ARTPOST for the j2noauchallenge!

[beelikej]

Yay, my first artwork of 2013! Made for a new SPN community, challenging authors to write a nonAU RPS story featuring J2:) I claimed a sweet hurt/comfort fic. After last year's paper portraits of Jeff and Jensen, I specifically was on the look out for a Jared central story to complete my set. But then I stuck a drill through my finger at work and I wasn't sure if I was even able to do paper-cutting so I focused on a digital technique first... I present to you a collection of mixed media designs for:



Title: Empathy Neurons
Author: callistosh65
Artist: beelikej
Medium: Marker & Illustrator for line-drawings, colouring + editing in Photoshop, also: paper-cutting\o/
Pairing: Jensen/Jared
Story Rating: PG13 (Art is G)
Wordcount: 5,543
Summary: Jared insists on walking around with walking pneumonia. So it's up to Jensen to get the idiot to stay at their apartment in Vancouver long enough to stop 'wheeze-clutching' his way around the furniture. Trouble is, Jared's flight bag for a trip back to Texas is already packed and sitting at the front door.

ARTWORK!
Storybanner
Take a closer look or scroll down the tall Padalecki dude for more artwork, lots of babbling and... pancakes!)

I wanted to explore the digital technique I first used for 2011's Cinema Challenge, for which I turned a scene from the film into J2 line-art. This time I first made a manip of the scene I had in mind (see below for initial pencil sketches) which I then printed and traced with marker before scanning the line drawing for colouring, editing and final touches in Photoshop.
I experimented with filters for different textures and tried to add some flat shadows to give it depth, but I aimed to have it as minimal as possible while still being recognizable as Jensen and Jared. You can click here for a big version of the whole banner (2200x2200 pixels)

<< Jared, being a little feverish and needing the wall for support.
I did initially have his face sketched in, but the details kind of got lost on the banner, as he was standing in the background. Then I remembered I was going for a form of minimalism and when I erased his face I felt it fit with the style I was aiming for, so I kept it that way:)
I'm really fond of the washed out effect I achieved on the shirt's print of Texas:)

Jensen:


I wanted to focus on Jared, so I chose to only show Jensen from the back. Of course he and his freckles totally manage to be distracting anyway:)
Based on photos I found in two marvelous picspams dedicated to the nape of his neck: Jensenated 1 & Jensenated 2.
I love fandom so much :-)







Keep scrolling, you're almost there! (Did I mention there are pancakes below?)

For those who are interested:
Sketches

Based on the first draft of the story I made three quick pencil sketches of scenes I liked to visualize.



I used the 'coughing' sketch to test colours and lettering. On rereading I realized Jared was coughing in his elbow (because unlike me he knows how to best prevent spreading germs;) and that posture would hide his face, so eventually I decided to go with the leaning pose. (Honestly my favorite image from the start, as leaning is a secret kink of mine. Don't ask.)

I made a very crude manip of reference images and traced that print to make an outline drawing.


Then I tried to figure out how to bend Jared's head and made sketches of feet and neurons.


This is the first coloured version of the drawing and the final sketch I sent to my author:)


Dividers
The glowing dots and stars that are floating around in the story-banner are supposed to represent crackling neurons. Because I always take things a little too literally *g*

Glowing white neurons on a dark purple background ("oxblood" according to the people who dressed the guys for the PCAs;)

Oxblood neurons on a white background. I also made a version with a completely transparent background especially for the light author's journal.

Paper portrait of Jared
This is what Jared's face would look like in the banner, if that hadn't been minimal art *grins*. Instead I chose to put his pout to paper!



My finger healed just in time to handle a knife, although I did manage to get a blister on a new place because I tried to avoid putting pressure on the tip of my still sensitive indexfinger. Oh self.
To limit the amount of detailed cutting, I used a different way of layering the three colours where I combined cut outs in the lighter layers. This turned out to actually be more complicated because I had to work with inverted space from the bottom layer (red). My choice to only use paper in one piece meant I had to compromise some shapes on the top layer (pink).
I chose another colour base than Jensen and Jeff's faces because I needed a darker Jared for the contrast in the bookcover idea below. I basically followed the same steps as the earlier portraits, but if you're interested, here's the process in pictures:

Bookcover



The title of the fic is taken from the non-fiction book 'The Tell-Tale Brain' by V.S. Ramachandran which also features in the story. After doing some research, I just had to turn the silhouette cover into a J2 version. Jensen silhouette is the base from the aforementioned paper portrait. Jared is a two layered version of his face above (orange + red). I added shadow effects in Photoshop. (Their original paper heads are the same size:)

Icons
I can never resist making a set of these:)
1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.

End banner
One of my favorite scenes in the story had to be visualized, because nothing says empathy like chocolate chip/banana pancakes:) There is a link to the recipe down below.



For this digital drawing I roughly traced a photo directly in Illustrator, added some personal touches -like the melted chocolate chips;)- and coloured the line-drawing in Photoshop. To connect it with the artwork for the story banner, I used the same textures, shading effects and colour pallete.
I also made a smaller transparent version to be used as an alternative divider, you may find that hidden in the story (go read it, it's as delicious as pancakes!)

Sources
I did do a reverse Google Search on the pouting Jared photo, but could not find an original source. I assume it was made at a convention; if you know who made or shared it, let me know.
Credit to sites I used for references: Home of the Nutty for a screencap of SPN-S8Ep1
(Thank you, sillie82 for remembering the exact moment Sam was leaning;)
I also studied Trackpants at Myntra and Feet at Pepperfry.
For those of you who now have a craving for pancakes: here's the recipe that came with the photo I used as an example:)


Thank yous
Thank you, callistosh65 for sharing your wonderful story; the guys' voices and interaction were spot on and I adored how Jensen took care of Jared;) Also a thank you to the mods of j2noauchallenge for creating a place to indulge in our fantasies!

Last but not least: thank YOU for taking a look:) I appreciate all comments; positive or negative, short and in depth analyses of techniques, whether you like them or not :-D No matter the content of your response, it's really nice to know you stopped by to take a look at my art!

J.

Related art: Paper portraits Jeff/Jensen ReverseBang 2012 / Digital line art J2 Cinema Challenge 2011

Masterlist of all my artsy fiddling

Comments

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*Takes a bow* Thank you! It's so nice to know you like my experiments with new styles and techniques:) May we continue to inspire each other in trying different ways to express ourselves. (Besides Gishwhes I still blame you for getting me out of the manip-zone;)