You have made me think about how I feel about comments on the few icon posts I've made. And I think that I don't care about getting comments so much for them because I have decided that I am a poor icon maker, though I am getting better, and so if only one person comments, that doesn't rock my world view at all. And also, I make icons because I don't like to have the same icons as other people. So I am pretty much just making them for myself, and for the practice, and because, as you say, it's relaxing (though god knows why; it's the type of thing I usually hate). But I tend to write fic for other people's pleasure as well as my own.