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

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

You already know how much I adore all of this, but it's worth appreciating again all the wonderful things you produced for my little story. I love the minimalist appraoch you chose for the boys in the main banner, it works so well with their faces like that. It is perfectly *them* you clever gal you! I especially love sick Jared leaning on the door frame. That is *exactly* how I saw him.. *and* you made me crackling neurons for dividers!! And pancakes!!

Seriously awesome, my friend, I am so grateful this challenge has helped us find each other.

[tmn1966.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! I got my internet connection back just in time!

I love all this wonderful art. Your talent astounds me. I don't have time to write down everything I want to, so I will be back later to leave a more detailed comment. I just had to tell you ASAP how lovely it all is.

*hugs* You've done it again - created such lovely and interesting art! ♥

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

Hah! Brilliant! I love the grainy textures you used for the main Jard pic and it's nice to know other people trace over reference pics because I still feel a bit weird about doing it myself.

I love your paper cut of Jared's pouty face! I think the source for that was a Chicon photo op (maybe wolfpup2000 because she often gets great photo ops of them on their own doing stuff)

Off to check out all your sketches now!

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

Really lovely art, it suited the story so perfectly!! My favorite was the pancakes :-)

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, I see how you seekritly did Two Things, and I approve *g*. Wish I'd been able to see the brand spankin' (heh) new Jared paper cut-out portrait in real life, but this already looks super cool. I can't believe how good the pout looks!

I also really, really love the minimalistic banner style because that is exactly my kind of thing. Even without 'details' like facial expression, they still come across through their posture and stuff and uuugh. I am bad at words. But I love it a lot!! <3

[wataru-kisugi.livejournal.com]

They're lovely! I've been trying to draw a pancake for ages but never looks good as yours. And thank you for explaining us how you done for the artwork. I'm totally Photoshop newbie and don't know much how to use it so your tip help me a lot. Thanks!

[cassiopeia7.livejournal.com]

Hey, how did I miss this?

Pouty!paper!Jared is adorable! (It still kills me how you do the paper portraits, because WOW.) I also love Jared's flushed cheeks and simplified treasure trail. Those three dots are kind of brilliant. \o/

Finally . . . PANCAKES! \o/ Beautifully done and quite hungry-making! Bravo, you.

[cydsa.livejournal.com]

gorgeous :D

[sillie]

Can I just say that I have a thing for Jensen's neck, so I totally love that banner. :P And the cut-out is once again awesome as fuck (excuse the language :P). Just, yeah. Still in awe.

All in all an awesome artpost! \o/

[sandymg.livejournal.com]

These are fabulous. So graphic and shiny. Just love the style and colors and feeling they all evoke.

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

I think this battles "To see the world in a grain of sand" for first place in my "favorit art by beelikeJ" list.

... or maybe that one comes first still - because the photowork you had done there is.... or maybe this do, because wow do I love this, or..... I give up... it's a tie.

And you know that "I love to be inspired by your trying new things"-thing? Totally fit this art as well!