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Factioneering is *f*u*n*—especially when it means that there will be more icons I can make. It's okay, I haven't rushed to judgment on any of the new names that have been discussed lately. (Do feel free to put in your own ideas or comment on the names others have suggested: I've summed them up in this post.
No, here are some of the icons I've made for factions that were suggested earlier—and not all by me, either! (Perish the thought.)
The first is for the Blue Knighties, the subfaction for casefic lovers, and anyone else who likes seeing Nick in his current mortal role as detective. I've been mentioning them for a few years now, so they're old news. Oldish, anyway.
Then we have the Sparklers and Sweet Alyssums. These came out of FORKNI-L factioneering back in April and May. There were several tongue-in-cheek suggestions for a faction for Spark, the young vampire who nearly kills Natalie in "A More Permanent Hell". It was Liz the Lucky who came up with the Sparklers. (Admittedly, at the time, she was more worried about the sparkliness of vampires. I hope this icon alleviates her fears.) A few weeks later, Andrew C. suggested that the Alyssums would be perfect for Alyssa, Nick's bride in "Dead of Night".
There are plenty of history buffs in Forever Knight fandom; and, if they never formed a History Buffs faction, it can only be because there was so much discussion of the details of Nick's past on FORKNI-L and the faction lists. I mentioned the affiliation in passing in War 13, and no one batted an eye.
As for the others—well, no one seems to object to repurposing the Vetterans name (indeed, remarks indicate that people feel it makes perfect sense). The last faction is one I put forward some weeks ago, to no comment at all.
Blue Knighties:
This icon gave me one big headache: I'd used badges and police ID more than once already, so what was I to use for the symbol? The patch, which appears on the jackets of all the uniformed cops, never was shown large enough or clearly enough to be cropped out for use. Then I found it on a fake bookcover created by Susan Garrett for the Forever Knight Bookcover Contest. It was small and crudely GIF-y; but, at icon-size, it could serve.
Then I started posting enlargements. There are several icons where, because of one or more elements I composited, an enlargement is impossible. However, that doesn't mean I like it!
As you've probably guessed, I'd been an idiot. Susan had to get her picture of the police patch from somewhere: it was, of course, the one for the real Metropolitan Toronto Police of the period. Eventually, this dawned on me. I found several examples on line with no trouble at all. It simply meant doing the icon over—but to the same basic design.
The picture of Nick was an easy choice; the CN Tower had been used in the icons for the familiar Knightie factions. All I needed, therefore, was a suitable logo and a police-blue background.
Sparklers:
To me, being quite un-Twilight-y, this faction name conjured up only one image. Of course, I still had to find a suitable sparkler—one that had lots of sparks, but no extraneous images that would intrude into the icon; and one that was reasonably symmetrical. Spark is silhouetted against the glow, obviously. And then I found a font with prickly sparky bits all round the letters.
Some things are just meant to be.
History Buffs:
The problem with this icon is that Nick has such a lot of history! In the end, I went for just two periods: medieval (the wall, and the seated figure); and modern, or nearly so (the battlefield seen through the archway).
I found quite a selection of interesting scrolls to use for the logo. In the end, I decided on one that was seen face on, rather than at an angle.
Sweet Alyssums:
The only complication with this icon was working out a way for the background not to overwhelm the logo. At first, I was using a picture of multi-toned alyssum; and you simply couldn't make out the letters. However, I then switched to a photo of an all-white clump; and, once the logo was large enough and sufficiently deep in tone, it became legible. I then clipped out a few individual mauve sprigs and superimposed them lower down.
Vetterans:
The name "Vetterans" was one of the early suggestions for Tracy's faction, along with Buttons, Boutonnieres, and Fluffies. It had its adherents. Indeed, there were a few persistent types who continued to use "Vetterans" on list into early 1996. However, the affiliation was quickly established as the Perkulators (or Perks), whence, eventually, the DP. For years, therefore, that has left "Vetterans" lingering as a failed suggestion, and then only on the longest lists of faction names.
If we are considering factions for relationships that aren't strictly speaking "couples" (and, let's face it, the Cousins of the Knight are a strong precedent in that direction), then why not one for Tracy's parents and her relationship with them? And, if so, what better name could the faction have than "the Vetterans"?
There is enormous tension in that family: between Barbara and Richard (which, as we know, led to divorce), and between her parents and Tracy herself (whether in relation to her mother's drinking or her father's ambitions for her). The icon is therefore split between a dark and light side, with a very sharp blue gradient serving as the background. It runs to nearly black on the "police" side of the icon, where the badge of the Metropolitan Toronto Police symbolizes Richard. It runs nearly to white on the other side; but this should not be taken as contrastively a sign of virtue, since Barbara is symbolized by a bottle of gin. Truth is, there's wrong (and right) on both sides of the relationship.
To balance the large picture of Barbara one ought, I suppose, to have a picture of Tracy's father. However, he was never seen, nor even heard—though his words were reported often enough, and there were several scenes where Tracy is on the phone arguing with him. So, to represent him in the icon, I used a picture of Tracy on the phone!
I cleaned out the inside of the logo and laid it on a gold-toned gradient to give it a metallic sheen. The gradient runs from dark on the pale side of the icon, to a brass shade on the navy blue side. A similar metallic brass was used in the narrow border around the icon.
LambKins:
If we have a faction for the Vetters, then why not one for the Lamberts? Natalie's relationship with her brother, their grandmother, and her in-laws derives from two episodes only, "I Will Repay" and "Dead of Night"; and none of the events was referenced in later episodes (which is sadly typical). Fans have, however, explored Natalie's childhood a little; and her sister-in-law and niece are sometimes mentioned, especially in futurefic where Natalie moves away from Toronto.
As for the name...well, these are Natalie Lambert's Kin, obviously.
I googled lambs, and came up with a number of toys, one of which is prominent at the bottom of the icon. Behind Richard, Sara, and Amy, you can glimpse sheep in a field. The original painting is by Jan Bedijs Tom (1813-1894). I had to tweak it to get it to fit in the oval—not just by trimming the edges, but by extending the meadow downwards a bit. Also, when I superimposed the clipped screencaps, I found that Richard almost completely covered up a nice fat lamb; so I flipped it round and pulled it out a bit, so that you can see it better.
For the logo, I wanted something woolly-looking. I found it in Murkin Foo, a charming font with little cloud-bumps round the edges of the letters. Or Persian-lamb-bumps, if you prefer. I got the effect I wanted by doing the logo in grey letters on black, and then filling the letters in with white. A little bit of edge from the top of the M was then trimmed off; and, by myriad rotations, I used it to make the border round the oval.
No, here are some of the icons I've made for factions that were suggested earlier—and not all by me, either! (Perish the thought.)
The first is for the Blue Knighties, the subfaction for casefic lovers, and anyone else who likes seeing Nick in his current mortal role as detective. I've been mentioning them for a few years now, so they're old news. Oldish, anyway.
Then we have the Sparklers and Sweet Alyssums. These came out of FORKNI-L factioneering back in April and May. There were several tongue-in-cheek suggestions for a faction for Spark, the young vampire who nearly kills Natalie in "A More Permanent Hell". It was Liz the Lucky who came up with the Sparklers. (Admittedly, at the time, she was more worried about the sparkliness of vampires. I hope this icon alleviates her fears.) A few weeks later, Andrew C. suggested that the Alyssums would be perfect for Alyssa, Nick's bride in "Dead of Night".
There are plenty of history buffs in Forever Knight fandom; and, if they never formed a History Buffs faction, it can only be because there was so much discussion of the details of Nick's past on FORKNI-L and the faction lists. I mentioned the affiliation in passing in War 13, and no one batted an eye.
As for the others—well, no one seems to object to repurposing the Vetterans name (indeed, remarks indicate that people feel it makes perfect sense). The last faction is one I put forward some weeks ago, to no comment at all.
Blue Knighties:
This icon gave me one big headache: I'd used badges and police ID more than once already, so what was I to use for the symbol? The patch, which appears on the jackets of all the uniformed cops, never was shown large enough or clearly enough to be cropped out for use. Then I found it on a fake bookcover created by Susan Garrett for the Forever Knight Bookcover Contest. It was small and crudely GIF-y; but, at icon-size, it could serve.
Then I started posting enlargements. There are several icons where, because of one or more elements I composited, an enlargement is impossible. However, that doesn't mean I like it!
As you've probably guessed, I'd been an idiot. Susan had to get her picture of the police patch from somewhere: it was, of course, the one for the real Metropolitan Toronto Police of the period. Eventually, this dawned on me. I found several examples on line with no trouble at all. It simply meant doing the icon over—but to the same basic design.
The picture of Nick was an easy choice; the CN Tower had been used in the icons for the familiar Knightie factions. All I needed, therefore, was a suitable logo and a police-blue background.
Sparklers:
To me, being quite un-Twilight-y, this faction name conjured up only one image. Of course, I still had to find a suitable sparkler—one that had lots of sparks, but no extraneous images that would intrude into the icon; and one that was reasonably symmetrical. Spark is silhouetted against the glow, obviously. And then I found a font with prickly sparky bits all round the letters.
Some things are just meant to be.
History Buffs:
The problem with this icon is that Nick has such a lot of history! In the end, I went for just two periods: medieval (the wall, and the seated figure); and modern, or nearly so (the battlefield seen through the archway).
I found quite a selection of interesting scrolls to use for the logo. In the end, I decided on one that was seen face on, rather than at an angle.
Sweet Alyssums:
The only complication with this icon was working out a way for the background not to overwhelm the logo. At first, I was using a picture of multi-toned alyssum; and you simply couldn't make out the letters. However, I then switched to a photo of an all-white clump; and, once the logo was large enough and sufficiently deep in tone, it became legible. I then clipped out a few individual mauve sprigs and superimposed them lower down.
Vetterans:
The name "Vetterans" was one of the early suggestions for Tracy's faction, along with Buttons, Boutonnieres, and Fluffies. It had its adherents. Indeed, there were a few persistent types who continued to use "Vetterans" on list into early 1996. However, the affiliation was quickly established as the Perkulators (or Perks), whence, eventually, the DP. For years, therefore, that has left "Vetterans" lingering as a failed suggestion, and then only on the longest lists of faction names.
If we are considering factions for relationships that aren't strictly speaking "couples" (and, let's face it, the Cousins of the Knight are a strong precedent in that direction), then why not one for Tracy's parents and her relationship with them? And, if so, what better name could the faction have than "the Vetterans"?
There is enormous tension in that family: between Barbara and Richard (which, as we know, led to divorce), and between her parents and Tracy herself (whether in relation to her mother's drinking or her father's ambitions for her). The icon is therefore split between a dark and light side, with a very sharp blue gradient serving as the background. It runs to nearly black on the "police" side of the icon, where the badge of the Metropolitan Toronto Police symbolizes Richard. It runs nearly to white on the other side; but this should not be taken as contrastively a sign of virtue, since Barbara is symbolized by a bottle of gin. Truth is, there's wrong (and right) on both sides of the relationship.
To balance the large picture of Barbara one ought, I suppose, to have a picture of Tracy's father. However, he was never seen, nor even heard—though his words were reported often enough, and there were several scenes where Tracy is on the phone arguing with him. So, to represent him in the icon, I used a picture of Tracy on the phone!
I cleaned out the inside of the logo and laid it on a gold-toned gradient to give it a metallic sheen. The gradient runs from dark on the pale side of the icon, to a brass shade on the navy blue side. A similar metallic brass was used in the narrow border around the icon.
LambKins:
If we have a faction for the Vetters, then why not one for the Lamberts? Natalie's relationship with her brother, their grandmother, and her in-laws derives from two episodes only, "I Will Repay" and "Dead of Night"; and none of the events was referenced in later episodes (which is sadly typical). Fans have, however, explored Natalie's childhood a little; and her sister-in-law and niece are sometimes mentioned, especially in futurefic where Natalie moves away from Toronto.
As for the name...well, these are Natalie Lambert's Kin, obviously.
I googled lambs, and came up with a number of toys, one of which is prominent at the bottom of the icon. Behind Richard, Sara, and Amy, you can glimpse sheep in a field. The original painting is by Jan Bedijs Tom (1813-1894). I had to tweak it to get it to fit in the oval—not just by trimming the edges, but by extending the meadow downwards a bit. Also, when I superimposed the clipped screencaps, I found that Richard almost completely covered up a nice fat lamb; so I flipped it round and pulled it out a bit, so that you can see it better.
For the logo, I wanted something woolly-looking. I found it in Murkin Foo, a charming font with little cloud-bumps round the edges of the letters. Or Persian-lamb-bumps, if you prefer. I got the effect I wanted by doing the logo in grey letters on black, and then filling the letters in with white. A little bit of edge from the top of the M was then trimmed off; and, by myriad rotations, I used it to make the border round the oval.
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