Title: Artwork for The Dizzy Heights of This Dreamed of World
(Also on AO3)
Author:
akintay (whispered_story on AO3)
Artist:
dancing_adrift
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: G (for art; fic is NC-17)
Medium: Corel Painter Essentials 5
Artist's Notes: Created as part of the 2016
spn_j2_bigbang challenge - the whole reason I fully joined LJ in the first place!

THE DIZZY HEIGHTS OF THIS DREAMED OF WORLD | AO3
Summary: Jared is left on the Padaleckis' doorstep as a baby with no clues as to who he is or where he's come from. As he grows up with a life full of love and support from his adoptive family, he never loses the dreams of some far off place with green hills and meadows, a sprawling forest and gurgling stream. It's a beautiful and peaceful there, and every night Jared has his dream landscape all to himself—until he starts hearing a voice calling for him.
When a stranger on a motorcycle shows up on campus a few months later, Jared suddenly has a new reality to consider. Not only is he fae and betrothed to this man—who introduces himself as Jensen—Jared's also in mortal danger. Torn between wanting to keep living a normal life and figuring out who he really is, Jared reluctantly agrees to let Jensen prepare him for the danger up ahead and unearth his own fae powers. As time goes on, he starts to feel more and more drawn to Jensen and he comes to realize that they share a bond that reaches well beyond an arranged marriage.
There's more art (MUCH more) below, but it's probably better enjoyed as part of the fic which you can (and absolutely should!) read HERE or on AO3.
You've already seen the header banner above. That was the last large piece I completed before 'posting day'. I also drew up some quick section headers and a divider which I'll share below. However, the main chunk of my art for this fic... well, there's a lot of it, so I'm giving it its own post. Again - this art is probably best enjoyed as part of the fic, but if you'd like to see the drawings by themselves, just follow the link below! :)
FIFTY SHADES OF FAE

CLICK HERE to see all the above images in full size, with probably far more artist's notes than you could possibly want. XP
BANNERS and DIVIDER





A final word:
THANK YOUS!
First and foremost - my author,
akintay. I could not have asked for a more perfect person to be paired with for my first Big Bang. Seriously, it's been an honor. And it's been a lot of fun working with you on fic in a slightly different way than our usual of writer/beta ;) Let's do it again sometime, eh? But maybe with less insanity on my part ;)
Huge thanks also go to
non_tiembo_mala and
gluedwithgold for being my 'art betas' every step of the way. I may have blatantly ignored some of your finer suggestions in the end (sorry!) but your input, concrit, and feedback - not to mention enthusiasm and undying encouragement! - were absolutely invaluable. You ladies rock. (A third art beta, my fiancé, should also be thanked, but he's not on LJ, so... XP)
I'd be very remiss not to thank the LJ community as a whole. This challenge may be the reason I joined LJ, but you guys are the reason I stuck around. I don't follow very many of you (relatively speaking - I am still a newb, after all), but, in some way, each and every one of you have been an important part of me getting here, via your ever helpful, encouraging, and inspiring presence and/or friendship. So, thanks guys. Can't wait to see where we go next!
Finally, one more thank you to
wendy for continuing to kick ass at running this comm. We couldn't do it without you! Thanks for making it so easy even for first-timers like me :)
OH, ONE MORE THING
For kicks and giggles, here is an alternative banner (a much simpler, but still pretty one that I created before the one we ended up using). Enjoy!

(Also on AO3)
Author:
Artist:
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: G (for art; fic is NC-17)
Medium: Corel Painter Essentials 5
Artist's Notes: Created as part of the 2016

THE DIZZY HEIGHTS OF THIS DREAMED OF WORLD | AO3
Summary: Jared is left on the Padaleckis' doorstep as a baby with no clues as to who he is or where he's come from. As he grows up with a life full of love and support from his adoptive family, he never loses the dreams of some far off place with green hills and meadows, a sprawling forest and gurgling stream. It's a beautiful and peaceful there, and every night Jared has his dream landscape all to himself—until he starts hearing a voice calling for him.
When a stranger on a motorcycle shows up on campus a few months later, Jared suddenly has a new reality to consider. Not only is he fae and betrothed to this man—who introduces himself as Jensen—Jared's also in mortal danger. Torn between wanting to keep living a normal life and figuring out who he really is, Jared reluctantly agrees to let Jensen prepare him for the danger up ahead and unearth his own fae powers. As time goes on, he starts to feel more and more drawn to Jensen and he comes to realize that they share a bond that reaches well beyond an arranged marriage.
There's more art (MUCH more) below, but it's probably better enjoyed as part of the fic which you can (and absolutely should!) read HERE or on AO3.
You've already seen the header banner above. That was the last large piece I completed before 'posting day'. I also drew up some quick section headers and a divider which I'll share below. However, the main chunk of my art for this fic... well, there's a lot of it, so I'm giving it its own post. Again - this art is probably best enjoyed as part of the fic, but if you'd like to see the drawings by themselves, just follow the link below! :)
FIFTY SHADES OF FAE

CLICK HERE to see all the above images in full size, with probably far more artist's notes than you could possibly want. XP
BANNERS and DIVIDER





A final word:
THANK YOUS!
First and foremost - my author,
Huge thanks also go to
I'd be very remiss not to thank the LJ community as a whole. This challenge may be the reason I joined LJ, but you guys are the reason I stuck around. I don't follow very many of you (relatively speaking - I am still a newb, after all), but, in some way, each and every one of you have been an important part of me getting here, via your ever helpful, encouraging, and inspiring presence and/or friendship. So, thanks guys. Can't wait to see where we go next!
Finally, one more thank you to
OH, ONE MORE THING
For kicks and giggles, here is an alternative banner (a much simpler, but still pretty one that I created before the one we ended up using). Enjoy!

no subject
Date: 2016-06-17 08:55 am (UTC)I love what you do with the banner especially. Love the color, love the atmosphere. Love the simplicity of it. All the line art (pencil?) are so nice too. I love Sandy and Gen :) And oh Jeff is a hottie! I always get so nervous if I have to do arts this clear. I have to cover them up with color and texture of some sort haha but the rawness of it is very charming!
I have to try this medium sometimes. Coral Painter? I'm a dinosaur. I either go with traditional tool like water color or ,if I'm feeling like challenging myself, I will just grab my bamboo and launch photoshop lol
Congrats! These are seriously awesome!
xxx
no subject
Date: 2016-06-17 04:18 pm (UTC)How? Corel Painter Essentials 5, lol, the art program that came with my lovely new art tablet, with the included stylus/pencil thingy. XP Okay, smart-assery aside, yeah. I just drew - a lot - as often as I could until we had to post. It was pretty great, actually, to have this project to focus on so soon after getting my tablet, because it really forced me to use it a lot and therefore the learning happened pretty quickly. It's amazing what sort of tricks you'll figure out when you've given yourself the goal of creating fifty pieces of art in about half has many days.
Yes - whatever art I did, it all started with the 'cover pencil' tool. I played a little bit with the 'fill' tool and a blender brush (which I didn't continue using for very long), but the majority is with 1-2px pencil lines. Eventually I started playing with higher pixelage - like, eventually, like for Gen, I began to use varying shades of gray with a size 10-20px pencil to create the shading of faces without the hard lines. And LAYERS ARE MY FRIENDS. The first handful of doodles were made without layers, and were therefore MUCH more frustrating to draw, lol.
It's funny how you get nervous and use color/texture to 'cover up' - I'm kind of the opposite! Well, maybe not so much with digital art anymore, because it's so easy to try different things and just get rid of them if you don't like it, but definitely with traditional art I feel like I'd rather leave a pencil drawing in b&w because I always feel like I mess it up when I add color, lol.
Lol - if you have Photoshop, I'd probably stick with using that, since I suspect it's probably equal to or even better than Corel. What's a bamboo though? Is that a fancy stylus for an art tablet? *is so new to the world of digital art tools, it's almost painful* It is definitely my intention to play more with other styles in Corel, and watercolor is one I for sure would like to play with more. How pretty would the fae realm be in watercolors??? *swoons*
Thank you so much for the lovely comment! I'm so glad you enjoyed all the art ♥