Artwork for ReverseBang 2012 [The Second]

[beelikej]

After the paper experiment of my first prompt for the spn_reversebang challenge, I clung to my trusted digital techniques for my second story idea. (In a Reverse Bang artists creates fan-art which is posted anonymously for authors to choose as inspiration for fanfiction.) This time I made an old fashioned photomanip of young Jensen and Jared having the giggles and I called it 'Cloud Nine' (Entry #2033)
Here it is together with the short description I wrote to inspire an author:








Short description of art:
Young Jensen and Jared giggling on a cloud. Can be literal or figurative (no smoking/drugs references please). Possibly first time/highschool/college fic; best friends first, falling in love later? Doesn't need to be all fluffy and happy, if author wants to add a bit of frustration in between that's fine;)












This prompt was chosen by the_milky_way who wrote a very sweet highschool story with a pinch of angst. Of course I couldn't resist making a couple more designs to go with it. You can now join me in chinhanding for:



Fic Title: How to do teenage drama the right way and still come out on top
Author: the_milky_way
Artist: beelikej
Medium: Photoshop, pen on paper, Illustrator
Fandom/Genre: RPS, Romance, Highschool AU
Pairing(s): Jared Padalecki/Jensen Ackles
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 7,800
Summary: Jensen's into drama (as an extra curriculum in school and as part of his entire life). Jared's the quarterback and kinda set to ruin Jensen's life. Or so it seems.


Story banner
Because of the feeling of the fic, I took the initial happy design of Jensen and Jared in a different direction and changed the lettering into something more fitting for angry teen angst. For the first impression of the story I wanted to create a real teen drama look. Jensen being pissy in the rain fit perfectly. I struggled a bit to capture footballplayer Jared. When I thought of using the clouds from the original prompt it all came together. They are multifunctional for representing emotions: stormy for miserable and dreamy for hopeful, perfect to show all those teen moodswings (Well, in my mind anyway;) Here are some step by step images:

Soaking Jensen & Footballplayer Jared

Original Beatles shirt from: Cool Retro T-Shirts UK, I fiddled with the design a little. Jensen's own shirt wasn't clingy enough to my liking so I added some 'enhancements' to create a truely wet look. I used a Colour Burn filter to make the whole background blue.

Creating the cloudbanner

Clouds were drawn in Photoshop (big round brush, 100% hardness), the linework drama-masks (top left corner) in Illustrator and imported as 'smart objects'. Fonts: Alpaca54 (names) / VTKS SummerLand (teenage drama) / vtks study (coming out). Young Jared on the right is a still from the pilot episode of Young Macgyver (2003), this show never went into production, aaahw.

Chapter headers

In this story Jensen is a bit of a dramaqueenteen, so I went looking for over the top facial expressions. Most of the available photos of young Jensen show him either as angry youth or dreamy twink, no emotions in between, but I think they worked for the purpose of these banners;)




I could only find young Jared as a base- or basketballer, so for footballer!Jared I grabbed an anonymous teen body. I did use his original shirt from the soapbox derby 2008 for the name and added some hair in his neck to get that Padalecki look:) - see wip gif on top!


Those of you familiar with J2 photos may have noticed the combination of young!Jensen's face with this J2 hug. I've also made Jared's hair a bit longer in the giggle image to make it fit with the rest. Over the years I've collected quite a few photos, I don't remember where I found all of them, but links to archives of J2 images, can be found under my sources tag




Dividers
To keep the designs in style with the scratchy lettering I decided to draw dividers like doodles in a highschooler's notebook. (I may have imagined teen!Jensen sketching these, possibly accompanied by little hearts and him practising his Padalecki signature;)

Extra artwork







There was a lot I wanted to do with these two (shut up) - for one thing I had planned to make their clothes more in synch with one season and there is another photo of Jensen from the same shoot that I had wanted to use. Due to real life giving me loads of work and an attack of the flue, I didn't have enough time to fiddle. I was glad I was able to make this picture though, based on the first draft of the story.
I don't know anything about mobile phones, so I hope I got it somewhat right.
(Seriously: I'm one of the three people in my country of 16 million who doesn't have a cell phone. I'm sticking to my old fashioned curly cord to the wall, no display, just numbers phone. :-p)











Icons
Last but not least, just for fun, a couple of icons, just because.
1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.


Thank yous
This artwork may have suffered from me having a bad case of the flue (a full combo of throat, sinus and ear infections with the barking cough on top) but I could keep going thanks to my mom providing support and food. THANK YOU.
Of course a big thank you hug to the_milky_way for picking my prompt and turning it into such a lovely story. (Go read it here!)
Also thanks to the spn_reversebang mods for running this awesome challenge again.

Thank YOU, dear visitor, for taking a look at my artwork! I really love to know that you sneaked a peek, so don't be shy to leave a comment, no matter how short, long, sweet or harsh. Concrit is encouraged and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

-J-

P.S. PLUG
All my other designs can be found through my masterlist of artsy creations.
If you are more interested in non digital art, you may want to take a look at these pieces: my first prompt for the 2012 Reverse Bang was a paper collage of JDM, Jensen and cupcakes; for this year's spn_cinema I made clay puppets of Sam & Dean!

Comments

[homo-pink.livejournal.com]

Christ. You are so beyond talented. Thanks to the provided links, I just went and had a quick look around and... Between this and the paper collage and the clay and even the little pen doodles here, I ♥ everything. Everything. How are you real?

(Also, seeing the process in which the banner was created = awesome.)

Gorgeous!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*blushes fiercely* Ahw, thank you so much for your sweet comment and for checking out my other artwork. Making process gifs is a nice way to round up a project... and to fiddle with the guys one last time;)

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Oh man, this is so teenagey and lovely! I am in awe of how you got Jensen into that clingy Beatles shirt, haha! (And those doodles, aw man. I can definitely see Jensen drawing those while bored in class, <3!)

Don't worry, you got the cell phone right *giggles*. I love the little 'happily ever after' detail, I only noticed that when I looked at it more closely! I love discovering more details in your works, there's always a lot *chinhands*.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I have such a soft spot for teenage drama, glad to hear that at least came across;) YES, you noticed, well done; I just couldn't resist putting a bit of a wink in that image *g*

[equally-dour.livejournal.com]

These are all so cute!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Heehee, thank you (young J2 is adorable:)

[peach-gurl.livejournal.com]

Haha what?! These are awesome! I can't stop staring at the shirts, it's hypnotic.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

:-) Thank you. Feel free to keep ogling the guys shirts;)

[sillie]

These are great! <3 Love to see how you made the banner. Love the doodles as well, they really fit with the rest. :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thankies:) I was so happy I had an excuse to doodle. That oddly shaped football was a lot harder than expected!

[ampokris.livejournal.com]

They're great artworks! Well done!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much:)

[tmn1966.livejournal.com]

I love the banner - though that shouldn't really come as a surprise. You do such a fantastic job with your banners, putting so much of the story into them and making them look all gorgeous. And the phone!!!! So, so, soooooo cute!!! Your chapter headers are wonderful - the Wet and Comfort ones are my absolute favorites, just love the hand on the chest and also them all cute and cuddly together. Your dividers (cute!) and icons are so cute and lovely.

Great job, sweetie! I need to go read the story as soon as possible! I hate getting behind and wish I could've commented a lot sooner on this! ♥

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Yay for liking the banner \o/ I always think I put TOO much details in it, so my next challenge will be to minimalize the amount of images in the banner;) Jared's giant paw on Jensen's chest is one of my favorite moments, I'm so glad I could make a reference to that based on the story *grins*

[deadflowers5.livejournal.com]

Great art!
And I loved the gif!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you:) I enjoy making those gifs, getting love for them is the cherry on top!

[jenilees.livejournal.com]

I rarely comment on graphics because I don't know the first thing about them and cant tell good from bad- they all look pretty awesome to me! But I did have to comment here because I love reading all your notes. They make me laugh so much! So thanks for that.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Ahw, thank you very much for telling me! I understand artwork can be very daunting to comment on, but it means a lot when people let me know they enjoy the graphics (or my additional notes;)