It's a couple of days earlier, but...

Lithium Doll, aka halcyon_shift, is a lovely, adorable, generous person. I went to her with an idea/request, and she ran with it, like the awesome person she is: a Nexus 'verse songvid for disanddat's (incoming) birthday.

A NEXUS SONGVID.

The Nexus is a crossfandom 'verse disanddat came up with around last Christmas: characters from Harsh Realm, SPN, OaT, XFiles, Roswell thrown in an enclosed space, mysterious and dangerous and with no exit ways AND with Tentacles Monsters running amok.

Everything (fic, graphics, creative brainstorming) is first posted here along an open timeline: nexus_verse.
Then everything is compiled in chronological order here: Nexus website.

It's a fantastic experience of shared writing - myself, lorelei633, candygramme and art_of_mayhem have contributed some stories - and now halcyon_shift have turned it all into a SONGVID.
Collaborative creative spaces and all that ...:)
*dies for the AWESOMENESS of it all*

SO, in conclusion:

A NEXUS SONGVID.

Made by the talented and generous and oozing creative mad skillz:halcyon_shift

For disanddat: Happy birthday!

You're much loved :)

Nexus!Krycek has a few secret places he hides in, feral pretty boy that he is...disanddat and lorelei633 were discussing it and describing it and my fingers itched... (also, drawing, like knitting, is the best relaxing/anti-anxiety activity, I swear. Makes me feel good. Love it.)

...I'm getting SLIGHTLY better at using Painter. Slightly being the key word there ;) There are a few things that I really like in this illo, and some that I'm not as happy with, but it's always going to be a learning curve.

Any comment/critic very much welcome, tell me what works and what doesn't for you.

One final note: photobuckets shrinks the original due to its size (1000x800 px) - so the version under the cut is smaller than it should be and it suffers for it a little. I'll see if I can upload it somewhere else, and ETA accordingly if successful.

ETA: bigger size in LJ Scrapbook

I also apologise because I have to reply to email/comments, but couldn't face it yet

( Drawing of Krycek in the Nexus under this cut )

I've been playing around with Painter, exploring and trying my hand at digital drawing (kinda hard, really, the feel of the paper, the smell of inks...but, the sensibility on the wacom tablet is fantastic)...and I can't say I'm really happy with the results, no-no. As a trained illustrator, I can adapt to different styles - as a painter, I do have a couple of individual quirks that make my work easily recognizable, but as an illustrator, you adapt yourself to what the drawing needs.

So, with all the proviso that I can see so many things gone wrong in this, I give you John and one of the boys (sleeping)

I drew this for disanddat and her nexus_verse - a mix of pencil/blue pen (figures), Painter(textures, gradients for the walls and floor), photoshop (putting it all together)...I did restrain myself from working further on the color scheme: not what I had in mind, but it does work in some ways for the general setting of the illo.

Let me know what you think, good and bad! :)

crossposted to nexus_verse



( full version if you click here - totally work safe! )