BigBang ARTPOST! For Real Life: Good For You by octoberxsong

[beelikej]

Wednesdaynight I received a request to do pinch hit artwork for an SPN_J2 BigBang story that lost its original artist. Due to the last minute nature of this assignment, I didn't have a chance to really get to know octoberxsong, but I hope this quickie was as good for her as it was for me;) I got a crash-course in World of Warcraft out of it and although I fear I didn't do that game much justice, we had fun anyway *g*

YOU however do not need to know anything about WoW to enjoy the story, go read it: it is sweet (and funny!) college-fic with adorably confused Jared and confident (or is he?) Jensen.

Title: Real Life: Good For You
Author: octoberxsong
Artist: beelikej
Genre: RPS AU
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Summary: College is not what Jared had imagined. Instead of happy days with Chad and his friends, there's just Jared - alone in Bumfuck, Nowheresville, while Chad's living it up in California. Lonely and playing too much World of Warcraft, Jared decides to be proactive, get himself out of the socially awkward rut he's gotten stuck in, and find himself a roommate. But moving in with easygoing and laidback Jensen, Jared's about to discover that real life doesn't always turn out the way you expect it to!


ETA 2011: The author changed her LJ-name a couple of months after publishing. I updated the logo;)
ETA 2012: The author changed her name again. I'm leaving it for now. May adjust logo later. :-p

Oops I did it again...
Even with the limited time I managed to completely change the original set up of this banner before I settled on a style... My process, let me show you it:

I started with this sketch on paper:
,
which I then discarded due to doubts about my drawing abilities.

Instead I worked on this photo collage:
,
where I tried to fit every little detail in the story into the design. That shape in the background is supposed to be Pennsylvania. *eyeroll* The only thing I was quite pleased about was the logo.

Thanks to some much needed feedback from octoberxsong (and some justified scolding about my lack of knowledge on WoW that was showing through the totally wrong image on the computerscreen ;o) I returned to my original idea and fiddled until I worked out a way to put it together in my trusted Photoshop. Pfew. See banner on top for the final version:)

Additional artwork
DIVIDER



ICONS
1. 2. 3.


LOGOS
1. 2.

3. 4.


JARED & JENSEN promote real life:)





Bonus CHAD!Gnome


THANK YOUS
Sources
Thank you octoberxsong and wendy for trusting me with this and giving me some extra time to get my creative juices flowing (ehm). It was great to get yet another author and story for inspiration. I'm amazed by all the different kinds of people and worlds I'm discovering in spn_j2_bigbang!
A special thanks to my dear co-worker S. who posed as Jared after I showed him my measly sketches. Those pictures will never be shown in public, although a tiny part of him is hidden in the final banner;)

Like?/Don't like? I welcome comments of all kinds!

J.

Comments

[yasmine32068.livejournal.com]

OMG This fuckin' rocks!!! I love the blinky Jensen and the Chad Gnome!!!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're fast. Thank you:)

(Now I have time to ready the final version of Grimoire, woohoo!)

[ldyghst.livejournal.com]

This is so good! I love them! Especially the Chad!gnome!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thanks:) Chad was begging for it *g*

[thruterryseyes.livejournal.com]

okay, slightly strange but i like 'em they made me laugh. I love the one of Jared giving the thumbs up.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I kept thinking of the title of the story as a commercial slogan: Real Life: GOOD FOR YOU. And the thumbs up expressed that feeling perfectly;)

There are a couple of really funny moments in the fic, even though Jared may disagree, so I'm glad the art made you laugh. That should put you in the right mood to read the story;)

[thruterryseyes.livejournal.com]

Reading the fic now and enjoying it, hate to quit to make a lunch date.

[nerdwegian.livejournal.com]

You are a hero. Do you hear me? A HERO! I had a hard time deciding what banner to post with my story, but ended up going with the logo (which I still kind of want to mate with, I'm so in love with it). I will love you forever for doing this on such short notice, and doing it so well! <3 Also, gnome!Chad will forever be one of my alltime favorite things. Ever.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

STOP HUMPING THE LOGO! :-p

Well, you gave me college-fic in return, precious, precious college fic *cuddles it*

[anyothergirl415.livejournal.com]

Chad Gnome!! ohmygod you wiiiin :D This art completely cracked me up and I loved it!! Good job!!

Oh and blinking towel!Jensen is amazing!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

:-D Glad you like it. I'm still slightly worried about an attack from WoW fans for what I did to Chad and Jensen;)

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i really like half-pixelated jared! and the chad!gnome cracks me up.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-) I'm thrilled Chad!Gnome makes people giggle.

[albeitslowly.livejournal.com]

LOL, these are too cute! How could I not love Jensen in a towel? LOL.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[sillie]

Heee, this is awesome! Great work! :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had so much FUN \o/ (Go read the story!)

[maichan.livejournal.com]

Hee, this art brings a giant smile to my face. Cracky, whimsical, and just plain awesome!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

\o/ Your cool comment brings a smile to my face :-)

[whitereflection.livejournal.com]

I've watched as octoberxsong went through all her artist-related travails, and was hoping they'd get her someone awesome and fun--and oh my god, this stuff is brilliant! XD It all cracks me up and makes me so grin. I love the mix of real and WoW related art (I play, so I'm extra fond of it for that reason).

But ohmygawd, Chad-gnome. Just *slays* me. It's gonna make me crack up extra when I log into the game and see gnome characters now. XD

Good job :) And extra kudos to you for doing all this so last minute for her.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'm very relieved about your response to Chad; I was a bit worried I broke some kind of WoW rule by gnoming him :-p

Thank you so much for your awesome comment! It was a fast but very fun rollercoasterride this past weekend:) I had fun \o/

[kuhekabir.livejournal.com]

excellent art! Thanks for sharing :)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you for commenting;)

[equally-dour.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, cute stuff! :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

:-D Thanks!

[inanna-maat.livejournal.com]

hahaha... good work!!!!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Heehee:) Thank you!

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Duuuude, I love this, too. I adore the WoW-type logo, and Chad the gnome, and Jared's little "I can't believe it's not butter!" face <3.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Wahey! Love is all around:) *hums WetWetWet*
This was a fun one (read iiiiit!)

[akintay.livejournal.com]

Awesome art. And wow, I can't believe you did all this in just a few days.

<3

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, I had to learn about WoW and come up with ideas in a rather short period of time. It was fun though! *grins*

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

Chad Gnome! I must read this!
Good work! I actually really liked your scetch! :-)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

You should read it; it's a lovely story with a refreshing new take of Jared and Jensen (Oh, how I love good college fic:)

Thank you. I wish I had the talent and patience to draw by hand. I guess that's a challenge for the next Big Bang *grins*

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

drawing was meant to be my challenge for this year - but even with all the time in the world it was a too big challenge.

[enablelove.livejournal.com]

Dude that first one is EPIC.

All of it is pretty fabulous! Amazing job!!!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*blushes*

Thank you very much:)

[wendy.livejournal.com]

Hey superstar! I LOVE how you combined real life and the game into those banners. Super cool.

Thanks so much for all your work on this!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

:) I was so very thrilled to be asked to do a pinch hit, it was a fun weekend \o/

Thank you!

[tmn1966.livejournal.com]

OMG! This is one of the first fics I read when I got into the fandom. I confess that I was in a bad place in my personal life and was just reading, reading, reading and not leaving comments. :( Bad me!!

I loved the story and I definitely loved the art. Coming from the Brokeback Mountain fandom, which is so very small, there was never any art to go with stories and definitely no bigbangs, so I was totally ignorant about checking out the artist's pages. Another boo boo on my part!

My favorite pieces are Jared and Jensen promoting real life (hee!) and, of course, Chad!gnome! And the icons!! *loves*

Adorable, adorable, and more adorable... or should I say adorkable. ;)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

It pleases me so much that you read this story, as I know how close it came to not being published and it was such a pleasure making art for it, even if it was last minute. I love how the author managed to give Jensen/Jared a bit of a twist from their usual charactertrades and still made them feel real.

I can totally relate to reading for comfort and not being in a mindset to comment. When I started lurking in the Nick/Greg fandom at first I was always a little too intimidated by authors to respond to stories. Now I know how awesome it feels to get feedback, I try harder to leave comments.

Thank you for showering me with love:)