Love Your Fandom - @cypii

Image used with permission by cypii

Below is our interview with fanartist cypii!  Take a look at some of her awesome art after you read.

What programs/tools do you use?
Despite trying, I haven't found a comfortable way to work digitally yet, so apart from some adjusting & editing on photoshop I've stuck to traditional methods. Basically any tool that I think would improve the result of the picture I'm working on is alright with me, which leads me to doing a lot of mixed media work. My most usual tools however must be watercolors, (colored) pencils, black markers and drawing ink.  

Where do you get your inspiration?
From various places... breathtaking art by others on tumblr, deviantART & Pinterest etc. and different moods and feelings I experience in my own life or through music, for instance. Song lyrics can be highly inspirational, which is why I sometimes name my pieces either after a song title or a carefully picked line from the lyrics.

I tend to get very attached to all kinds of stories as well - no matter the genre or the platform - and especially the characters of those stories, which must be the primary reason behind all the fan art I draw. And not only the good parts of the story, but the bad as well; self-irony in my opinion is one of the juiciest forms of comedy, which is why I often choose to embrace rather than ignore the little flaws, plotholes and clichés that all kinds of fictional content inevitably has and turn it into something that, well, at least I find amusing.     

What are your primary fandoms?
The main things I've been a fan of of during my life so far would be Kingdom Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist (and a couple of other comics at some point), Amnesia the Dark Descent and Supernatural. There was also a period of time when I was a little more into Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, and just recently I've gotten very excited about the Portal games (a little late perhaps, but that's how I roll). Although the only fandom I could claim to be active in at the moment is Supernatural, I have by no means forgotten any of the others listed here! I've grown up with them so they're a part of who I am, whether I like it or not. 

What project have you always wanted to do?
Hmm... I've always been very fond of comics as a form of storytelling, and fan comics were in fact the phenomenon that originally got me into drawing fan art! Since then I've drawn several short comics and strips of my own whenever I've felt inspired, but a recurring dream of mine has been to some day come up with a longer graphic story of some sort. Which I actually have, a couple of times even, but I've always given up with them at some point. Making a good comic definitely isn't as easy as it may seem to some people, it requires a lot of courage, skill and determination, but I wish that someday I will come up with an idea that's worth to go through all those hardships.       

What is your favorite work?
A tough question, since the style, mood and technique of my work tends to variate quite a bit, so eventually it's kinda tricky to try and compare... However, there are 2 kinda similar pics for different fandoms that I'm still very happy with, even a little bit proud of: "All-nighter" (ALNM Note: see image above), a Fullmetal Alchemist illustration that I painted with indian ink during highschool, and a colored Supernatural piece "But I promise you this."  They're both very modest in a way, yet every time I see those pictures it just makes me think: that's it, that's essentially what I want to do.

What is one thing fandom doesn't know about you?
Many things, surely! Hmm... Well... I hate empty walls. Every wall that doesn't have something else to cover it (and most of the closet & cupboard doors) in me and my roommate's flat has been decorated in some way; posters, prints, pretty greeting/post cards, comics, stickers, pictures from old calendars... Nothing framed though, unfortunately, since there's nothing we could hang them on to.

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