buffyversetop5 | Top 5 Iconmakers for Whom I Regularly Redo My Userpics

I have several lists today, but I'm going to try to space them out so I'm not terribly spammy, though I am posting close to the bell. Eep.

Anyway, list number one is devoted to the icon makers whose new icon posts always mean that I'm going to be overhauling my userpics in the very near future, and who are the reason that I am so very glad we can have 100 icons now.

Top 5 Icon-Makers for Whom I Regularly Overhaul My Icons:

1. crackers4jenn

c4j does a wonderful job of the gorgeous, the unique, the funny, the touching—her icons run the full spectrum of emotion, and are never anything short of awesome. The icon below just haunts me—the coloring, the image, the text, all of it perfect and evocative and how I like to think of my vampires in AtS season 5:

2. earth_vexer

earth_vexer is a fairly recent discovery of mine, but the strength of e_v’s icons is a force to be reckoned with. The “exploring negative space” icon series is a personal favorite, and it yielded many gems, among them the below:

3. inxsomniax

inxsomniax has such a talent for taking images we’ve all seen many times and recasting them in ways that make us see new beauty, make us believe that we’ve never seen these characters before in quite this light. The icon below makes me teary every time, because it reminds me of just how much I love both Spike and Buffy, and how proud I was of both of them in that moment:

4. red_sunflower

red_sunflower was one of the first icon makers that I really fangirled from afar, whose posts I squealed over and whose work I collected. She goes to great lengths to offer us something new each time—a new perspective, distinctive cropping, different coloring, caps we don’t see used often—and every time I’m amazed all over again. The icon below is one of many favorites of her work, from her seasonal_spuffy contribution, and I picked it because it resonates so with the Spuffy part of my heart:

5. awmp

awmp’s icons, much like crackers4jenn’s, run the spectrum from touching to funny to poignant, and they’re always amazing. The below is from her “Favorite Spike episodes made into movie posters” project for summer_of_spike; I love the juxtaposition of each of his incarnations here:

And yes, it’s cheating a little bit, but I also have to mention madelineanne’s icons, particularly her humor icons—some of the best ones out there, and generally guaranteed to yield many “OMG Icon!!!” comments. Below is one of my favorites, not least because Sesame Street always freaked me out as a child, and I still think that even a vampire puppet couldn’t’ve made it any scarier than it already was: