fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3307 ]

[ SECRET POST #3307 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3307 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 078 secrets from Secret Submission Post #473.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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This is like the only place I hangout with fic writers, so I figured I'd ask.

Couple of things to consider, but all thoughts are game and you don't have to respond to all of them either:
Any prevalent attitudes that you dislike and see from fanartists?
Do you feel like fanartists as a whole get more or less attention than ficwriters?
How do you feel about people making a profit from fanart?
Any art trends that you dislike?
What kinds of things would like to see more of from fanartists?

Fanartists draw for fun, much like fic writers I assume. So... fuck you you entitled douchecanoe.

What about those questions prompted that response?

Everything.

As you're a writer, insert 'fic writer' in there and see how rude your questions sound.

But I'm a fanartist.

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-23 22:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-23 22:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-23 22:39 (UTC) - Expand

I love fanartists and fanart, though I do kind of hate that their contribution to fandom is seen as more legitimate or less worthy of ridicule. And, yeah, it's kind of annoying that it's widely accepted that fanartists can take on commissions, but fic writers can't. I mean, I'm no expert on copyright laws, but you're telling me it's okay to draw someone else's character for a small profit, but it's not okay to write a short fic about them for a small profit for your time and effort as long as you aren't commercially selling the work and claiming the characters as your own? (And I see people selling fanart of characters on places like Redbubble all the time.)

Basically this.

To add on, I feel fine if fanartists take on commissions for original works, but I really don't feel cool about them earning money on copyrighted works. (This of course goes for fanwriters too, but that doesn't really happen I feel) Hell, I've even seen at least one girl take marginally edited screens from Disney movies and selling them, claiming them to be fanart.

Yeah I agree with this. The way I see it, it's not about hurting the creators, it's about the fact that you're making profit off of somebody else's intellectual property that bothers me. Even if that doesn't bother people, I still don't see why it's more acceptable to accept money for fanart but not for fanfic. Alright, a lot of supplies can go into fanart, but fanfic can take loads more time, and what's more, fanart is usually a hobby. Getting other people to support your hobby is just not on in my opinion.

I'm more okay with it if the costs strictly cover materials and printing, but that doesn't cost 20 bucks per piece and most things are all digital.

Fanartists guilty people into reblogging their shit or commissioning them.

More attention, definitely. People more casual about their interests might share fanart, but doubt many non-fans read fanfic.

Don't really care, copyright is messed up pretty bad anyway. I might understand for indie stuff, but anything rolling in the dough isn't missing that money all that bad.

Nothing really sticks out.

More stuff involving the world of whatever they're about. A lot fanartist just draw a character and call it a day.

Any prevalent attitudes that you dislike and see from fanartists?

The guilting people into giving them attention/feedback thing someone else mentioned. It's annoying when writers or anyone does it, really.

Do you feel like fanartists as a whole get more or less attention than ficwriters?

I used to think they got more, based on amounts of notes/feedback, but when I consider the amount of time that goes into fic versus art for me, it seems like fanartists are the ones getting the shaft.

How do you feel about people making a profit from fanart?

I'm alright with it. With a few exceptions, it's hard to see how selling fanart could hurt a franchise, and there are many ways it can help.

Any art trends that you dislike?

Tumblr art style.

but when I consider the amount of time that goes into fic versus art for me, it seems like fanartists are the ones getting the shaft.

What do you mean by this? Because I spend hours and hours brainstorming an idea, reviewing canon for canon correctness and in character-ness of my characters, then writing the fic, editing the fic (and most my fics are just 5k and shorter) for, less than 100 kudos and maybe a few comments. I know that's truth for other writers as well.

It takes me half an hour to an hour to pump out 1,000 of words. One of my fics is only 1700 words long, and it has a little over 150 kudos and about a dozen comments. On Tumblr it has about 70 notes. I am a total seat-of-the-pants writer when it comes to fanfic and only do minimal editing.

By contrast even my most minimal/basic fanart takes at least 8 hours of work, and may get no comment-type feedback whatsoever. Proportionately, based on time-inputted, it does not get as much feedback.

Okay, but that's you...? It certainly takes me and plenty of other writers I know considerably more time to "pump" out 1k words for considerably less feedback. Your experience sounds atypical, to be honest, unless you are writing for a large fandom and a popular pairing.

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

blitzwing - 2016-01-23 23:00 (UTC) - Expand

I'd say that's pretty much just your experience though. I mean, you can't compare a 1k oneshot to a hand-painted picture anymore than you can compare a 100k epic to a scribble done in under an hour.

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

blitzwing - 2016-01-23 23:03 (UTC) - Expand

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-24 00:51 (UTC) - Expand

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

blitzwing - 2016-01-24 01:03 (UTC) - Expand

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-23 22:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

blitzwing - 2016-01-23 23:05 (UTC) - Expand

I do think fanartists get less attention. I also think people can be extremely nasty to fanartists.

I see no reason for people not to make a profit off their talent. If someone is willing to pay money for their story to be illustrated, or their favorite character rendered a cerain way - why not?

I really do wish, however, that there was less art that consists of a random Googled background and pasted-in, marginally Photoshopped headshots of characters. I just...don't find that kind of thing terribly aesthetic or inspiring.

I do think fanartists get less attention. I also think people can be extremely nasty to fanartists.

Both of these points, I agree with. From my observations over the years, fan artists only really get major attention if they do mashups (Brian Kesinger's recent riff on Calvin and Hobbes with Kylo Ren comes to mind), unoriginal nerd shirt designs, so-called "edgy" or "progessive" takes on stuff like Disney (especially the Disney Princesses. People will eat that shit up like crazy even if it's been done to death at this point), or super popular flavor of the month stuff.

And yeah, people can be nasty to them. It's one thing to not like the style or whatever of an artist. That's perfectly fine: art is subjective and I didn't draw fan art to get attention from people. And I'm not one of those artists who has tissue-thin skin when it comes to concrit, either. But when other fans start ripping into artists for not drawing said popular/fandom favorite stuff, or so-called "problematic" ships/characters, or even little minor details that were overlooked completely unintentionally? That's where I draw the line from legitimate concrit into bullying/nasty territory.

The biggest example of this in recent years is the Zamii debacle from the Steven Universe fandom. Whether or not Zamii was in the wrong with some of the stuff she drew is irrelevant at this point now, the fact that some young shitheel punks on the internet drove a girl to attempt suicide and harassed the show's crew over goddamn fan art was the last straw for me. I decided to stop drawing fan art in general after that to focus on my own characters and stories, and frankly, I've never been happier or more creatively free than I am these days.

Yeah, that's just grotesque. I hate that kind of mob mentality.

Good on you, for doing what makes you happy. Good luck!

Re: How do you feel about fanartists?

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-24 05:24 (UTC) - Expand

Any prevalent attitudes that you dislike and see from fanartists?

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but I dislike when fanartists expect to be able to keep their work from getting pinned to Pinterest. Pinterest is a thing, and as long as it's a thing, people ARE going to pin images they like to their boards. There's just no stopping them. If people are pinning a fanartist's art and not providing a source link, that really sucks, but fighting a war to keep your stuff off Pinterest at all is just a pointless and losing battle.

Do you feel like fanartists as a whole get more or less attention than ficwriters?

Maybe a different kind of attention? It seems like it's kind of an intensity vs. quantity thing, with fanartists getting more praise, but less intense, worshipful praise than fic writers get.

How do you feel about people making a profit from fanart?

Very conflicted. I genuinely want people to be able to make money through their artwork, and I don't begrudge anyone for doing so. But at the same time I'm not 100% clear on the legality of it. And I'm generally against people making money off of their fanfic (unless it's different enough from the canonical text that they are able to PTP it). So it seems a bit inconsistent, for me to be okay with people making money off their fanart but not off their fanfic. I don't know. My opinion on this is not dead set either way.

Any art trends that you dislike?

I really dislike when fanartists trace from another image without saying so, or heavily reference another image without providing the image they used as reference.

I also really dislike digital paintings that are essentially just painted over a pre-existing picture. I realize that digital painting is difficult and is not just about letting the computer do the work. But I just don't feel like I'm seeing original work when I see those kinds of digital paintings. I mostly find them boring and lifeless.

What kinds of things would like to see more of from fanartists?

Almost all of my favorite pieces of fanart are pieces that were drawn/painted/sketched on real paper or canvas with tangible materials. I would like to see non-digital art remain at least as popular, if not more popular, than it is now. (I suspect I'm unlikely to get my wish on this one.)

Mind sharing a couple of your favorite pieces?

Sure, but it's all going to be Sherlock, because that's about 90% of the fanart I keep track of.

Well, I'm a big fan of sketched fanart, which probably influences my love of hand-drawn art. Because I feel like fanartists are more likely to do loose sketches by hand than digitally. So I really love stuff like this:

http://esiuolaram.tumblr.com/tagged/sherlock (the top few pieces)

http://voodooling.tumblr.com/post/47113342386/another-lazy-doodle-print-available-here

http://maskedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/17196950928/head-canon-john-can-tolerate-tripping-over-the#notes

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/39/57/0d/39570d7f0984a697b71f838393b86a0c.jpg

When it comes to more polished stuff, my preference for hand drawn is less of a constant, and I often find I like pieces that have a strong basis in hand-drawn with some digital to fill them out:

http://chunkymacaroni.deviantart.com/art/Fanarting-Fanart-322036850

http://toerning.deviantart.com/art/A-No-Patch-Kind-Of-Day-283486346

https://www.behance.net/gallery/fame-frame/4400557

And then there's stuff that's impressive mainly because it's done entirely freehand, such as everything by naturalshocks (let's see if this link works):

https://www.pinterest.com/search/my_pins/?q=naturalshocks&rs=typed&term_meta%5B%5D=naturalshocks%7Ctyped&remove_refine=copic%7Ctyped

I think fanartist get less credit than fanwritters. Like literally. People will hijack a picture and post it some place else without giving credit or will say they drew it.

Fanfic doesn't get plagiarized that I noticed, and doesn't seem to be copy /pasted.

Fanfic gets hijacked. ebooks-tree was taking a bunch of fic and posting it on their website without author permission back in April.

Plagarism happens too. https://www.fanfiction.net/forum/The-Anti-Plagiarism-Investigation-Reports/124913/

SA

The two main differences are a) on tumblr/pinterest it's easier to post pics and link fic. b) people steal fanart for profit

Any prevalent attitudes that you dislike and see from fanartists?

In general, just people who seem to think that they're above everyone, especially when it comes to critique. And when they get defensive over said critique.

Do you feel like fanartists as a whole get more or less attention than ficwriters?

I definitely feel like fanartists get a lot more attention than ficwriters do. But I guess that's because you only need to glance at a fanart, rather than take the time and effort to read a fanfic. So it's easier/faster for someone to go through a bunch of pictures and consider them good work.

How do you feel about people making a profit from fanart?

It doesn't bother me that much, I personally commission artists on a pretty regular basis.

Any art trends that you dislike?

Patreon. I can't stand Patreon. I don't want to pay what comes down to a subscription fee for someone's art, especially if it's going to be stuff that I don't necessarily want to see. If I really, really like the artist and their style, then maybe I'd consider supporting them.

What kinds of things would like to see more of from fanartists?

More of the fanart that I want to see, haha.

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