Artwork for Reverse Bang 2011 [The Second]

[beelikej]

It's finally time to share the second prompt I made for the spn_reversebang challenge!
For those of you who don't know: in a Reverse Bang artists make fan-art which is posted anonymously for authors to choose as inspiration for fanfiction. So the art comes before the story...


Here's the prompt I made



Prompt #2032 Texas Trope University
Description: Jared's impression of TTU. Some studying in between partying and everybody's gay! (except Chad;)

I was lured into this SPN/RPS/J2 fandom with college-fic, which I hadn't read before but loved instantly and for my second prompt I decided to make an ode to that. I also wanted to explore the collage/noteboard style that I've often seen used randomly in headers without any connection to the story*, thus emphasizing it being a story with clichés from fandom. Hence the title: 'Texas Tropes University'...
(Extended explanation of the noteboard design) You can find detailed versions of the manips below.


Thank you, ficnerd198 for picking my design as inspiration for your story. It turned out different than what I had in mind, but it is entertaining nevertheless (plus it has Jensen in glasses, which is always a bonus;) I hereby present:



Fic Title: It Had To Be You
Author: ficnerd198
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural/RPS, Romance
Pairing(s): Jared/Jensen, Danneel/Sophia
Rating: R
Word Count: 30,392
Warnings: overload of alcohol, mention of soft drugs
Summary: You can close your eyes to things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to the things you don't want to feel. --Unknown.

Artist: beelikej
Media: pencil, markers, crayons, Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXpress.

Now, get ready for a massive artpost. Explanation in the notes below;)


Additional artwork for the story

Logo TTU is based on the original from Texas Tech, but I changed the images in the weapon;) Click for a closer view! Made in Illustrator.


Texas Trope Party People (an actual student group, I refreshed their logo;) I put this on Jared's cap in the final banner.

Part headers



Scene dividers
First four are hand drawn with pencil, marker and crayons, then scanned an cleaned up in Photoshop.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
Besides this piece of tape, I also made a single red bar, but that's not really interesting without the story to surround it;)

Character Polaroids

Chad & Jared and Sophia & Danneel
(I changed the colour of their clothes on the final banner;)


Jared & Sandy & piggy-slipper;) and Sleeping Jensen


Earlier artwork used for the prompt
Here is a closer look at the items I made for the noticeboard. I made prints for a collage on the actual board, which I then photographed for the final prompt-image. (None of the scenes below feature in the fic though) ETA: apparently some of these were magically added to the final version of the story...

1.
(Changed the heads of Jensen's original friends to fandomfavorites Michael Rosenbaum, Misha Collins and Christian Kane;)

2.
(Vampire Jared and devil Jensen)

3.
(Best bud Chad is some sort of cool pirate;)

4.
(Coloured the original black/white image)

5.
(Halloween poster - printed on orange paper;)

6.
(TTU acceptance letter, signed by Dean Kripke!)



Additional digital sketches
After receiving the first draft of the story I made a banner and a scene sketch that didn't fit the new version of the story. I'd like to show them anyway, if only because I'd like to share a source site: Thank you, Tumblr dedicated to Hot Guys Reading Books:)


Story banner (abandonned, although I kept the typography and moody Jared;)


Jensen reading On The Road by Kerouac at his job in the quirky bookstore (not in the final story - head, book and background are manipulations;)
ETA: Hey, what do you know: the reference returned in the last version of the story after all! \o/



Icons that actually go with the story!

1. 2. 3. 4.

The end.



Notes
This second ReverseBang experience was quite different from any of my earlier collaborations. Even if in this challenge the art comes first, after a claim I usually exchange ideas back and forth with the author before setting up a design. So all the art would actually fit with the story and vice versa. Because of limited communication, waiting for feedback, changes to the first draft and writing up until literally the last minute, this time I made a lot of sketches that weren't incorporated in the final fic.

In the end I did not get to spend as much time on creating fitting artwork as I had wanted and planned. It kind of felt like a pinch hit instead of a long time collaboration because I didn't get to see the story set up until a couple of days ago. I hope the art is still worthy (despite the cursing and crying involved these past few weeks).

Thank you, mods of the spn_reversebang for the splendid organisation this year. It was once again an unforgettable and overwhelming adventure (mostly in a good way:) and you were available when I needed you most.

A special thanks and hug for my mom for being there when I finally lost it. Sorry dat je die hysterische bui over je heen kreeg, mams. ~knuffel~


As always comments of any kind are more than welcome, now or in the future:)

J.

Want more?
You can find all my previous artwork here:)

*Yeah, I get the irony of this. Shut up.

Comments

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

Can I say first that I LOVE the scene dividers! Absolutely love!!!!
Congrats on finishing the art!
I wish the story will be up soon.

I find reverse_bigbang rather challenging. Okay, so we have that advantage that art comes first, but as soon as it is claimed, the author really hold all reins, and we are left with making art to whatever story she is writing. But in this case, we have much less time, because the story won't be finished until (hopefully) deadline!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I wanted to challenge myself with more pencil work, so it's great to know I succeeded:) Though I wish I'd had a chance to match the different styles of artwork instead of trying all these ideas until I could figure out the feel of the story. I ended up using my (digital) sketches as bases because I didn't have time to create things from scratch once I finally knew what was going on.

You're right that this is the difficult part of the ReverseBang, I just hadn't experienced it before. I now understand why some artists simply submit the prompt and then step away, but I join these challenges for the interaction with another fan and I couldn't just leave my name with only the original collage as artwork.

The story will hopefully be up tomorrow in our timezone (it's still December 7 on the other side of the world;)

[sillie]

Whoo, you really made a lot! I adore the manip of Jensen reading. Afdgh <3 And the dividers are awesome too.

Great artpost! Congrats on finishing RB! :D :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

:-) I did, but that was not all by choice, although I did already manip a lot for the original prompt;) Thank you! Jensen reading is one of my favorites, but it's still a sketch since I was under the impression the scene disappeared from the story before I got to finish it.

It's gonna be weird not to have an art challenge to work on. The next one won't be until February 2012! What will I do until then? ;-)

[tmn1966.livejournal.com]

As you know, I really liked your original prompt. I think it's awesome all that you put in there, including Jared's acceptance letter. Thank you for breaking it all down and showing more details. I'm not sure I mentioned this to you before, but it's very interesting to get to see your thought process and the art that comes out of it.

The dividers are awesome! I love that they're hand drawn. Am I weird if I say that my favorite one is the roll of duct tape?

I also really like the TTU logo and all the images you used in the shield. Very clever. :)

Jensen in glasses... guh! Always a lovely image. But did you stop there? Nope, you gave us Jensen in bed. Hold on a sec, gonna go check it out again. ;)

And Chad as a pirate... you got a pirate fetish or something. ;) Actually, I really like that one a lot (Pirate Chad and Vampire Jared) and also the one with Devil Jensen and Jared acting like a very wacky vampire. I've always loved the original image, the look on Jensen's face is pretty priceless, and you've done such a great job with the manip. I want to go to that party! LOL

Now I'm primed and ready to read the story whenever it gets posted. :)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your extensive comment.

Hee, I'm glad you appreciate all the babbling about the background of the artwork;)

Good thing you like the duct tape best, as you can hopefully tell from the banner, it's a main feature in the story, so you kind of gotta love it (mission accomplished!)

I was so excited when I found that young Jensen in bed photo in my collection \o/ (It was such a hardship to work on; I had to remove the credits that were rolling over the screencap, so was forced to really explore the image, woe is me;)

The look on Jensen's face and Jared's attempt for attention at the imagined Halloween party were the inspiration for the different costumes: Jared would totally go all out while Jensen would play it cool. It's my favorite kind of manip to take an actual photo and only slightly change it to suggest more:) Luckily J2 make it quite easy to slash *grins*

I don't have a pirate fetish. Whatever gave you that idea? *shifty eyes*

Edited because I forgot to mention I didn't just "find" Jensen in my pretty boy collection. (Oh, if only;)

artwork

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Judith,
Your artwork is very special and from a great quality, you have make a lot. As good as this works shall not be the story ( if ever appears one ) The art is still worthy to be seen.And no, I am not prejudiced as a mother...
a lots of love and a 'knuffel' for you too, MAMs

Re: artwork

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Ahw, thank you, mom! You're getting a Waldemar icon, just for you. Since you've seen the real noticeboard every time you visited, I'm really happy you like it even after all this time;)
And I'm thrilled you came over to comment in English and to defend my honour. *knuffeldeknuffel*

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Duuuuude, you put so much work into this, but it's definitely all worth it because every single part of it looks absolutely great. It's really cool to see earlier designs as well as what you ended up going with for the (final?) version of the fic, i'm glad I got to see reading!Jensen because, well. Unf. The dividers are also really freaking awesome.

And as always, I am totally in awe of your attention to detail. (The acceptance letter! The 'Texas Tropes' references! The images on the school shield! Ahhh, so neat!)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*smishes you* Thanks:) I'm sure when I look back on this in a couple of weeks (months) I'll find it rather amusing how I ended up with an even bigger banner cliché than the original noticeboard: the randomly taped upon Polaroids *grins* Even though I tried to pull it all together, I still feel like I ended up with an incoherent collection, so at the moment I sure can use kind words, that's why I treasure your comment:)

You should totally check out that Hot Guys Reading Books Tumblr;)

It Had To Be You

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User ficnerd198 referenced to your post from It Had To Be You (http://spn-reversebang.livejournal.com/91612.html) saying: [...] Art Prompt Title: Texas Trope University Art link: Art Masterpost [...]

Re: It Had To Be You

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Woohoo, an actual masterpost in the community. \o/ Thank you for notifying me, pingback_bot!

[ladyknightanka.livejournal.com]

THESE ARE AMAZING! Seriously, I love the dedication to small details you put into these. The manips are great and you even made an acceptance letter; I loved that. XD

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you appreciate all the details, because I always wonder if people notice;)