Fanart (spn_j2_xmas): "Unique in All the World" (G, J2 - The Little Prince AU) for sleepypercy
[Extended A/N and back-alley arting.]
A/N: The Best Book in the World is Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Wind, Sand, and Stars, and I will rumble with anyone who says different. ;) HOWEVER, his The Little Prince ranks in my top-20 best books ever. The story, about a young traveler who visits different worlds, encountering numerous critters on the way, is beautiful, fun, incredibly moving and really oughtta be on the reading list of every person with a beating heart. I knew I'd won the spn_j2_xmas jackpot upon spotting this prompt:
The Little Prince AU. Jared as a star-roamer. Jensen as his jealous rose.
... but the Muse was MUCH more interested in casting Jensen as the lonely fox who begs to be tamed. Thanks to our delightful Mod running interference, we were able to confirm that the change was okay. Sleepypercy, thank you SO very much for such a fabulous prompt -- and thank you again for allowing me to make the change. Thanks also to siennavie and becc_j for their delightful pointers and links on anthropomorphization, to my art beta maichan for making sure I didn't mess up fox!Jensen too much, and to awesome mod tebtosca for keeping this Christmas party going strong. :)
Much love to the awesome meus_venator for turning this project into an epub document! Download the files (epub/MOBI/PDF) here.
Artin' stuff:
Since I hadn't drawn a fox since kiddy scribble days, there was experimentation with anatomy, line, and oh, especially color -- foxes be BRIGHT. The first rough pencil sketch did double duty as a test palette.
Fox banner art as drawn, sans digital hoodoo:
And then came the hard part -- blending a wild animal with a recognizable human. Anthro, how does it work?
The first attempts to "Jensenate" a fox:
A bit too human in the face, this one. Oops.
Also, this. While seeking out fox references, I stumbled upon this utterly gorgeous creature:
. . . and traced it back to an article about a fox named Pudding who also came to be tamed by man. Fortunately, Pudding's story ends on a far more hopeful note than Saint-Exupéry's poor fox. Good for her! :)