Artwork for ReverseBang 2012 [The First]
Since I was already inspired to be more creative by last year's edition of Gishwhes, I didn't mind not having time to join in this time around. Instead I worked on a new arts & crafts experiment for the 2012 spn_reversebang challenge! (In a Reverse Bang artists make fan-art which is posted anonymously for authors to choose as inspiration for fanfiction.) After my artwork adventure with clay, this time I decided to work with paper. No pencils or other additional media, just paper. DUNDUNDUN....
The prompt I made was a papercollage portrait of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a baker surrounded by cupcakes, titled MMMorgan's. (Entry #2009)
My sketch was picked by the marvelous bertee. I had indicated in my notes that the author could decide on the pairing and as it turned out we both liked Jeff best with Jensen \o/ While Bertee was writing, I fiddled with Jeff a bit more and I made an additional portrait of Jensen and other artwork to go with the story. Now we can finally present the result of our collaboration:
Fic Title: Bake & Shake
Author: bertee
Artist: beelikej
Medium: Paper!
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural/RPS, AU, Romance
Pairing(s): Jeffrey Dean Morgan / Jensen Ackles
Rating: NC17
Word Count: ~12,000
Summary: Baker!JDM rescues stranded!Jensen after his car breaks down. Together they fight crime bake cupcakes.
Art is non spoilery (and rated G), so you can safely look at it before you go off to read the wonderful story :-p
Portraits
(Click for bigger!)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a baker, cupcakes are his specialty:)
Jensen is surrounded by macarons (and purple whipcream swirls;)
Happily ever after?
Business cards
After reading bertee's first draft I couldn't resist making business cards. The specific state is not mentioned in the story, but I decided Silverdale was most likely located in Washington because of reasons;)
Dividers
Fifteen (15!) Cupcakes to separate the paragraphs:
Icons
No artwork is complete without icons:
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
I also made extra userpics especially for bertee and me. *points at own icon*
End banner
That shortcake thing:
If you're curious: I'm sharing some background information about my artwork below, including loads of source photos, sketches and paper pies! You can skip that and go straight down to the thank yous and comments, but know that you will miss the delicious recipe for one of baker!Jeff's signature bakes *grins*
For those who are interested: [How it was made...]
The process...
While I was thinking of a technique to use for my RB art, I came across this picture on Tumblr and was inspired by the minimalistic look of the design.
Lacoste S.A. Archives
I decided to see if I could create a recognizable image of my favorite SPN guy while limiting the amount of shapes and colours as much as possible. I chose coloured paper and planned to just see how far I could get without adding any other materials (not even glue). As an extra challenge I forced myself to cut the different parts all in one piece, so I had to connect loose facial features without ruining the shape needed to create the faces.
The baker idea came to me thanks to my obsession with The Great British Bake off and these images:
(FYI: to see bigger versions of the pictures in this section: right click and view image)
:-D
Step 1: Preparation
For the portraits I used example photos that I put through some filters in Photoshop to limit the depth of the images. For Jeff I had about four shades of grey left digitally, that I reduced by hand to three layers I traced separately on coloured paper. I also fiddled with Jensen in Photoshop first (had to fix his hair;). His picture had less contrast to start with; even after several attempts to reduce the amount of shades digitally, I was still left with six shades which was a lot harder to reduce to only three colours.
Jeffrey.Dean.Morgan, that original photo is HUGE: © Chris Delmas 2008
Jensen photos by Wolfpup2000: Dallas 2012 & Vancouver 2012
Step 2: Cutting papershapes
~JEFF~
Top row, from left to right:
1. Tracing
2. Cutting
3. Tried a couple of different hats before I managed the right shape and size *grin*
<--Here's what I found very interesting: while both layers on their own clearly look like Jeff, I think the pink shape represents his sweet side; the yellow shape reminds me of The Comedian in Watchmen; it just looks a little evil to me - look at that smirk.
I had a bit of trouble dressing them; it was quite a struggle to figure out how to match their 3D shirts with their flatview faces. Because I didn't use any glue every time I would try to make the collar fit, I would mess up their faces. Grrr. To get the collars somewhat realistic I made sketches from Jeff's original photo and some side shots of Jensen, but I had to cut a lot of different shapes before I was satisfied.
~JENSEN~
(Satisfied your curiousity already?
There is more art-babbling (and that recipe;),
but feel free to skip to thank yous and comments)
Sketches and lettering
During the whole process I made several sketches, from left to right:
1. First idea for prompt design: Jeff with cake and cupcakes
2. Business cards and shortcake 'thing'
3. Jensen's collar, based on This SPN-image
4. Banner sketches; the cake design and alternative with Jeff and Jensen. (I really had to force myself to not use their faces in the story header;)
Sticking to my main plan of limited shapes, I deliberately chose to not cut the complete outline of the letters, as the text would still be recognizable even without the holes. The sans serif font that I traced is the Kozuka Gothic Pro H, for the lettering on the cake I used a combination of Pen Tweaks One and Three. As that script style didn't look right with uncut loops, I went all out on that text;) I EVEN GOT A BLISTER ON MY INDEXFINGER. I TOTALLY SUFFERED FOR MY ART \o/
The food
I started off making paper models of pies, but they just didn't look very appetizing. So with apologies to SPN canon, I switched to cakes because they look better in crazy colours. Because I know some of you like to see the complete process, I'm sharing those first couple of pies with the addendum that I am aware they look weird;)
Cherry pies:
Apple pie:
See what I mean? They don't look like food at all.
The cupcakes, shortcakes, macarons and strawberry cake were made freehand. I didn't use any examples for the cupcakes; I liked having some freedom after the precision work on the portraits. To create the dividers with a transparent background I added a shadow in Photoshop (not visible in my black journal, but it makes them pop in the author's post;)
< Those macarons were also made freestyle: they didn't look right until I tried folding the paper, that created a bit of shading and 3D effect!
For the big cake in the story header I browsed around for some sample photos [strawberry cakes] and then gave it my own twist.
RECIPE!!
After reading the first draft I was wondering what shortcake was. During my research I discovered a delicious recipe which perfectly fit with the story: if you want you can bake those shortcake things Jared babbles about! I based the cake in the end-banner on that image :-)
Speaking of the end: you made it!
Thank you
Thank you, bertee for grabbing my prompt with the speed of light. I was already thrilled to be chosen by such a cool author, but to be picked first was an unforgettable thrill *grins*. Your story is awesome, I love our baker Jeff and you introduced me to snickerdoodles \o/. (Too bad they aren't colourful enough to be featured in the art, I definitely need to taste them one day;)
Of course also thanks to the mods of spn_reversebang for running this challenge so perfectly.
As usual a special nod to those members of my family who always indulge my squee without having a clue about fandom :)
Last but not least: thank YOU, dear visitor, for taking a look at my artwork!
Questions, squee or suggestions? All comments are welcome, no matter how sweet or harsh. I really love to know that you stopped by, so don't be shy to share your opinion:) And then go read the story: Bake & Shake!
-J-
My masterpost of artsy fiddling
The prompt I made was a papercollage portrait of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a baker surrounded by cupcakes, titled MMMorgan's. (Entry #2009)
My sketch was picked by the marvelous bertee. I had indicated in my notes that the author could decide on the pairing and as it turned out we both liked Jeff best with Jensen \o/ While Bertee was writing, I fiddled with Jeff a bit more and I made an additional portrait of Jensen and other artwork to go with the story. Now we can finally present the result of our collaboration:
Fic Title: Bake & Shake
Author: bertee
Artist: beelikej
Medium: Paper!
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural/RPS, AU, Romance
Pairing(s): Jeffrey Dean Morgan / Jensen Ackles
Rating: NC17
Word Count: ~12,000
Summary: Baker!JDM rescues stranded!Jensen after his car breaks down. Together they fight crime bake cupcakes.
Art is non spoilery (and rated G), so you can safely look at it before you go off to read the wonderful story :-p
Portraits
(Click for bigger!)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a baker, cupcakes are his specialty:)
Jensen is surrounded by macarons (and purple whipcream swirls;)
Happily ever after?
Business cards
After reading bertee's first draft I couldn't resist making business cards. The specific state is not mentioned in the story, but I decided Silverdale was most likely located in Washington because of reasons;)
Dividers
Fifteen (15!) Cupcakes to separate the paragraphs:
Icons
No artwork is complete without icons:
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
I also made extra userpics especially for bertee and me. *points at own icon*
End banner
That shortcake thing:
If you're curious: I'm sharing some background information about my artwork below, including loads of source photos, sketches and paper pies! You can skip that and go straight down to the thank yous and comments, but know that you will miss the delicious recipe for one of baker!Jeff's signature bakes *grins*
For those who are interested: [How it was made...]
The process...
While I was thinking of a technique to use for my RB art, I came across this picture on Tumblr and was inspired by the minimalistic look of the design.
I decided to see if I could create a recognizable image of my favorite SPN guy while limiting the amount of shapes and colours as much as possible. I chose coloured paper and planned to just see how far I could get without adding any other materials (not even glue). As an extra challenge I forced myself to cut the different parts all in one piece, so I had to connect loose facial features without ruining the shape needed to create the faces.
The baker idea came to me thanks to my obsession with The Great British Bake off and these images:
(FYI: to see bigger versions of the pictures in this section: right click and view image)
:-D
Step 1: Preparation
For the portraits I used example photos that I put through some filters in Photoshop to limit the depth of the images. For Jeff I had about four shades of grey left digitally, that I reduced by hand to three layers I traced separately on coloured paper. I also fiddled with Jensen in Photoshop first (had to fix his hair;). His picture had less contrast to start with; even after several attempts to reduce the amount of shades digitally, I was still left with six shades which was a lot harder to reduce to only three colours.
Jeffrey.Dean.Morgan, that original photo is HUGE: © Chris Delmas 2008
Jensen photos by Wolfpup2000: Dallas 2012 & Vancouver 2012
Step 2: Cutting papershapes
~JEFF~
Top row, from left to right:
1. Tracing
2. Cutting
3. Tried a couple of different hats before I managed the right shape and size *grin*
<--Here's what I found very interesting: while both layers on their own clearly look like Jeff, I think the pink shape represents his sweet side; the yellow shape reminds me of The Comedian in Watchmen; it just looks a little evil to me - look at that smirk.
I had a bit of trouble dressing them; it was quite a struggle to figure out how to match their 3D shirts with their flatview faces. Because I didn't use any glue every time I would try to make the collar fit, I would mess up their faces. Grrr. To get the collars somewhat realistic I made sketches from Jeff's original photo and some side shots of Jensen, but I had to cut a lot of different shapes before I was satisfied.
~JENSEN~
(Satisfied your curiousity already?
There is more art-babbling (and that recipe;),
but feel free to skip to thank yous and comments)
Sketches and lettering
During the whole process I made several sketches, from left to right:
1. First idea for prompt design: Jeff with cake and cupcakes
2. Business cards and shortcake 'thing'
3. Jensen's collar, based on This SPN-image
4. Banner sketches; the cake design and alternative with Jeff and Jensen. (I really had to force myself to not use their faces in the story header;)
Sticking to my main plan of limited shapes, I deliberately chose to not cut the complete outline of the letters, as the text would still be recognizable even without the holes. The sans serif font that I traced is the Kozuka Gothic Pro H, for the lettering on the cake I used a combination of Pen Tweaks One and Three. As that script style didn't look right with uncut loops, I went all out on that text;) I EVEN GOT A BLISTER ON MY INDEXFINGER. I TOTALLY SUFFERED FOR MY ART \o/
The food
I started off making paper models of pies, but they just didn't look very appetizing. So with apologies to SPN canon, I switched to cakes because they look better in crazy colours. Because I know some of you like to see the complete process, I'm sharing those first couple of pies with the addendum that I am aware they look weird;)
Cherry pies:
Apple pie:
See what I mean? They don't look like food at all.
The cupcakes, shortcakes, macarons and strawberry cake were made freehand. I didn't use any examples for the cupcakes; I liked having some freedom after the precision work on the portraits. To create the dividers with a transparent background I added a shadow in Photoshop (not visible in my black journal, but it makes them pop in the author's post;)
< Those macarons were also made freestyle: they didn't look right until I tried folding the paper, that created a bit of shading and 3D effect!
For the big cake in the story header I browsed around for some sample photos [strawberry cakes] and then gave it my own twist.
RECIPE!!
After reading the first draft I was wondering what shortcake was. During my research I discovered a delicious recipe which perfectly fit with the story: if you want you can bake those shortcake things Jared babbles about! I based the cake in the end-banner on that image :-)
Speaking of the end: you made it!
Thank you
Thank you, bertee for grabbing my prompt with the speed of light. I was already thrilled to be chosen by such a cool author, but to be picked first was an unforgettable thrill *grins*. Your story is awesome, I love our baker Jeff and you introduced me to snickerdoodles \o/. (Too bad they aren't colourful enough to be featured in the art, I definitely need to taste them one day;)
Of course also thanks to the mods of spn_reversebang for running this challenge so perfectly.
As usual a special nod to those members of my family who always indulge my squee without having a clue about fandom :)
Last but not least: thank YOU, dear visitor, for taking a look at my artwork!
Questions, squee or suggestions? All comments are welcome, no matter how sweet or harsh. I really love to know that you stopped by, so don't be shy to share your opinion:) And then go read the story: Bake & Shake!
-J-
My masterpost of artsy fiddling