amphigoury | Art- Paperlegends BigBang 2012

Title: Art for "We Are Stardust"
Artist:

amphigoury
Pairings/characters: Arthur/Merlin
Rating (if applicable): T
Warnings: Violence

Summary: Art for fuzzytomato02s "We Are Stardust" - The crew of the merchant ship Avalon are a good lot, if a little odd. The captain, Morgana, has weird dreams. The first mate, Arthur, is an unpleasant ex-lieutenant of the Phoenix Guard. The ship itself is falling apart. When they take on a new engineer named Merlin at Tintagel drift to help with repairs, they not only get a genius, they get much more than they bargained for.

Artist's notes: I would first like to thank my tireless betas

altocello and

reni_m for their helpful critiques (and Reni, I could barely type that with a straight face, jsyk...) . I'd also like to thank

paperpushers and the Weekly Artist Posts of Awesome, and the good folks at Paperlegends mibbit chat. Tomato!! 'Mater!! Working with you has been a treat! I've never felt more welcomed into the creative process. And I assure you guys, for every idea that made it in, three were shot down (including Tetsuo!Merlin, LOL ohhh I tried, I tried!)

Disclaimer: Fan-created content, no profit is made.

MERLIN ARRIVES AT TINTAGEL

His arrival isn't actually described in the story, but I could imagine the moment the dirt-farming duster sets foot into the crazy world of drift life - I've been there, brother!

Here is a description of drift life later on in the story:

"... [H]e watched the colorful goings on of the drift right outside the dock door. It was crowded, people packed on top of each other, buying, selling, and generally causing chaos in the low- lit, artificial environment. It was colorful and loud and intoxicating. It was also dangerous. "

This piece is the new record holder for "number of people in a single piece" for me. Thirty-Two characters, not counting the people on the TV screens. The drift is based strongly on the backhanded welcomes you usually find at airports: Welcome! Now prepare to be violated!

SPACE SICK

"It was loud and all around him, like a living, breathing thing that invaded his consciousness and made his teeth set on edge, and his bones shudder underneath his flesh. It was loud whispers in his ear, fleeting caresses along his skin and images of blueprints alight with power.

His ability wanted to race out of him, vibrate out of his skin and into the ship to repair and create and merge. It wanted out, to be free of the mortal coil and mesh with the circuits and gears that made up the ship."

I knew early on I wanted to experiment with doing a large-scale animated piece, bigger than the animated headers I've done previously. It proved to be a bit trickier than expected. The more I tried to put into it, the larger the file sizes got, and it was getting out of hand for a .gif image. I've had to sacrifice quality to bring it down to a manageable size. Thus is the lament of all .gif artists, lol.

PRESSURE AND POWER

"Arthur had never felt anything like it before. The first jolt was painful and he grimaced as he felt the gears shifting, moving, as they slotted into place and he felt the crackle of energy, the fine hairs on his arms standing on end. It was pressure and power and he felt Merlin strain above him, push his weight down on Arthur’s shoulder and back but then everything clicked.

The sudden freedom from the near-constant pain washed over Arthur in a wave of relief, almost like an orgasm, and he found himself floating in a haze of pleasure, eyes closed, body melted into the mattress."

Back in the early plotting of the story, Arthur was perfectly fine. Tomato thought it'd be interesting if there was a way Arthur could really experience and witness Merlin's power somehow. And so the bum shoulder was born. We now could let Merlin pour his power into Arthur and make it something healing and sensual that Arthur could identify.

The scar tissue/wound symbolically tearing through his Phoenix Guard tattoo is something I thought up from my friends and family and their squadron/platoon/military tattoos.

THE PROMISE

Arthur only heard the sound of his promise ringing in his ears.

“Arthur!” Morgana’s voice was shrill. “Sever the link!”

“Merlin!” Arthur yelled as Merlin slipped further and further into the cyber-state. “Merlin, please!”

“Sixty seconds until atmospheric ventilation.”

Arthur reached for his sidearm and pulled it from the holster at his hip. He leveled the barrel at Merlin and pulled back the hammer. He didn’t have time to overthink or regret.

“Stars,” he whispered, voice choked. “Forgive me.”

Geeze... what can I say about this piece? It's tense! I had a fun time with Merlin's eyes, turning them digital to show his descent into cyber-state. And Arthur's sidearm! I had fun putting the glow on it too! I really liked how the composition of this piece turned out.

BONUS PICTURE - THE TECHNOPATH

I really enjoyed this space!AU techie!Merlin. I imagined him fixing all manners of things and being cramped under consoles.

I was a bit iffy with this piece, until it came time to do the lighting. Then everything just came together. I am very, VERY happy with how this one turned out.

PLAYLIST FOR SAVING THE UNIVERSE - THE "WE ARE STARDUST" FANMIX

Another first for me: a fanmix!

Back in the original plotting of the story, Merlin's datapad had a big role to play, but it was cut. In fact, I think it's been cut out completely... but it still features prominently in three of the pieces, lol.

As for the fanmix itself, I thought, "Well, making the image is easy. Let's try actually MIXING the sound." So there is a 9 minute .mp3 and a special extended 30 minute version in the WIP video below.

WIP VIDEO
If you have 30 minutes of boredom, here is a WIP video of about 6 hours of sketching/conceptual art/inking. It's uncut, so you see me mess up, rearrange, hesitate, visualize, and all that good stuff. You can watch it in a larger size here.

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That's it! My second Big Bang complete! I'd like to extend my thanks and gratitude to

the_muppet for organizing and running the fest. Amazing job as always!