Tomato Glomp {fanart} Ain't We Just

[altocello]

Title: Ain't We Just
Artist: altocello
Rating: G
Characters/relationships: Arthur/Merlin
Summary: Firefly/Merlin crossover. Captain Arthur Pendragon of the Firefly class ship Serenity, with the Companion Merlin Emrys.
Content notes: Lines drawn with sepia india ink, colored with (my hand to God) instant coffee, on sketchbook paper. The title comes from dialogue in the Firefly episode, "Safe":

Mal: "What does that make us?"
Zoe: "Big Damn Heroes, sir."
Mal: "Ain't we just."

This is a glomp for fuzzytomato02 to thank her for all of her efforts; from getting all of us to sign up, all the way through to gently reminding us that our posting day had arrived, we saw tomato working hard to make glomp_fest 2012 a success! Many thanks to reni_m and amphigoury for being my partners in crime betas. :D

Click if you'd like to see it huge


My very first crossover, ever! :D Does this mean I need to list another fandom in my master post of art?

Comments

[mrs-leary.livejournal.com]

Oh my! Love the art, and love the crossover. The choice of sepia is so utterly perfect for this 'western in space'. Beautifully done! ♥

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was fun to put together, and I think I will need to use coffee as a "watercolor" medium again sometime soon! :D

[scotscookie.livejournal.com]

fabulous - Arthur as a Browncoat! And Merlin fits so well as a companion...

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was grand to combine two shows I have so much love for!

[alby-mangroves.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, that's absolutely awesome. Really, really handsome boys, and I love the crossover, it's fabulous! Great stuff <3

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! <3

[chaosmaka.livejournal.com]

That looks awesome :D Thanks!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you! :D

[kathyh]

That's lovely. I really like the sepia colouring. Beautiful work :)

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The sepia coloring is the result of using a concentrated solution of instant espresso as the "watercolor" medium. I really love the way it turned out, so I'll probably use it again in another work sometime. :D

[eldee.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

[fuzzytomato02.livejournal.com]

CELLO! I have the biggest, most ridiculous grin on my face RIGHT NOW. This is so cool and OMG and FIRELY/MERLIN x-over! \o/ How the hell did you use coffee? :D :D :D Anyway, it's my favorite thing ever. i LOVE IT. OMG and Merlin as the companion??? *FLAILS* Think of all the angsty storylines! the coloring is just perfect and wow, I love it! and thank you for glomping me :D you, amph and reni are the best ever! :)

[altocello.livejournal.com]

\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

I'm thrilled that you love it! I had a bit of a puzzle working out what to have Merlin wearing since we never see male companions in the series. And then I realized that Inara is always dressed to the nines; voilá, I had my excuse to put him in tails! And YES, the ANGST! I leave it to you, oh writerly one, to actually write it. :D

The coffee is the coloring, I used instant coffee with a little water instead of a regular watercolor set (it was reni's suggestion). I'd read about it, but never done it. It's AWESOME, I will totally use it again sometime soon, just let me find an excuse!

So, THANK YOU, for giving me the excuse to do this, because I loved doing it, and I love that you love it!

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Big Damn Heroes, indeed.

This is brilliant.

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! They certainly are, aren't they?

PS: Your icon is making me giggle. :D

[sabriel75.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thanks! <3

[clawdine]

This is amazing! I love how you managed to look everything look so alive and fluid with the use of just one base colour!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! Coffee, as I found out, has a really complex character not only in it's taste but also in it's color as you add more layers. :D The trick was in really pushing the darks and then getting the mid-tones about right.

[oflittleuse.livejournal.com]

oh . my . god ... I think I just died and went to heaven because this is perfection. This makes my browncoat heart swell with joy.

[altocello.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thank you very kindly! <3

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Delish! Love the crossover! Now I want to read it :D

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thanks! We'll have to talk one of the writerly types into creating a fic for it. :D

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of the good ones ;-)

I write but I'm only glancingly familiar with Firefly (as in I haven't even seen all the episodes, most of em but not all of em, and still haven't seen the movie! But I like the show enough that I keep intending to watch the missed episodes and then the movie!). So I would totally read this if someone were to write it!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes PLEASE. I should put this up on merlin_ficart and see what happens. :)

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

You absolutely should!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

:D

[jedi-bria.livejournal.com]

Oh Grandpa! Fantastic crossover. I've seen a few Firefly crossovers in Merlin fandom, but not near enough, and most of them fic. Great job! And the sepia is perfect for them!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I was inspired by the admiration for Firefly that Tomato and I share, and I LOVE sepia. Any excuse to use it is a good one!

[teprometo.livejournal.com]

OHMAHGAH! THIS FOREVER! AAAAAH!

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[hms-seth.livejournal.com]

Who doesn't love Firefly?! Everyone loves Firefly, so thus, everyone should automatically love this art. And I totally do. (Coffee, really? That's kind of amazing.) More of this stuff needs to exist in this fandom.

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Really, coffee. It makes a lovely sepia tone! I will have to explore this idea of more of this kind of thing.... I can totally see Gwen as Kaylee. :D

[seths-dream.livejournal.com]

This makes me SO happy. :D
Love the sepia tone and how Arthur has Mal's outfit. And Merlin as a Companion... -drools-

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was the idea of Arthur in Mal's outfit that got me going on this one, and I'm glad you liked my interpretation of what Merlin might look like as a Companion. :D

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. I loved that you used coffee for color! Really gorgeous.

[altocello.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This was a real departure from my more normal style, with the very simple inked lines. I was dithering over how to color it when reni suggested using coffee or tea, and amph seconded the idea since it would be a sepia tone which was what I was after. A bit of testing proved that coffee had greater efficacy with fewer layers (good when you're short on time!), so that's what I went with. I'm so glad I did! I think it may be one of my favorite mediums now, lol.