ria_oaks

marvel_bang is live! I did 3 drawings (2 main ones and one little 'bonus' one) based on the Avengers/White Collar crossover "Like an Arrow Through a Flock of Doves" [link will be added once the story is posted later today] by arsenicjade and hoosierbitch.

The fic was great, and I realy enjoyed both reading and illustrating it. It's an AU Phil/Clint story where, long story short, Clint ends up in prison at age 17 because he takes the fall for his brother Barney. Fastforward a few very unpleasant years in prison, when he meets none other than Neal Caffrey. Without spoiling it, Clint ends up being helped by Neal after he gets out of prison, and he winds up working for SHIELD and meeting Phil. It's angsty at times and the prison bits can be pretty disturbing, but it's a really good read and I thought they did a great job of portraying Clint's gradual rehabilitation after prison and the slow build-up of his relationship with Phil.

Drawing #1: Neal & Clint in prison
Link: On AO3 (and under the cut below)
Summary: Based on the scene where Neal smuggles ice cream into the prison and they eat it together in the yard.
Rating: G
Author Notes: I wanted a drawing that would show Neal and Clint's tentative friendship in prison, plus I wanted a drawing from the prison part of the story but I didn't want to draw anything really disturbing. I thought this would be a good scene to illustrate, since it covers both of those bases and I just generally thought it was a nice scene.

I spent some time thinking about the ways they would be sitting, since it's not specified in the scene, and I ended up being pretty specifc about the reasons for what I chose so I wanted to explain them here. I pictured Neal lounging comfortably back against the table, all casual and trying to show himself as being friendly and open and unthreatening to Clint. For Clint, I decided to draw his with his legs up and crossed on the bench, and sort of hunched in on himself, because I thought it fit in several ways - the story mentions how he likes to curl up in small locations to hide himself, and also I thought it would indicate his subconcious need to protect himself.

I should note also that I blatantly took the background from a photo I found on Google Images and painted over it a bit. I hate backgrounds...

For anyone looking at the drawing who hasn't read the story, the lines on Clint's neck are a tattoo of barbed wire that he gets in prison. Poor Clint has a rough time of it in this fic. :) Also, the box on the table is the one that Neal gave Clint with the drawings of birds all over it. Birds are definitely not my forte...

( Drawing #1 under the cut )

Drawing #2: Phil & Clint
Link: On AO3 (and under the cut below)
Summary: Phil and Clint's first kiss, aka the scene where Phil asks to kiss Clint's tattoo.
Rating: PG for some suggestiveness
Author Notes: I loved this scene because the story worked very gradually towards it, and this first romantic scene between them is hesitant and tentative given everything that happened to Clint in prison. I appreciated the realism of this - it wasn't like they started making out and suddenly Clint was cured of all bad memories by the magic of sex. :) And I loved Phil asking to kiss Clint's tattoo, because it's such a wonderful way for Phil to show that he accepts Clint and isn't bothered or disgusted by the reminder of his time in prison.

The blue on Clint's hand is supposed to represent a spoilery thing that happens in the story. I wasn't sure the best way to show it or how noticeable it would be, so I hope this worked! I wanted it to be more subtle and glowy, but oh well.

( Drawing #2 under the cut )

Bonus Drawing: Phil and the kitty
Link: On AO3 (and under the cut below)
Summary: Clint gives Phil a kitten. Phil holds the kitten up and the kitten bats at his nose and it is the cutest scene ever.
Rating: Very much G
Author Notes: I just had to do a quick sketch of this, because it really was the cutest mental image ever. Sadly I am really bad at drawing animals, so the kitten is kinda... lopsided and not as cute as it should be. But I like how Phil turned out. :)

( Drawing #3 under the cut )

White Collar season 3 tonight! Woooo! Just in time, because all my other American shows are over and DW just finished on Saturday. WC is all I'll have for awhile... well, until Torchwood starts in July. I'm psyched for this season. I'm not really spoiled at all, just some general stuff about whose backstory we're getting/what character-centric eps there will be, all info that was in interviews right after s2 ended. But that info's got me excited. :)

Other TV stuff: I'm finally watching Castle. Yeah, been meaning to for awhile. Am in season 2 - just watched the Halloween ep with the infamous Firefly shoutout last night. I'd seen that clip online already ages ago, but it was still hilarious. I'm really enjoying it so far, anyway. Nathan's entertaining as hell, and Beckett is awesome and sexy. :)

Other general stuff... went to see "Midnight in Paris" with mom last night, which was excellent. If you have at least some familiarity with early twentieth century writers/artists/etc then it's hysterical. I know enough to have recognized most of the references/people, at least to some extent. It's very well done and worth seeing. We went to a restaurant beforehand and watched the game over dinner. Had to leave for the theatre at the end of the 2nd period, but well. That was really all we needed, anyway, by that point. (they were losing 3-0 when we left, and then we walked to the theatre and I overheard someone say it was 4-0. Then I checked my phone partway into the movie and my jaw dropped because really? 8-1? That's just pathetic. I have co-workers who went to Rogers Arena last night to watch it on the big screens they have set up for the away games, and they said people were steadily leaving during the 3rd period.)

Oh well...we're still ahead in the series. It's fun watching how crazy Vancouver's become, anyway - like renaming anything that has 'Boston' in it to 'Vancouver'. XD I definitely did a double take when I first walked by the Boston Pizza near my apartment last week only to see the usual banner replaced with one where 'Boston' is crossed out and replaced with 'Vancouver'. ^^ Also when I went to Tim Hortons the other day and spent about a minute or so trying to figure out what a 'Vancouver Cream' donut was and why the name was in Canucks colours, before it clicked...

And okay, since the time I wrote most of this post, I took a break to eat dinner and then watch White Collar. Yay show is back! Anything more is spoilery, and I'm lazy. It'll be interesting to see where this season goes...