ARTpost!

[beelikej]

It's been a while since I collaborated with an author. In between my personal projects and challenges I found out dugindeep was looking for someone to make fanart for a threesome story. I was honoured my offer was accepted and thrilled when I got to read the first draft. Jensen, Jared and Danneel? Yes please!
Here's the banner I created. Of course I'm also adding a behind the scenes tour of how it was made.



Title: Dear Neighbors
Author: dugindeep
Artist: beelikej
Medium: markers, coloured pencils, papercutting, animation (PS Image Ready)
Pairing: Jared/Danneel/Jensen
Genre: College AU
Story Rating: NC17
ART Rating: R
Wordcount: 9300
Summary: As a law student, Jensen's used to long, sleepless nights. What he's not used to is all the headboard banging and cries for Big Daddy happening in the apartment next door that keep him up all night.

Additional artwork
Besides the banner I also made dividers:



These were sketched in pencil, traced with black marker and coloured with pencils.

The real note that inspired it all was recreated digitally in the style of the banner:



Making of the banner
Below are lots of pictures about the work in progress. Feel free to ignore the babbling, the photos are pretty much self-explanatory, I just love words :-p (alternatively you can go right to the credits:) Click to zoom!


First pen and pencil sketches

As I explain in the source section; the idea for the two rooms with a bird's eye view came to mind right away. With the way I art, I couldn't help but make an actual set up of that. At the time I thought it would just be a visual aid for further fiddling, but the wall ended up almost exactly as it started.

To not freak out dugindeep with my weird pencil/paper set up, I made a digital impression of my banner-idea:



First marker versions (different position for Jared;)


Papercutting test (yet another position for Jared;)

The first pencil sketch of Jensen wasn't altered much, except for the position of his arm. I did spent a lot of time figuring out what Jared and Danneel were doing exactly *grins* I didn't want to completely cover them up, but I also didn't want to go so porny that the story banner had to be hidden. Plus it had to be obvious that the sound was bothering Jensen. That's how the idea of the animated bed banging against the wall was born.


Photocollage fiddling


Building the bed


Final papersketch and outline (with animation marks)

I used the pencil versions as bases for the illustration: I made several lineversions with black marker until I was satisfied with the details. After that the bodies were partially cut to create a 3D effect.
Even after the failed duvet experiment (see the source section) I tried coloring with markers first, but I ended up very frustrated with the result before turning to good old colouring pencils. That was fun!


My workspace and detail of papercut Jensen


Making the beds:)


First full bannerset up


Experimenting with moving the bed and wall.

Initially I had meant to make the movement by taking stop-motion shots. That didn't work out, so I ended up digitally combining photo's for the bed to wobble and Jensen's arm to move:)


Colour tests and sticking it all together


Colouring:)


Final touch ups and wobble test for animation


Tadaah! (still version;)

Some sources and discarded ideas
(Alternatively you can go right to the credits:)
Besides from the story itself, I found inspiration from a couple of visuals. When I was reading about Jensen's ordeal, I immediately remembered the bird's eye point of view from the marvelous BBC series Fresh Meat in which six first year students share a home. One of the spaces is divided into two tiny rooms by a thin wall and what happens to Jensen also happens there;) I got a screencap from my DVD-set to figure out bedsizes.

When I was looking for more references I found two impressive photo-projects:
Waiting by Jana Romanova, a photo-series of sleeping parents-to-be &
Trapped by Benny Lam for SoCo, a heartbreaking exhibition showing tiny living spaces in Hong Kong.

Before I borrowed those people's duvets and pillows, I had tried a different technique for bedcovers, based on this neat 3D drawing trick. Unfortunately I struggled with markers and my version looked terribly wonky:

*covers face in shame* I didn't even save the legs-under-the-covers versions long enough to take a photo, that's how embarrassing they looked. So I discarded that method.


As it turned out the photo-collage of the duvets added a great depth to my drawings and papercuttings, so I'm glad I was forced to find another solution:)

Another idea I had to let go because of limited time was an additional scene between Jared, Jensen and Danneel. Even though I didn't get to fiddle with positions, I do want to give credit for my basic drawingstyle to this illustrated threesome guide from Cosmopolitan \o/

Credits
Thank you, sillie82 for encouraging me when I showed you my pencil sketches. And of course credit to dugindeep for taking a chance with me as an artist and letting me play with this trio.



Now go read the story! (After you give me your opinion on the art, of course;)

J.

My masterpost of artsy fiddling (For more papercutting, check the tag below;)