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Abbysidian

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It's been a while! I'm livestreaming a photo manip on my twitch. Stop by and say Hi in the chat<3 https://www.twitch.tv/binhsy

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I've always liked the idea of spotlighting designs and resources. It's a great way to give appreciation to those that have inspired me. I did a few of this on my portfolio on another site, but instead of spotlighting multiple obsessions, I wrote a long ode/spazz about a particular artist every few months. Upon seeing Evey-V 's monthly favorites, I thought "what a wonderful idea", and I'm jumping on the favorites train! I wanted to include things that really helped me struggle less throughout the month (lol!) such as music, videos, books, etc. I didn't want to make this journal restricted to just February content, so there's a few things that are not recent. Starting next journal, I'll find content from the current month! I hope you enjoy this!

For the Love of! Music

I'm posting a few favorites of older music that I've been constantly listening to. I don't care much about language barriers, so there's going to be a few foreign songs. My tastes are pretty much eclectic, so there's a plethora of genres. I'll put the genre and my thought on the song as well. 

The first song goes to my home country, Vietnam. Love him or hate him, Son Tung MTP's song Lạc Trôi is too catchy. If you're into EDM music, this song is your cup of tea. The music video is so nice and pretty, and if you don't like the music, you'll like the aesthetics. Trust me. 


The second song is Redbone by Childish Gambino. I honestly love the psychedelic soul/R&B feel of this song. It's such a lovely ambient song that I've been vibing to in the car, or longboarding with friends. I don't particularly listen to Childish Gambino, or know much about his other songs, but this song is climbing up my favorite song list lightening fast. 


Stephen is one of those artists that one would consider a poet. "Start a Fire" featuring the poetic IN-Q is an absolutely stunning song. His music builds and builds until everything becomes so full, the weight of the song makes you want to close your eyes and nod your head to the beat. This live version of the song showcases how pure and talented Stephen is. One thing to keep in mind, DON'T sleep on this man. An alternative sound mixed with synths and dubstep, his recent album is brilliant. If anything, I recommend this artist to those who listen to Oh Wonder, khushi, eden, or any indie band. 


Another amazing artist to watch out for is Jarryd James. His song "1000x" with Broods will soothe your heart and make you feel like you're floating on a cloud of bliss. The music video is captivating, and the message is pure. 


That's all for this month! Hit me with those song recommendations guys, I love to find new music/artists!


For the Love of! Spotlight


It's not hard to fall in love with mayra's (rogers-shield ) graphics. I've always loved her light, pastel-like graphics, but when she decides to play with colors, it turns out amazing! This particular signature is stunning in the most elegant and natural way. Not only is the color palette pleasing, the use of stock, pattern, and font compliments the composition so well.




For the Love of! Covers/Poster


I originated from a site called AsianFanfics, and it's very similar to Wattpad in that it allows writers to post images to showcase the story. Over there, the term is called "poster". When I tested out Wattpad, I learned that it was called "cover". There's differences between the two styles, and each are very unique, but I'm combining them in one FtLo.
WATTPAD COVER | as we crumble by Diagonas ERA II VOCAL CODEX by Carlos-Quevedo
Poster (371) by Melie-12 The Other Letter by Dellaburies



For the Love of! Blends


The Angels Are Crying by eleganceuss145 - Myrcella by Vanessax17Big World Blend by xcrusnik


(left to right)
Orpheusz , Vanessax17 , xcrusnik 


For the Love of! Banners


Good one banner by Kosmos52
Spring by ElasticArt



(top to bottom)
Kosmos52 , ElasticArt

For the Love of! Signatures


Possessed by run-on-gasoline
Paper Heart by SpringSabila

(top to bottom)
run-on-gasoline , SpringSabila 

For the Love of! Textures

10 Scratchedlight Textures by monstreumTextures - Smoke by So-ghislaineTexture Pack 7 by huruekrn-ackles
zhigan2014223 by pearl7052


For the Love of! Stocks

100 stock photos by Royalites

For the Love of! PNGs


Pack 18 PNG'S #2 by cartooneyesPNG medieval house - 038 by HermitCrabStockPapers PNG by freezinka

For the Love of PSDs


PSD # 36 [Love You Goodbye] by marioantonio23OUAT PSD #3 - First Day In Storybrook by sylvador123PSD #52 by RavenOrlov

For the Love of! Resource Packs


Resource Pack #1 by RavenOrlov

For the Love of! Patterns

Animal Prints Photoshop Patterns by redheadstockPatterns .36 by crazykira-resources


For the Love of! Credits

Works that use my resources in stunning ways. 
Tom Hiddleston by blondehybridBelieve in magic. by gloryparadise
We Don't Talk Anymore by SpringSabilaBlend #3 (Broken Wings) by SmilerGorl9

Home by gloryparadiseOut by VanderkPoeh
Riptide by its-raining-artStrong | Luhan Blend by serendipify

Catching Fire by SpringSabilaSchizophrenic by angelladyara


For the Love of! Designers


For my first favourite journal, I have to talk about RavenOrlov ! Not only does she have amazing resources, but her graphics are STUNNING. There is no flaw in what she does, EVER. I can sit in her gallery for hours and still want to view everything 100 more times. Her use of negative space blows my mind. She has so much control over her compositions, from utilizing planes and dimensions, negative and positive space, font choice, and coloring. She mixes textures and stocks together like a pro. Whenever I need inspiration, her gallery is the first one I visit. I'm pretty sure that half of her page views are from me (lol!). I love your designs so much, and I know this is exceedingly cheesy and fangirl-y, but really, thanks for being such a presence to not only me, but many others on this site!

Interview time! I've always loved interviews. I believe that they foster a better understanding of designers, from their design process to their personality. Raven was kind enough to accept this interview from me, and nominate the next person to be interviewed (announced at the end). Let's begin!

It's such an honor to be able to interview you! I, like many others, found you through your amazing resources, but there's no doubt in anyone's mind that you're one hell of a designer! Let's start off with a warm up to let people know more about the girl behind RavenOrlov!

My name is Kıvılcım but all of you know of me by my deviantArt name which is actually the name of my favorite RPG character. When I took Raven Orlov as a name, my first purpose was not to torture you guys with all that Turkish letters. Also it sounded cool? A bit? But honestly it became somehow funny since I keep getting notes in Russian. I always google translate them. They keep me entertained and I will never ever regret choosing a Russian name.

I am 23 years old and have been in college since 2012, studying Translation and Interpreting in English-German. I hope to become a conference interpreter in the future if I somehow manage to graduate. I wish my hopelessness didn't show but... yeah, Raven is not graduating soon.

Good luck on your endeavors! I've wandered upon a few Russian comments on your graphic before (stalking? what stalking?), that pretty funny! Now that we know a little bit about you, let's get down to the juicy designing details. How long have you been a designer, and how did you first get started?

I first started using PS to make signatures for my RPG characters. I think it has been more than nine years but believe me most of that time was only cropping images, putting them side by side and writing names on them with atrocious fonts. In bleeding colors. Sometimes when going through my old files I still see some of those and want to punch my keyboard. It's not that I think being a beginner is a bad thing, not at all, what's bad is all the graphic trends in my time (huh, feeling old) were SO UGLY and I was in that phase for a loooong time. It was only when I decided to make a deviantArt account that I got better. People here helped me in many ways and I'm still thankful. 2014 was a transformation year for me.

I can't even begin to imagine the lack of tools available back then! Nine years is a very long time, and I'm sure you've got a few good tricks up your sleeve. Are there any advice you can give to aspiring designers?

What created my style was moving out of my comfort zone and I will never ever get tired of saying this; leave your comfort zone. You may be able to do things in a way that makes you content with it but after mastering something, always move on to the next challenge. Don't keep dwelling on it or repeating it in every single graphic you make. Always aim for something new, something you are unfamiliar with. Soon you'll master new ways and will be able to combine them in a unique way, which ultimately leads to creating your own style.

Also I would like to share a tip which I follow myself too. It has been only a few months since I started to play with my canvas a lot and this is something I'd recommend to anyone. For example, if you are making a signature (500x200) just for once open a different canvas size, like 800x320 and do what you normally would do. After you are done, paste the work you made in 800x320 into a 500x200 canvas. Using transform tool, play around with it. See how it looks by positioning your main focus into different parts of the canvas. This way I learned using different canvas focuses and it really helped a lot! And it's easier to work in a bigger canvas too.

I love your second tip, it's such a great and new way to look at compositons, and breaking the habit of reusing familiar placements. It sounds like you put a lot of work into your designs. Is there a thought process behind your works?

There are two kinds of graphics I make; the emotional kind and the not that emotional kind. My thought process is rather simple, I work better if any fandom is involved. That's my emotional kind. They give me a hard time but in the end I always like them better because I feel like paying tribute to something that I love. I listen to soundtracks, I read quotes and after that just go with the flow. It's like creating a story with just one graphic, it's overwhelming but rewarding too. The other kind is where I use model pngs and make graphics of pretty people when feeling lazy. No thought process at all, just aiming for what looks better. The overall theme is lacking, it's a bunch of stocks put together with no intent of providing a story. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy it but in the end I feel less satisfied with my work.

No wonder why your graphics are always so striking!  I love the story behind your LotR blend. It made me recall the storyline, and the emotions felt while watching it. Your graphics are always so dynamic, in part by the wide range of movement seen in your characters. When choosing models, what sort of things do you look for in regards to poses, types of people, or mood?

This is actually really important and I haven't given it much thought until now surprisingly. First, I always avoid plain standing poses. I love incorporating models with stocks and in order to manage that you need 'moving' people. Or people being people. You need poses of real life. A graphic may be still but the overall theme doesn't have to be. It's easy to give the feeling of 'movement' with appropriate poses. Making models interact with the stocks is in my opinion a hard thing but essential too. In that regard usually stills from movies/series work better for me rather than studio photo shoots.

Ahh movies and series, the crack of all fangirls/fanboys. Are there any TV shows/movie/anime you're obsessed with?

Guys, I'm a fangirl... like I'm so deep in that hole you can't imagine. First of all even if it's a video game (no it's actually a life style) I'll just say MASS EFFECT. I'm trash. I love it. I ship this game with myself. I can talk all about it for days but I'm just stopping here without it's too late with great pain. I mean in the end I have a million more obsessions to talk about xD Like Avatar The Last Airbender and the sequel Legend Of Korra. I won't even tell you about my OTP at this point because people will judge... I just know it, even I judge myself because of this. But apart from these three fandoms I am usually a decent person, I'm a sucker for hospital series like Scrubs and House MD. My favorite TV series nowadays is The Walking Dead and I will love the Lord Of The Rings till the end of time.

Yes, TWD and LotR! House is such an amazing show as well! Like I mentioned above, I really like your LotR blend, so it's cool how you take something you enjoy . If you can only choose one graphic to define your style as of now, what graphic would it be?
cruel place by RavenOrlov

Duh. Best thing I ever made. I want to be remembered with this one xD Black, orange-gold tones are so me and I guess even with all the new stuff I'm trying this is my ultimate style.

Wowzers, look at that blend *whistles* Let's move on to one last question, and beware, it's a funky one! Describe your graphics using fruits (and why you chose the fruit).

I gave much thought to this and decided to say tomato, cause I still don't know if it's a vegetable or a fruit? Same thing goes with my graphics, it's somewhere in the middle. People telling me that it's a fruit but I think it's a vegetable. (Raven that blend is beautiful!) (Nooo, pls think about it again.) I promise I'll start to make sense soon.

Like right now.

Thank you Abby so much for deciding to do this interview with me, you will always be my ultimate dA crush and you should know that. In case I get too obsessed. (fair warning)

Awww thank you bb! You're the best tomato designer<3  Now here's the ultimate question for you: who would you like to nominate next For the Love of! Designers? 

I would like to nominate :iconmagicalflowerbomb: for the next spotlight designer not because she is my friend but she is one of the most helpful and enthusiastic designers out there. Kati is such a gifted designer that I would love to know all of her designing secrets. Like how the hell she manages to do such good manipulations and those fairytale-like signatures/blends? Help a girl out here Abby xD

Sure thing! Congratulations MagicalFlowerBomb , you're loved by one of my favorite designers! I will be sending you a Note soon, so please be on the lookout.
And that wraps up our interview, t
hanks so much for doing this <3

Now let's do a fun little question for everyone! I feel like everyone should take a moment and be proud of what they've made, so the question is: what is your favorite all time graphic that you've made thus far? Mine is:

Dear Theodosia Blend by Abbysidian


March is here, and we're 1/4 of the way 'till the end of 2017. Letsgo!
























































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Credits

1 min read
Thank you so much for the wonderful resources these people have provided! If you see anything I use that is not on this list, please notify me and I will add you. A link to your resource would be great so that I can favorite it and drop a comment filled with love! Again, thank you!

weheartit
spectrum  / heartsswell

deviantart
scatterflee / biancaw  / vanessax17 / discolore / carllton / piibubble141 / So-ghislaine / Fairylandalse  / evenstarss / CinderellaSymptom  /deNoctem  / waitingondhr  / psychadeliachild  / haruekrn-ackles / 4mira  / shad_designs / yeonggu  / ryeddh20 / DenysRoqueDesigns / Amalus / EveyD / KrypteriaHG / picanta / iCrystals / nk-ash / marioantonia23 / SilverMedusa / PowderedArsenic / Core-BloodDrinker / redheadstock / haruekrn-ackes / bonsociu009 / DAMIANsoul / classicluv / jannieyuu / kpoprenders / miaoaoaoao / Momotte2stocks / LeEight / Bellacrix / EnchantedWhispersArt / JannieYuu / ximi0k / RGDart / Damienworm / Alegionstock / lugubrum-stock / Nikanticordchasse / brunilde-stock / MirandaRose-stock / malleni-stock / Meltys-stock / clockstock / Rivendell-PhotoStock / almundena-stock / NickiStock / yufantastic / kamjong-kai / babyjung2 / 

AFF
MusicChibi /

More to be added!
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For the Love of! February by Abbysidian, journal

Credits by Abbysidian, journal