Some New Art

[galathea]

So, a challenge over at Buffyforums motivated me to try my hands at one of my more conceptual wallpaper ideas and the last couple of days I worked on it like crazy. *g* I really need to catch up on some episodic art for the latest episodes though, there's a couple of scenes that I'd like to pin on canvas if possible. So much to do and so little time, life clearly has the wrong priorities. ;)



Haunted: The idea for this wallpaper stems from Sam’s statement to Jesse in I Believe Our Children Are The Future that his wrong choices will haunt him forever, and since this is Supernatural, I took the liberty to interpret the word 'haunt' quite literal. In Lucifer Rising Sam chooses to sacrifice the possessed nurse Cindy McKellan, in order to boost his powers with her blood and defeat Lilith. Granted, Sam is convinced that in doing so he will stop the apocalypse, but he agonises over the decision and in the end he needs to realise that it was all in vain, he sullied his hands with the blood of an innocent and brought on the apocalypse himself. Violent deaths create angry ghosts in Supernatural, so Cindy’s ghost is quite literally haunting Sam in my wallpaper.

I imagine that Sam had to dispose of the body and he would have the decency to at least bury Cindy. So, in the scene I created, Sam just hastily buried Cindy in some field and put together a simple wooden cross for her, when her ghost appears and knocks him to the ground. She is angry, obviously, but I see Cindy as a death omen here, a ghost who wants justice, rather than revenge. She points towards the graveyard behind her, demanding a proper burial. A proper burial stands symbolic for the fact that she wants her death acknowledged, achieve peace for herself and her family and, most importantly, for Sam to openly face what he has done to her. As long as he doesn’t own up to his guilt, both, Cindy and Sam, will not be able to find peace. To emphasise that notion, I used Sam’s quote in the wallpaper.

I think this wallpaper set a new record in terms of time I spent on it. Suitable manip bases for Cindy and Sam were very hard to come by and in the end I put both of them together from various images, I hope it looks natural nonetheless. *g* I am very pleased with how the ghost effect turned out.

Haunted

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Best Friends: I made this wallpaper for ehlwyen's birthday and this is just the untagged version of it. It's a simple, happy collage of the latest photoshoot with Jensen and Jared. Those boys goofing around will never not make me smile. :)

Best Friends

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You all know the drill, no posting elsewhere and no pretending it's your own. Just for private desktop use! *g* Resources as usual over at Salt'n Burn!

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Yay, you finished it!

Oooh, I like what you did to hide Sam's non-existent legs - very sneaky!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

LOL thanks! Well, I actually needed to manip a good part of his legs into the wall nonetheless, because the bag wasn't enough to hide Sam's kong legs, it would have looked awkward without at least the thighs being visible, so in the end the bag was only good for not needing to manip feet in. *g*

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

But it works! And saved you a fair bit of work, only having to find a bit of let to manip instead of the whole thing *G* Nicely done. :)

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah I think it really works and on top of it, it adds to atmosphere and detail. So it's a win all around. It's nice how limitations in the images sometimes force you to stretch your imagination and end up being helpful. :)

[niila-nueva.livejournal.com]

Wow die sind großartig, das Best Friends hat sofort den Weg auf mein Desktop gefunden!! Ich liebe Deine Arbeiten!!

Ganz liebe Grüsse und ein schönes w-ende
nisha

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Danke! Es freut mich das dir die Bilder gefallen. :) Ich hatte das 'Friends' Bild auch ne Zeit auf dem Desktop, manchmal braucht man einfach was optimistisches!

Dir auch ein schönes Wochenende! :)
Chris

[fotw-sv.livejournal.com]

YOU are such a wonderful artist! I so appreciate all you put into each piece especially the concept ones like Haunted. You create a whole story from things that were not touched on and you always make my mouth drop open seeing walls like that. I wish more fans could see your work. I'd love to post your Lj link in my art thread.

Cindy's ghost is so well done and spooky. The whole dark graveyard on the back hill came out fantastic. A place I would not want to be at night. The lighting you did from the moon and what appears to be sunrise in the distance really sets the mood. I can't remember what he did in the episode but your art SHOULD have been part of it. Even the wooden cross with Cindy's name carved on it is just perfect. I wish I were viewing this on my 24" Dell monitor at home. My work puter is horrible and dull of light. I can't wait to see it there tonight.

The "Best Friends" wall is beautifully put together. Light-hearted and puts a smile on my face looking at the fun images and might I add SEXY photos of the boyz always tend to do that. *g* Thank you once again for sharing your gorgeous work and talents with us. *snags both* I only WISH you were a Smallville fan too. Oh the thoughts of what you could do with my Super Clarky! ;)

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the lengthy feedback! It always makes me so happy to hear in detail what you liked and what worked for you. *hugs*

Well, in 4.22 Sam killed Cindy by drinking her blood to activate his powers. It was never shown what he did with Cindy afterwards, in fact, she was never mentioned again. Of course Sam is remorseful in S5 about everything he did in S4, but I would have liked to see Cindy mentioned specifically, and this wallpaper kind of remedies the fact that the show neglected to do that so far. I am so glad the atmosphere and scene I tried to create here worked for you, especially since the lyrics do not necessarily reflect what is happening in the scene I depicted, but the result of it. :)

Heh, I am a fan of a lot of other tv show too, but I only art Supernatural. It's the only show I know well enough and obsess over enough to make art that has a deeper meaning. *g*

[shawn-anne.livejournal.com]

Haunted looks particularly epic... even though I haven't seen the ep yet *grins* Fantastic job as always, hun! *huggles*

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon! :) Epic was what I was going for. *g* Well, the wall actually has nothing to do with 5.07 directly, other than that Sam's line conjured this image of Sam at Cindy's grave in my head. And I am a bit sad that the show itself didn't openly address Cindy's murder in S5 yet, so I had to remedy that in my art. :)

[ehlwyen.livejournal.com]

I very much love all the thought behind the Haunted wall. It's a very unique visioning of events and I love how perfectly you found caps to form such a realistic picture. I really love the ghost effect and the strong colors are very eerie in the wall. Much praise and applause to you for all the hard work you had to have done to produce this! ♥

*hugs* And thanks again for the bday wall! It's so sweet and I love all the cropping!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thank you, hon! *hugs* I am so glad you like it. The manips for Sam and Cindy were actually a real pain, I think I spent more time on image search than on the actual wallpaper. LOL Oh, I am happy you like the colours. I wasn't sure if they are too strong and well, too colourful, for such an angsty moment, so glad to hear it works for you. Creating original scenes is really hard work, but the gratification is also very high. :)

You're very welcome. *hugs*

[ehlwyen.livejournal.com]

Image search is hard work! I don't have the patience for it. I usually find something vaguely similar to what I want and end up reworking my idea. So I'm very impressed at all you did to make it so natural!

And yes, the vivid colors work well for the realism of the shock and emotion and supernatural nature of the moment. It shows how deathly Cindy looks. Plus her expression isn't that of hate and Sam's is more of wonderment. So the strong coloring tends toward a realization of something momentous but bright rather than all doom and gloom. For that reason I really like how the sunrise is near Sam's head to symbolize this epiphany of what he has done and how it cannot be buried and forgotten. And it was lovely of you to shade the sky like morning coming.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

LOL sometimes I am like a dog with a bone, if I want something bad enough. I do sometimes rework ideas to accomodate the image material I have as well, but I also give up on an idea completely, if it doesn't work out the way I want to. LOL

Glad the colours evoke such a positive response in you. As I said, I didn't see Cindy here as a ghost who wants revenge, but justice, so your interpretation works. Oh, the symbolism of the epiphany 'sunrise' behind Sam was actually accidental, because I needed a light source behind Sam, as that was how he was lit in the cap I used for the manip. It's funny how purely artistic considerations can so positively support the meaning of a wallpaper. :)

[francy-m79.livejournal.com]

Wow! I love both of them so much!! :)Every other comment is superfluous!! You must be proud of you skills! *hug*

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thank you, hon! *hugs back* I am quite happy with these walls, especially 'Haunted' which definitely was a challenge and stretched my PS skills. :)