ARTpost: SPN_J2_BigBang 2018, the first!

[beelikej]

Oh yes, there was lots of squeeing when I saw my favorite pairing in the whole of fandom on offer in this year's spn_j2_bigbang. I love playing with these two and the summary was right up my alley too, so of course I put that fic on top of my claimlist and then I managed to grab it, woohoo! I'm thrilled that these guys got a new story and it's such a sweet one too. Good old Enemies to Lovers, with a nice sprinkle of angst until they figure it out, yay! May I present to you:



Title: Our Love Was Made for Movie Screens
Author: sometimesalways [cherryvanilla on AO3]
Artist: beelikej
Pairing: Jensen/Jeff (background Jensen/Jared friends-with-benefits)
Story Rating: NC17 | Genre: RPS | Wordcount: ~33000
ART Rating: G, and contains no spoilers for story!
Medium: Watercolours and Photoshop
A/N: Loosely inspired by You’ve Got Mail, which was loosely inspired by the wonderful Shop Around the Corner.

Summary: It’s 2012, and brick-and-mortar chain bookstores aren’t the powerhouses they used to be in the 90s -- thanks to Amazon -- but Morgan Books is now in its 70th year and has still managed to prevail.

When the superstore announces their intention to locally expand by buying out and demolishing a few cherished shops on a quaint Seattle block, independent bookshop owner Jensen Ackles is having nothing of it or the company’s obnoxious CEO, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. In the midst of this, Jensen has found himself interested in dating someone, for the first time in a long time. Of course, he hasn’t exactly met Bookman66 yet, but Jensen’s pretty sure the guy he’s been talking to online recently is just about as perfect as they come.

Jeffrey, meanwhile, has developed feelings for Shopguy78 -- a member of the online book club he joined on a whim -- despite his own cutthroat exterior and less-than-stellar relationship track record. Now, if only he can stop thinking about the fiery shop owner he's attempting to put out of business...

More Artwork!

Alternative storybanner with Jeff and Jensen's friends: Aldis, Mary-Louise, Danneel and Jared.

Dividers




Shopguy78 & Bookman66




Chapter headers:










A Soundtrack!

Link to Music!


The Making Of

The original posters of the film(s) the story was based on:)
My quick pencil sketch of the set up that came to mind after reading the fic.


From the start I knew I wanted to feature books in the background, but it took me a while to figure out how to visualize them best; initially I thought I'd do papercutting, but then I was inspired by the look of the poster from The Shop Around The Corner to use paint. So here I go!


I wanted a whimsical bookcase with lots of colours, this was such fun:) While the books were drying I tried some envelop doodles for my first divider idea (see below)


I added shading and linework with pencil and then did some final touch ups with paint (the tape keeps the paper from wrinkling).


This is the experiment with a paint-effect to get the look from the Shop Around The Corner poster, I eventually discarded that idea.
I also played with different versions for the dividers and chapterheaders:)

References & Sources

I searched for references of guys with laptops on beds and couches and found SO MANY. (Sources amongst others: GettyImages.com, DepositPhotos.com & Dissolve.com)
For Jeff and Jensen's face I wanted the sweetest expressions possible. *grins* (Source Jeff: FameFlynet Pictures, Jensen's photo is by wolfpup2000)


For the Storybanner I combined Jeff's grey suit and his beardy face without glasses, photographers unknown. Jensen's snuggly sweater and his FACE are again from the awesome Wolfpup2000 <3


In the original photo of Jensen with his arms crossed (see up above) he didn't have the right cranky face; I made a couple of manips with different angry expressions (Wolfpup2000 captured them all at Chicon2012:). I played with his eyes to make him look at Jeff. (I didn't know yet what side Jeff would be on *grins*)
In the end I found the perfect Jensen face at Burcon2012, all I needed to do was fit his head on top of the snuggly sweater;)
(I did however moved Jeff's eyes a little bit to make him look in the right direction, did you see?)

Additional sources:
Bisou joined Jeff on The Bonnie Hunt Show in March 2009: I screencapped her from this adorable VIDEO!
Fonts: Mothica Bold (title/names) & Orator (art/story/from)
For the playlist I used SF Grunge Sans (songs) & Bougan SSi (artists)

BONUS

A silly manip I made to entertain my darling author while I was finetuning the real artwork:)


Thank you, sometimesalways for writing this marvelous Jeff/Jensen story, I love them a LOT. Also thanks to Wendy for once again organizing this awesome event. Last but not least, thank you, reader for coming over the look at my artwork. Comments of all kind are much appreciated. (Long or short, concrit or love, it's all welcome:)

J.


Want more? Check out My Art Masterlist or one of the tags below:)

Comments

[emmatheslayer]

This is amazing wow I was so stoked to read this one I knew you would claim it I was like this is so belikej lol I am so glad you got to do art for this one

[beelikej]

Thank you so much *smishes* It was a match made in heaven; the story is perfect, just the way I like my Jeff & Jensen :-) I had fun playing with them.

[dancing_adrift]

Beeeeeeeeee.
This is all SO GREAT. I absolutely adore how colorful all your art is; the watercolors, the soft lighting for the bedroom/couch images... Fits the fic so well. And such a pretty font, too! :D
Great job combining medias. I love seeing your progress with Photoshop (even though that gif of Jensen's eyes moving is starting just a little to creep me out... X'D). And that Bonus Image with the cheese is SO GREAT. Gah. This was such a fantastic adaptation of one of my favorite movies, both with fic AND art. Awesome job, as always! ♥

[dancing_adrift]

P.S. I love that there's also a soundtrack!! You've Got Mail has such a great soundtrack itself that it only seems fitting that this fic would have one too, lol. I hope to give it a listen sometime soon! Great job with the cover art for that, too! ♥

[beelikej]

Thank youuuu *rolls around in extensive comment*.

Heheh, and I didn't even include the layer of Jensen's blank eyes without pupils, that would have really freaked people out;)

The songs on this soundtrack fit the fic so well.