Bigbang 2017 Art Masterpost "Of Princes and Prophecies"
Art master post for spn_j2_bigbang
Title: Of Princes and Prophecies
Story by: zubeneschamali
Pairing: J2
Medium: Traditional (watercolor) and digital (wacom & photoshop)
Story: AO3 / LJ
Thanks to my author, zubeneschamalifor creating such an amazing and fun story! When I read your summary, I frailed and decided right there that I wanted to claim it! Seriously, please go read it if you haven't already done so. If it is not because of your great storytelling skill, I wouldn't be able to make all the art. It's been fun to collaborate with you, and I can't wait to reread everything again *hugs* Also, and as always, thanks to wendy, the super mod, for keeping us all in line <3
Art and other stuff this way!
Another year of Bigbang yo :D
Thanks to my lucky star, I claimed one of my favorite authors again this year. It's zubeneschamali <3 <3 <3
Since it's a fantasy story, I did a lot of research on clothing and scenes. Then I realized I did too much research and I had to stop or else I wouldn't finish even a piece! Then work got in the way :( and I had to be away from my Wacom pad and photoshop for almost 2 weeks. I had to reread the story again from the beginning, and then decided to paint the boys as they first appeared in the story; Jared with the robinhood-y green hood and Jensen with the noble-like red cloak, and they would be in the wood where they first met. This would be the poster.
The draft I sent to Wendy the Mod was something raw-looking like this:
The lines were very hard-looking and sharp, the color dull and artificial. Actually, all of my drafts tend to look like this before I edit them with photoshop. I had to edit those drafts so that the mood and tone fit the story more.
This story was a fantasy story, so I wanted the art to feel magical with lights and shadows and sparkles. The edits looked like this
I simply put a blue shade over the whole art, then added lights and shadows and, well, sparkles! The art felt softer and seemed to have layers and dimensions :) At the end, I added some red&purple hue around the edge of the art, too, because the red of Jensen's cloak stood out. I had to make the color more balanced. And done.
I really, really wanted to paint more. But work got in the way again *signs* Anyway, I asked my author about the end scene, how she pictured it. And she mentioned castle! Yey! It wouldn't be a fantasy story without princes and their castle, right? So I made one art for the ending.
I kind of did mix and match and drew the castle from 3-4 different reference pictures so it probably looked weird. I drew it and painted it with watercolor (first time in ages that I used a traditional painting tool!), scanned it so I could edit it with photoshop later.
After I was done with the castle on the hill, I added more hill and grasses, then the two princes and a rock.
I had no idea why I drew Jensen with his hand raising like that lol. The two princes were probably talking and Jensen was in the middle of explaining something to Jared? Umm Anyway, yes there was a rock. It was there for a reason!
And the reason was the Princes' crowns needed a place to stay together lolol Then I decided that Jensen's gesture was too weird. So, voila, he showed Jared his magic instead of simply talked with him, and now he had a reason to hold out his hand like that! (phew!) The next step was painting the sky and adding more yellow/brown grasses (too much green), and orange color of sunset.
I also made two simple dividers; one for Jared, and one for Jensen.
My author once again suggested that we could have a hood to represent Jared and a cloak to represent Jensen. I tried painting just a cloak/hood but they looked strange and didn't portray the right atmosphere. So I painted some symbols and mini Jared and Jensen with their hood and cloak instead. I'm quite pleased with the result.
I may like these mini princes so much. I created another small banner out of it, just for fun.
If I had more time, I'd very much love to paint JDM. But *sobs* no time.
Thanks for reading my bubbling! Again, please go read the story, it's awesome :)