1.  What got you interested in making icons?

I started making icons several years ago when I was chatting at a site that had, literally, no iconeers. Of course, I loved to wear them and this was right around the time that other sites stopped making icons of varying sizes so I had to make my own. I had a very good friend, at the time, who also made icons and we started a site together.

2. Tell us a little about who midnight is ... ?

I'm a 20-something, married American female. Currently we are stationed overseas, in Japan, and will be moving in the next couple months to another duty station, in Texas. I am originally from Wisconsin, though. After the move, I plan to start a mortuary science program online. In the meantime, I spend time making icons (mostly for others), working on several websites I own and, as of just recently, reviewing sex toys. Aside from the internet, I enjoy music of all sorts, especially rock and metal, SciFi movie and television and fantasy books.

3.  What paint program (s) do you use? Do you use any filters or tubes?
How about favorite fonts … do you have any?                                                                                                                                                                                         

I use PSPX. For a long time I used PSP but am glad to have upgraded. I've never been one to use filters although I use tubes occasionally for sparkles. I love fonts although my collection isn't as vast as some others. My favorite include Asenine, SFGothican, Monika, Pharmacy, Bank Gothic, One Fell Swoop, and Old English style fonts.

4.  If you are like the rest of us, do you search endlessly for pics to make into icons?
Do you search with a particular person in mind, or just surf around saving what you like?

I actually scan a lot of images from magazines. My search for images is generally more passive than active, and I pick up what catches my eye. Occasionally I'll want a certain image for myself and, in the search of it, find a lot of images which don't quite work but are pretty as well so I'll pick them up.

5.  Who or what has influenced your style?                                                                                                                                                                                                
I don't tend to mimic others' styles specifically but I would like to mention one person, who really inspired me to make icons - Val (fetish). Besides that, I'm always open to different styles. I tend to look outside of just The Pork, though; difference communities have vastly different styles and I like to incorporate that.

6.  Any helpful hints you might offer us?                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Clean, sharp images are the best. Make sure not to stretch the images when resizing, crop to keep image quality. Stretched, blurry or pixilated icons are really unappealing. Also, image optimization is something everyone should use. It really makes a difference, especially with color depth in text. Lastly, text always looks smoother when making icons if "antialias" is used.

7.  Do you prefer making icons as gifts or are there times you will take an order?
  
I work almost always around requests. I just don't have a good eye for pictures other might like, I guess. I will occasionally gift.

8. What type of icons do you enjoy making most?

I work best with female icons. I love both rich colors and black and white. I focus mostly on text; a lot of unnecessary coloring, backgrounds or animation just isn't my style. I work with a lot of darker gothic and fetish images

9. The least?

I've found that couple icons tend to give me some grief sometimes. It really just all depends on the mood I'm in; some days I'm just not in the right mood to make icons.

10. Your biggest pet peeve regarding icon making?

When people request something that won't necessarily look good on an icon, like special characters in text. Just because your name, in room, contains lots of stars and squiggles doesn't mean it will look good as text on an icon. Sometimes tastes just differ and the chatter wants something I really don't want to do.

11.  Anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for letting me participate. I hope everyone does and has enjoyed icons I've made them. I'm always open to requests via my site and feel free to e-mail me any images you'd like done.