SPN J2 Big Bang 2024 - Second Chance - Artpost
My fourth SPN J2 Big Bang! And again, there were so many great stories to choose from. Four made my shortlist. I'm very happy that I was able to claim my favorite, Second Chance by blackrose_17. A wonderfully romantic love story, with everything that goes with it. Heartbreak, separation, enemies, intrigue, friends, wealth and love. Have fun watching and reading!
Fic title: Second Chance
Author name: backrose_17 [blackrose_17 on AO3]
Artist name: aomasade [AomaSade on AO3]
Genre: RPF
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 32,411
Warnings: Mpreg past and off screen, cheating, and Jensen starts off as a bad guy but gets better, bottom Jared, top Jensen
Summary: Six years ago Jared fell head over heels in love with the playboy Jensen, only for it to end in heartbreak. Just when his life seemed to look up, even if Jared wasn’t completely and totally in love with the man he agreed to marry he was content, that was until Jensen decides that he is not to sit back and allow his rival to marry his Jared. Using any means necessary, including threatening to take away the daughter he’s only learned he had. Jensen makes Jared an offer he can’t refuse - marry him or lose Rosalie. Now the two must figure out a way to become a family and see if love really is enough to soothe old wounds.
Masterpost on SPN J2 Big Bang
Art Link: AO3
Fic Link: AO3
Click on the pictures for view in original size.
As soon as I first read the summary, I had the idea of designing a cover in a vintage love comic book style. Mixed with a bit of pop art. The content of this story would fit in well. A melancholy Jared in the foreground and Jensen in a smart suit diagonally behind him. A wolf in sheep's clothing acting in the background? Everything is kept in romantic colors.
After claiming it, blackrose_17 changed the long title "That is the love that lives in your veins" to "Second Chance". It was much shorter and said more about the content of the story. I was very happy about that. There was much more space for the characters on the cover.
So I sketched out my ideas on a small piece of paper. For the background, I imagined Jensen's expensive car or Jared's broken heart. The division of the characters and the title would work well if I could realize it that way.
Then I did some research on the internet. I looked at many covers of comic love books. What style was used, what colors. How were the characters portrayed.
Next, I looked for reference pictures of Jared and Jensen and big cars. I thought about what clothes the two men on the cover might be wearing.
I started to draw a rough sketch. A melancholy Jared in a work shirt and a confident Jensen in a suit. Rich and poor. The power imbalance is clearly visible. My author liked the idea. So I tested the color selection, the fonts and the vintage look.
Now I drew Jared, Jensen and the car individually as line art so that I could arrange them differently or change them slightly on the cover, the banner and the individual images. I still have a slight problem with hair. And drawing cars is also difficult. The worst was the radiator grille.
The comic book style usually uses warm, bright colors and line art. The pop art style is colorful and cheerful. So I chose colors with that in mind. Jared was given a white and red checked shirt, Jensen white trousers, a light gray shirt and a dark jacket. A hero in shining armor? The headline was given bright colors. The author's and artist's names are in neutral white and stand out clearly against the background.
What I love about pop art is the fanned background with dots. I started with the medium blue background color. With turquoise, I drew rays with Jared in the center. Then I added yellow and brown for the ground. Now the rays got their dots. Using the texture brush, I lightly erased over the dots to vary the opacity. Then I applied a vintage texture over the entire image. Using the texture brush, I added wear marks around the edges.
The blue-turquoise background is the unifying element of all the artwork and unifies the art set into a whole.
I used the grid brush for the dots, but I could just as easily have used a free image file with dots from the internet. I used a paperback texture for the vintage look.
For the warm vintage look of the finished picture, the colors of the template had to be cold and bright. That wasn't so easy. I wanted to constantly improve the colors so that both J2s would also look good on the template.
The story was not divided into chapters. So there were no chapter headings. To ensure that there was still some art within the story, I drew dividers. I took up the initial idea of the broken heart again and created different dividers that reflect the course of the story. First, Jared's heart is broken. Then it puts itself back together. Later it is completely healed. And finally united with Jensen's heart.
I drew all my artwork with Procreate. I'm still amazed at how easy and simple it is to draw with this graphic design app. And how much power (tools and brushes) there is under the hood. For this art set, however, I only needed five brushes. I used the calligraphy brush to create the line art. Monoline is an all-rounder - coloring, drawing lines, touching up - it can do it all. I used Soft Brush for the shading. For the pop art and vintage look, I used the special brushes Grid Dots and Texture.
Did you like my artworks and the explanations about their creation? I am very curious about your opinion.
