J2 Reverse Bang 2025 - Vampire - Artpost
My fourth J2 Reverse Bang in a row. Thank you, dear moderators, for organizing this wonderful challenge again in 2025.
I was very happy that the great author AmyPond45 claimed my artwork. Vampire Jared inspired her to write her wonderful story Vampire. The classic Dracula novel in a completely new interpretation. Away from garlic and holy water, toward a modern J2 vampire world.
🤗 Thank you, AmyPond45, for your great story and our good collaboration. 🥰
I was very happy that the great author AmyPond45 claimed my artwork. Vampire Jared inspired her to write her wonderful story Vampire. The classic Dracula novel in a completely new interpretation. Away from garlic and holy water, toward a modern J2 vampire world.
🤗 Thank you, AmyPond45, for your great story and our good collaboration. 🥰
Warning: spoilers in the art!
Art Title: Vampire
Prompt Number: 2
Fic Title: Vampire
Fandom/Genre: SPN/RPS, Romance
Pairing: Jared Padalecki/Jensen Ackles
Rating: Mature
Word Count: ~13,300
Warnings: vampires, interspecies romance, wealthy powerful vampire Jared, younger human Jensen
Summary: At loose ends after dropping out of college, Jensen decides to spend the summer in the small, cozy hometown of Paradise. There he meets Jared, wealthy and gorgeous, whose family runs the town as it has done for generations. But when Jensen helps cater Jared’s mid-summer birthday party at Padalecki Manor, he learns something about Jared that may change his life forever.
Story: AO3 | LiveJournal
Click on the pictures for view in original size.
Cover with vampire Jared
Cover with human Jared
Cover in classic black-and-white film look
Banner
Vampire Jared in Dracula costume
Human Jared in tailcoat
"It was Jared. Not that Jensen could be sure by the way the vampire looked. Its face was contorted into a hideous, inhuman visage with a wide mouth full of sharp, protruding teeth that basically eclipsed the rest of its facial features except for its glowing red eyes. The vampire’s face was covered in its victim’s blood, as if it had bitten a major artery and then smeared its entire face in the blood. Its nose was nothing but two slitted nostrils, its ears pointed out from its head at a dramatic right angle, its chin unnaturally pointed."
J2 Reverse Bang 2025 - Original prompt - Prompt 2
Art Description: Jared is a vampire, rich, powerful and irresistibly attractive. Jensen can resist vampires. But he hides this ability to avoid being targeted by the vampires. Jared has had his eye on Jensen for some time, but he keeps giving him the slip. A game of cat and mouse begins. Vampires can only reveal their true selves once a year and the highlight of every Halloween night is Jared's glamorous high-society costume party, which is organized by a well-known event agency. This time, Jared insists that their employee, event manager Jensen, is his contact for the planning and organization.
Original prompt
I really wanted to draw Jared in a Dracula costume for the J2RB2025. So I did some research and gathered inspiration. Bela Lugosi was a good role model with his cape, tailcoat, dress shirt, and medallion. I added a castle window with a night sky as the background. Then I came up with a little story to inspire my muse. I used the summary for the later art description.
First, I sketched Jared in a Dracula costume and adjusted the shape of the collar. Then I thought about how I should design the castle window—slanted and shadowy or straight and structured—chose the right font, and tested the colors. The red was important to me. It should be reminiscent of blood.
Based on the finished sketch, I created a final, clean line graphic and defined the basic colors. Then I designed the image with shading and textures, adding stars and titles.
Bela Lugosi wore a mysterious decorative medallion in the 1931 film “Dracula.” This prop was later lost and has only recently been elaborately recreated as an official replica. I found the famous medallion so beautiful and fitting (sun and moon united—opposites like vampire Jared and hunter Jensen) that I traced it in detail for Jared's costume.
AmyPond45 described vampire Jared so fantastically that I absolutely wanted to draw him. First, I sketched Jared and tested dark colors, red eyes, and blood. He looked very diabolical.
To make the finished picture more lively, I chose an asymmetrical motif. Jared holds his head at an angle. His left ear is covered by his hair. To illustrate the dramatic transformation, I first drew Jared as a human. From this, I developed Jared as a vampire. Similar to “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Some of Jared's features, such as the shape of his eyes, eyebrows, hair, and upper body, remained the same.
Then I sketched vampire Jared and turned it into a final drawing. Pointed chin, large mouth with lots of sharp teeth, flat nose, protruding ears, and wild strands of hair covering his face. Then I colored the picture and added glowing red eyes with dark circles and lots of blood.
Vampires and bats simply belong together. Both are nocturnal, avoid sunlight, and drink blood. The wings of a bat are also very reminiscent of the black cape worn by a classic vampire. So I designed the dividers with the medallion and bats.
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