Why Fan Art?
This blog entry won’t have the usual photos, to illustrate my point in pictures would risk infringing copyright.
What Is Fan Art?
Fan art is an artwork of an already established character painted or drawn in the artist’s style. The character is easily recognizable to audiences from video games, movies and other mass media. If you go to art conventions such as Comic Con, you will see artists selling Fan Art. It has become so common, that some conventions are either banning the practice or reducing the percentage of fan art you can sell.
Fan Art Is Illegal In Most Circumstances
Josh Wattles is a copyright attorney in America. If you search his name on Youtube with Fan art you will see a talk he gave at one of the conventions dealing with the legality of Fan Art, the Youtube link is here. There are clauses for parody, research and teaching. Otherwise it is illegal and if the IP owner sees fit, they can demand you or a website take down your work. If you start making good money from their IP, they are more likely to sue. Once in a while they target a small artist. Since the issue is so common, they would likely lose money going after everyone that infringes on their copyright. That is why so many people get away with it, but many people jay walk until a particular moment until they don’t and the penalty is steeper in this situation.
There is Legal Fan Art
Artists can legally make fan art is by asking the copyright holders permission and they may grant it for a fee. Some companies are happy to give you permission without any cost. Even Disney (who are known to be fiercely protective of their brand), Star Wars and Star Trek IP owners, have been known to give permission if your work is up to their standard and for a fee. There are artists making legal fan art.
But Why Do It?
Why are you improving someone else’s brand at your expense and risk? Or even with their permission with your time and labor? We all have it within us the spark of creativity and we are incredibly imaginative. This produces unique artworks. Using a well known character or world that you love is a great way to find your style. When you have, it is time to come up with your own characters and worlds.
Ideas For Coming Up With Characters and Worlds
There are many ways to get started. One way is to do the varies art prompt challenges such as Inktober or a daily prompt challenge. There are previous Art Station challenges to partake in. Each challenge deals with topics, such as the Wild West or Cyberpunk. You can see the previous winners and participants artworks. Will Terry an Illustrator has a few challenges such as draw fifty things. For instance he drew a toy store and each specific item can only be counted once. His video goes more in depth it can be found searching his name with #draw50things. If you wish to write a graphic novel or children’s book, write it before hand. A graphic novel is around one thousand words it isn’t a lot of words. Writing about your world will give you structure and inspire you to draw the characters you have been writing about. Find what you are interested in, learn the lore of that genre. You wouldn’t have Elder Scrolls without Tolkien or Star Wars without ancient mythologies. Challenge yourself, see where your imagination can take. Learn from what came before you and that will inspire you. Don’t rely on other people’s worlds, create your own unique world.
Additional content provided by Francesca Darcy, who gave me the idea of writing your stories before illustrating the characters and additional information Twitter @francesca_darcy
