InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Expelliarmus!"

Amihan (ə-'mi-hən) (camalyng) wrote in find_icons,
@ 2016-01-21 22:21:00

where I find icons
Not looking for anything this time, but I thought I'd share the places and techniques I use in icon hunting.

wikicon's memories: Good for older sets, but hasn't updated since February 2015 (at time of posting, according to their own post), so if it's a newer role or someone who got famous more recently, I skip this. If you find posts for someone there, it can be worth checking the icon journals, as sometimes the icon maker's posted further sets that haven't yet been archived.

Googling through Insanejournal: Google site:insanejournal.com "icons" "celebrity name", possibly with "canon name" if you're after icons from a particular role (eg. site:insanejournal.com "icons" "demi lovato" "glee"). This can bring up icon journals,

pb_updates posts, posts here of other people looking for the same celebrity, and people's memories pages with links to icon posts. It will also, however, bring up communities like

pbads where people are wanting to play the face or against the face and just need icons. If you find you're getting a lot of the same journal/comm in your results (lots of

pbads posts, an icon journal where the person you're looking for is a tag but they actually only have one post), add -username or -phrase -in -journal -title to your search string to take it out (eg. site:insanejournal.com "icons" "austin butler" -glorafilia).

Googling through Dreamwidth: Again, this is Googling everyone searchable, but here you'll want to search site:dreamwidth.org "icons" "canon name", possibly with "character name" if it's not a main role. The fandom side of Dreamwidth icon making focuses more on canons and characters than the actor, though you may have some luck with musicians.

dwrp_icons's memories: This is the fandom version of

pb_updates, with the memories sorted by character. Also try using their tags to find a canon, as icon makers sometimes have more characters in their icon posts than can be added to the memories.

icons and fandom_icons: Both communities have canon tags, though there are a lot of icon makers who crosspost to both.

Tumblr: Google site:tumblr.com/post "icons" "canon name", possibly with "celebrity name" or "character name". Also try Tumblr's search function with search terms along the lines of canon name icons or celebrity name icons. For journal RP make sure you're looking at text posts with 100x100 pixel icons, because you'll often find photoset posts of larger square crops. Along with sizes, you'll also see a couple of different visual styles for icons besides the usual "prettied up crop" you get here and on DW. One has the character cut out and set onto a solid colored (often pastel) background; the other involves wide borders and grids/similar textures over the cap.

Hollow Art: Has a search function for you to plug in your celebrity name. Some of the newer icon makers do the Tumblr thing of borders and overlaid patterns, or make slightly smaller or circular icons.

The Hollowed Artists: The Tumblr that some of Hollow Art's old icon makers moved to while the website kept dying. Their index isn't up to date but they tag well, so put /tagged/celebrity name (or canon or character name) after .tumblr.com in the URL (eg. http://thehollowedartists.tumblr.com/tagged/zelda williams).

Livejournal: Better for older roles, since a lot of fandom's moved to other sites. You can search interests by canon, celebrity name, or character name to find a fandom community or an icon community for the fandom, or the Google trick but with site:livejournal.com. Icons tend to be a bit more artsy with more use of textures and creative cropping.

Other roleplayers: This is a last resort as it's more effort and a little stalkery, and mostly only works for actors in particular roles, not musicians or other celebrity types. Google site:insanejournal.com or site:dreamwidth.org with "application" "canon name" "character name", or try "taken characters" instead of "application". The goal is to find other people's character journals and hope that they've credited their icons so you can go to the icon makers.

I hope this is useful to someone! Feel free to add anything you use as well.

(Post a new comment)

	fuckyeahbadgers 2016-01-21 09:54 am UTC (link)
	That is useful, thanks! Bookmarking. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	camalyng 2016-01-22 07:26 am UTC (link)
	Mission "useful to someone else" accomplished :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

	blackflame28 2016-01-21 03:04 pm UTC (link)
	This is amazing! Thank you! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	camalyng 2016-01-22 07:26 am UTC (link)
	You're welcome! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	lemniscate 2016-01-21 06:54 pm UTC (link)
	I always forget about the Hollowed Artist tumblr, so thanks for reminding me. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	camalyng 2016-01-22 07:27 am UTC (link)
	No problem! I can't even remember how I came across it but now I just follow the blog. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	pemberley 2016-01-23 10:02 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks some new stuff in this :) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	camalyng 2016-01-25 02:05 am UTC (link)
	You're welcome! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	oslo 2016-01-23 10:40 pm UTC (link)
	Oh snap, I didn't actually realise ~wikicon had stopped updating. :/ That's such a bummer. EVERYONE SHOULD USE PB_UPDATES so it can become a replacement resource (Reply to this) (Thread)

	camalyng 2016-01-25 02:09 am UTC (link)
	I have the feeling they come back every so often and archive some more, but the updates are getting farther apart. :c It'd be nice if PB Updates updated their memories more often (that's why I didn't list it - I actually forget that they have memories) but at least it gets picked up by Google! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

296573
2016-01-25 03:22 am UTC (link)

First, this is great and helpful! :)

Second, I was pretty sure ~wikicon was at least very slow as I've seen recent-ish icons uploaded there (also, it can be helpful to check the iconmakers' journals as they might've been archived by wikicon for one set but have future sets as well), but it's sad to know it's at least a go slow. I've actually found it useful for some faces anyway - particular roles, or someone quite obscure especially.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	camalyng 2016-01-25 03:30 am UTC (link)
	Thank you! Wikicon is generally my first stop for people who have been around a while! I pulled the February 2015 date from their "what is this" post ~~because I actually thought it had been longer~~ but I'm glad to know they might be around a little more. That's a great tip about checking the icon makers' journals - I'll add that into the main post. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

296573
2016-01-25 03:36 am UTC (link)

You are welcome.

It is for me as well. I think candids/photoshoots can work for a few years after, too, depending on the person you're using, the downside can be less similar expressions but still. I actually had thought it was longer - I know there's some Gotham actor sets that have been added which is what I was thinking of. I hope they might be. It can really work for some. For others not so much but it is definitely a viable option if they're still iconning.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

oslo
2016-01-25 05:11 pm UTC (link)

Now I keep pondering if there's a better way to crowdsource this, because I know it's a HUGE burden either way to ask 1-2 people to do all the archiving for absolutely all of iconlandia... But since I think there's a limit on how many tags a journal can have, it would probably have to be a community where any iconmaker can be a moderator and can thus add their own memories. Which is probably a bit of a risky bet to open it up to Everyone Ever administrating it. :x

Every other option I can think of still has a bunch of admin labour, or would be totally untenable (like a public Google spreadsheet). Why is this so haaaard.

But which also goes to show, thank you so much for compiling this! ♥

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

maxicons
2016-01-30 05:16 am UTC (link)

I think it might be a bit risky to let ever maker ever do it but it could be an add on that makers have to request to do so and while it would add some admin to people in charge they could check every 2-3 months if people are adding their icons or not and remove access or not. It might seem a bit harsh but I think there might be a way to make something like that work.

I don't really know! I think you might be onto a good thought path!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	katesong 2016-02-12 07:14 am UTC (link)
	I'm not an icon maker, but could there be a couple of 'main' mods and they could be available for new tags/going through to see if sets don't have a pb name tag, etc? Just an idea. (Reply to this) (Parent)