DS Big Bang!

[ria_oaks]

ds_c6d_bigbang is live!! ^__^ I've been waiting all day for it to go live, and I can't wait to read the fics that have come out of it. Not to mention, I can finally post the art I created for lucifuge_5's awesome Due South/Slings and Arrows crossover. I spent... waay too much time on this drawing, seriously - worked on it on and off for about a month, lost track of how many hours I put into it (okay fine, I never kept track of them to begin with, but the point remains), and before I clued in and stopped OpenCanvas from recording an event file as I was drawing, the file was upwards of 100 mb. o.o Probably used about 150 layers, though of course I was merging as I went and most of those were from copying/pasting bits of textures and shit to do the jeans (and Fraser's shirt) and extend the background. Still had around 15-20 layers in the end, though.

So yeah. Definitely one of my biggest undertakings, mainly because I don't usually do groups of characters and I fail spectacularly at backgrounds. Ended up using a photograph as the starting point for the entire drawing, then trying to visualize where the characters would be standing in the photograph and blocking them in accordingly. Also used the photograph as my actual background, with judicious painting-over and a few adjustments.

Overall I'm really happy with it and proud of myself for finishing it. All that pain was worth it in the end. ;) Often the way with art, of course - you drive yourself nuts trying to create it, but in the end it's worth it. But I'll shut up now, and let you guys see it and judge for yourselves. Just... be nice, please? ^^ I can deal with some concrit, but I worked really hard on this and I'm proud as heck of it even if there are probably a bunch of problems I haven't noticed (but inevitably will when a. they're pointed out to me, or b. I look back at it in 6 months).

Notes/resources/summary in the header on the page below. I drew the scene pretty much exactly how she wrote it, and yes, Oliver really is wearing a pink fedora and a trenchcoat in the story. :)

http://slowestbigbang.com/artpages/ria_oaks_dp.html

And while you're at it, for anyone here in the fandom, don't forget to check out the actual fic, as well as my fellow artist riazendira's great drawings!