The Marshal's Husband [Art Masterpost]
Title: The Marshal's Husband (read it here)
Author: morrezela
Artist: soserendipity
Genre: RPF AU
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 5,150
Warnings/Spoilers: Mentions of dual mpreg, switching, shotgun wedding.
Summary: Jared was on his last undercover assignment when he made a mistake that got him married to a handsome stranger. It wasn’t an ideal circumstance to be in as a human, let alone a dragon such as himself.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own ideas. No money made, no insult intended. This is purely fictional.
Artist's Notes: Created for the 2014 round of spn_meanttobe for prompt #48, [The Texan]The Texan - U.S. Marshal Jonathan Cleary was a man with a plan: After one last undercover assignment, he'd claim a corner of the wide Texas sky and get hitched to the wild and carefree woman of his dreams. But Fate, disguised as Augusta McBride, came calling with different ideas. Now his dream woman was a prim-and-proper miss... with shocking secrets!
Augusta McBride was wedded to spinsterhood. Yet she'd somehow landed in front of a preacher, marrying a half-naked stranger - and relishing it! No doubt about it, the mysterious, marvelous Jonathan Cleary was a force of nature who couldn't be denied.
The fic part of this collaboration was claimed by morrezela- the art was made to fit her words and hopefully convey the mood of the story. Go over and read it if you like what you see here!
More technical notes and details about the work process can be found below the art for those who are interested in such things. Concrit is always welcome.
Acknowledgments: First of all, I'd like to thank tebtosca for running this wonderful challenge (and so smoothly, too). It was a lot of fun and I hope it'll happen again! Secondly, a huge thank you to my lovely art beta lightthesparks who never ceases to amaze me with her insightful suggestions and observations that hopefully will turn me into a real artist one day.
Here be art.
[Click pictures for bigger size.]
***
Banner:
***
Dividers:
***
Final Piece:
***
Illustrations:
#1 - Jared
#2 - Jensen
#3 - The School
#4 - The Shack
#5 - The Happy End
***
Icons:
[Feel free to snag what you like and don't forget to credit, please.]
***
Technical Blurb & Work Process:
The banner and the dividers are a mix of digital collages, photo manips, and digital drawing/painting. The illustrations are digitally drawn only. I used picture references for nearly everything because nobody wants to see me drawing stickfigures.
The star in the banner is the same Marshall's star Dean wore in season six's "Frontierland" and the flowers are an actual wedding boutonnière (the floral decoration men wear on their lapels). It's made of rosemary, oregano, and blooming chive and since many Old West themed gardens include herbs, it was just perfect for this set.
Here's a quick look at how the star was edited to fit the banner:
The most taxing things about the banner were the dragon scale background structure (it took me ages to get that drawn correctly and then to play with layer masks and blend modes until it fit the color scheme), freeing the boutonnière from its background, and adding to the photo of Jared and Jensen so it resembled the format it's now in.
Here's a closer look at the changes I put the background and the scale texture through. By pure coincidence, mind you. I discarded a lot of options and intermediate steps before I ended up with these and I couldn't have planned it if I tried. If you don't recognise the modes from your Photoshop version that's because I'm using GIMP and the modes differ in both programs. Also, my version isn't in English so I might have translated the terms incorrectly. [Click for bigger size.]
A little comparison of the photo of Jared and Jensen before and after I meddled with it:
The dividers were fun but time consuming because of all the details that one hardly notices in the small final versions, mainly the shades and tints around the bulletholes to add more dimension to the paper texture and the shape of the holes themselves. The gif for the final piece was a lot of work, too. I already had an idea how to go about it from making the dividers, but to create a smooth fade-in and fade-out of the text and the bullet holes the same layer was needed in different opacities. I ended up with a total of 80 layers just for that and they had to be exactly 2.5 % apart so there would be no hiccup during the fading process. That's twice all the way from 0 to 100 via 2.5 - 5 - 7.5 - 10 - 12.5 - ...you get the picture. Not my favorite way of spending time but it looks acceptable so I'm glad I did it. Also, I liked the idea of dragons being hard to injure (permamently) and that the paper with the scale texture - as a representation of dragons - "heals" after being shot. I can take that metaphore even further: since Jared and Jensen will stay madly in love forever after, the bullethole heart keeps appearing over and over again. [Could I be more schmoopy? I think not. Mission accomplished for this event.]
One would think that the illustrations took me a lot less time - it's just quick sketching, right? Um, well. That's probably true if you're a very skilled or experienced artist but since I am neither, this set had to wait for the amnesty day to be posted because I continued working on it all through June. If you're wondering why Jared in the illustration has different hair than Jared in the banner, I thought that the drawing could be pre-marriage and the picture was taken afterwards, showing the happy couple. Also, I might have a thing for Jared's hair now and couldn't quite stop myself.
I honestly intended to not do too many details or to start shading or any of that, but then the last picture happened. I think I might be excused because come on, it's dragons! But I only did one of them in detail so the drawing hopefully still conveys the sketch-y feeling of the other pictures and doesn't interfere with the overall theme of the set.
There are a few pictures I still didn't get to, one of Jared/Jensen and another one of the town they live in at the beginning of the story, for example. If I ever find myself with nothing to do, I'll definitely get back to those because this set was a whole lot of fun. I definitely have a thing for Wild West themes now.
The reference pictures were found via google search or Pinterest, the screencaps are courtesy of Home Of The Nutty.
***
Last but not least, have an alternative version of #1 as a little bonus. I've done quite a lot of experimenting with this set, but my trusted beta voted for less is more. Since she's hardly ever wrong, I tried to keep the illustrations in that old, sketch-y style. Below is one direction the set could have gone otherwise.
***
Author: morrezela
Artist: soserendipity
Genre: RPF AU
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 5,150
Warnings/Spoilers: Mentions of dual mpreg, switching, shotgun wedding.
Summary: Jared was on his last undercover assignment when he made a mistake that got him married to a handsome stranger. It wasn’t an ideal circumstance to be in as a human, let alone a dragon such as himself.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own ideas. No money made, no insult intended. This is purely fictional.
Artist's Notes: Created for the 2014 round of spn_meanttobe for prompt #48, [The Texan]The Texan - U.S. Marshal Jonathan Cleary was a man with a plan: After one last undercover assignment, he'd claim a corner of the wide Texas sky and get hitched to the wild and carefree woman of his dreams. But Fate, disguised as Augusta McBride, came calling with different ideas. Now his dream woman was a prim-and-proper miss... with shocking secrets!
Augusta McBride was wedded to spinsterhood. Yet she'd somehow landed in front of a preacher, marrying a half-naked stranger - and relishing it! No doubt about it, the mysterious, marvelous Jonathan Cleary was a force of nature who couldn't be denied.
The fic part of this collaboration was claimed by morrezela- the art was made to fit her words and hopefully convey the mood of the story. Go over and read it if you like what you see here!
More technical notes and details about the work process can be found below the art for those who are interested in such things. Concrit is always welcome.
Acknowledgments: First of all, I'd like to thank tebtosca for running this wonderful challenge (and so smoothly, too). It was a lot of fun and I hope it'll happen again! Secondly, a huge thank you to my lovely art beta lightthesparks who never ceases to amaze me with her insightful suggestions and observations that hopefully will turn me into a real artist one day.
Here be art.
[Click pictures for bigger size.]
***
Banner:
***
Dividers:
***
Final Piece:
***
Illustrations:
#1 - Jared
#2 - Jensen
#3 - The School
#4 - The Shack
#5 - The Happy End
***
Icons:
[Feel free to snag what you like and don't forget to credit, please.]
***
Technical Blurb & Work Process:
The banner and the dividers are a mix of digital collages, photo manips, and digital drawing/painting. The illustrations are digitally drawn only. I used picture references for nearly everything because nobody wants to see me drawing stickfigures.
The star in the banner is the same Marshall's star Dean wore in season six's "Frontierland" and the flowers are an actual wedding boutonnière (the floral decoration men wear on their lapels). It's made of rosemary, oregano, and blooming chive and since many Old West themed gardens include herbs, it was just perfect for this set.
Here's a quick look at how the star was edited to fit the banner:
The most taxing things about the banner were the dragon scale background structure (it took me ages to get that drawn correctly and then to play with layer masks and blend modes until it fit the color scheme), freeing the boutonnière from its background, and adding to the photo of Jared and Jensen so it resembled the format it's now in.
Here's a closer look at the changes I put the background and the scale texture through. By pure coincidence, mind you. I discarded a lot of options and intermediate steps before I ended up with these and I couldn't have planned it if I tried. If you don't recognise the modes from your Photoshop version that's because I'm using GIMP and the modes differ in both programs. Also, my version isn't in English so I might have translated the terms incorrectly. [Click for bigger size.]
A little comparison of the photo of Jared and Jensen before and after I meddled with it:
The dividers were fun but time consuming because of all the details that one hardly notices in the small final versions, mainly the shades and tints around the bulletholes to add more dimension to the paper texture and the shape of the holes themselves. The gif for the final piece was a lot of work, too. I already had an idea how to go about it from making the dividers, but to create a smooth fade-in and fade-out of the text and the bullet holes the same layer was needed in different opacities. I ended up with a total of 80 layers just for that and they had to be exactly 2.5 % apart so there would be no hiccup during the fading process. That's twice all the way from 0 to 100 via 2.5 - 5 - 7.5 - 10 - 12.5 - ...you get the picture. Not my favorite way of spending time but it looks acceptable so I'm glad I did it. Also, I liked the idea of dragons being hard to injure (permamently) and that the paper with the scale texture - as a representation of dragons - "heals" after being shot. I can take that metaphore even further: since Jared and Jensen will stay madly in love forever after, the bullethole heart keeps appearing over and over again. [Could I be more schmoopy? I think not. Mission accomplished for this event.]
One would think that the illustrations took me a lot less time - it's just quick sketching, right? Um, well. That's probably true if you're a very skilled or experienced artist but since I am neither, this set had to wait for the amnesty day to be posted because I continued working on it all through June. If you're wondering why Jared in the illustration has different hair than Jared in the banner, I thought that the drawing could be pre-marriage and the picture was taken afterwards, showing the happy couple. Also, I might have a thing for Jared's hair now and couldn't quite stop myself.
I honestly intended to not do too many details or to start shading or any of that, but then the last picture happened. I think I might be excused because come on, it's dragons! But I only did one of them in detail so the drawing hopefully still conveys the sketch-y feeling of the other pictures and doesn't interfere with the overall theme of the set.
There are a few pictures I still didn't get to, one of Jared/Jensen and another one of the town they live in at the beginning of the story, for example. If I ever find myself with nothing to do, I'll definitely get back to those because this set was a whole lot of fun. I definitely have a thing for Wild West themes now.
The reference pictures were found via google search or Pinterest, the screencaps are courtesy of Home Of The Nutty.
***
Last but not least, have an alternative version of #1 as a little bonus. I've done quite a lot of experimenting with this set, but my trusted beta voted for less is more. Since she's hardly ever wrong, I tried to keep the illustrations in that old, sketch-y style. Below is one direction the set could have gone otherwise.
***