Ask the Artist: cathybites
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ask the Artist: cathybites |
| Interviewer: | |
| Interviewee: | cathybites |
| Date(s): | November 22, 2008 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Fan Art, Supernatural |
| External Links: | interview is here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
cathybites was interviewed in 2008 for Supernatural Roundtable.
Some Excerpts
So, okay...I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, which I know is what most artists say, but it's the truth. All through school, I was known I was the arty girl. My senior year, though, I soured on it and pretty much gave up on art. It wasn't until I discovered the comics fandom online that I started to get back into drawing. From there, I moved onto the Harry Potter fandom (there were other fandoms I was involved in, but as far as fanart goes, HP was next), which is where I feel like I really blossomed as an artist (hmm, does that sound lame? I think maybe it does. bah). And from there it was right into SPN. Those darn Winchesters got me hooked right from the first episode.Doing art of them was really intimidating at first, though, because, well. My two main fanart fandoms before SPN were comics and Harry Potter, where you had the basic description of a character, but what they actually looked like was completely up to you. In SPN, there were actual REAL PEOPLE that I had to make my drawings resemble. I did a lot of sketches - never to be seen - before I got close enough to be happy, and even more before I actually posted SPN art in public. (and Dean's stupid face STILL gives me trouble.)
My work in SPN is mostly, um. Porn. I'm not exactly sure how that happened, but I think I've gotten a bit of a reputation for it. I do draw gen stuff, though, and I would like to start doing more, especially of characters not named Sam or Dean.
I also work pretty much entirely in digital media, with my trusty Wacom tablet and Photoshop. I keep telling myself that I'm going to get back to doing proper pencil and pen & ink drawings...but I don't. Maybe someday!
I love both the boys and love drawing them - but Sam is definitely easier to draw. While Jensen is absolutely gorgeous, he has very...I don't want to say 'generic', but his features aren't very distinctive as opposed to Jared, who has the nose and the chin and the eyes. It's a lot easier to put them together and say, 'okay, this is Sam,' where with Dean, it takes a little more work to make him *look* like Dean. um. If that made any sense.
With a book fandom like Harry Potter, everyone knows the description of characters - Harry has black hair and green eyes, Hermione has frizzy brown hair, Ron's a redhead - but everyone is free to put it all together for how they want the characters to actually look. Even with comics, with the wide variety of styles, a character's exact appearance is up for debate. With TV and movie fandoms, though, there's already an established visual for the characters. You can't just draw a guy with green eyes and short hair and say it's Dean Winchester - he *has* to look like Jensen Ackles. But that said, I've found that the more I draw Sam and Dean, the less I feel like I have to make them look *exactly* like the actors. I still try to capture a likeness, but I'm okay with them not being photo-perfect. As long as people can look at a drawing and recognize them, I'm happy. and actually, I think approaching it that way, where I'm not so worried about it, has made it easier for me to draw them looking like the actors. :X