What’s So Great About Doing Fanart?

One of the first blog posts I wrote was what I was going to create on this blog, which was mostly fan art and crafts. And recently I had the thought, “What makes it worth doing fan art?”

As a quick refresher, fan art is “artwork created by fans of a work of fiction(generally visual media such as comics, movies, television shows, or video games) and derived from a character or other aspect of that work,” according to wikipedia.

What makes this different from tracing/stealing art? Well, in the most basic way, when someone does fan art they reference what the fan art is based off of. Stealing art mainly involves claiming that the character idea or anything we draw from that fandom was your own creation.

This has been a thing that’s been going on for a long time now, though it wasn’t always termed as such. Whenever an artist created a drawing inspired by a play and wasn’t commission? That was fan art. (At least in my sense of the term.)

What are some of the perks to doing fan art?

• As an artist you can practice styles that aren’t similar to your own.
• Or you can practice creating your own style while making sure that the subject is recognizable. (Like what I did with the fan art in this blog post.)
• People will notice your artwork because it helps them relive the excitement of watching/reading whatever it is your fan art is based on.
• You can get inspired to create your own artwork based off a similar theme.

What are the cons to doing fan art?

• Depending on how similar of an art style you have to the original, people might claim that you just traced it.
• You have to remember to give credit to the original piece, otherwise it looks like you’re stealing the idea and claiming it as your own. (Note how mine has in the caption where it’s from.)
• If you only do fanart, you’ll have a hard time selling it. There are a lot of rules and laws that have to be upheld when it comes to selling fan art.
  • I’ve barely touched this as it gives me too much of a headache.

In the end, I think it’s worth it. You get to meet people who have similar interests as you when you do fan art. And honestly, fan art is what restarted my love of drawing and creating things.