Inspired by Supernatural: Drawings by Ivy

We have so much talent in the Supernatural fandom! Fans draw, edit photos and videos, write fan fics, create costumes or props, make jewelry and much more. It’s time to showcase the #SPNFamily’s talent and ask the people behind the creations some questions!

This time I am introducing to you Ivy, who created these and even more magnificent drawings. Let´s start with the interview!

Enjoy reading!

How and when did you got trapped in the Supernatural Fandom?

I’d have to say I got hooked on Supernatural sometime late 2016 early 2017, although the first time I watched the show was back in 2013 when my husband and I were looking thru Netflix for new shows to watch to fill the void after the first season of Hannibal ended.

We binged the first nine episodes over the course of three nights but decided to take a break and watch something else. In 2016, we were surfing thru Netflix and decided to give Supernatural a second chance, picking up from where we left off after episode 9. Together we watched 3 more episodes before he lost interest.

At one point during one of the episodes, our daughter (who was 13 at the time) came downstairs to ask us a question. She noticed we were watching Supernatural and told us that a couple of her friends had recommended she should watch the show. My husband suggested that if I wanted to keep watching, she and I could start watching it together, which is what we did.

We watched the first few seasons together. My son even started watching the show for a time. I remember watching “Route 666” with him and how we sat in awkward silence when the bedroom scene between Dean and Cassie came on the screen. He made a comment about the scene being unnecessarily long and we shared an uncomfortable laugh.

I got involved with the fandom in 2017 when my daughter showed me Supernatural Amino. I joined partially to keep tabs on her, but I really liked the show and, having been a part of several fan communities in the past, I was looking forward to becoming part of this one. After posting a couple pieces there, I decided to resurrect my Tumblr account and started posting art there as well. In 2018, my daughter and I attended our first Supernatural convention. It was quite the experience. I have to admit that I fangirled big time after seeing and meeting Misha Collins in person. He was the most beautiful man I have ever met and I was terrified.

What does the Supernatural fandom mean to you?

I know that a lot of people say that being in the Supernatural fandom is like a big family, but I don’t really feel that way. Now I don’t want people to take it the wrong way when I say this, I just feel that way because I came into the fandom late. Sometimes I feel like an outsider trying to fit in. I’ve always had a hard time making friends, and I feel like I’m intruding sometimes. But I suppose that’s my insecurities talking, so for now I’m just hanging out on the outskirts slowly making connections. I only wish that I had taken a friend’s advice back in 2008 when he kept trying to get me to check out this really cool show called Supernatural. I could only imagine all the fun I would have had over the last decade.

How and when did you start with drawing?

I have always loved art and drawing. One of my earliest memories is from when I was very young (pre-kindergarten) drawing pictures at the coffee table in the living room while my mom was watching TV. Being the youngest child of seven, I had to find some way to stand out in the sea of older siblings. I loved drawing, it was fun and came to me naturally, and it became my thing. I used to watch Mr. Dress-Up and would gleefully gather up all my drawing supplies to draw along with him when he would draw pictures to tell stories. I loved watching the Magic of Oil Painting with William Alexander, who was the predecessor of Bob Ross and the Joy of Painting.

What was the first picture you drew? The first Supernatural related one?

I really couldn’t tell you the first picture I ever drew (I mean that was well over 40 years ago). But the very first Supernatural related picture I drew? That’s a different story. I think one of the first Supernatural drawings I did was on the computer at the request of my daughter. She showed me one of Sam’s bitch faces and asked if I could draw something like it.

I also drew Dean and Cas on a balloon during my daughter’s 14^th birthday party because the kids were drawing on them. I hadn’t even gotten to season 4 yet at that time, but I had been checking out Supernatural content online. My daughter looked at it and said it seemed a little on the Destiel side. I would also draw dumb little doodles on chore lists that I would leave for her in the morning before I went to work for her to find when she came home from school.

I always love to see the progress people make with their art. Would you like to share a ‘then’ & ‘now’ picture with us?

I love seeing how artists progress as time goes on. When I look back at my early Supernatural fan art, it makes me cringe. I was trying to figure out how to draw the characters and fit them into my style. I figured out how to draw Dean’s hair early on, but I had some difficulty getting Cas’ hair right.

Eventually, I was able to create rules for each of the characters: Dean has large more round expressive eyes and thick eyebrows; I simplified his freckles only giving him three on each cheek; I gave Cas cat-like eyes, emphasized his cheekbones, and worked on developing the dom!brow.

I also love seeing art progression drawings. I created a post once on tumblr showing my art process if you are interested:

What kind of pencils, colors and/or brushes do you use normally? What kind of paper? For digital art, what kind of program/tablet etc. do you use?

Generally, I use paper and pencil, then outline my drawings in pen and ink. I don’t use anything fancy, usually – whatever I can get that’s fairly inexpensive. I used to draw religiously using mechanical pencils, but right now I’m using a Pentalic Graphite & Charcoal set that my daughter wound up getting as gifts. She wasn’t using one so I “borrowed” if from her. I’m currently using a set of Superior Micro-Line pens that I got off Amazon for inking my art. They aren’t anything special, but they have a variety of point widths from 1 to .005 and an XS, Medium, and Large brush tips. I did splurge and buy myself a set of Chameleon brand alcohol-based markers for coloring in pieces by hand.

For my digital art, I start with a pencil or pen and ink drawing that I scan into the computer (my earlier pieces, I used the camera on my phone to transfer them to my computer because my scanner wasn’t working). I use Photoshop to edit/color my art. I used to have a Waccom tablet but got rid of it after my husband bought me an Iskn tablet for Christmas in 2017. It’s a hybrid tablet that you can use regular pencils or pens to draw with and it records your strokes digitally. In theory, it’s a cool idea but it’s pretty limited and can be buggy. Looking back, I should have gotten another Waccom tablet, but I’ve made do with the one I have, and it works for what I need it to do.

Occasionally I’ll use Illustrator, but I don’t use it as much because it’s time consuming.

Can you explain how/why you choose the pics you draw. What inspires you?

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the majority or my art is on the Destiel side. I love the chemistry between Dean and Cas. I also love drawing Dean in uncomfortable situations (which result in Dean blushing or getting awkwardly aroused) or in situations where he is being a goofball. I tend to draw Cas in a manner that emphasizes his general badassery and dominance, that or generally irritated or done with the situation. I don’t really draw Sam all that much and when I do, it’s usually in context with Dean and I try to capture their brotherly interactions.

Sometimes I get inspired by stories or posts I’ve read, or scenes loosely based on episodes. Once in a while I’ll draw pictures based on something that has personally happened to me. Like when my husband gave me a kiss on the eyelid and his stubble poked me in the eye.

How long does it take you to finish a portrait/drawing?

That really depends on what it is that I’m drawing. Simple sketches I can complete in a 15-30 minutes. Lined and colored art takes longer, say 1-2 hours. Fine art pencil portraits take a good couple of hours.

But on average I’d say roughly 3-4 hours from start to finish for most my pieces (from sketch to lined, colored, and edited digitally). Typically, most of my art is a combination of traditional and digital methods.

I used to use Illustrator a lot but that can take days (or weeks depending on the complexity) to complete a drawing because of all the shapes and layers.

“Boop” and “Selfie” are two of my earlier pictures using Illustrator.

I like the paper cut out look without outlines. If you zoom into Cas’s face in “Boop” each hair for his five o’clock shadow is an individual layer. I’d estimate his stubble alone took about 2 hours to draw.

Not sure if you can choose, but what are your favorite pictures from what you’ve drawn, and of course, why?

I have several favorite drawings that I’ve done over the last few years. The majority of them are of Castiel (he’s my favorite). There are really too many to share, so I’ve narrowed it down to four favorites.

The first I want to share is of Cas in armor (which I based off Roman armor). His helmet is edged in gold with a lion’s head and gilded wings. The crest is made with plumage from his own wings. Normally, I hate drawing on the facing pages in my sketch book, but I felt I couldn’t do Cas’s wings justice if I kept the drawing to one page. I love using the purple to orange gradient as well. It captures the setting sun quite nicely.

The second image I want to share is of Cas in black on a red and black background. This is one of my earlier drawings of him. I think what I like the most about this drawing is that it’s the first time I felt I captured Misha’s dominant expression. I also really like the idea of Cas wearing all black, tailor fitted clothing (I think all the Cas girls would roll over and die if Cas wore all black on the show).You can’t see it in the final version, but my sketch has him wearing a waistcoat and a black tie. This was also drawn as a part of my When Worlds Collide Series.

The third image I want to share is drawing I did of Sam. I drew this in July of 2018 as part of my “A to Z Art Challenge”. “F is for Fire” was the prompt. I chose Sam as the subject reflecting upon his time in Hell. I went with an orange/blue complimentary color scheme and played around with different brushes and textures. I think why I consider this to be one of my favorites is that’s I feel I captured Jared’s likeness and I’m quote proud of it.

The last image that I wanted to share is another drawing I did for my “A to Z Art Challenge”: “T is for Tape”. I didn’t have this scene from 5.08 “Changing Channels” in mind when I was creating the list of prompts, but it fit quite nicely. I thought the episode was fun and I really liked the color scheme in the gaudy hotel room. It was such a stark contrast with Cas.

I saw that you work on a comic strip. Can you tell us more about that?

Sometimes I get ideas for stories and I have a sudden burst of inspiration to turn them into comics. Unfortunately, about half -way through them I run out of steam so they often get abandoned and are left unfinished.

In 2017, I had an idea where Dean encounters an alternate version of himself who happens to be a Knight of Hell and an alternate version (AU) of Castiel who is the current King of Hell. This was part of my “When Worlds Collide” series. The concept for the AU was divergent of season 10 and the Mark of Cain. In that world, Dean never got rid of the Mark and wound up killing Sam. Cas did what he could to save Dean and tried to keep him out of trouble. At one point he tried to join with Dean to create a balance, but wound up getting sucked into the Mark’s destructive power as Dean spiraled out of control. Cas’ angelic power latched onto Dean’s demonic side and the pair became irreparably bonded to the point that if they ever spent any great length of time apart, they experienced tremendous pain and suffering. Cas followed Dean to Hell and remained at his side, basking in the other’s power, becoming lovers and eventually the new rulers of Hell. A new power infiltrated Hell and threatened their hold on the underworld, forcibly casting them out and exiling the pair to an alternate universe hundreds of years into the past where they plummeted to the Earth in a fiery blaze, nearly taking out the Impala in the process.

I worked on a couple other short comics, such as “Kiss it Better” which was based on a Tumblr post about Cas healing Dean with a kiss

The most recent comic I worked on was titled “Dean Winchester Hates Witches”. It’s not currently finished, but I think I left it at a good stopping point. I need to work out some plot issues before I continue working on it. The basic plot is that Dean, while on a hunt, managed to get hit by a witch’s curse turning him into a girl. Sam and Dean head back to the bunker where Sam proceeds to look for a way to turn Dean back. Dean gets to be unbearable and Sam sends Dean to pick up ingredients for a reversing spell from Rowena. Cas tags along and Dean has to come to terms with himself and whatever thing that he and Cas have between them.

I know it´s not Christmas, but I have to ask you this. Last year you made an Advent calendar with drawings. Every day was a new picture. Would you like to tell us a little bit about that and share some pictures?

I loved doing the Advent calendar. Prior to creating the calendar, I asked for prompts from the Supernatural community. Each day was based either on a suggestion from the community or something that made me think of the holidays.

Christmas really means a lot to me. My family was poor growing up and we lived off food stamps and government subsistence, so we didn’t have much money in our budget for anything other than rent, utilities, food, and gas. Christmas time was always tight. My parents often bought us discounted or used items as presents and the food for our holiday meals often came from the local food bank. We didn’t do Advent calendars, stockings, cookies for Santa, listen to Christmas Music or do any of the other stereotypical Christmas traditions. We stopped putting up the tree when I was in junior high school. The years we did get a tree, I would spend hours laying underneath it looking up at the ornaments and marveling how the lights reflected off the simple colored bulbs.

I suppose my reason for doing the Advent calendar was born out a desire to create something that I never had the opportunity to experience as a child. I did it because I needed it for personal reasons. Unfortunately, I never finished all 25 days due to a family emergency that needed my attention. I completed and posted 20 days which you can see above and for the first time I’d like to share the unfinished day 21. The theme was Baking Christmas Cookies.

Which brings me to my next question. Do you plan on making something like the Advent calendar again this year, or do you plan on selling one?

I’d love to do another Advent calendar this year! I love getting the community involved for ideas, so in preparation I think I’ll start requesting prompts early at the beginning of November so I can also start drawing early as well.

I’ve thought about creating a Supernatural based advent to sell but I haven’t really thought about what it would look like. I may make some Supernatural themed Christmas ornaments or cards to put up on my Etsy store for sale.

I know that you also created a Supernatural coloring book. Can you tell us why you decided to make this? Where can the people buy it?

I like to challenge myself when I draw. The coloring book was something I wanted to do just to see if I could do it. My original goal was to illustrate 50 pages and get a small batch of coloring books published. But with next season (season 15) being the last, I am a little hesitant to move forward. I still may publish a small run of actual books in the future, but for now I decided to publish the coloring book as a digital download.

Below is the link to the coloring book on my Etsy Store:

Supernatural Fanart Coloring Book

Are you open for commissions? If yes, how does it work? Are there rules about things you don´t draw?

I’ve never really done commissioned work but I have sold pieces that I’ve drawn in the past. I occasionally do requests and I love doing art trades, but I don’t actively seek them out. I’ve also worked with some fanfiction authors on illustrations for their stories. I recently participated in the “Asexual Supernatural Mini- Bang 2019 (ASMB2019)”.

I think my reasoning for not doing commissions is that if my art becomes work, it won’t be as much fun than if I create something for myself or as a gift. Although, one sure fine way to get an original drawing is to purchase something off my Etsy store that requires me to mail it out. With each purchase (except for the digital download coloring book), I like to send out a personal thank you note with an original drawing on the front of the card.

What are your next projects?

With my art, I’m always trying to challenge myself, to improve on poses, fluidity, facial features etc. As I mentioned earlier, I just finished up some pieces for the ASMB2019. With the new season which started in October, I’ll have plenty of material to work with. I’d like to finish up “Dean Winchester Hates Witches” and I’ve signed up for the 2020 Dean Cas Pinefest and will be contributing art to my first ever Reverse Bang.

On a personal level, I recently inherited a good portion of my mother’s quilting material. I came across an unfinished quilt that she started a few years before she passed away and I want to finish it. I also want to sew some 50’s style dresses from the material. I also came across a pattern to make a set of cosplay wings and I’d love to make myself a set of black angel wings. I’ll be sure to post pictures when I make them.

I like your name Angel of Wine? Is there a story behind the name you want to share with all us?

Thanks! So, funny story. When I was creating my username on Amino, I just happened to be drinking at the time, but oddly I wasn’t drinking wine. I created it as a joke, because um… alcohol tends to lead to impulse decisions, but I liked the name and kept it.

Is there anything else you would like to share with the fans? What more would you like to tell us about your art or yourself?

My name is Ivy, I’m a cancer. I like long walks on the beach and frisky men…

Seriously though, I’m not really sure what else to say so I’ll give some advice to young artists:

I know it’s cliche but practice makes perfect. If you get discouraged because something isn’t turning out the way you want it to, don’t give up. Try to experiment with different art mediums – pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, markers, watercolor, oil or acrylic paints. It’s ok to be messy. Also, take the time to learn the basics. Learn how to draw perspective. Learn how to draw people proportionality. Set up a still life and experiment with different lighting effects. Even if your drawing doesn’t look realistic or like you think it should, think of it as gaining experience. The more you understand the basics in art principles, the better you will be as an artist.

Now it’s time for the question I ask everyone. If you could change only one thing in the world right now, what would it be?

Well that’s a bit of a loaded question… I think I’m going to decline answering this. I think there are too many opinions out there and I know my opinions won’t agree with everyone out there. So instead of giving a canned answer or something to fuel the political fire, I’ve decided to share a picture of my pets.