[ART] TS:TSBB Art Masterpost for snycock's Song of the Rolling Earth
This year I was happy to participate in sentinelbigbang. I watched The Sentinel when it first aired but never really got into the fandom... lately I have been enjoying all the great stories out there. I created art for PsychGirl's Song of the Rolling Earth, and I hope I've made something that captures the feel and atmosphere of her wonderful story.
Can you say Pony Express AU? Yes! Yes, you can, and you should go read it right away! =D
Everything is generally work safe (there's one scene with a shirtless Jim). There are mild spoilers for the story, so you should read it first!
Cover Art (Click for Larger)
This is a scene with Blair riding out with the mail. I tried to give it an Old West feel and used a lot of filters and textures. You can see alternate versions here, here, and here.
The man standing closest to the foreground was actually supposed to be Jim but I had Jim!fail and he pretty much looks nothing like him. Later attempts were a bit more successful.
Illustration I (Click for Larger)
Blair in the General Store, right around when he first sees the Pony Express poster. I used a bank note from the era as the basis for the frame image. I really liked how the shadows turned out (around the scale, for example). Alternate versions here and here.
Illustration II (Click for Larger)
This is less an actual scene and more just a general Pony Express-esque picture, using an envelope from the era. Horses!!!! ♥ I was happy with how this came out.
Illustration III (Click for Larger)
This is from one of the last scenes, where Blair finds Jim suffering in his cabin... I had a really hard time with Jim's likeness, and I'm still not 100% happy with it. His face is hard? I also couldn't resist including Blair's black eye, though I expect it had faded a great deal by this time.
One thing I had some trouble with to was trying to capture their ages-- Blair is about 18 in this story and my first draft images seemed to do better at showing his youth, but I worried maybe he was a bit too pretty (not that Blair isn't gorgeous, but I think he has a very masculine beauty as opposed to 'pretty'). Sometimes I opted to try to capture the mood of the story rather than the exact details because of my lack of skills.
You can see a draft of Blair looking a lot younger riding here, and a draft of Jim and Blair (Jim looks awful, don't click!) here. The newer version of Jim is here. Oh, and my first draft version of Blair was a modern Blair, you can see it here.
Story Banner
Icons
I also made a few icons as I went along:
I want to thank snycock for giving me such a rich and interesting story to be inspired from, and also my chat peeps (you know who you are) for the constructive criticism as I worked on the images.
The pictures were created in Daz|Studio (it's a lot like Poser) using primarily M4 models and associated content. I also used V4, V3, D3, and M3 models for the random townfolk. There was a lot of postwork in Photoshop.
Thanks for looking, and please don't forget to read the story! Comments are always welcome :).
Can you say Pony Express AU? Yes! Yes, you can, and you should go read it right away! =D
Everything is generally work safe (there's one scene with a shirtless Jim). There are mild spoilers for the story, so you should read it first!
Cover Art (Click for Larger)
This is a scene with Blair riding out with the mail. I tried to give it an Old West feel and used a lot of filters and textures. You can see alternate versions here, here, and here.
The man standing closest to the foreground was actually supposed to be Jim but I had Jim!fail and he pretty much looks nothing like him. Later attempts were a bit more successful.
Illustration I (Click for Larger)
Blair in the General Store, right around when he first sees the Pony Express poster. I used a bank note from the era as the basis for the frame image. I really liked how the shadows turned out (around the scale, for example). Alternate versions here and here.
Illustration II (Click for Larger)
This is less an actual scene and more just a general Pony Express-esque picture, using an envelope from the era. Horses!!!! ♥ I was happy with how this came out.
Illustration III (Click for Larger)
This is from one of the last scenes, where Blair finds Jim suffering in his cabin... I had a really hard time with Jim's likeness, and I'm still not 100% happy with it. His face is hard? I also couldn't resist including Blair's black eye, though I expect it had faded a great deal by this time.
One thing I had some trouble with to was trying to capture their ages-- Blair is about 18 in this story and my first draft images seemed to do better at showing his youth, but I worried maybe he was a bit too pretty (not that Blair isn't gorgeous, but I think he has a very masculine beauty as opposed to 'pretty'). Sometimes I opted to try to capture the mood of the story rather than the exact details because of my lack of skills.
You can see a draft of Blair looking a lot younger riding here, and a draft of Jim and Blair (Jim looks awful, don't click!) here. The newer version of Jim is here. Oh, and my first draft version of Blair was a modern Blair, you can see it here.
Story Banner
Icons
I also made a few icons as I went along:
I want to thank snycock for giving me such a rich and interesting story to be inspired from, and also my chat peeps (you know who you are) for the constructive criticism as I worked on the images.
The pictures were created in Daz|Studio (it's a lot like Poser) using primarily M4 models and associated content. I also used V4, V3, D3, and M3 models for the random townfolk. There was a lot of postwork in Photoshop.
Thanks for looking, and please don't forget to read the story! Comments are always welcome :).