An Icon Competition; Use the Image Below


click me for larger source image {flickr.com}

• The above image must be prominently featured in your icon.
• You are allowed to enter up to TWO 100 x 100 and under 20 kb icons.
• Entries are ANONYMOUS. Do NOT tell people which are yours or post/tweet/VM/IM/etc. clues about your entries.
• You have NINE DAYS from the date and time of this post to PM me your entries. So let's say your entry should be in by September 3 at 10:30pm EST.
• Good luck!

Our last winner, hermygirl, had this great advice for us on how she made the first place icon in 1w1p: round two.

SPOILER!!: advice/tip!

Don't be afraid of blank or empty space in your base image. I find it's really easy to overcrowd avatars, and then your eye isn't sure where to look. To help with this, I use the rule of thirds from photography: imagine the image is split into thirds horizontally and vertically, and then the parts of your image you want to accentuate should fall along these lines and their intersections. I've drawn the guidelines on a copy of my icon below (I don't usually do this - I just sort of visualise them as a guide), and you can see that the stalk of the middle orange is on the top left intersection, and the dark shadow is by the bottom left one. When colouring the image, I particularly focused on that shadow, to really draw the eye in and to provide the contrast to really make the fruit look fresh and vibrant. You'll also notice that pretty much half of the base was plain, and the text and two light textures were plenty enough to balance the other side.

Good luck to all entering Round Three! Hope this tip helps!