cover art for "Servare Vitas" (Bones fic)

[astridv]

Last week I was riding my bike, mulling over a particularly intense chapter of "Servare Vitas" (the Bones fic I've been reading these past weeks; you may have seen me go on and on about mention it) when suddenly inspiration struck. A voice in my head said, no, insisted, You have to make a cover art for this fic! Which is my brain's way of dealing when it's obsessing about something. (Hey, say nothing, I got a diploma thesis out of my X-Files obsesson.)

I suggested it to the author, newscaper, who, to my delight, was into the idea. Voilà, there be cover art:







story on LJ (links to ch1; hit the 'next entry' button to get to the next chapter)
story on fanfic.net

Comments

[newscaper.livejournal.com]

Whatever pleasure you may have obtained from my story...
please consider us even now.

:)

[astridv.livejournal.com]

:o)

I edited in the link to your journal.

Link to chapter 1 on LJ

[newscaper.livejournal.com]

http://newscaper.livejournal.com/702.html

That points to chapter 1, just follow the LJ next post button (green triangle thingie) for the laer ones.

Thanks again!

Re: Link to chapter 1 on LJ

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

*adds this to list of fic to read*

Great cover art!

Re: Link to chapter 1 on LJ

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

*adds this to list of fic to read*

It's a WIP, nearly finished. I'm usually don't read WIP much, but in this case, I would actually recommend reading it as it is written; there have been some spectacular cliffhangers and waiting between chapters adds to the tension. Boy, is there ever tension.

[bittersweet_art.livejournal.com]

That is amazing work!!! As usual ;)

What kind of paint do you use for the colouring?

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Winsor&Newton watercolors (the ones that come in a tube). In a few places, like the faces, I painted with acrylics (Primacryl and Rembrandt) on top of the watercolor.

I used Paint Shop Pro for a few modifications (still getting over my Photoshop phobia...) The scene seen through the scope's view was actually colored in natural shades, but I had this vague vision from the beginning that it would work much better in a monocromatic bluish shade. Just took me a bit to figure out how to do that on the computer.

And for the inkwork, I used this really cool new Zebra brush pen that everyone was talking about at Comic Con. I got a set off ebay Hongkong... delivery took a while, but it was worth the wait. Those pens are amazing, the line is much easier to control than with any other brush pen I tried, let alone real brushes.

[makd.livejournal.com]

This is gorgeous, Astrid! I've heard you and a2zmom rec this story, but I haven't read it, yet.

Now, I've gone and bookmarked it for reading asap it's finished.

thank you! I'll keep this in mind as I'm reading it.

::hugs::

[astridv.livejournal.com]

My work here is done! :)

Yum, icon. I shall bake an egg liqueur cake now.

[(Anonymous)]

this may be a dumb question, but by what methods do you do your art? It looks like a combo of painting and digital to me, but what do i know? ;-) Whatever it is, it's amazing.

-Emily

[astridv.livejournal.com]

I do almost exclusively traditional art (drawing, painting, calligraphy). The main digitizing done in this one was the scope's view, which I had colored in realistic shades then turned blue on my computer. Oh, and I added the crosshair digitally.

I also used Paint Shop Pro to heighten contrasts overall, and for fixing a few details on the faces (because facial expressions are so delicate, it's easy to screw up and with the computer, you can undo the changes, which is handy.)

If you're interested in the process behind it, here's what it the inkwork (http://mitglied.lycos.de/vohwinkel/div/06-sv_cover_ink.jpg) looked like and, one step earlier, here's the basic layout (http://mitglied.lycos.de/vohwinkel/div/05-cover_sketch_3a.jpg).

[(Anonymous)]

definately interested; are you telling me you did the lettering by hand? That's amazing. I can hardly draw a straight line, much less consecutive ones to make letters...very impressed with the overall product.

Emily

[astridv.livejournal.com]

are you telling me you did the lettering by hand?

Oh no, the typography is done by computer in this case. I hand-letter my comics, though.

[thedothatgirl.livejournal.com]

Fantastic work - as always.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

*beams* glad you like!

[whichwitch666.livejournal.com]

*dies*
this. is. so. fucking. awesome.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thanks. The story is awesome, too... that's where the inspiration came from. I don't know if you're into Bones fandom at all but if you are, check it out.

[whichwitch666.livejournal.com]

We don't get Bones here yet, and for some reason, none of my shows-downloading friends are into it, so they didn't give me any to watch.
But I plan to watch it when either of those ways become available.

Then we'll see if it becomes a fandom, or if I crave fanfiction (I usually do...). Then I'll come to you for recs.

Anyway, the cover is just wonderful.

[terilyn4.livejournal.com]

wow, that is awesome Astrid... if you don't mind my asking, what's your day job? are you an illustrator or graphics artist?

[astridv.livejournal.com]

if you don't mind my asking, what's your day job? are you an illustrator or graphics artist?

Children's book illustrator. Sometimes I take on other graphics work, but mostly it's kids' books.

Glad you like this one! I had a ball drawing it.

[siapom.livejournal.com]

That is fantastic! And, I love the way you incorporated different scenes into separate aspects of the artwork. :)

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Our idea was to pick scenes that will pique curiosity without actually giving away too much of the story.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

... by the way, I'm following your story "Piercing the Stillness" over on ffn. I want to wait for its completion before digging into it, so thus far I've read only the first few chapters (which I liked a lot) then put it on alert. Anyway, what I read was very promising and I don't remember if I actually got around to fb'ing.

[siapom.livejournal.com]

Thank you, so much! :) I'm hoping to have it wrapped up relatively soon. But, then again, I wasn't expecting it to get this long to start with, so... :D

[(Anonymous)]

This is gorgeous.--0.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Glad you like. :)
Um, would it be possible you signed your comments here? Sometimes I have more than one anonymouse commenting, and then it gets confusing.

Check your email

[(Anonymous)]

and grab a hanky

- you know who

[violethamster.livejournal.com]

That is absolutely beautiful. You're so talented!

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks. I'm glad you like it.

I still want to fix a few teeny tiny details, but I have to get a few days' distance... if you stare at something for days at a time, in the end you can't see the forest for the trees.

[leni-ba.livejournal.com]

Wow. I just caught up with SV lj and found this. Wow. It's really amazing, and I love the scene you picked for the left-bottom corner. I really, really, REALLY love it.

[newscaper.livejournal.com]

It really IS cool isn't it?

She described what she was looking for in terms of something from the story tying together both characters and something to do with the sniper thread (while not giving too much away) and that scene jumped back out at me. She re-read it and agreed.

But *she* made it truly come to life. That is freakin' amazing.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was Newscaper's idea to include the scene at the shooting range. The perfect choice because it's an important moment in their relationship, hints at the plot, but gives nothing away. We were aiming to make the cover as teasing as possible without spoiling the plot. :) I'm really happy you like it.

[tempertemper77.livejournal.com]

I found your LJ via reading newscaper's fabulous fic. Just wanted to say I love your art - you have amazing talent :)

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much, I'm glad you like the art. And yeah, the story is fantastic!