I came across the art for this while I was doing Yuletide icon research. I'd love to know the history of it - I wouldn't have thought that Doa was even literate! Perhaps Isaku or Anotsu taught her to read. Anyway, I'm going to be mixing it in with my other reading and manga icons, and you're welcome to have it as well, if you like.

This year's Yuletide icons ... a month earlier than last year! As usual, there are icons on the general themes of winter and gifts as well as book illustrations and covers. This year, I even have a few TV shows thrown in!

Classic Icon Meme, ganked from lady-ganesh, in this case:

1. Reply to this post, and I'll pick four or five of your userpics that I like.
2. Make a entry and talk about the icons I've selected.
3. Other people will then comment on your entry and you'll do the same as I've done for you.
4. Thus, we will help create a NEVER ENDING STREAM of icon squee.

Samples:

macavitykitsune asked about five of my icons ... and thereby demonstrated what was proved in an earlier icon meme: that I have lots and lots and lots of Saiyuki icons.

Which reminds me ... I now have a whole 7 empty icon slots! I must have received 5 new loyalty userpics when my yearly payment went through. Such riches ... I think I need Black Lagoon icons, and I collected some possible art to use, but I need to think up slogans. (Yes, meganb, I need slogans!)

That code was – meh. But I digress ... .

I come bearing icons for Yuletide! (Rather late ... I'm sorry!) They include general themes such as gifts and winter, as well as a few specific fandoms. A number of them are based on classic children's book illustrations or covers. Oh, and some are reprises of the date-specific ones I did last year. Enjoy!

Samples:

From telophase!

The directions:

• Reply to this post with the word MEME and I will pick six of your icons.
• Make a post (including this info) and talk about the icons I chose.
• Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
• This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

I can't make any guarantees how fast I'll pick stuff out for you ... but I'll do my best!

So now that it's officially autumn (or will be, this afternoon, I think), here are the icons I've been working on ... .

Previews:

I've been making some autumn icons. It seems to me that there ought to be more fall artwork for some of these manga! In particular, I'm remembering a Samurai Deeper Kyo "extra" pic of the main cast at a tea house, with golden/red maple leaves all around, but I can't find a copy in any of my usual places ... .

Anyway, if you know of any good art with an autumnal theme that I could use, please let me know!

1. Akari (SDK)	2. Ginko (Mushishi)	3. Hakkai & Gojyo (Saiyuki)
4. Ritsu (Fruits Basket)	5. Sai (Hikaru no Go)	6. Kubota & Tokito (Wild Adapter)

The Japanese on Akari and Ritsu's pictures ought to be koyo - "autumn colors" - so if I've got it wrong, can someone please let me know? Thanks!

I've long wanted an "I can kill you with my brain!" icon, but couldn't find artwork I really wanted to use. Predictably, I recently found 2 pieces:

Bereznoff or Zakuro? Zakuro or Bereznoff?

Zakuro is a much better piece of art and far more of a character, but there's something beautifully loopy about using Bereznoff for this purpose ... .

(For those not familiar with Ouran High School Host Club ... Bereznoff looks like a hand puppet because that's exactly what he is! He's not quite as weird and spooky as the sock puppet in Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, but he's not quite the innocent toy one would think, either ... .)

I've had a couple of requests for icons lately, so I decided the easiest was just to do another icon post. (And that's why some of these may look familiar from my posts about the place ... .) Samples:

This was mainly a chance to play with making icons from a completely different selection of art ... previews, firstest:

All the usual caveats apply: don't hotlink, download 'em to your own system, please credit as appropriate.

I've been having much too much fun with my icons. At first I felt very protective and parental and didn't want to let any of them go, but now that I have lots of them, I don't mind so much ... and it's very warm and fuzzy to see them show up in other folks' posts.

Samples:

If there's another one I use regularly that you'd like to have, you can always ask ... (the ones I still feel the most protective about are the Yukimura ones I use regularly), and I love making them by request too.

ETA: And I meant to put all the disclaimers: no hotlinking to my poor Earthlink account, please credit, etc. etc.