I owe a certain beta-Muse thanks and praise to the Heavens...
...for her time, feedback, ideas, generosity, patience, gentle wit, marvelous penetrating insights and for her keen Eye (intangible, unexplanable, indispensible) and above all, for helping guide me to my very first 1st place award (!!) as well as 3rd place and Most Creative honors at 
slayerstillness Challenge 43; as well as a Mod's Choice's Award at whedon_elite Challenge 116.
That particular beta-Muse would be named velvetwhip, of course; and I dare say she will deny her fabulousness; don't believe her for a second if she does. I've been beta for my friends who are writers for years, but this time I've gotten to be on the other side of the give-and-take and it's a rich and and fulfilling working relationship.
Teasers for awards banners inside.
And it's an entirely mutual one; I've been "special pencil" for her marvelous Joyce-centric fic Answering Prayers, set in the summer between S2 & 3, and our many discussions on Buffy, Joyce and Giles during that period no doubt provided additional inspiratiion for my Helpless artwork. I love the cross-currents between us as two artists in different but complimentary media.
Congratulations to 
sweet_lyri, tempertemper , and starry_night - three of my favorite fan artists and wonderful people, they are all well-represented in my userpic gallery - for their wins at slayerstillness and whedon_elite. And may we have a big round of applause for tempertemper's phenomenal banners? I just about died of happiness when I saw these:
Two of my goals for the year: Win first place at slayerstillness - check. (Best Color, I've got my sights on you.) Earn more awards banners made by other artists by which i mostly mean tempertemper - double check. And these are simply beyond perfect aren't they? Artwork like this makes me wonder why there aren't awards categories for "Best Awards Banner" because these truly are works of art.
The direct inspiration for my first place winner was clockwork_hart1's gorgeous Buffy S4 icons (#11-12) and her experimentation with light, blurs and motion. For the other icon I started with Buffy's profile in the hotel room where Kralik has taped multiple polaroids of Joyce, then did multiple versions layering her with Giles, Joyce and Kralik, inside her silhouette but ended up chosing this one. I really like how the patterns of the library books and the polaroids echo one another, sublty hinting at and reinforcing the connection between the two.
Banners by tempertemper. (Now if only I can get her and other banner makers to remember to sign their work...)
I stayed with Helpless for my whedon_elite entries when I finished the SS set and realized there were other images I still wanted to play with. Thank you neatmonster for the Mod's Choice honor! The specific inspiration for this icon and my Cordy one were kwritten's Artist Choice set for Round 7 of btvsats20in20, "The Freshman (Buffy)" although I've admired her way with delicate layers and textures for three years. Once again velvetwhip deserves a thunderous round of applause for her beta-Muse-ings:
Banner by yours truly; check out the banners for starry_night and sweet_lyri here. The base image is a photo I took a couple of afternoons ago of daffodils in my yard because they especially suited the "Springtime" theme of the challenge.
I remember voting for you for the Springtime image. It's absolutely gorgeous. Love the Helpless artworks too--they pack so much emotional impact. Wonderfully done!
Edited at 2015-05-09 06:05 am (UTC)
Gabrielle
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**HUGS YOU TIGHT**
You're a dear friend - and THANK YOU for being so incredibly supportive of me and my work! I did see all your votes went to my icons and I was tickled pink polka dots and sent over the moon. And actually, starry opened the threads yesterday (I poked her) so you certainly should be able to see them.
Funnily enough I did think about signing them. I imagined you telling me off! But I thought it would detract so didn't in the end!
But I thought it would detract so didn't in the end!
Forgive the liberty I added a siggie very quickly just now to demonstrate. I was in a rush - I'd probably put it in the lower left along the border of the banner if I redid it.
I do know what you mean, I still hesitate to sign stuff but ask, would an author post her story unsigned? Nope. (That said I try to make it not interfere with the design and am rarely happy with it.)
Edited at 2015-05-09 06:35 pm (UTC)
The banners are lovely and the entries this round were amazing. I'm so glad you won the first place with your icon because it's so perfect that it combines my favorite things ever! Hairporn + Buffy Summers + COLORS. Yay! I hope you show the whole set soon.
The banners are lovely and the entries this round were amazing.
Total agreement on both counts!
it combines my favorite things ever! Hairporn + Buffy Summers + COLORS.
I did think of you when I was making it; I had a feeling you'd like it if no one else. I DID NOT expect that one in particular to be so well-received. (But that's true of the Whedon elite icon as well - which, by the by has the same pink and purple coloring on the right side because I used the same light leak on both.)
I think I'm finally figuring it out - people like glow, softness, lights and color clarity. Mastering all of these elements is the tricksy thing. *lol*
I hope you show the whole set soon.
That's the plan! You can see them at the entries thread in the meantime:
http://slayerstillness.livejournal.com/78468.html
That is absolutely awesome. Congrats on your wins and congrats on reaching a few goals as well. :)
(Is it silly to have goals like that, do you think?)
I make goals like that too.
the icons are really wonderful and i'm honoured to have inspired something with my own unskilled experimenting. colours and motion and SUCH PRETTY. the mod's choice icon is also so gorgeous i love what you did with it (and kelsey's icons are always so so so beautiful, right?).
love the banners, love the icons, love the inspo, love YOU
((also hi))
Thank you so much Lucy and yes your icons totally inspired that one and you know which ones I mean, right?
and please stop with the "unskilled" nonsense ok because that is just rubbish. That tri-part collage icon that's your user pic? I don't know how to make that and I've tried. (Yeah I know how to do a collage but getting all the images to align the way I want? Forget it.)
(and kelsey's icons are always so so so beautiful, right?).
God yes! I'm just beginning to fumble my way towards what she does on a regular basis.
HOW ARE YOU, BTW? I'm working hard at my job and kind of have no energy for anything else, so, meh. I don't know how I even got these done.