I spent some time paring down the list I created this evening into my final version of the Top 20. There were a lot of painful cuts I had to make.... ones I just couldn't let ride off into the sunset without one last farewell. And since I had promised to list some honorable mentions after last year's countdown, then wound up forgetting to do so, I thought I'd go ahead and get them out of the way before the first official countdown entry is posted on Sunday.....
I took the 14 avatars that survived the first cut but not the second, as well as one additional avatar upon second thought should have made the first cut, and will post them 5 at a time the next three mornings in this thread. These are not ranked in any way, I merely took them in chronological order and wrote next to them "Thur" "Fri" "Sat" on down the list to determine which grouping they'd appear in.....
Here is the first batch of avatars that just missed making the Top 20........
"The Squorrel"
Debuted: 1/2/10
An avatar homage to the Squorrel painting Beebs was working on for me.... the expressions on both Beebs' and ES's face in this one are perfect for their roles. I remember Fanny also commenting on how well the tippy toes work on ES in trying to get a better view of the painting.....
"Bestest Buddies"
Debuted: 3/10/10
This ought to show you how tough the competition was for the countdown this year for me to not be including this one.... Matias looks so happy to be sharing his.... uh.... acorns with his buddy ES! Ah yes, the good old days when Sprots kept a steady rotation of Matias avatars up for me to hijack.....
"Knitwit"
Debuted: 6/2/10
Fanny asked for advice from christie and Christy on the Bored on knitting, so I took advantage of Angel's reputation for "not being quite clear on the concept" and drew up this avatar. I liked the idea so much, as did christie, that I redid it full size and better quality and gave her a copy of it to cherish forever....
"Up All Night"
Debuted: 7/9/10
Sometimes, chat just never seems to end. In one of those nights where all concept of time was lost, Hottie and I (Yay Esto!!!!) wound up pulling an all-nighter that finally came to a close well after the sun had come up. I love it when I get an excuse to draw Hottie's character, so I drew this cute little picture (after I got some sleep, of course) of her and ES worn out from a long night of..... talking to each other. Of course, that's not the first time such a thing occurred......
"Egg On Your Face"
Debuted: 10/23/10
Clem called out the Rangers fans on the Bored for believing that their team had a chance to knock off the Yankees in this year's ALCS. That led to Cal's ironic, pre-Game 1 meltdown response to being called a coward, clem's bet with BiT (We're still waiting on that second avatar), and Pea admitting that she'd love to see clem with egg on his face. The morning after the Rangers sewed up the series in Game 6, I drew up a literal interpretation of Pea's wish. Even with all that goo on his face, he still just reeks of awesomeness, doesn't he?
