BigBang 2012 ARTPOST the first

[beelikej]

After all the reclists, it's finally time to present my own artwork for this year's spn_j2_bigbang. The summary I claimed promised "a steampunk J2 version of Around The World In 80 Days" and Misha as a battle butler. How could I resist?

I hereby dare you to take that journey with me. Here are my designs for:



Title: To Find The World In A Grain Of Sand
Author: belledewinter
Artist: beelikej
Medium: Photoshop & Illustrator
Pairing: Jensen/Jared
Story Rating: R (Art is G:)
Wordcount: Around 45.000
Summary: Steampunk AU. Heartbroken and eager to prove himself, Jensen Ackles makes a bet: that he will be able to go around the world in 80 days, no matter what obstacles one could find along the way.
With the aid of a man with many hidden talents who now acts as his valet and a young engineer with a mysterious heritage and a disarming smile, Jensen embarks on the journey of a lifetime, not knowing that danger is always just one step behind him. Will he make it home in time?

ARTWORK!
Storybanner
See above. I wanted to do more conceptual art instead of -once again- using images of the guys for the banner. I was inspired by Jensen's obsession with time and the story title, which I possibly took a little too literal. But I think the end result does capture the spirit of the story. Want to know how I made it? I'm sharing my original photos and techniques in the sketches and sources post.

Charactercards
In order to make up for the lack of pretty in the banner, I made charactercards for Jensen, Jared and Misha. That was of course an excuse to fiddle with the guys, but also an opportunity to capture the steampunk elements of the story. Plus it has Jared in eyeliner, yay!
Click for a closer look! (Trust me, you want to click these)

The part of the world behind each one of them, shows where the character originated from.

Chapterheaders
Each title is the destination of the chapter, notice how the clock represents the hour of its part. (Aren't I clever;) [You can click these too, but they are not as huge as the guys up above.]






Dividers
I wanted to capture the same style as the lettering in the story banner for the dividers. I made simple line drawings of all the different transportation-devices and since my experiment with sketches of the guys turned out alright, I also made dividers for each one of them. The versions for the author are transparent, especially for light surfaces. Since my own journal is black, I added a white background:) [ibid]






Extra art
I originally thought the Mecha in the first part would be their most important mode of transportation. So I started on a drawing of that. Of course eventually the guys travel in a variety of ways, as represented by the dividers I made later (see above). When I ended up with drawings of Jensen, Jared and Misha I figured I'd complete the Mecha and put them in it. Just for fun:) [Original is 1134 x 850 pixels!]


Icons
No set of artwork is complete without icons!
1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

And that's it! Want to know more about the images I used or the design-process?
Check out my sources and sketches post.




Thank yous
Thank you, belledewinter for offering your story and letting me play dress up with the guys. I feel like we really traveled around the world together *high fives*.
Of course also a BIG thanks to wendy and thehighwaywoman for their perfect organisation of the spn_j2_bigbang.

Thank YOU for stopping by!
(Comments, compliments and concrit are more than welcome;)

J.

P.S. Does anyone need a big bag of sand?