Empire Ants

I made these in 2015 when I was first learning to use Photoshop to make icons. They're not great, and were mostly made for a tumblr blog that has long since been deleted, but I did have them posted on hollow-art so this is another one of those cases where I want to make sure my old icons - even if I don't like them that much - are available again.

At one point, I had planned to remake these, but frankly I don't have the spoons to deal with it. Maybe someday I'll download high quality, proper stock photos and give it another go, but these particular images aren't getting re-iconned.


( Neigh! )

Sometimes, I icon things that make me happy for no reason other than I find them aesthetically pleasing.




( I destroyed the universe and all I got was this stupid mug. )

You think he makes silly faces? Just wait until you see what he can do with his ankles! I sorted by date when doing these, which means he's probably mid to late 20s in the beginning of the first half and he's in his 30s by the end of this half, which includes photos collected as recently as February 10, 2022.


( Don't be nibblin' on my giblets. )

Finally got around to making the icons from brunette Instagram photos. I sorted by date when doing these, which means he's probably mid to late 20s in the beginning of this half and he's in his 30s by the end of the second half, which includes photos collected as recently as February 10, 2022.


( You do you, and I'll do me. And we won't do each other... probably. )

Okay, so, Ein in Netflix's Cowboy Bebop is portrayed by two dogs named Charlie and Harry. I found Charlie's instagram and got overwhelmed by the sheer number of images then forgot to look for Harry. There are a few of a dog who resembles Ein, but the one who doesn't resemble Ein is Charlie, based on the images that actually list his name. So I'm guessing they used some kind of makeup or fur dye? But then, one of the other dogs has the same fur pattern - and is possibly Harry but possibly not...

And basically what I'm saying is that since I couldn't tell exactly which dog here is supposed to be Ein I just expanded this to be a generic Corgi set with Charlie's instagram as a source and included several of the doggos, so long as they appeared to be Corgi.


( Bark! )

Just a micro-set of live action Ein from a quick search for promo images.


( Woof. )

Turns out, some of the icons I made that are just micro-movements apart from one another don't actually look different at such a small size... and I may have potentially forgotten to prune a few screencaps that were very similar. But I do not have the mental energy required to prune and re-save the set, so just pretend it isn't slightly redundant in places.

No colour correction attempts - just a bit of toying around with shades and vibrancy of colours - went into this, because that would defeat the entire purpose of the aesthetic. Also, caps used are from the lovely capseroo whose image sets are an absolute dream to work with. Check 'em out, mkay?


( Bang. )

Idk what happened to my download of this video, or VLC, or... whatever part went wrong in the process, but I had to trash about a quarter of the caps made and over half the icons because they were just too fuzzy and low quality to justify saving. It looks fine on YouTube, even on a 4k television, so... That's weird af. Maybe I caught all the off-frames or something? I mostly did these to capture Ethan being a flaily dork, though, and I think I managed alright. Or at least alright enough not to endure the effort of re-downloading and re-capping.


( I need water! I need sustenance! My body needs something! There's too much athletics; I'm gonna pass out! )

I hate working with Riverdale's lighting and colour grading so fucking much, I legit put this set on hold for nearly two years to avoid having to edit the images. Then I made myself finally tackle the project today... and it essentially took over my entire day and destroyed everything I actually planned to do. But at least I'm done with it, ugh!


( People have already seen what's underneath, and it's terrifying. )

More of the blue floof, made from random images (and a few gifs) I had laying around. He's adorable, okay?


( Commit once, measure... nonce. )