Ask the Artist: wanttobeatree

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Ask the Artist: wanttobeatree
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	wanttobeatree
Date(s):	September 21, 2009
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Fan Art, Supernatural
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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wanttobeatree was interviewed in 2009 for Supernatural Roundtable.

Some Excerpts

I began drawing fanart when I was ten - when I dedicated far too many hours of my life to drawing Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley with impractical and gravity-defying hairstyles – and over the ensuing years I’ve drawn bits and pieces for a vast array of fandoms. When I wasn’t busying myself with ridiculous hair (or elves. I drew a lot of elves, too), I studied art at GCSE and then at A level. Like most fanartists, I think, I’ve been artistically inclined pretty much all my life. (I’ve also ingested an impressive amount of paint.) However, despite licking so many paintbrushes, I didn’t really consider the possibility that I could be an actual fanartist until I did my first Big Bang art in ’08 for fleshflutter (here), after which I decided it was about damn time I learnt how to use my tablet properly. It’s an ongoing mission. I’ve been using Open Canvas ever since I first gave this ~digital art~ thing a whirl, partly because the trial version was free and you can – slightly illegally – keep using it after said trial runs out, but mostly because it’s glorious and wonderful. On the downside, I have no idea how the bloody thing actually works, so I’ve been making everything up as I go along. (You should have seen my face when I first worked out how to use layers. My goodness.)

All the ideas I get - be it for fic or art - come to me ~visually~ first. I'm a very visual person, so that's how the inspiration literally comes to me. I guess my mind is kind of like one of those Zany Plot Generators. At random intervals, it rolls over into 'wouldn't it be cool if [character A] [verb] [character B] in [unexpected setting]!' e.g 'wouldn't it be cool if Dean had a dance off with Sam in SPACE!' I DON'T KNOW D:

What I enjoy about drawing... IS HARD TO DEFINE. HMM. When it goes well, it's absorbing and soothing and fun. It's very satisfying when you get a picture in your head, get it out of your head in a way that works and then put it into other people's heads instead. ON THE FLIP SIDE, what I dislike about drawing is how bloody FRUSTRATING it is when things don't go right. There's nothing worse than when you have this completely awesome mental image but when you try to put it onto paper (or... computer monitor) it comes out looking like giraffes in labour. /o\

Anyway, the most important question: Sam's nose is so glorious because it was sculpted by tiny little elves who wanted to own the most beautiful dry ski slope in the world and knew Jared Padalecki's face would be the place to put it.