Artwork for spn_cinema 2013!

[beelikej]

For this year's Cinema Challenge I wanted to try a couple of new things. Besides adding a lady to my usual mix of men, I explored papercutting a little more; how much further could I reduce shapes? On top of that I was intrigued by the sudden popularity of melted crayons and I meant to do something with that to contrast the tight lines of the papercutting. I wasn't too impressed by the rather wasteful blowdrying technique, so instead I played with a hot iron... Haha! (I wasn't using it for my clothes anyway;)

May I present to you: three minimal portraits and a lot of artsy fiddling:



Title: Imaginary Infatuations
Made for: spn_cinema 2013
Movie Prompt: Les Amours Imaginaires (2010, English title: Heartbeats)
Medium: Papercutting, crayons, bit of Photoshopping.
Rating: G for art; R for concept I suppose
Pairing: polyamorous ~ Jensen/Jeff; Danneel/Jeff; Jensen & Danneel are BFFs
Concept: At a party best friends Jensen and Danneel meet Jeff, whose charisma overwhelms them both. They try to find out who he fancies most, but deny their crush on him to each other. At every other chance they flirt with Jeff while secretly sabotaging the other one's efforts. Slowly their lifelong friendship starts to crumble.


Artwork
Filmposter
The original film's DVD cover features the photos of the actors' faces on a red/purple/pink background. I coloured pieces of paper with melted crayons (wax!) and cut portraits of my favorite combination of people to recreate this image. Here's what the portraits look like unedited:

Zoom in to see my couch through the cut outs:) Below I'm showing exactly how I cut and coloured these faces!

Here is a digital set up I made before I started:




As you can see, I eventually chose different photos from Jensen and Danneel to work with, because I wanted to capture the mood of the film. (It's not all flirty fun) That's also why I changed the translation of the original title. I felt the alliteration of infatuation and imaginary fit better with the somewhat snarky French:)

Detail of Jeff's paperportrait:

For a closer look at all three portraits, scroll down to 'behind the scenes'.

Portrait poetry
While I was reminiscing about the film, I also remembered a couple of songs that fit the theme of imaginary love and potential threesomes... I picked parts of the lyrics that tell a bit more about the mindset of each character.


Danneel - No I In Threesome by Interpol ~~~|~~~ Jeff - Imaginary Love by Rufus Wainwright


Jeff - Imaginary Love by Rufus Wainwright ~~~|~~~ Jensen - Secretly by Skunk Anansie

(Yes, I posted Jeff twice, I like him the symmetry, okay.)

Icons
1. 2. 3.


Below I'm babbling -a lot- about the different techniques I used. If you want to skip that, click here to go right down to the credits and a treat to thank you for stopping by.


Behind the scenes
From photo to sketch

DIY: layer your colour image with a hard mix filter or turn a gray scale image into bitmap (50% black/white). Works best with images that have a good contrast, but as you can tell, you can add lost details by hand:)

From sketch to cut-out
As you may know I previously worked with coloured paper to create portraits in layers. This time I wanted to only use one sheet of paper, which meant the cut out had to be an inversed version of my earlier style. I did a couple of test portraits to see what method of colouring with melted crayons would work best. I ended up redoing Danneel's and Jensen's faces.

First technique:
Danneel (sketch first, cut second, crayons last)

Made a pencil outline from the digital sketch & cut out the black parts.


The big experiment with a hot iron... Trying to figure out the best way to make a mess melt the crayons. Heating the paper seems to be the way to go, but it cools down fast and I have about 5-10 seconds before the crayon turns into solid wax. Plus: the colour of the crayon changes when a layer is reheated. (See if you can discover how I placed the iron in the different portraits;)


Last step: drawing in the earring I forgot before;). Result is not that bad, but colouring over the cut out shape had to be done carefully, which is not an easy combination with the limited cool down time... Also: the wax layer is too smooth to draw on so it's impossible to do touch ups with crayons afterwards. This is such a fun experiment:)


After the efforts below, I redid Daneel's portrait using another method (see Jeff) and coloured the paper before cutting. I also used heavier paper: 300 grams Motif Premium White.


Almost done. Playing with the cut out shapes is fun:)


The first and final version next to each other. Spot the difference!

Second technique:
Jensen (crayons first, sketch second, cut last)

After struggling with the colouring after cutting, I flipped the method around and first made a melted crayon layer on the front, before tracing a (mirrored!) sketch on the back. It works better but it's still not perfect.
(In the bottom right picture you can clearly see the 'paper bridges' I had to build in his hair to connect the different parts)


I was also not happy with Jensen's scruffy look, so went back to the first digital sketch, shaved him and made a new pencil version before putting on the pink layer and cutting the paper.


After cutting a couple of portraits my fingers started to protest; to prevent the potential blisters from getting worse I put covers on my hand. (Too late, but at least I could continue fiddling;)


The first and final version. Doesn't he look much younger without the scruff? I like it better. YMMV of course;)

Final technique:
Jeff (sketch first, crayons second, cut last)

Jeff's glasses caused me a lot of problems, but by this time I at least had mastered the perfect order of steps to make the most of the melted crayon/cutting paper combination.


The reason I struggled with Jeff's face was that it had a lot of unconnected shapes, which forced me to add extra 'paper bridges' in between to keep it all together. That's why his portrait seems a little distorted. I still love him and his funky glasses though;)

Result! Clickable big size images of the final portraits:

I photographed these on top of black paper.



Source material:
Danneel at the Hollywood Domino Gala 2011 by Dimitrios Kambouris (Getty Images North America)
Jeff at the The Possession premiere 2012 by Nikki Nelson (WENN)
Jensen at Vancon2012 by wolfpup2000

Thank you for stopping by, have some... shadowportraits!

:-)

The end.


Amused/Appalled? I appreciate all comments :)

J.

P.S. I loved playing with this idea on my own, but just so you know: I wouldn't mind if this artwork in turn prompted an author! (I had wanted to do some scenes as well, but ran out of time. If someone happens to want to write fic featuring this threesome, I'd love to make more visuals!

Previous papercutting: Baker!Jeff/Jensen | Sick!Jared/Jensen (both with fanfic!)
Earlier cinema artwork: Jeff/Jensen/Jared as Pirates | Sam & Dean as claypuppets

My masterlist of artsy fiddling

Comments

[bertee.livejournal.com]

AHHHHHH THESE ARE SO AMAZING. I am forever in awe of your papercutting skills and I am super impressed with the wax work and the finished product. HOW ARE YOU SO TALENTED. All the info about your process is really neat too - I love seeing all the stages and how it was put together as well as the bonus shadow portraits! Seriously fantastic work. :)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*takes a bow* Thank you very much:) Gosh, how I love Jeff's face, even though there's a lot going on for papercutting *grins* I'm happy the whole proces was interesting for you too!

[fiercelynormal.livejournal.com]

Wow!! That is such a creative and involved process; I am really impressed with how well it all turned out and how detailed it all is. Excellent work! :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you, fortunately it's a very rewarding process too, as it involves staring at these lovely people for a long time:) *chinhands at your dancing Jensen icon*

[tebtosca.livejournal.com]

So freaking creative. Just gorgeous!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-D

[dephigravity.livejournal.com]

This is so cool! You put a great deal of effort into this, and it paid off. Great job!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thanks:) It did turn out to be a "little" bit more intense than I had anticipated;)

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

How cool are THESE?!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Heehee. Thank you:)

[cassiopeia7.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting for this post, and oh, how worth the wait it was! Incredible work, bb. I particularly love how you gave Danneel a '20s flapper feel, but they're all gorgeous. Precision paper-cutting, melted wax, shadow portraits . . . talk about multimedia. Your creativity knows no bounds.

Brava, brava!! But all that work, my God . . . how long does it take from pencil sketch to finished product?

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Pfew, so glad it lived up to your expectations;) I was thrilled when I found that photo of Danneel: the look on her face fit perfectly with the emotion I was going for. Her outfit and hair were a bonus!

:-)

Hmmm, not counting the first test version, so after I figured out the best method, Danneel's smooth lines took only about an hour and a half to cut, but I worked the longest on Jeff's portrait. His laughlines, scruff and those glasses kept me busy for hours. And that was after I had already spent extra time on his pencil sketch trying to figure out what bits could be connected. It's a good thing I like looking at his face;)

Colouring was done quite fast in between sketching and cutting; making those layers was about 20 minutes work per colour. I only burned myself once!

[cinema-mod.livejournal.com]

HOLY COW. The methods you went to in here are incredibly let alone how fabulous the finished project is! I'm always amazed by arts/crafts outside the typical drawing, so this was super interesting to follow of how you did it. I think it makes the final product so much better to know there's a method to it all.

Amazing, amazing job!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your lovely comment:) I'm glad you liked the look behind the scenes as well!

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

That is completely fascinating (and to a non-artist, bafflingly impressive too). Gorgeous outcome, and it also sounds like I should look out that film.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! Oh, you should definitely check out that film. I loved it a lot: the characters have such great chemistry and they were awesomely sarcastic about each other's chances with the object of their affection:)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I am completely boggled by the sheer amount of work that went into this as well as by the awesome results! Thanks for the blow by blow construction process, it's so fascinating. I love it!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Fiddling with these is very solitary work and I love being able to share the proces afterwards; it's great to know you enjoyed that part of it too:)

[salty-catfish.livejournal.com]

Aaaah BEST <3

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thanks:)

[sillie]

Oh man, these are absolutely awesome. I'm in awe of your paper-cutting skill. Lovely look into your process by the way. :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much:) It was fun to see how far I could take this and kind of weird to work with opposed shapes this time!

[lylithj2.livejournal.com]

I am amazed at how creative you are with your medium!
This poster looks great--extremely professional!
Thanks for breaking down how you did it. That was very interesting!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Ahw, thank you! I'm very happy you like the poster because I wanted it to look like it could be real:)

Edition 2,550

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User waterofthemoon referenced to your post from Edition 2,550 (http://spnnewsletter.livejournal.com/711157.html) saying: [...] by (Jared/Genevieve) Imaginary Infatuations [...]

[snickfic]

WOW. Those are so gorgeous. I love that last photograph, seeing the light shine through them. Such incredible detail!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you:) I was just trying to find the best place in the sun on my table to make a good photo of the final creations when I noticed the shadows; it made me look at the cuttings in a whole new light! (heh)

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

these are so cool! the shadow portraits are also pretty fabulous. and i love all the process photos and explanations - i'm not an artist at all so learning how this stuff is done is really interesting to me.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! It's great know you enjoyed looking at the process as well as the result:)

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

holy crap - I love this!

I would never have come up with this idea - but I would love to steal this idea later... lolol

I am so impressed. And what I really love about your projects lately is that they really show what you are capable of. When you have taken that step out of the box, you have really taken your art to a new level. I kind of want to find my daugter's old crayons now... wonder if she will notice if they are all melted onto some scrap of paper? ;-)

I need at least one "hands on" project for this years bigbang. There are a few techniques I'd really like to try...

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

<3 Thank you so much for all your kind words *beams* I too feel like I've (re)discovered my capabilities after returning to old school hands on fiddling. I like making a bit of a mess *grins* I will be forever grateful to Misha for organizing Gishwhes and making me return to traditional arts & crafts and to you for making me realize fanart doesn't have to be limited to manips of the characters.

Now I better clean up the table for the next project:)

Rare Ships Post #17

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User spnrarewatch referenced to your post from Rare Ships Post #17 (http://spn-weirdnews.livejournal.com/7497.html) saying: [...] of SFW or NSFW by . Proceed at your own risk. Imaginary Infatuations (Jensen/JDM, Danneel/JDM) [...]

[scarletscarlet.livejournal.com]

Fantastic once again! (the shadow/light versions are brilliant btw) So cool to see fanwork in different media and all your experimentation, and the end results are gorgeous :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thanks:) I'm very fond of that shadow effect the cut outs created (and for the sun coming out while I was trying to make photographs;)

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, dude, I always underestimate how much time and effort you put into these challenges, and the results are always so cool. I'm still confused as to how to melt the crayons - do you heat the paper and then rub the crayon over it? I will need to try that, that sounds like fun!

Also, I need to give a shoutout to those shadow portraits, because they give such an amazing idea of how much detail went into the cutouts! Ahhh, so cool!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Heehee, thanks dude, *shoves*

The crayons are indeed melted by the heated paper, it's quite fascinating to see. Step 1: put iron on paper, hold down for a second or so; step 2: quickly grab a crayon and start 'painting' until it cools down (you have about 5-10 seconds until the crayon turns solid again) and step 3: ehm, nope, that's it really. You can reheat the already coloured surface, but that will melt whatever pattern you already made. :-D I used about half a crayon per portrait.

Make sure you have a solid surface and be aware of potential burning of hands, paper and whatever you put your paper on top of. I had two kitchen towels underneath that are now pretty much ruined by the wax. (Whatever, I always dry my dishes with air anyway;)

Just in case you play around a little more with melting crayons: here's an example vid of the blowdryer thing that's all the rage. It will kill all your crayons in one go and creates a messy rainbow.

I also tried to melt the crayon right on the iron and then do touch ups, but I need to explore that technique a little more later. You can easily remove wax from the iron while it's still hot; just carefully rub it away with a (thick!) paper tissue.

[tipsy-kitty.livejournal.com]

This is just stunning, I'm in awe of your skills! I love the combination of techniques, papercutting is so precise but then the melted crayons give everything a lovely and more carefree feel.

I hope someone takes you up on the prompt, it sounds like a great movie that would make a great RPF fic!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thank you! The contrast between those techniques was exactly what I was playing with and I'm so happy it worked:)

I already loved the film with the original actors, but I think this story would fit perfectly within our beloved fandom. Mmmm, polyamory and its complications, it would be a good read, fingers crossed!

[tmn1966.livejournal.com]

Last week was so crazy for me, so I saved this for when I got home.

You constantly amaze and surprise me! You always get so creative and new and these are just amazing! I love the shadow portraits. I really am in awe of your talent. So innovative and fun!

I always look forward to your art posts, not only because I know they'll be good, but that you take us through your process and that's so fascinating!

I think out of all three of them (and it's hard to choose!), Jeff's my favorite. I love the glasses and the look on/of his face.

Great job, sweetie!! ♥

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your awesome comment! I had such issues with Jeff, but I was determined to let him wear his glasses, because of reasons;)

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

Just freakin' amazing!! Really beautiful, and OMG the work and skill!!!! SO impressed! Many kudos!!!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*beams* Thank you very much, I love kudos:)

[littlestclouds.livejournal.com]

The art is amazing, and I loved seeing your process!

I also adore this movie. ♥

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you, glad you liked the behind the scenes as well:) So cool that you've seen the film!

[siriala.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous as usual, and always a treat to read about the way you worked. I'm glad you gave it a try with a woman this time, especially Danneel, and I love the shadow portraits :)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I had such fun making the Danneel portrait, I adore that look on her:)

Thank you!

[sagetan.livejournal.com]

This is so so cool. I'm super impressed by your experimenting and by the gorgeous results. What fantastic art!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much:) Experimenting with the crayons was fun *g*