Weekend DE, anyone?

[aisforamy]

Who do you use for your pups' PB icons? Is it the same as another pup's? Has it caused confusion? Hilarity? Anger? What sources do you use when looking for a new PB? Are you happy with the one you have? Would you like to beg others to make icons for you?

Comments

[aisforamy]

For Bobby Drake, I use male model James Ellis

For Mother Earth, I use the actress from the commercials (Catherine Lloyd) of whom there are VERY few decent still pictures.

For Rapunzel, I currently use Christina Applegate - I'm not especially thrilled with that one, but it's hard to find actresses with many different hair lengths with her coloring.

For Mallory Grace, I just gave her a new PB in Odette Yustman, who I think I will be very happy with.

For Karl (and soon for KK) I just use icons made from their comic images.

I find a lot of good PBs at Hollow Art and also over at PB Updates.

[creationofwill]

What would the ideal Rapunzel PB be like, for you?

[campkilkare]

I try to use PBs that are impossible to find because I hate myself and love to suffer.

No just kidding, I don't know why I do that, but it keeps happening. Although Jada Pinkett and Logan Browning are both working now. But their shows are not popular with fandom, and I am not a good capper.

(If anyone would like to cap HawthoRNe or Meet the Browns for me, I would... actually I would probably donate paid time for such a service.)

I used Beyonce and Lady Gaga as PBs for a couple of Mid-World goddess recently, which proves I have lost my mind I think.

[campkilkare]

Oh Logan Browning also has some Youtube movies she's uploaded; I have managed to icon them before. Rose's current default icon is actually from one of them.

If Rose decides to change her hairstyle to a twist out when she starts college you will know why.

[misslucyjane]

Most of my characters have actors so finding pictures or icons isn't too difficult. For jack_inthegreen I use David Wenham, Billy Boyd and Bernard Hill, depending on what time of year it is (Billy is spring, Bernard is winter, David is summer and fall) and, really, who I'm in the mood for. Most of the icons I made myself or people gifted me with.

For verse_libre, I use mostly Don Marquis's drawings of archy. When he was human for Cubefall last year I used a picture of Don Marquis himself. It seemed appropriate.

<-- breaking out the Milli-icon. Archy didn't fit, alas.

[creationofwill]

I've always really liked how you do jack_inthegreen's icons and never had the OOC channel to tell you that. When I first started making icons, multiple times when I got fed up and gave up, you were always one of the one that inspired me to try again. <3

[alpha-orionis-v.livejournal.com]

Since all of mine are from visual canons, it makes the PBs (in all but one case) really easy.

However, I currently hold a monopoly on Simon Pegg pups, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I've done so partly for the lulz. I know that there's a Dennis Doyle, Shaun Riley, and Hugh Campbell out there somewhere, but I haven't seen any of them in at least two years (Nicholas Angel was on that inactive list as well, until I adopted him recently).

Mostly on the basis of weight, Gus doesn't bear as close a resemblance to the others as one might expect. However, Tim and Jools could almost be twins, and I very strongly encourage people to play off of this (mostly because it annoys the piss out of Tim). Nicholas is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as Gus. He resembles quite closely the other Pegg pups, but he doesn't really share any other trait other than a similar face. Where as all of the rest are a bit more laid back and will just roll with the punches, Nicholas is all about rules, and he makes that very clear up front.

(With the exception of Gus, and that was for plot reasons) I've been very strict about using icons from the specific source. So, even though Tim and Jools are almost identical, their icons are totally unique to their characters.


Rusty has been fairly easy to find icons for, as well. Or at least, he would be if I could be arsed to actually cap a few episodes. His lack of good icons is totally my fault.


Harold was sort of a pain in the arse as well, if only because once again, I couldn't be arsed to take my own caps until I realised that there wasn't really an abundance of good ones out there.


Chandler's easy as pie. I've got 40 DVDs worth of episodes to choose from. Since he's currently in the midst of series 1, all of his icons are from series 1. When he switches over to series 2, I plan on updating all of his icons, and will continue to follow this trend for as long as I play him, since he has some rather dramatic physical changes throughout the show.


Now, Teller... He is by far the most difficult case I have. I wanted to make it abundantly clear that I'm playing a fantasy character version, and not the real person, so I've deliberately gone out of my way to avoid 99% of all of the icon fodder out there. Originally, I wanted to do like the other seven pups, and have his icons ONLY come from his specific source. Unfortunately in this case, that source is a 40-minute film that aired in Showtime in 1987 (Invisible Thread). Quality is therefore rather predictable (ie- shite). After a bit of inner struggle, I broke down and fetched a few icons from their feature film from 1989 (Get Killed). Even now, those icons bother me. A main reason for that has to do with the fact that the universes of the two films are sort of related. Specifically, in the terms of Get Killed, Invisible Thread is a film that the characters did (confused yet?). I always feel like that in using icons from two sources, I'm implying that both sources follow the same time line. Basically, it's sort of a case of Rock, Me, Hard Place. D:

[mic-soldier.livejournal.com]

Heh, I am applying for a Simon Pegg pup next month as well. I wonder if that means we ought to talk? I have never dealt with that situation before. XD

The fact you can keep each within canon is interesting and a respected ability. I am unable to do so with my Evangelion character, despite the fact each canon hardly has a lack of Rei resources. Anno practically slaps us around the face with Rei imagery. I am unsure of why I cannot stick.

Whenever I run into low quality resource, I filter the icon in some way that fits the canon's genre. Which has mixed success as I am quite the beginner with Photoshop (and thus tends to end in my abusing my sister or girlfriend's powers). It sounds like you need an icon that says such as "I don't hate my canon's resources, it hates me!" in the very last case.

[amrin-20012002.livejournal.com]

The only characters I have more than one icon for, I have because other people have taken pity on me, namely Elthon and Leesha.

I have no graphics foo. :-(

[alpha-orionis-v.livejournal.com]

I'm lame at icons, too. I just crop caps, and call it good. lol

[creationofwill]

I basically have to utilize icons from across all Evangelion canons and fanart to be able to fill spaces. If I stuck to my own canon alone (main manga) I wouldn't even have 15 (which was a problem for a really long time when I was trying to be picky).

But now I can utilize whatever I want for icons because the creator said 'whatever someone says is canon is canon', so now all my icons fit if I say they do. Cheating! :D

Despite the fact Gorillaz is, um, Gorillaz, most my icons there have to come from fanart.

When I was playing Heero, I occasionally nabbed icons from the manga BLAME! because it looked more like older Heero than actual canon did. (When you've got an age gap of bar = 20 and canon = 15, you get a little desperate).

Other than that, generally when I play a fandom (Kingdom Hearts exception) I'm the one making icons for the players in that fandom. It gets kinda weird for me because I get assaulted by my own work and eventually I can't even remember what I did make or didn't, since generally I'm not credited.

And hey, if anyone ever wants icons, I literally make hundreds a week for shits and giggles. I'll happily fill anyone's icon spaces if given a source. :D

[creationofwill]

That actually makes me think of a question drawn from that: drawn icons versus photo icons, animated versus stills, designed icons versus cap-only.

I've always wondered how much the differences in these thing affect things for other rpers.

[mic-soldier.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I prefer icons that say things in text rather than display imagery, but I have kept this away from rp because I feel as if other may object to such a thing.

[mercuriazs.livejournal.com]

ELIJAAAAAAAH.

... Uh. If there's a secret cache of Elijah Wood icons that I don't know about, dear God somebody point me to it.

[creationofwill]

I sort of get the feeling they breed themselves to life around you through an influence over time and space. :D

[hour-of-tara.livejournal.com]

I always fear making icon because I fear losing my icon space and therefore all of my poses, in the future, having the wrong icon assigned.

Icon paranoia... I really am special, sigh.

[mymagicnumber.livejournal.com]

If you're special than so am I!

[a1enzo]

When Enzo's human, I use Leo Legrand, with eyes 'shopped purple, thus far. However, fairly soon I ought to switch to something older, and I can't find any older pictures of Legrand, so that means a new PB. The best feature-match I've been able to find is Thomas Dekker, particularly as John Connor. (Clean-shaven and longer bangs only. The messy bangs are a crucial part of Enzo's visual identity.)

[mymagicnumber.livejournal.com]

What happens if a character knows that John Connor? Is it ignored or used for possible plot?

[mymagicnumber.livejournal.com]

...I just marvel over nobody commenting on your icon choice to your post, hee!

Because I have abolutely no icon space, I depend on everyone I'm rping with to come up with the right icons for the situation. I am possibly, possibly way too lazy at hand. :D

[aisforamy]

I love my icons! I used to have paid accounts, just for the icon space, but it got too expensive!

[ceitfianna]

My PBs are a real mix and a lot of them come about because I just see someone and go oh you work. So for some of the book ones, they might not match the description, but they fit the image in my head.

Will has James MacAvoy as his PB and I honestly don't remember how I picked him. I was looking around for red headed models and then he just came into my head and I went yes. Most of Will's icons have been made my other people, because I don't know how to make red hair. Though I've found a lot of good ones where the look works so much that I don't mind if the hair's off. Atonement, a beautiful and depressing movie has provided some great too old icons for him. Yet its interesting that I get rather picky about which images I use, because he has to seem like Will.

Sameth's PB is a British singer named Will Young who I found while searching on Hollow Art. In one of the images, he just had this look that just said Sameth to me. Most of my icons are from Hollow Art and Ashie has made me some lovely ones and added Charter Marks.

Demeter has two PBs because in my mind she looks older in the Winter and younger in the Spring/Summer. Chat actually helped me figure her out, because I was unsure about apping her and browsing online. I knew her PBs had to be sensual and look like they could just hug you. So I ended up with Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, who work so wonderfully. I also use art of Demeter that I've found.

Moist was a rather unexpected one. I was looking through Hollow Art and I stumbled upon this set of Jude Law in Wilde, he had the right, innocent look and also almost too smart in his eyes. Since then I haven't looked back, he makes the best faces and I love how he's slightly over the top, I think that's important for a Discworld pup.

Jane, Tumnus and the Pirate King all have movie canons so it hasn't been too hard to find icons. For Jane and the PK, I've had to do some searching because RP icons require more expressions. The icons I've made for Jane are the first ones I've ever really posted on an icon comm and people seem to like them.

In terms of doppelgangers, I think they're actually a lot of fun. Though it all depends on what the other players feel like. So Moist slightly resembles Watson and Will was almost a doppelganger for Tumnus and Tom Lefroy.

[badninja.livejournal.com]

Everyone keeps mentioning Hollow Art and I am so blank as to what it is, apparently I've missed an obvious resource somehow. DD:

The icons for Moist is what I noticed first because you picked some that play off the character really well. So that's what got me intrigued to follow him at first.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

For Ben Grimm I use icon's I've made from covers or pages from comics. Soon I may need a human face for Ben so if anyone has suggestions, I'm open.

For Val von Doom I've been using Adrianne Palicki and I'm mostly happy with her. She does seem a bit too old as Val is only 16. I'm also not so sure she has as innocent face as I imagine Val does but I have no clue who else to use. Claire Danes comes to mind but trying to imagine Dr. Doom interacting with Claire Danes is making my brain melt.

For Thalia, daughter of Zeus I use a model named Annalee and I'm not quite happy with her. She has the gravitas I would expect a daughter of Zeus to have but she's not fierce/angry enough. She also doesn't have short spiky black hair and she looks too old, at this point Thalia's only 12. Feel free to offer any suggestions as long as it is not that girl from Skins that fandom seems to love. Sorry, that girl is not fierce enough for the Thalia I have in my head.

When I was first thinking of applying Jenks to Milliways I was going to use Errol Flynn as a PB. Only problem was that Errol Flynn isn't blond and he seemed too bulky. I next used Cary Elwes when I was testing Jenks out in mixed_muses and was pretty happy with him. Then when I actually app'ed I came across Apolo Ohno and he always seemed to be about to fly so I chose him. I might go back to Cary Elwes though...if I even bring Jenks back in that is.

Barbie gets screen grabs from whatever film I am having her in. I found most of her stuff from fan sights which I have bookmarked at work.

Usagi is another pup who I use icons I've made from covers and pages of his comic. Same deal with Santo.

As to sights and resources, if I have no ideas for actors or models to use I browse Hollowed Art. I browse the sight if I do have an idea but use google image search and make my own as well.

[ceitfianna]

Val's PB is effective, she looks a lot like the comics which is difficult.

[bcgphoenix]

All of mine are from visual canons, so I haven't had to pick a PB myself; I just use the actors who play them. Doppelgangers have also never been an issue for them personally, mostly because nobody else has used Alessandro Juliani, Richard Speight Jr., or Tina Majorino as a PB.

(...though once upon a time, newredshoes and I floated the idea of the Trickster being mistaken for the Band of Brothers incarnation of Skip Muck -- if only briefly. And I remain just awful enough to wish, on occasion, for another AJ-based pup to wander in and initiate a "I'M NOT A CYLON I CAN'T BE A CYLON OHGODS *HYPERVENTILATE*" from Gaeta. Sorry, Felix.)

[morethanprops]

Well, he keeps appearing in things, you never know. Some day, someone might.

I admit to having far too much fun with doppelgangers though the way it tends to happen with me is my pup is a book one and the other is visual.

[newgoldenage.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of stuck with Luke here - there are plenty of icons out there for Luke Able, who plays him in the movie, but Luke just doesn't fit my mental image of him, but on the other hand there aren't man actors I can think of who do (the closest I can get is "an evil, blond Seth Green"). So I'm just using this one icon for the moment until I decide.

[newgoldenage.livejournal.com]

....er. That should be Jake Abel. sorry 'bout that.

[seigaku-no-neko.livejournal.com]

*hopelessly late to the party*

For Eiji's PB here I could have picked any of the 5+ actors who have played him in the Prince of Tennis Musical.

The musical. I kid you not, friends.

I picked Seto Kouji, the guy who played Eiji in the musical I went to see in Japan. XD

[aisforamy]

I don't know anything buy the vaguest concept of Prince of Tennis, but...a musical? Wow.

[gorgonfondness]

I find who I can, which means some PBs aren't consistent. My only consistent PB is Nellie's, who is Rachel Bella.

I just kinda find what I can find. I tend to stick with Mia's canon pictures since she's got a ton of canon. All the same story, but told in at least four different games and one illustrated novel, so lots of different artwork.

[minkhollow]

Most of mine come from visual canons, but I've had to pick for a few. When I played Jane Lane, I just stuck with cropped images from the cartoon (though Christina Ricci was batted around the fanbase as a suitable live-action face for a while). Never did find a good PB for Morwen, though.

Conflict Diamond is someone named Tamala Jones, who I found on Hollow Art.

Cata is Natalie Dormer, also courtesy of Hollow Art browsing. I saw her default icon, with that faintly amused and slightly evil smirk, and went '...hells yes, that's her.'

Sam is possibly my most hilarious PB choice, and has a story to go with it. Last January, I went to visit a friend in Denver - the one who really pushed Villains By Necessity at me - and she had me watch Dr. Horrible for the first time. Right about the beginning of Act II, I went "...So Friend! Billy and Sam, separated at birth yes/no?" And she went '...YES.'
So: Sam is Neil Patrick Harris. I am totally cool with people mistaking him for Doc (or Barney, if we get another Barney, or any other NPH characters we get) at a first glance, because a spot of confusion is lolz.

(Also, there's a dear_mun thread from earlier in the week where someone was using Claudia - not just Allison Scagliotti, but Claudia - as a PB for Rachel Grey.)

[mickandbono.livejournal.com]

I chose Nathan because well honestly the Crack of it all. And there had to be one more doppelganger in the bar. That and I was sure Castle would make Rook look just like him self.

[sdelmonte]

Ah, the advantage of using characters from films or TV.

I have toyed with used Damien Lewis for Charlie, but never quite got around to it. Maybe I should ponder that some more.

[aisforamy]

http://www.hollow-art.com/base/damian-lewis If you ever decide to go with Damien Lewis, there are a lot to choose from, here!

[death_gone_mad]

For both Amascut and Evil Chicken, I wanted to avoid canon pictures... because, well, Runescape's low quality graphics are one of the most embarrassing aspects of the game.

Oh well, the bad graphics make the game mostly platform independent.

So anyway, Amascut's PB is Yasmin Abd El Aziz (only one of the the possible transliterations of her name, which sometimes makes finding pictures difficult), an Egyptian actress. At first I searched for red headed middle easterners, since I knew they existed, but most redheads, where ever they live, have very fair skin. There are exceptions, but the only pictures there are of such people are in black and white. Amascut canonically has dark skin, so I settled with finding a suitable PB and potatoshop her hair red. My first try was the Canadian-Egyptian model Christine Solomon... but ugh... models! They always wear the same damned expression in pictures. Yasmin, though, has in a bunch of romantic and comedic movies, so she had tons of useful expression. Her problem, though, is that 'cappers love capping moments when she is all doe-eyed and looking submissive. Thank goodness for the cell phone commercials she did. No doe-eyed submissive moments there. She screws up her face so marvelously -- its a pity that I ran out of icon space.

Chickens naturally look evil, so I had no problem with Evil Chicken's icons.

[ashen_key]

Ah, PBs. And icons. Trudy and Camille are very simple - being movie-pups, their icons are of Michelle Rodriguez and Olga Kurylenko, who actually played them. And Adiva and I have millicanoned a not-quite-doppleganger siutation with Carmela and Trudy, which makes me laugh.

Medusa is Navi Rawat - I was trying to find a middle-eastern actress, which just wasn't working, and then stumbled across a batch of icons of her on Hollow Art from her guest appearance on Angel. Clearly, the wild dark hair + blood painted on her face = Medusa in my head.

Esfir is Olga Kurylenko. I actually picked her up before Camille, but fortunately Camille and Esfir don't really look anything alike. I was after someone obviously Slavic and attractive, but who looked tough instead of skeletal. And Olga has the best. expressions. ever.

Kait is Demi Lovato, mostly because I went to Hollow Art and started looking through all the Hispanic teenage girls, and Demi has the right looks along with the right kind of glamour for Kait.

[notnathaniel.livejournal.com]

A good deal of mine already have PBs assigned to them, whether through their TV or movie!canon, so I've gotten off lucky in that department. To avoid a tl;dr, I'll just talk about the pups without official PBs.

The ones who don't, I've usually had help from others to find, if a good scouring through Hollow-Art or other such places are unsuccessful. James and Albus are two examples of someone finding a perfect PB for me. For bb!James, I use Leo Legrand and adult!James is Emile Hirsch. Both boys I love. They're perfect to depict James' energy, mischief, and general Potter genes. I also love my PB for Albus: Logan Lerman. There's a very worldly, young, intelligent/intellectual look to Logan, he's also got a spark of Potter mischief when he wants to be, and he's adorable.

I'm aware there are a few other Logan!pups in the Bar, and the only 'hilarity' I've so far reaped from the doppelganger effect was when Albus caught the PB flu and acted like he was Percy Jackson for a bit.

Speaking of Percy Jackson, my PJO pups are the ones I'm still having difficulties with, PB-wise. Annabeth uses a combination of stock, models, Alex Daddario and Mika Boorem. I wanted a blonde girl who will really fit the Annabeth bill, but I haven't found one I'm perfectly content with yet.

I love my choice for adult!Nico (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but I'm not as pleased with my choice for bb!Nico, whom I'm playing right now. I use the actor Gabe Nevins, but he's very unknown which means there are next to no pictures for him. I had to get the only movie I know by him and cap some pics from there (and the movie really is not good) after the appropriate Hollow-Art icons ran out. He's got the right Nico attitude (kind of sulky, really heavy in thought, still very much a kid, dark, etc.) but his look isn't right to me. But until I find another kidlet who matches Nico better, he'll just have to do.

I am generally happy with my choices for Nathaniel. Bb!Nat is played by Lou Taylor Pucci and adult!Nat is Bin Bons. The only issues I'm having with Lou is his lack of young-looking icons. Sometimes Lou will look 5-10 years older than he really is, all in the same photoshoot! Which. Gah. I'd nearly gone for Nicholas Hoult to play Nat because he's got the same snarky look about him, and I still haven't ruled him out entirely, but I feel like his face is a bit too severe for what the Nat in my head looks like.

[genarti]

Almost all of my current ones are from visual canons. For past characters, Will Stanton I mostly played back in the day when icons were less important. I used Topher Grace for him, because he was the first guy I found with a 70s haircut and the right kind of coloring; I might look a lot further if I were doing it now. Alain was also from a book, and I used a random blond guy on Getty for him, when I wasn't using non-facial pictures or group shots from Jeff Buckley's band.

River is from a reasonably popular visual canon and Summer Glau has gone on to more roles, so pictures of her are pretty easy to find. Yay! Except that my River's now several years older than the canonical one, and Summer's later roles and photoshoots have (reasonably enough) tended to have her do things like brush her hair and wear makeup. I've been trying to use increasingly older icons for her, but some pictures work for River and some just don't, so really I use a mix. (Shati is, however, a total rockstar for the time she Photoshopped makeup off a bunch of Summer-as-Cameron icons for me.) For a couple of AU threads, I've used Catherine Zeta-Jones as an adult River, but I don't really expect to do that in game-canon ever.

Trowa is another one who's several years older than his screencaps indicate. But he's animated, so there's no actor to age up along with him. I just shrug, and try for relatively older-looking (that is, thinner-faced) screencaps when I can. It also means, alas, that I can never change his hairstyle, unless I switch right over to an actor PB while I'm at it. (I figure eventually that hairstyle will have to stop being common and unremarkable, as it presumably is in GWverse, and then Trowa will switch, because he's not the kind to have an eye-catching hairdo for its own sake. Sadly, icons mean that will probably not happen during his tenure at Milliways.)

Hawkeye is also from an animated canon, and she's from the canon timeline. And a major enough character to be onscreen a lot. Easy!

Lan is from a book. I use Clive Owen from the movie King Arthur for his icons. Ways in which he's excellent: he has the right coloring, he makes grim faces and infinitesimal expression, he wears armor and carries a sword and otherwise dresses in old-fashioned (late-Roman) fashion. And Keira Knightley (Moiraine's PB) was in that movie as Guenevere, and he's been in other movies with Angelina Jolie, and both of these things are handy for icons too. Plus it's easy enough to Photoshop in a leather band around his forehead. Ways in which he's not optimal: he's a little too craggy, and his hair's way too short, and his sword and armor are the wrong style really. I supplement with Getty icons of katanas and canon quotes and so forth.

Regan is from a visual canon, but she only has one scene in it. My icons were thus very limited until the last milli_icons Secret Santa thing, in which I got several more because yakalskovich is awesome.

Edel, again: visual canon, screencaps. Honey: ditto. Piotr, not that I really play him these days: comic, which means a whole ton of different artists, but again it's a visual medium, and I took all his icons from there. I never did find a good PB for him, not that I looked all that hard. (The guy they got to play him in the movie wasn't bad at all, but he was way too young for the era I was playing Piotr from.)

[genarti]

Oh, and for both River and Lan, I've played it that there's a certain resemblance to other people who share the same PB, but that they don't look precisely alike. You might mistake them at a quick glance, but not at a long one. This has been most relevant with River and Cameron, and they dress differently and move differently as well as not looking quite alike. (This includes the aforementioned makeup and hair-brushing.)

Will is the only one who's had a doppelganger; way back in the day, we had some That 70s Show characters around who mistook him for Topher Grace's actual character. He was never in-bar AFAIK, though, so it was only confusing for Hyde et al.