liresius | The Year in Review Meme (Reply)

1. Looking back, did you do more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? Less, I just didn't have the time.

2. What pairing/genre/fandom did you work in that you never would have predicted in January 2007? NCIS (Gibbs/Tony) and I totally lay the blame for that on

xanthelj and her fabulous story Hiding in Plain Sight.

and

. ETA: Plus one each of Abby

and Ducky

, so I clearly need a Tim and Ziva icon to complete the set!

Then there is Merlin (Merlin/Arthur) and for that shock to the system, daggers are shot squarely at

lavvyan *g*

and

3. What's your favourite art of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Definitely the "Need You" McShep Manips, which I think were also the most popular. ETA: I love this one to bits. I love the softness, the neediness and the ambiguity of it. It could almost be they are about to kiss, but it's also been suggested they are far far away and are communing through a psychic link.

4. Did you take any creative risks this year? What did you learn from them? I tried to do A McShep Kiss and totally failed! I learned it's really hard to manip kisses, to make them look natural!

5. Do you have any fanfic or fanart goals for the New Year? No, I've got a very busy year ahead, and SGA is ending so I'm at a bit of a loose end, fandom-wise ... so ... find a new fandom? Easier said than done, LOL!

6. Art Most Under-appreciated by the Universe in My Opinion Nothing really. I produced so little and am all too well aware of the shortcomings of quite a few of my attempts this year. *grimaces* Another ETA: Not that I think it was underappreciated, but I was just a teeny bit disappointed my Need You manip didn't get a nom for the

mcshep_awards. It was by far my best this year, IMHO of course!

7. Most Fun Art This variation on the cover I made for

shaenie's fic Indelible. I loved making the background for this and playing around to get the colours contrast. Such rich coppers and cobalt blues!

8. Sexiest Icon

9. Cutest Icon

made for

xanthelj. ETA: And I'm just SO tickled that Xanthe has this one as her default at the moment, and she tells me she's had lots of lovely comments about it, so I'm really pleased about that, and glad to be able to give something (half decent) back to one my fave authors. Yay!

10. A technique that shifted my own perceptions of how character can be expressed Filters I think, smart blurring and also the magic wand in building collage-like backgrounds from stock! Thanks go to

bluespirit_star for the smart blur suggestion!

11. Favourite post of the year My March 16th "Need You" Icons Post That was definitely the busiest I've ever been between responding to comments and making extra icons for requests, and it was such a marvellous festival of McShep celebration.

But second and third places would have to go to my screencap picspams for The Shrine and Solitary Man, my two fave eps of the season.

12. Best Gifts

bluespirit_star's Yet to Be ficlet and birthday pressie to me (and which I absolutely adore for the sweetly loving and affectionate John and Rodney!). In art,

miso_no_tsuki's wonderful piece "Nearest Faraway Place"

and

berlinghoff79's delightful birthday card, shared with

girly_curl_3 for my 50th b'day!

JR Kiss

Another ETA: OMG, I forgot! Another wonderful gift was an anonymouse nomination in the

mcshep_awards for my cover for

bluespirit_star's Ficlet: An investigation of curved surfaces by John Sheppard. Thank you lovely person! I think this was one of my art goals in the same end of year review meme for 2007, so at least I got that done and wow, my first ever nomination for an award, so I'm thrilled at that!

And just because in doing this review, revisiting the Need You manips and icons, and seeing how they figure so much in my own sense of happiness and "success" this year ... here's a desaturated version I just made to take out the year ..., I played with the techniques mentioned above in 10.

Need You ~ desaturated