Blast From The Past Icontests

Chapter 3 Sidequest "Gradations"




https://tinpix.de/2025/wulei_8kucm8h5.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/wulei_8kucmk1y.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/wulei_8kucnwiq.png
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Even though it was a color quest, these are all so minimalistic I will count them as rogue.

♕ KING'S SPEECH ♕

A contestant has entered the battle ground! narnialover is running a Crop Battle!


There are two open battles at this point:

Elements Battle - current participants: 2 - still needs caps for earth and wind.

Crop Battle - current participants: 2 - no caps needed, use your own

Of course you can also start a new battle if you want! (I will promote your battle in the comm.) All battles start once there are three participants.

ETA: the mystery bags are ready now. If you want to go on Quest 5, request a random mystery bag from me by commenting here on this reminder or by replying to the thread on the challenge post.


The deadline for the whole round is January 16th.

Are you ready to ride? Pack your satchel of art supplies and join us in another round of the Icon Quest!

Round 34 brings back the Icon Quest! The icon quest was a huge affair, with several comms to have quests, battles, icon posts, and discussions. The concept of the icon quest meant that all challenges were "staying open indefinitely", and we'll take that literally and try our hand at them again now!

We already did a round two years ago, and the participants from back then already have character profiles:






You can see the details here. Previous achievements are still valid. You can keep adding to them! If you're a new participant, welcome!

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All quests were originally posted to theiconquest by thequestmaster in 2012.

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How to play:

1) Pick a quest

All the quests are listed here:


Iconquest Logbook (List of Quests)

The iconquest rules explicitly state that you can do each challenge up to five times, and you can do one challenge per week. We have five weeks in our retro_icontest round 34, so you can do five of the quests (or one of them five times, or mix and match).

2) Battles

If you would like to run a battle in the course of this round, there's an info comment below which explains how to run a battle. Simply comment with your battle idea. You can suggest themes and ask for battle partners. Then you each choose a number of screencaps, and your battle is ready to start! Feel free to expand the battle to other participants by posting it to iconbattles.

Battle icons are worth 4 points each. Since we're not doing voting for the battles, there are no winners or losers.

CURRENT BATTLES: (see comments)

Elements Battle - current participants: 2 - caps needed for earth and wind

Crop Battle - current participants: 5 - number of icons to make: 4 - no caps needed, you can still join, deadline is January 10

Fallout Battle - current participants: 1 - two Fallout caps per participant, signup deadline is January 1, battle deadline January 12

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That's it! Have fun!

I will tally the points at the end of the round, making you a Hero, Bard, Wizard or Rogue. \o/ Please check the Logbook above for points - usually, icons are worth between 2 and 5 points, depending on the quest and the mode (some quests have easy and hard modes). Battle icons are worth 4 points each. The class that you made the most icons for/the icons with the most points for will be your character class in the end.

I couldn't copy all the quests and adjacent posts, but here's a copy of part of the main info/rules post, concerning icon classes and variations:

( Excerpt from the Original Rules concerning Icon Classes and Variations )

FULL RULE POST (optional) : https://theiconquest.livejournal.com/369.html

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NEW RETRO_ICONTEST RULES - mandatory

Consider the original challenge rules and try to stick to them in spirit. Each quest has its own rules, but don't be put off by the many quests and rules! Charge ahead and have fun!

♦ you may go on any quest or sidequest listed in the Logbook above.
♦ ♦ if you want to do the sidequest "paths" in chapter 4, you already have to have a class. Some of us do from the last round. If you don't, you have to do another quest first and thus acquire a class.
♦ ♦ if you want to do chapter 5 "weapons", the mystery bags for icontalking are ready now, you can request a random bag here in the mystery bag thread
♦ you can enter up to five quests (or one of them five times, or mix and match).

♦ you can participate in as many battles as you like. go wild!

♦ if you decide to enter Chapter 6, the Melée, there will be voting in the last week, so don't leave those to the very end. if there is only one participant, there will be no voting, and one icon from this maker will get points for first place for each class.

♦ you may enter as many icons as you like. minimum 1 icon per quest you go on. You can ignore the minimum and maximum requirements listed in the quests!

♦ you would make my life easier if you classified your icons into the four classes yourself. otherwise I'll just choose one for each that I deem most appropriate.
♦ submit your icons for each quest as a new entry into the community. that means you can make more than one post this round! please note which quest they're for.
♦ if there are more than five icons in a post, put the rest under a cut or a link to your unlocked journal post. tag your post with round number and your username (or ask me to tag it for you).
♦ submit the URLs along with your icons. I'll only put the first five per post into the roundup post. either you only list five, or I'll take the first five.
♦ make an effort to leave positive feedback on other participants' posts. <3
♦ read the full rules here in our userinfo.

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This quest challenge will run for five weeks. There is no voting (except for the Melée). I will make a roundup post containing up to 5 icons per quest, and tally your attributes at the end.

Deadline for Melée: Friday, January 09th 2026 your end-of-day (voting will run for one week)

Deadline for round #34: Friday, January 16th 2026 your end-of-day

If you'd like to promote the comm, please do! Here's a promo code:
<center> <img src="https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/file/320x320/670892.png"> @retro_icontest - Blast From The Past Icontests revisit old challenges from ancient iconmaking days </center>

And here's one specifically for this round:
<center> @retro_icontest - Blast From The Past Icontests - is embarking on <img src="https://i.imgur.com/2px2m.png" alt="The Icon Quest"> <a href="https://retro-icontest.dreamwidth.org/83296.html">Are you ready to ride? Pack your satchel of art supplies and join us in another round of the Icon Quest!</a> </center>

I was on a Nothing But You streak for this, lol :D



5 urls:

https://tinpix.de/2025/nothingbut36_14.27.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/nothingbut19_22.01a.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/nothingbut15_05.00.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/nothingbut12_25.10.png
https://tinpix.de/2025/nothingbut01_18.03.png

There's a week left in our Vassily Kandinsky-inspired Abstract Expressionism challenge!

Still time to enter! The deadline is next Friday, December 12.

Since squidge was down when I wrote up this post yesterday, I decided to use a challenge that doesn't have too many resources I have to upload anywhere. I'd been meaning to do paintedpixels again for a while, and landed on its second round: I hope you enjoy it!


This challenge was originally posted to paintedpixels in June 2013 here.

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Challenge Post by posionfield

Challenge 2 has been suggested by the wonderful library_of_sex

Vassily Kandinsky
For this challenge you need to include the theme 'geometric'





Painting with a Green Center - 1913 // In the Black Square -1923

[About the artist]

Vassily (or Wassily) Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866, his works of art span times spent throughout several countries; Russia, Germany and finally France.

Originally Kandinsky was inspired by the vibrant palette of local folk art and by Monet's impressionistic style of art, particularly his use of pointillism and his tendency to paint en plein air. His work included many other influences as he developed his skills and his style, most importantly was his gradual collapse in the depth of field in his work and his integration of music and its accompanying emotions to his subject matter. Over time his work become more fluid and lively in composition, while increasingly featuring inorganic shapes over organic ones. Overall Kandinsky aimed to feature the inner beauty of humanity, the need for a spiritual sense and the human spirit though his work.

They are intended to be thought provoking and to ignite emotion in their audience. Kandinsky is sometimes considered the father of geometric abstraction and he continued painting until his death in 1944.

[About abstract art]

Like impressionism and surrealism, abstract art was born from the rise of technological advancement, with cameras now being able to replicate realist subject matter, artists were no longer needed in the same context they once had, they were now more feely able to express themselves and push the boundaries of art. Abstraction itself relies on imagery and colour to portray subject matter and meaning, taking art from a real-life context and bringing a more personal and internalised theme to the work. The use of geometric shapes is considered the height of subjective art styles, making it at times, more emotive and inspiring than other forms of abstraction and realist styles.

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ETA for retro_icontest:
Because the original entries for this challenge are so cool, I'm putting them here as inspiration:

[Abstract Expressionism icons]

holidaylights

holidaylights

neatmonster

neatmonster

neke

neke

poisonfield

shameless666

shameless666

shameless666

sietepecados

sietepecados

sietepecados

 

 

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ORIGINAL RULES - for reference only

Icons can be inspired by any aspect of either or both of these paintings but must display your representation of the theme geometric (however that means to you).

- Remember to have fun with it!
- You can submit up to 4 icons
- Icons must fit LJ specifications
- Icons must be new for each challenge
- Any questions at all feel free to ask!

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NEW RETRO_ICONTEST RULES - mandatory

Obviously, the theme must be met: get inspired by Vassily Kandinsky's work, and include something geometric in your icons.

-> you may enter as many icons as you like. minimum 1 icon.
-> submit your icons as a new entry into the community. if there are more than five, put the rest under a cut or a link to your unlocked journal post. tag your post with round number and your username (or ask me to tag it for you).
-> submit the URLs along with your icons. I'll only put the first five per person into the roundup post. Either you only list five, or I'll take the first five.
-> make an effort to leave positive feedback on other participants' posts. <3
-> read the full rules here in our userinfo.

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This comm generally runs from mid-month to mid-month every month, always ending on Fridays. There is no voting. I will make a roundup post containing up to 5 icons per person after every challenge.

Deadline for round #33: Friday, December 12th 2025 your end-of-day

Teasers:


complete set here


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