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About Fanart & Original Artworks
Note: This began as a comment in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ani_bester's LJ but then I realized I wanted to expand it.
I've gotten an earful about this from some artist friends of mine time and time again, and I've also had long conversations with a few other artists who've gotten themselves "lectured" about their drawing habits in this debate one way or another. So here's my take, and their opinions, melded in to one thing. It's nothing pretty, really, and I know it's not going to change the world - but there's only so much criticism I can take before I have to lay my views out on the table (so to speak).
What is fanart? I feel that fanart is an expression of love for something - a concept, a character, a world, or simply an idea. From what other people have told me, and my feelings when I work on an original work, "original" artworks are expressions of love for the exact same sodding things. When I craft an idea, I am expressing my love for the world that character lives in, that character themselves, the concept behind that character, or the idea that the character represents. To my mind, true art is "art" because of what the artist themselves sees inside the picture as they're creating it - the audience can go hang.
But, oh, not everyone holds my notions as their own. I've been told that fanart is uncreative - because I didn't craft the world itself. Some people (a large chunk of artists in every sort of field, I've learned) feel that unless you are the original architect of the entire setting, design, and very rules of a universe, it is merely kicking up sand in a box. From what I've learned and thought of, the problem they have with fanart comes from playing in someone else's world and then finding it unsatisfactory for some reason or another. Since *they* found it unsatisfactory, they refuse to think that other people can take enjoyment from merely "kicking up someone else's sand" and think the entire world should be original endeavors.
More specifically, I think, people chide fanart from "popular" things (Harry Potter, Sailor Moon, Inu-Yasha, DragonBall - any number of things) because they think liking something popular isn't "creative" anymore. When Harry Potter wasn't the craze of the day, it'd have been slightly more acceptable to be a fanartist for that world - but now you should jump ship to the obscure, that way you constantly seem aloof.
Personally? You all can probably gather what I think of fanart - I love it. I love it the way you love your family - there are times you wish it'd burn into little pieces, there are times when everything's absolutely perfect in it, and then there's the rest of it all. For the most part, fanart is something that - no matter how shitty anything else is - I can take refuge with. It's a pastime where I can expand and experiment, an old friend I can call up and talk to for hours on end about nothing in particular.
I've been told that because I draw fanart, I'm not expanding my real skills and abilities. I've been told everything from "you're stagnating" to "you've only gotten worse" by people. For the moment, I'm going to thumb my nose at all of you, and explain the fascination I have with fanart and creating it: it allows me a world to play in. The world is one which has captured my fancy and struck some sort of vibrating chord in my soul - something inside that world, however small, resonates within my soul. Fanart is a relaxing garden I can kick my shoes and socks off in, one where I can look at the grass and redesign the gardens just to see what something different looks like.
I respect original works of art, original creations - I have quite a few of them lying about the place - so don't think for a moment that I hate them. I know a lot of people who might call fanart a cop-out, because you don't have to go through the efforts of creating it all by yourself. I've heard people say that fanart isn't creating and that it's merely replicating something, even if the medium you're doing it in is vastly different from the original form. The only true way to be an artist is to make your own worlds, your own characters, and play with them - then you're meeting your potential. Right?
Wrong, folks. Fanart is a place where some of the greatest manga-kas got their start - and they still draw fanart. CLAMP began as a group doing doujinshi and I discovered that Shishinden, my favourite doujinshi group, is made up of CLAMP artists. So CLAMP, one of the most famous female manga groups in Japan, draws *fanart* still, and got their start drawing fanart. If you're not in to anime or manga , then look at it like this - the great artists of the Western world learned by copying the works of the "masters" and then growing from those experiences.
I will state this firmly: there is nothing wrong with fanart. There is nothing "deficient" with artists who only draw fanart. There is nothing wrong with someone whose dream is to illustrate something from their favorite fandom. You may not like fanart - and that's your choice entirely - but I do. I like, adore, love, and support fanart. I will fight for fanartists and their rights, I will ignore you when you tell me I should give up my childish loves and more on to the "grown-up" world. And I ask that every fanartist do just one thing: be proud that you have the creativity to look in to someone else's world and make a replication of your vision.
And also, my fellow fanartists: ignore the people who tell you to "do something worthwhile" with your time instead of what you enjoy.
Note: This began as a comment in
ani_bester's LJ but then I realized I wanted to expand it.I've gotten an earful about this from some artist friends of mine time and time again, and I've also had long conversations with a few other artists who've gotten themselves "lectured" about their drawing habits in this debate one way or another. So here's my take, and their opinions, melded in to one thing. It's nothing pretty, really, and I know it's not going to change the world - but there's only so much criticism I can take before I have to lay my views out on the table (so to speak).
What is fanart? I feel that fanart is an expression of love for something - a concept, a character, a world, or simply an idea. From what other people have told me, and my feelings when I work on an original work, "original" artworks are expressions of love for the exact same sodding things. When I craft an idea, I am expressing my love for the world that character lives in, that character themselves, the concept behind that character, or the idea that the character represents. To my mind, true art is "art" because of what the artist themselves sees inside the picture as they're creating it - the audience can go hang.
But, oh, not everyone holds my notions as their own. I've been told that fanart is uncreative - because I didn't craft the world itself. Some people (a large chunk of artists in every sort of field, I've learned) feel that unless you are the original architect of the entire setting, design, and very rules of a universe, it is merely kicking up sand in a box. From what I've learned and thought of, the problem they have with fanart comes from playing in someone else's world and then finding it unsatisfactory for some reason or another. Since *they* found it unsatisfactory, they refuse to think that other people can take enjoyment from merely "kicking up someone else's sand" and think the entire world should be original endeavors.
More specifically, I think, people chide fanart from "popular" things (Harry Potter, Sailor Moon, Inu-Yasha, DragonBall - any number of things) because they think liking something popular isn't "creative" anymore. When Harry Potter wasn't the craze of the day, it'd have been slightly more acceptable to be a fanartist for that world - but now you should jump ship to the obscure, that way you constantly seem aloof.
Personally? You all can probably gather what I think of fanart - I love it. I love it the way you love your family - there are times you wish it'd burn into little pieces, there are times when everything's absolutely perfect in it, and then there's the rest of it all. For the most part, fanart is something that - no matter how shitty anything else is - I can take refuge with. It's a pastime where I can expand and experiment, an old friend I can call up and talk to for hours on end about nothing in particular.
I've been told that because I draw fanart, I'm not expanding my real skills and abilities. I've been told everything from "you're stagnating" to "you've only gotten worse" by people. For the moment, I'm going to thumb my nose at all of you, and explain the fascination I have with fanart and creating it: it allows me a world to play in. The world is one which has captured my fancy and struck some sort of vibrating chord in my soul - something inside that world, however small, resonates within my soul. Fanart is a relaxing garden I can kick my shoes and socks off in, one where I can look at the grass and redesign the gardens just to see what something different looks like.
I respect original works of art, original creations - I have quite a few of them lying about the place - so don't think for a moment that I hate them. I know a lot of people who might call fanart a cop-out, because you don't have to go through the efforts of creating it all by yourself. I've heard people say that fanart isn't creating and that it's merely replicating something, even if the medium you're doing it in is vastly different from the original form. The only true way to be an artist is to make your own worlds, your own characters, and play with them - then you're meeting your potential. Right?
Wrong, folks. Fanart is a place where some of the greatest manga-kas got their start - and they still draw fanart. CLAMP began as a group doing doujinshi and I discovered that Shishinden, my favourite doujinshi group, is made up of CLAMP artists. So CLAMP, one of the most famous female manga groups in Japan, draws *fanart* still, and got their start drawing fanart. If you're not in to anime or manga , then look at it like this - the great artists of the Western world learned by copying the works of the "masters" and then growing from those experiences.
I will state this firmly: there is nothing wrong with fanart. There is nothing "deficient" with artists who only draw fanart. There is nothing wrong with someone whose dream is to illustrate something from their favorite fandom. You may not like fanart - and that's your choice entirely - but I do. I like, adore, love, and support fanart. I will fight for fanartists and their rights, I will ignore you when you tell me I should give up my childish loves and more on to the "grown-up" world. And I ask that every fanartist do just one thing: be proud that you have the creativity to look in to someone else's world and make a replication of your vision.
And also, my fellow fanartists: ignore the people who tell you to "do something worthwhile" with your time instead of what you enjoy.
