J2 Reverse Bang 2024 - Bloody BUSINESS - Artpost

My third J2 Reverse Bang. Thank you so much to the moderators for running this wonderful J2 challenge again this year.
I was delighted when StellaRasu claimed my artwork “MAFIA”. She wrote the lively mafia comedy “Bloody BUSINESS” for it. It contains everything a reader's heart desires. Humor, suspense, action, love, romance and of course the most important thing - a happy ending. Our collaboration was great and the brainstorming was really fun. My muse got new inspiration with every finished chapter and so covers, banners, chapter headings, dividers and J2 images were created in black and white with red. And later also in color.
😘 Many, many thanks for the great collaboration and your wonderful mafia story, StellaRasu. 🥰

Art Title: MAFIA

Prompt Number: 2

Artist: aomasade [AomaSade on AO3]

Fic Title: Bloody BUSINESS

Author: StellaRasu [StellaRasu on AO3]

Fandom/Genre: SPN/RPS, Romance

Pairing: Jared Padalecki/Jensen Ackles

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: ~11,700

Warnings: None

Summary: Whatever Jared wanted, he could easily get. It came with the job description. Not many dared go against the wishes of a Mafia Boss after all. However, his quest to find a worthy bodyguard doesn't go as planned when Jensen, the local bartender, refuses to cooperate. The hefty salary Jared offered would have pulled Jensen out of his medical debts, but Jensen can't work for the mafia, not when the sight of blood makes him faint. Jared doesn't give up on getting Jensen though.

Masterpost on J2 Reverse Bang Challenge

Art: AO3

Fic: AO3

Art Description: Mafia boss Jared rules the city and gets everyone he wants. Only Jensen says no and keeps giving him the slip. Or at least he tries to when he stumbles into mafia crime scenes. Then, unfortunately, Jensen's blood phobia prevents him from escaping and he falls unconscious into Jared's arms.

This year, my muse was in top form. In addition to a warlock and a forest god, she also had a soft spot for mafia art. I love J2 mafia stories. Mafia always makes me think of organized crime, powerful mob bosses and hit men, dark alleys, blood and guns with silencers.
My muse always needs a little action as inspiration for drawing. So I thought about characteristic mafia features. I came up with the idea of Jensen and his blood phobia, who stumbles across mafia boss Jared's bloody work in dark alleys. So an innocent guy (=light), darkness (=night) and blood (=blood phobia, danger). White, black and red. Simple symbolism that explains everything. The minimalist illustration style was perfect for this. Clear contours, expressive lines, clarity and recognizability.

So I looked for references. A picture of Jensen with a clear gaze and no beard - beautiful and innocent. Then a second picture with broad shoulders and a blue T-shirt. I also looked at a lot of pictures for the gun hand. Sam Winchester's main gun is a Taurus Model 92 9 mm.

Then I began to sketch. First I drew Jensen expressively in the foreground. The black background and the shadowy hand with the gun were intended to symbolize the danger in the darkness. Blood stands for Jensen's blood phobia and bloody mafia feuds. In the end, I combined everything together. I liked the design.

Based on the sketch, I drew Jensen again with exact contours and improved his eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hair and eyebrows. His freckles were also given an upgrade. Sam Winchester/Jared is right-handed. So I drew the Taurus pistol in his right hand as a little SPN reference and added a silencer for organized crime (=Mafia). I made Jensen a little smaller so that the title and name would fit on the cover. I chose the serif font specifically because of the mafia content. Many books and films use such fonts for this genre. The font also had to be very bold and large so that the title wouldn't get lost in the picture. For reverse bangs, I always design a cover with a preliminary title (short, large and concise) and space for the names of the artist and author. This makes it easier for an interested author to imagine what the future cover for their story might look like.

I tested out several cover designs. Red gun, 2D or 3D blood, red font, colored eye. In the end, I liked the cover with Outline-Jensen against a black background, white gun, black lettering and 3D blood the best. Yes, the red color of the blood stood out ominously and heightened the drama on the cover. And StellaRasu liked the image so much that she claimed it and wrote a wonderful mafia love story for it.

Jensen and Jared both play the main roles in the story. So I wanted to make their pictures similar so that neither of the J2s would be at a “disadvantage”. To do this, I chose a similar image of Jared - equally handsome and with criminal intelligence in his eyes. I wanted to use the same gun in Jared's hand so that both images would harmonize.

First I made a rough sketch of Jared. Then I made a detailed outline. But I didn't like the mouth, hair, eyebrows and sideburns. So I drew Jared a third time. Then I added the black background and the gun in his hand. Done! At least that's what I thought.

Weapon and hand should only be shown as a white outline on a black background without shading. But the weapons looked much better with a patterned grip. A tiny 3D effect.
The plan was to use the gun with the silencer in both pictures of Jensen and Jared. But the story took on a life of its own and mafia boss Jared turned out to be a knife expert. So my author StellaRasu asked for art with a knife variant.

So I did some more research. Angel blade, demon knife, First Blade - that's what I thought of first. But these fantasy knives didn't fit in with the modern day in which the story is set. That's why I took a closer look at Sam Winchester's “normal” knives. The Cold Steel ODA would also sit well in the hand of mafia boss Jared. It has a multi-curved blade as well as a practical toggle (hand guard) and a non-slip handle with a lanyard hole. Now I looked for corresponding picture references of Sam and drew Jared's knife-holding hand.

The individual chapters that StellaRasu gradually sent to me inspired my muse, which wanted to do even more. And Jensen's eye is to blame for the fact that there is now a color version of the pictures. I had tried out several cover designs. Among them was a cover with a colored iris. I really liked it and so did my muse. Then Jared looked at me so pleadingly in black and white and I just couldn't resist. I colored Jared first and then Jensen. And because it was so much fun, there was also a color cover and banner as well as both J2s in front of a bloodless star background.

The entire art set is a concept of the colors white and black as well as red as a contrast. The chapter headings and dividers are also coordinated with this. The same font as the title. “Bloody” in the title describes the red color gradient and looks just as great in the chapter headings. The numbering is also dripping with blood, because the story is a little bloodier here, while there is less blood in the epilogue. I used the silencer gun from the cover for the chapter headings, while I used knives for the dividers.

Did you like my art article? Let me know. Comments, kudos or bookmarks are the greatest praise for an artist.