Hello and welcome to a brand new series of Emoticon news articles. Here, I will bring your attention to fairly unknown, but up-and-coming, emoticon artists in the community. I will also be trying to provide a base for both fans of emoticons and emoticonists of all experience levels to get involved with each other.

I have to say that this is mostly thanks to Karen, as this is in sense a spin-off on her great series of articles, So i herd u liek emotes??. I got the idea while talking to her over MSN the other day. Since I seem to have a large watcher base these days, I thought it would be perfect that I also try to spread emoticon community awareness.

If this first part is well received, I will aim at continuing this series for as long as possible. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or complaints, feel free to contact me about it, and I'll definitely respond as soon as I can. But, for now, let's get down to the first issue!


Featured Emoticonists

The format you'll see here will start with a basic introduction of the emoticonist in question, followed by a set of featured emoticons from their respective galleries.


₁₎ =Jarno-A

Jarno Akkersdijk is an emoticonist from the Netherlands that has been with us since April 23, 2007. Judging from his deviation, he submitted his earliest emoticon on September 7, 2008, but he has been making other animations earlier than that, the oldest one in his gallery dating back to April 27 of the same year. He also creates other art, both traditional and digital, as well as being a swell photographer.

Now, on to the first features!



A sort of infinite conveyor belt, tossing and smushing the poor little emote, round and round. Even if he says no emoticons were harmed in the animation, it's hard to believe.



A simple and creative static emoticon. However, some minus points for using an image of a jar rather than making a pixel art based one. A nice set of different shading styles used on the different emoticons in the jar, which is an interesting touch.



Like he says in the description, obviously inspired by the likes of DragonBall. But it's a nice and action packed scene, even if the explosion in the end could have been a little bit more spectacular in my opinion.



Great show of martial arts/weapon usage, and apparently the first in a series of emoticons he's planning on making. One can look forward to seeing more awesome shorts like this one, I'm willing to assume.


₂₎ =Sinister-Starfeesh

This 18 year old girl from the United Kingdom has only been a member for roughly a month, having joined on January 16. However, that hasn't stopped her from creating a truly amazing amount of emoticons in such a short time, and all at a very good level of quality to boot! If you aren't watching her already, you should head over and check her out right now.



A great way to show that you're willing to stand out and be yourself in a crowd. And look at that little blush, have you ever seen a cuter pixelsaur! :3



An immensely unique idea, and excellently pulled off. The animation is absolutely splendid in the spinning transition from the apparent light world to the shadow world. The expressions on both the emoticon and it's shadow are also superb.



Simple, and definitely phear inducing. A very cute animation, a nice set of expressions, and a great shading make this a lovely emoticon to watch.



Now, I'm the kind of person that would prefer to see a completely pixel art based background to emoticons, but this does look really nice, none the less, and shows a really great sense of depth to it.



There are always people like this, and this simple emoticon conveys the feeling they generate quite well. Short, sweet and to the point.


₃₎ ~world-in-flames

A lad of 15 summers from the States, WiF has been with us for about a year, being a Deviant since December 30, 2007. He's been making emotes since July 13 of last year, and I have to say he's gotten pretty good at it too. Just have a look at the features and judge for yourself!



Starting off with one of the simpler entries, but that doesn't make it less enticing. We all know that whimpy, slappy way some people fight, which is especially popular in cartoons, and this portrays that perfectly.

- - - - - - - - - -

These two emoticons actually connect, interestingly enough. This is the second of two pairs of emoticons he made like this, and this one was my favourite of the two. Portal technology is definitely enjoyable to watch. Sorry for the dashes, though, I had to have them there to add some space.



Now, on to two emoticons with a similar theme. This first one features an emoticon madly in love, chasing after another emoticon that seems to not share the first one's feelings. My only gripe is that I wish it would loop back in the opposite direction as well. And the second emoticon...



...is pretty self-explanatory, and absolutely ingenious!


3 featured emoticonists is all you get this time, now we move on to the next topic!


Did you say Request?

You might have noticed the little poll I put up yesterday, and here's the first use of it!

The following will be a compilation of emoticonists that are currently OPEN FOR REQUESTS~!!

So, do you have an incredible emoticon idea? Or just an urge to have an avatar or something made for you? But you're stuck with not having the possibility to make one on your own? Well, head on over to these amazing boys and girls and have a look if they can make your ideas come to life!

With this list, I hope to bring some traffic to the people that are willing to work with it, and I hope you can all get some enjoyment out of it!

If anyone on the list wants to be removed or anything similar to that, or if someone wants to be added, just let me know and I'll make changes to the list as soon as possible!


Artists Open For Requests

This list will up updated for each consecutive volume of these articles.

~alhattal
~BananaGeek
=BrushAway
^DeMaulwurfn
~demiraph
=DetectiveDub
~doom-freak
~Dwood15
~Eliros
~Emotimasters
~ero98
=FlanChan
=flashfrog
~Furatix
~googlememan
~GuywhoDunDrawzorz
=Ice-11
~Inovation
~insanefastone
=Kermodog
~kiva-sama
~Kuki-San
~lawliet27
=Leo-Leonardo-III
~madb0y
~magicswordz
=MixedMilkChOcOlate
*MyrthJ
=NeoWolf06
=NerdXV
=nmandc515
=P0rkch0p
~Punkstock
=Shrewlad
~Tato95
~the-moof
=TheRockster
=Waluigi-Prower
~world-in-flames

It's a little bit short now, but it will hopefully grow over time!



That's all for this time, boys and girls, I hope you all enjoy this news article, and I look forward to hearing all of your opinions on it!

Until next time, take care!

-Fredrik "Leo" Gustafsson