Inspired by Supernatural: Art by Janie Romel

Editor’s Note: The Winchester Family Business is proud to feature another talented artist in our series “Inspired by Supernatural“! Members of the SPNFamily all around the world express their love for Supernatural in many different ways, according to their personal talents. Some write, others create videos, jewelry, collectible figures or larger crafts. Janie is a portrait artist from Russia who sketches beautiful drawings of Supernatural’s actors. I first became aware of Janie’s work earlier this year when she shared them with The Winchester Family Business on Twitter. Here is her story, together with a sampling of some of her best work.   

I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. My old drawings were completely different from the way they look now. 

When I was little, I didn’t think about going to art school or going to specialized courses. Now sometimes I regret it. It seems to me that I lack some skill, professionalism. However, despite this, I don’t watch any video training, etc. I’m trying to get it by myself. I see the work of professional artists – they are beautiful, elegant, but sometimes it seems to me that they are painted without a soul. I can not stand such artistry. Why do they create something and not invest their soul in their work? People are interested in looking at works that come alive [i.e. the portrait conveys emotion, you feel what the person is feeling] . I aspire to this.

I like drawing portraits. I can say, probably, that I am a portraitist.

I see something unusual in the eyes of everyone I paint. This is a favorite part of the face.

Emotions are always visible in the eyes.  It’s difficult to convey it on paper, however, it is one of the most important details for me, where I will pay the most attention.

I think that, like many artists, I don’t like to start drawing, but I am dragged into the process as soon as the form begins to take shape. To understand if I like it or not, I always draw eyes first – even though I find it the most difficult [aspect] in the drawing. Of course, technique-wise, it should be difficult to draw hair, because you have to manage the light-shade so that it is clear how the hair is laid. But, it’s harder for me to draw eyes. Because, as I said, I try to make them alive.

I draw almost all subjects, but I prefer to draw men. I like their features. I like bristles, a beard, a stern look, thick brows. Most often, my “victims” are the actors of the show Supernatural. Besides them, I draw other actors from other TV shows or just find beautiful photos on the Internet and then figure out who I am drawing. I like drawing new faces, even though I can draw actors from Supernatural forever.

In general, I am not a fan of the word “fan”. For me, this word means a person who has torn off his head and without any brakes, starts to bother actors with tweets or messages on Instagram, plus hangs posters on their whole wall, etc. [Instead,] I tend to consider myself part of the SPNFamily. [We are a] big large family. I have friends from other countries and it’s great because we are a family.

I started to watch the show not so long ago. About a couple of years ago, my boyfriend showed me this show. At first, it seemed a bit boring to me. It was at a time in my life when I was not drawing. I did not do anything creatively. Everything seemed boring to me. However, after a few episodes, I realized that it was not easy to shoot the series and make them come alive. Supernatural seems to have his own heart, its own feelings, emotions. It was thanks to Supernatural that I started drawing again.

For many years, while I didn’t draw, I forgot how to do some things, so it took me a year to restart. Only about a year ago, maybe a little less, I began to draw the actors of this show. Why? It’s simple! They are the type of people that I spoke about before – bristle, a beard, thick brows, a stern look … And infinitely emotional with lively [expressive] eyes.

Speaking of how I draw. It’s simple. I use the softest pencil, and black gouache sometimes, when I need a black background. Firstly, I do a sketch, drawing out the outline of the face, the location of the eyes, etc. After that, if I see that the work will be difficult, I put light shadows on the drawing, starting with the eyes. After that, I add more contrasting shadows. I finish everything with the right bottom corner of the picture. It’s probably a tradition.

It was difficult to choose just a few photos of my work [for this article] because I like almost all the drawings. For example, where Jensen sings, I adore the shirt.

I do not know why, but lately I love to paint shirts. The same thing happened with the portrait of Mark Pellegrino, where he is wearing a shirt.

I don’t even know why. It seems it’s not a portrait anymore. Speaking of Mark, I’m really grateful to him. He once noticed my drawings, retweeted them and even congratulated me on my birthday. He saved my holiday. For this I thank him a lot!

Here is the drawing of Jensen (a big portrait in the A3 format). I still like how I drew a chain there.

This portrait was a gift to Jensen on his birthday. I know that it (and Jared’s portrait too) now should be in Jensen’s brewery. I also love this picture of Jensen and the Impala.

How much effort it took to draw this picture! This is the second drawing of this photo. I store the original (that is, the first version) behind glass and blow off specks of dust. 

The rest of the drawings I just love. I don’t know how to describe this feeling differently.

The only square picture of Jensen is the first drawing I did of the Supernatural actors. Everything began with him.

In fact, I’m proud of most of my drawings (not always, but often), but I think that my emotions were the strongest on the day when I was first noticed by one of my favorite actors. It was David Haydn-Jones. He first retweeted my drawing and wrote a comment. I was just beside myself with happiness.

Mark Pellegrino was the next actor who noticed my drawing of him. I was very happy. I get goosebumps from his acting.

  

My drawings were noticed by almost everyone I paint.  If I list everyone who has ever noticed me (from Supernatural), then:

MarK Pellegrino, Mark Sheppard,

Rob Benedict, Richard Speight, David Haydn-Jones, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Felicia Day, Jim Beaver,

Timothy Omundson,

Ty Olsson, Rachel Miner, Adam Fergus,

Adam Rose, Tahmoh Penikett, and Sebastian Roche.

I am excited to say that Jensen Ackles saw my drawings, and I think Misha did too, but I have something to strive for!

 

Janie can be found on Twitter @janieromel, and with the tag #janiefanart. Let’s make Janie feel at home at The WFB! 

If you enjoyed seeing Janie’s art, don’t miss the first two features in this series:  “Inspired by Supernatural: Fan Art by Bettina Bier” and “Inspired by Supernatural: Collectible Sam and Dean Action Figures”! If you know of a talented fan who you would like to see featured in my series, send us a note at “Contact Us”!