amberdreams | Jan. 22nd, 2015

spn_reversebang number 2 - did you all hear me squealing with delight when I saw one of my entries had been claimed by de_nugis AGAIN?! Two RBBs in a row - woot!
You will want to read this story more than once, I promise. Click on the banner to savour the deliciousness. Or HERE

So - to the artings. (NB alternate art link on AO3)

This was the original prompt and starting point for the story

I left it completely open as to whether Sam knew what was going on in his hair or not, and how those little critters got there. And what they might be!

This became a divider, but this represents the first time Sam encounters the creatures.
Poor Dean isn't sure what to make of it all...

Some detail from the pics

This idea was blatantly stolen from Harry Potter's Mischief Managed Map...

And the process part:
The original picture of Sam was drawn partly in pencil and partly in PS6, which was a tactical error because I never quite managed to blend the two parts properly. Basically the hair and the critters were in pencil, photographed then added to the rest of Sam in PS. The background is a photo of a Celtic gold-plated disc, from Auvers-sur-Oise, with a texture applied to give it those subtle colours.
The map was constructed from a plan of UIC Campus which I stretched and distorted using GIMP because I haven't worked out how to do that in PS yet, then laid over a texture called papyrus from www.wallpedes.com. I used that one in the jar of creatures divider too, because it it so lovely. I drew the footprints and the scrolls and wrote on those in PS, and I drew the wee dragon in pencil on paper and photographed him to add him to the overall pic. Dean, and the critters in the jars, were drawn in biro on paper then photographed, and the jar was a Soviet mayonnaise jar photo I found on an image search. Ta da!