Art: spn_meanttobe "When Worlds Collide" (Jared/Jensen)
We made it! This is the art post for my spn_meanttobe collaboration with the talented meus_venator. She delivered this crazy imaginative tale so early in our partnership, and it took me months to reciprocate because my muse felt completely intimidated and out-of-its-depth. Thanks to her patience and support (and that of my amazing f-list ♥), I finally broke through the paralysis and here are the humble results:
Story Masterpost: Livejournal
Story Summary: Jensen didn’t trust the Teeg, mankind’s ‘Salvation’ and he certainly didn’t trust their Enforcers. Then Jared enters his life, an oddity, a human Enforcer in a mostly Teeg dominated profession. Is this Enforcer any different, and can Jensen trust him with the dangerous knowledge he is carrying? More importantly, can he trust him with his heart?
Poster
I have no clue where to begin on talking about this monster, so why not at the end? :)
I'd count this as one of my biggest undertakings, which I'm mostly happy with. I can nitpick, but I've been doing that for a month now, so I'm *breathes out* letting it go. On the bright side, I tried some new things and surprised myself with results. I'm showing you a smaller version before showing you the BIG, so you can get a complete view of the poster (as it should be seen) without having to scroll. There are more details on the process in the "Behind The Scenes" sections at the end.
Enlarged:
Book Covers
I changed the font and color of the title to increase visibility in e-book libraries, where the cover can be almost as small as an icon.
Chapter Headers
meus_venator suggested I post how I created the lettering, so a tutorial is provided at the end.
Moody atmosphere, bold colors, and that neon glow are main themes in this set.
Icon
One is the loneliest number, but Jared and Jensen are together, so I count that as a win!
BTS: Building the Background
Welcome to my first sorta-serious BTS :P I had a lot of layers in this file, so I thought it'd be fun to see how it all came together.
1. The skyline is actually a single photo that I fiddled with and duplicated several times to build an even longer, taller, and deeper skyline. I added some brighter colors to make it pop and drew in some bright lines for definition. I drew in the lightning, and the rain is painted in later.
2. I used a photo reference to draw Chinese signs. The larger signs towards the front were hand-drawn in PS; the smaller signs in the back are actually from the photo.
3. I drew and colored these tiny blimps and streaking dots with glowy effects in PS to add that bit of "wonder" to the city described in the story.
Final Result:
BTS: Painting a Crowd
I am a planner, usually down to the smallest detail, so the way I approached this big part was rather...*shudders*
1. My rough sketch of the crowd.
2. I made the sketch layer nearly transparent, and then just took the brush and began painting in the highlights with mostly earth tones and grays (see conical hats for example). It was all freehand at this point, which totally gave my perfectionist-streak side a heart attack.
3. Same as #2 but in a different layer, so that I could slowly build up the crowd and make easier adjustments if needed.
4. Same as above, but you start to see more color now. Once I had finished creating the crowd in muted tones, I added a color layer to paint the reflections from the neon signs.
5. Final image: Teeg (the tall dude in the middle) has been painted into the reserved spot and another layer of rain has been added to the forefront.
BTS: Lettering
I actually used a longer way to get a rougher glow in my piece, but I'm providing the more efficient method to y'all.
I decided to use handwriting instead of a font because it's rough around the edges and unique and would give the chapter headers some variation.
