Fan Art : Closer (Four page comic)
Fan Art : Closer (Four page comic)
Warning before downloading the files :
Character death - Gore - Blood - Very dark humor
For the complete comic, you have two solutions :
- A PDF VERSION is available at my Deviant Art page. Click on THIS LINK and then on the "Download" button on the right. The download will start immediately.
- A JPEG version of the 8 pages, available separately on my website. Just click on the links below :
Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 - Page 5 - Page 6 - Page 7 - Page 8
****
Before starting this post I would like to thank my awesome beta, transfixeddream who did a great job at betaing this work even if I traumatized him with this gore story that he found a little bit disturbing. He survived (well as far as I know
) so you don't have to worry about him (I guess...)
****
RANDOM QUESTIONS
What's the concept ?
I filled the following prompt for the sharp_teeth community requested by smilla02 :
If Sam could get close to Dean, closer, he knows that whatever is wrong with him would be fixed. After many attempts, he finally gets it right.
What I liked about this prompt is that it could be the beginning of a Wincest story but as it was requested in a horror comm, I let you imagine the endless possibilities the word "Closer" can imply
. So it starts with Sam caressing gently his brother's cheek and then...
SPOILERS : The following questions reveal a part of the comic plot
OMG!!! You killed Dean ?!!!! But aren't you a Dean girl ?
I am but I am never against some gore action either. I must admit it's my "Kripke side"
: I love Supernatural for the "great love story of Sam and Dean" but also because a guy had his hand reduced to nothing in a kitchen blender in the After School Special episode or because of the "cannibal couple" of My Bloody Valentine. I am not allergic to characters deaths in fics and arts and seriously, the way Dean dies is so gore that it's almost laughable particularly with Sam talking to his freshly removed heart resting on the dashboard of the Impala. In other words : don't take this too seriously...
You think it's funny ?
Hum...I must admit that....yes
. Blame it on my very dark sense of humor but I laughed a lot during the conception of Closer. It started the day I read the prompt and it went on until I had a feedback from my (poor) beta. smilla02 kind of knew what was going to happen because I reminded her before the posting of the comic that I was the fan artist who drew this art and this one so that I wasn't afraid of mixing blood and bad jokes which is normal, after all, when you are a fan of genre movies like I am.
More seriously, ok, it's gore, ok there's a character death but I think this story has something romantic in a very twisted kind of way. Of course, YMMV but that's how I see Closer at the end, like something "romantically gore" .
What the hell is this white thing resting on the bed sheet in panel #2 (page 4) ?
Dean's ribcage
. I mean, it makes sense : if you want to remove the heart, you have to get rid of the ribcage first, no?That's what Sam did and now the thing is resting on the bed cover next to him. Yes, I thought about that kind of details too...
And the big scissors next to Sam ?
See the question above : to remove the ribcage, well, you need to cut it and scissors to cut chicken are quite handy in that kind of situation so...(not that I have a great experience in the matter but there must be a logic even in crack!art
)
Petite-Madame, you broke my Dean!Girl's heart, I hate you
Oh come, on!
You will survive and see the bright side of life : when I draw gore stuff, I draw schmoop illustrations right after! So, expect unicorns and rainbows in my next fan arts (hum..maybe ^^ ). Not to mention that my future RBB arts have nothing that will traumatize you. But if you think it's not enough, here is something cute for you :
Ok, now I hope you are not gonna torture this poor Dean anymore!
Hum...I am currently working on a new card for the spn_tarot community that represents Dean in Hell and..what..can I say ? Red suits him very well
Why "Saint Christopher" Motel by the way ?
At the beginning, it should have been the Sacred Heart Motel (hence the use of the religious imagery on page 8) but it was a little bit too much (I know, everything is "too much" in this comic so why did I care!
) , so I changed for "Saint Christopher", who is the Patron Saint of Travelers. He didn't really help Dean...
TECHNICAL RAMBLING FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE LAYERED, RASTERIZED AND CLIPPING PATHED TO DEATH
What software did you use ?
Manga Studio for the inking and Photoshop CS for the screentones and colorization.
How long did it take you ?
Quite long, one week and an half I think.
Did you draw the sets ? Are they digital screentones ?
Yes and No. In fact even if Manga Studio has a big choice of digital screetones available, I am not really satisfied with their quality (not enough details, too dark, the black outlines are too thick, etc) so I use real screentones from my "little" personal collection (I live in Tokyo so it's easy to have access to a lot of screentones in art shops)
I scan the screentones and then I add them to the picture thanks to Photoshop CS. Not only the quality of the image is far better than a digital screentone but I also have more choice.
There is an exception however with page 5, the one where Sam walks away under the rain. The screentone behind him is a photo modified thanks to PS, not something I bought in a shop.
I don't live in Tokyo!!!!! Does it mean I can't have great screentones too ?!!
Calm down. Some of the screentones available in Japanese's shops are also available on the Internet. I recommend you the Deviant Art gallery simply called "Screentones", you will find there a very large choice of sets, gradients, fractals, flowers, etc...for your drawings and comics. Enjoy!!
A little step by step to see how you proceed from the start ?
Ok, let's go!
1) Sketch and Inking
First I draw a rough sketch with a pencil on a piece of paper, I scan it and I ink it with Manga Studio. I reach the result below. There are no screentones, no shadows, nothing, just the outlines!
2) Screentones
Even if the page is going to be colorized, adding screentones gives, in my opinion, something more in terms of shadows, not to mention the sets. I open the picture in Photoshop CS and add the scanned screentones thanks to the "Clone Stamp" tool. I then reach the result below :
3) Colors
Then, I start the colorization, with a layer practically for each element of the page (Sam's hair, Dean's shirt, the various backgrounds, etc..) but also for the shadows and highlights. For this page only for instance, I have a total of 42 layers. Here is a gif so that you can see the different layers (I sometimes put 3 or 4 layers in one animation step because having a gif with 42 animations steps would have been impossible )
And then, it's over!! Tadaaaam!
That's it for today, hope you enjoyed this tutorial and Dean's opened ribcage.
See you soon!
Warning before downloading the files :
Character death - Gore - Blood - Very dark humor
For the complete comic, you have two solutions :
- A PDF VERSION is available at my Deviant Art page. Click on THIS LINK and then on the "Download" button on the right. The download will start immediately.
- A JPEG version of the 8 pages, available separately on my website. Just click on the links below :
Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 - Page 5 - Page 6 - Page 7 - Page 8
****
Before starting this post I would like to thank my awesome beta, transfixeddream who did a great job at betaing this work even if I traumatized him with this gore story that he found a little bit disturbing. He survived (well as far as I know
) so you don't have to worry about him (I guess...)
****
RANDOM QUESTIONS
What's the concept ?
I filled the following prompt for the sharp_teeth community requested by smilla02 :
If Sam could get close to Dean, closer, he knows that whatever is wrong with him would be fixed. After many attempts, he finally gets it right.
What I liked about this prompt is that it could be the beginning of a Wincest story but as it was requested in a horror comm, I let you imagine the endless possibilities the word "Closer" can imply
. So it starts with Sam caressing gently his brother's cheek and then...
SPOILERS : The following questions reveal a part of the comic plot
OMG!!! You killed Dean ?!!!! But aren't you a Dean girl ?
I am but I am never against some gore action either. I must admit it's my "Kripke side"
: I love Supernatural for the "great love story of Sam and Dean" but also because a guy had his hand reduced to nothing in a kitchen blender in the After School Special episode or because of the "cannibal couple" of My Bloody Valentine. I am not allergic to characters deaths in fics and arts and seriously, the way Dean dies is so gore that it's almost laughable particularly with Sam talking to his freshly removed heart resting on the dashboard of the Impala. In other words : don't take this too seriously...
You think it's funny ?
Hum...I must admit that....yes
. Blame it on my very dark sense of humor but I laughed a lot during the conception of Closer. It started the day I read the prompt and it went on until I had a feedback from my (poor) beta. smilla02 kind of knew what was going to happen because I reminded her before the posting of the comic that I was the fan artist who drew this art and this one so that I wasn't afraid of mixing blood and bad jokes which is normal, after all, when you are a fan of genre movies like I am.
More seriously, ok, it's gore, ok there's a character death but I think this story has something romantic in a very twisted kind of way. Of course, YMMV but that's how I see Closer at the end, like something "romantically gore" .
What the hell is this white thing resting on the bed sheet in panel #2 (page 4) ?
Dean's ribcage
. I mean, it makes sense : if you want to remove the heart, you have to get rid of the ribcage first, no?That's what Sam did and now the thing is resting on the bed cover next to him. Yes, I thought about that kind of details too...
And the big scissors next to Sam ?
See the question above : to remove the ribcage, well, you need to cut it and scissors to cut chicken are quite handy in that kind of situation so...(not that I have a great experience in the matter but there must be a logic even in crack!art
)
Petite-Madame, you broke my Dean!Girl's heart, I hate you
Oh come, on!
You will survive and see the bright side of life : when I draw gore stuff, I draw schmoop illustrations right after! So, expect unicorns and rainbows in my next fan arts (hum..maybe ^^ ). Not to mention that my future RBB arts have nothing that will traumatize you. But if you think it's not enough, here is something cute for you :
Ok, now I hope you are not gonna torture this poor Dean anymore!
Hum...I am currently working on a new card for the spn_tarot community that represents Dean in Hell and..what..can I say ? Red suits him very well
Why "Saint Christopher" Motel by the way ?
At the beginning, it should have been the Sacred Heart Motel (hence the use of the religious imagery on page 8) but it was a little bit too much (I know, everything is "too much" in this comic so why did I care!
) , so I changed for "Saint Christopher", who is the Patron Saint of Travelers. He didn't really help Dean...
TECHNICAL RAMBLING FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE LAYERED, RASTERIZED AND CLIPPING PATHED TO DEATH
What software did you use ?
Manga Studio for the inking and Photoshop CS for the screentones and colorization.
How long did it take you ?
Quite long, one week and an half I think.
Did you draw the sets ? Are they digital screentones ?
Yes and No. In fact even if Manga Studio has a big choice of digital screetones available, I am not really satisfied with their quality (not enough details, too dark, the black outlines are too thick, etc) so I use real screentones from my "little" personal collection (I live in Tokyo so it's easy to have access to a lot of screentones in art shops)
I scan the screentones and then I add them to the picture thanks to Photoshop CS. Not only the quality of the image is far better than a digital screentone but I also have more choice.
There is an exception however with page 5, the one where Sam walks away under the rain. The screentone behind him is a photo modified thanks to PS, not something I bought in a shop.
I don't live in Tokyo!!!!! Does it mean I can't have great screentones too ?!!
Calm down. Some of the screentones available in Japanese's shops are also available on the Internet. I recommend you the Deviant Art gallery simply called "Screentones", you will find there a very large choice of sets, gradients, fractals, flowers, etc...for your drawings and comics. Enjoy!!
A little step by step to see how you proceed from the start ?
Ok, let's go!
1) Sketch and Inking
First I draw a rough sketch with a pencil on a piece of paper, I scan it and I ink it with Manga Studio. I reach the result below. There are no screentones, no shadows, nothing, just the outlines!
2) Screentones
Even if the page is going to be colorized, adding screentones gives, in my opinion, something more in terms of shadows, not to mention the sets. I open the picture in Photoshop CS and add the scanned screentones thanks to the "Clone Stamp" tool. I then reach the result below :
3) Colors
Then, I start the colorization, with a layer practically for each element of the page (Sam's hair, Dean's shirt, the various backgrounds, etc..) but also for the shadows and highlights. For this page only for instance, I have a total of 42 layers. Here is a gif so that you can see the different layers (I sometimes put 3 or 4 layers in one animation step because having a gif with 42 animations steps would have been impossible )
And then, it's over!! Tadaaaam!
That's it for today, hope you enjoyed this tutorial and Dean's opened ribcage.
See you soon!