Swing & Swish: Poster art for "Come Out, Come Out" by Spuffy_luvr for Gen Mini-Fic Exchange

[red_satin_doll]

My second contribution to Round One, "Buffy's Stuff" of buffy_genfic is artwork for spuffy_luvr's story "Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are" (gen, Buffy; S6 post-Gone).

Many thanks to velvetwhip for her superb feedback on these:

Click banners #1 -7 below for full-size images:

1)
"Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are" version 1  (2015)

Are there variant versions? Is the Pope Italian Polish German male? Of course there are variants:  (not including the ones I absolutely refuse to post. Your eyeballs will thank me later.)

Teasers:  

The story is a response to kwritten's prompt: Inanimate object: Scrunchie/hair tie...S6 short hair era, flickering streetlights, long walks. In "Come Out...." , Buffy tries to connect again to her past, to the girl she once was, the little girl who dreamed of being a figure skater before cheerleading and boys and then slaying took over her life, via a most unlikely object: a "scrunchie" that Joyce made eons ago to go with one of her skating costumes. At the same time she's trying to convince herself that she's not the same girl, that she's moving forward and making a "fresh start" ("Daisy-fresh Buffy....fresh from the grave.")

I wanted to incorporate an image of Buffy circa Gone or DMP in the banner but couldn't make one quite work right. The silhouette from What's My Line pulls double-duty: it evokes the younger Buffy but is also meant to echo a moment in the story where Buffy reaches for the hair ornament after it falls from her pocket.

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#2 is actually the first version of the banner I made. Since it's the central object in the story I figured out that I wanted to use it to "frame" an image of Buffy skating and found one that had a large enough center space. In the story the scrunchie is made of hot pink fabric printed with bears "cavorting across" it. The scrunchie, the bears "printed" on it, and the bears in the background are three separate layers. I changed the orientation of the fabric when I added it to the background so it wouldn't look like I'd plunked it down once over the entire banner and called it a day. I wanted the "print" to look authentic. I also added a tight canvas weave texture from ipiccy to make it look even more like a real fabric. Poster #1 has an additional plush pile fabric texture added for the soft grey lines and to help blur the background pattern a little.

I could have stopped there but I felt it needed something more. #2 is a cute image but it isn't evocative of anything; it has layers in the literal sense of the image but no emotional layers, no complexity. Most of the story takes place in a cemetary while Buffy is on routine patrol and is reflective of Buffy's mindset at that moment.  So I went back to a wider version, added the large image of Buffy from What's My Line, and layered a shot from CWDP's cemetary to fill in the Buffy-shaped silhouette and create a sense of atmosphere and emotion. Then I cut around the large obelisk headstone from the same shot and added that to the right side, to balance the poster visually.

The images of a cemetary in #1 and the posters below is from Conversations with Dead People. For #3 I layered and blended cemetary shots from CWPD with an image from Forever (right side of the poster).I'm pleased with how seamlessly the two blended together but of course I'm using the image of Buffy and of the scrunchie to mask any "joins". I like the softness and deep blue tones of #3 quite a bit but it feels as though something is missing that would pull it all together.

The loopy font in 1 - 3 was meant to look like cursive Buffy might have written, something somewhat feminine. I switched fonts to something slightly more elegant for the variant below:


If you click  4 - 7 to see them full-size (they're rather large) - did you spot where I added my "signature stamp"?

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Confession: I love this version and all most of it's variants, I truly do. Same image of Buffy skating and the scunchy but without the cemetary shots replacing the bears in the background; the large image of Buffy is from Doublemeat Palace and the way her face fit into the contours of the fabric band was pure serendipity. (And yes my ongoing love affair with Sarah's face continues unabated. kikimay will understand.)


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So what's the problem? They're not right for spuffy_luvr's story. They don't imply the moments of lightness, humor  and strange whimsy in "Come Out Come Out...." They're more of piece with the poster I did for velvetwhip's offering . Possibly a Bergman film - but not this story. And I highly doubt that anyone is going to remix "Come Out..." or that there will ever again be a need for a poster that includes Buffy, ice skating, a cemetary, and a bear-print scrunchie. Though I've been proven wrong before.


I still love this one, though. And it's simple enough that I was able to get a icons out of it; posters 1-3 are  to complicated image-wise to make good icons without being entirely reworked.

Icons:

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A Vague Disclaimer is No One's Friend:

~ DO NOT RE-POST TO OTHER SITES (INCL. FANPOP) OR LJ COMMUNITIES WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!

~ Take what you like for personal use but please credit if used :) Do not take banner #1 for personal use without asking myself or spuffy_luvr.

~ No hotlinking!

~ Comments however are appreciated :)

Nominee "Still Pretty" (Best Worksafe Artwork) rwsawards Round 11.