Hello again, everyone, and welcome to a new exciting edition of Chance to Shine, the emoticon newsletter where the new and upcoming emoticonists in the community get a chance to have their work featured by none other than me, Leo, your emoticon pope!

Seeing as the first issue seemed to have been a success, since I got so much positive feedback, I'm going to try to make a new article for the series about every 2 weeks or so. There are so many new faces in the community each day, that I doubt we'll run out of people to feature any time soon. I have consulted a bit with ^Synfull, and she gave me a list of some people she thought could use some featuring, and it gave me the idea: Hey, if you know a newcomer to the community that could use some featuring, give me a shout! I'll gladly have a look at anyone you could suggest, so as to not run out of material for these articles.

Today, however, I've picked out 3 people on my own, I'll save the suggestions until later. But lets not waste your time any further, on to the features!


Featured Emoticonists

Today we have 3 new selected "featuries". Here's to hoping you like their work!


₁₎

Zöe, a 24 year old girl living in the United Kingdom, has been a Deviant since February, 2009. Her first deviation was an emoticon, but the amount of quality shown would lead one to suspect that she has had experience in emoticoning for longer than said date. She also partakes in an activity called Daily Doodle, which looks like a very useful way to spend your time if you're an artist!

- "I gots me a wollipop"

It's hilarious how happy it makes the purple emote by waving the lollipop in front of it's own face, and the simple yet fluid animation works really well. Only thing missing is the emote eating the lollipop. Or at least licking it.

- "Love it or Hate it"

This emoticon got a DD about a week ago, and it's easy to see why, with such great expressions and superb, and yet again simple, animation. I'm not sure what this Marmite that the emote is eating is supposed to be, but judging from this deviation, it's not very tasty.

- "SparklyDest Pumpkin Contest"

It's always great to incorporate a sense of depth in an emoticon, and it works really well in this emoticon. A lazy emoticonist would just have made the pumpkin from a side angle, making the emote itself just simply disappear behind the pumpkin layer, or what have you, but Coco chose to use a somewhat isometric perspective, resulting in a much more appealing emoticon that simply looks great.

- "Exercise Is Bad"

Treadmills can truly be dangerous to your health, even when you're an emoticon. Great expressions, fluid animation, and the amazingly cute little headband make this emoticon a wonder to behold.


₂₎

This 14 year old lad from Hungary has been a deviant for roughly 7 months, having joined our fair community in July, 2008. He's been making emoticons since November, 2008 and has made great progress so far. Watch out, you better known emoticonists of DA, here's a force to be reckoned with!

- "Mystico's new kill"

The green particle beam attack the hairy emoticon uses looks like it might hurt quite a bit, even if the blue emote re-materializes right away after being hit, and simply gets pushed out of the frame, a little awkwardly if you ask me. :0 However, overall, it's a very neat emoticon filled with speed and intensity.

- "OoOps Where's my diamond?"

Showing off some very nice effects in this one, and even if madb0y himself might have wanted to add a background to this deviation, I feel it works well without one.

- "King is pokeing his Tard"

Now this one is quite hilarious to watch. A really simple emoticon, but with great shading and a superb animation over the 11 frames it consists of. A joy to watch in all its glory.

- "Sword Fight"

Now this has to be my favourite in his gallery. An amazing animation, filled with speed and excitement, and completely action-packed. The effects looks great, and the expressions are really great to boot!


₃₎

Aaron, a 14 year old dude from the US of A, has also been with us for roughly 7 months. He's been making emotes since December, 2008, and is apparently very musical in his offline life. :3

- "Sponge-mote"

Starting off, ever wondered what Spongebob would look like in emoticon form? Well, now you know.

- "sychicassassian:"

This emoticon teaches a very good lesson: Don't piss of psychics, they can make your insides bleed.

- ":dangerzone:"

Here's another life-lesson. If you see a big sign saying "DANGER ZONE!", it's probably a good idea to NOT go right past it. The little block of bricks that falls on the emote is great.

- ":tardbai:"

Once again, ending on my favourite from the gallery, this simple emoticon has a nice and clean shading, a very simple animation, and works on every level. The expression is incredibly cute!


And that's it for the features! Moving on, boys and girls, to the updated, and icon-ified, requests list:

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Artists Open For Requests

The following is a list of emoticonists, and a few other artists, that are open for requests. If you have a great idea, and want to see someone put it into action, give one of the following a shout!

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!













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And that closes things off for issue # 2, hope you all had as much fun reading as I did writing!

Take care,

-Fredrik "Leo" Gustafsson