Fan Art

Fanart is amateur art created by anyone for a genre or subject of the creator's choice. There is no limit to the kinds of art that fans can produce. In recent years, it's become popular for artists to create photo edits out of screen caps of a favored character or romantic pairing and overlay or pair those pictures with song lyrics or poetry that is also written by fans - though the quotes can also come from popular songs, the original work itself, published literature, or other works of fanfiction.

Other kinds of art include videos that feature clips of the character or actors that fans have "fancast" as the character within their own fan community, paintings, t-shirts, various kinds of digital art, sculptures, or even full-on comics (in many circles, this is often referred to as "dojinshi," particularly by fans of Japanese anime or manga).

Perhaps the most popular websites on which fans post their art are spaces like Tumblr or DeviantArt - primarily image-based microblogging platforms that allow creators to move within carefully selected circles of other fans and minimize the risk of original-work creators mistaking fan art for a copyright violation.

The most prevalent conflicts between fan artists seems to be the struggle to prevent others from claiming rights to art that they created - often, art is reposted without credit by bloggers who want to present themselves as fandom authorities purely for the vindication that comes with gaining a following - and finding a balance between the art they create and commissions which many fan artists do for their followers. The most common method that I found as I researched fan artists was to offer commissions of different levels (often separated by level of completion, from sketch to line art to colored piece) for money. However, because a good deal of the fan artist's hobby is preoccupied with avoiding copyright violation, many will offer commissioned artwork as a bonus for a user's donation to said artist's Kofi or Patreon account.

Another debate that occurs is whether or not one can call fan art "real art," or art that should be respected by "career artists." Again, this is a highly subjective discussion in fan communities, and one that I admit to being biased against. Having seen many beautifully composed pieces of fan art, I argue that any work of art has merit. Much like the discussion regarding fanfiction, many classical works of art such as Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" draw inspiration from the Bible, and so by definition could be categorized as a "fan" work as they were created in honor of one "original" work.

Fan art can also take the form of costumes worn to comic conventions, a practice in which fans dress up as their favorite character from a work - often spending tens of hours and hundreds of dollars to create the perfect version of what they believe a character looks like.

Some fan art has been acknowledged by creators. In some cases, creators admit to having been inspired by the work of fans that are brought to comic conventions for actors to sign. In this video actor Jensen Ackles, who appears on the television show Supernatural - one of the "big three" fandoms, so to speak - tells a story of a portrait that was created of his face out of skittles by fans for the charity Random Acts, which was founded by Ackles' costar Misha Collins. This is one way that fan art is being used in the real world.

The community of fan artists take their work very seriously - as well they should. Fan art is an important part of the fan community and is a great way for artists to show their love of a particular subject.

#fandom #fanart