I've certainly enjoyed my Lord of the Rings mood set, I've wanted a mood set of Harry Potter icons, especially as I've been getting engrossed in Alternity. I've started working on it! Unfortunately, the program which I used for to make my LOTR icons, which I liked extremely well, doesn't work on my Mac. I have been using a half-assed work around, using Word textboxes and screen capture, but they're much too blurry. So I have a request in to Rob to see if he can get me a nice little software program I can use. Anyway, here are some of my first attempts. I started with the Harry Potter font, but then decided to switch to the Lumos font, as it was a bit easier to read:

Predatory:


Dirty:


Enthralled:


Disappointed:


Happy:


Confused:


Infuriated:


Geeky:


Mischievous:


Indescribable:


Nauseated:


Ideas for other mood icons:

Cheerful:
The cheering charms had left them with a feeling of great contentment

Rejected:
They've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball!

Fast:
What are you waiting for? RUN!

Embarrassed:
Why did he have to go red now? Why?

Jubilant:
We've won the Cup!

Now I'm asking for your help. What Harry Potter lines could I use to make mood icons?

Like I said, I'm going to do these again with a better program so they'll be less blurry, and you will all be welcome to take whatever icons I create. Credit would be nice. (I'll do a monster post showing them all).

This poem, "The Two Trees," by Yeats, is my favorite poem in the world. I was introduced to it by Loreena McKennitt, who sang it as a song on her album The Mask and the Mirror. (Which is a corking good album, and you should get it. Yes, you should.) Listen to a clip from this beautiful song here.

I have thinking a great deal about the holy tree in the poem. To me, this poem is about one of the central struggles of my life, and it words it so beautifully. I am too apt to believe the demons who hold up the bitter glass, and show me a vision of a blasted and barren tree. I have been trying to see more clearly the holy tree, which the poet assures me grows within my own heart. The song is also a damn good description of cognitive therapy, one of the best I've ever read. When depression gets its claws into me, my tormentors are, indeed, the "ravens of unresting thought," who shake their ragged wings, alas. The key, the poet says, is to turn the eyes away from the bitter glass, with its false vision of the blasted tree, back to the holy tree within the heart.

I also love it because it seems to reflect what I feel deeply about the heart of flesh/heart of stone.

Tolkien cared deeply about trees, and they are central to his mythology. Thinking about the holy tree, I decided to make several icons using his drawings, and I'm pretty pleased with them:









and



, which is a detail from his painting "Lothlorien in the Spring."

I would love it if someone who is more knowledgable about icon making than I am could do an icon of just one mallorn from that painting. Does anyone know how to isolate just one tree from that forest and make it an icon all on its own? Thanks for any help anyone might be willing to give!

The site where I got the Tolkien paintings to make the icons is here. The Lothlorien picture is here.

Edited to add: knitmeapony came through! Thanks!

I've often wished that LJ offered some other mood options. I've made some additional ones for myself, using my LOTR icons. This is mostly posted for my own reference, so that I can add them to future entries. (fireflowerlass, you may wish to take note). The main mood set is here.

What additional moods do you wish LJ offered for your entries?( Supplementary moods )

Here are the rest.

( Lord of the Rings Phrase icons M-Z )

I drew the short straw and had to leave Minicon early to put the girls to bed. Since I was home and wide awake, I stayed up making icons. In my ongoing nefarious plan to lure the world onto LiveJournal I had cut a deal at the con with 1crowdedhour, who has opened up a LiveJournal but has been a little too shy to use it. My deal was that I would make her new icons if she would start commenting, even if she didn't post in her own journal (but I hope to lure her to do that eventually, too). Her user name is kinda anonymous, but perhaps you will guess who she is by the icons, which, if you know her work, are a dead giveaway. They include a king who has just come home, an enchanted blue chocolate pot, and a book cover with the title "River Rats."

When she pays up by starting to comment, give her a warm welcome!

Since I was already in the icon-making I made some for papersky, too. But I told her no guilt if she decides not to use them.

Cheers,
Peg

I didn't do what I should have been doing tonight, namely cleaning the house, working on the novel, or anything else productive. Instead, played with Corel Paint, trying to create LOTR FUPS (Frequently Used Phrases).

Came up with this style; what do you think? I want to create a green border to match the lettering but am baffled as to how to do it (knock against it with your head, Peregrin Took!) Then I have to figure out how/where to host them. Anyway, have made a whole mess of them in the same style:

( LOTR FUPS )

Peg