[ SECRET POST #5412 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5412 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 39 secrets from Secret Submission Post #775.
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.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/7oj7UwK.png

[(Anonymous)]

I've definitely softened on fan art. I try to reblog everything
for my interests with a comment about why I like it.

But I also don't mind if people choose to protect themselves from scrutiny while they work on new skills.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm all for people posting whatever art they want. But I'm just not going to be looking at it or reblogging if I don't like the style. I'm just more picky about art than fic. Honestly I don't really care much about real life art either (other than sculptures and other three-dimensional art). With fic, even a bad one will usually give me a little something. Art just is or it isn't enjoyable to me, there is no middle ground.

[(Anonymous)]

Same, honestly. I'm a very visual person and if I don't like the aesthetic of something (and there's plenty of technically excellent art where I just don't like the style) then I don't want to look at it.

[(Anonymous)]

With someone's first fic, it'll still have a unique (?) story so that's something new you haven't seen before at least, even if the quality isn't amazing. I think a lot of first art is basically headshots or redraws which aren't anything new...

[(Anonymous)]

DA - I think it's also just a limitation of the medium. Let's say a fic is like a movie. So maybe the dialogue is clunky and the special effects are cheesy, but the chemistry between the main characters is good and that one explosion sequence near the end is really cool, so it's worth sitting through even if you wouldn't recommend it without a caveat. Art's a single frame from that movie, and if it's a close-up of the bad CG monster or that one moment of cringe dialogue that made your soul leave your body, you're not going to walk away happy even if you know that there's potential there.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I'm a bit kinder to more amateur fanart than fanart I don't like the style of

[(Anonymous)]

Well, everyone has to start somewhere, and fandom can be very inspiring.

...but if you ask no i did not definitely have a DeviantArt gallery full of earnest anime fan arts doodled during class, no!

[pantswarrior]

Yup. I've mentioned in the past that I used to run a fan art column and it was so cool seeing people submitting stuff for the first time that maybe wasn't great... but then they kept submitting stuff and you could watch it get better and better as time passed.

Also, literal "baby's" first fan art. I remember when Nintendo Power used to publish pictures of envelopes they received along with the letters column, and you'd have stuff like a Mario level covering the entire envelope, clearly drawn with crayon by someone who was maybe 6, but they got so much stuff in there and you could tell they really wanted to make it awesome.

[(Anonymous)]

I wasn't that young, but I was about 14 when I sent in my fanart to Nintendo Power. They did publish it and like yeah, it's my artwork from decades and decades back, but Little Me was so proud and I'm still ecstatic that happened to me.

[pantswarrior]

Sweeeet! Congratulations - I probably have a copy of the issue somewhere, hahah.

I don't know why I never even tried. Maybe because I didn't know what to write in the actual letter. :D

[(Anonymous)]

As well you should be :D! That's so cool!

[(Anonymous)]

I've never been comfortable about the mockery that fanart drawn by clearly young/inexperienced artists gets. It's so mean spirited. I can't imagine posting that online.

I can get mocking art drawn by someone who puts others down for theirs or by people who claim to be experts or are arrogant about their drawing skill

But making fun of young/new artists? That's just bullying.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

[(Anonymous)]

mte. Baby fanartists always get roasted and chased out on any platform I’ve seen them. This secret clearly means well but when I first started reading it I expected OP to blast anyone for trying to put a stop to the constant bullying.

[(Anonymous)]

there's usually two problems that make it difficult, though. One, it's increasingly difficult to differentiate between someone who is a brand-new artist vs someone who's been posting the same shit for decades unless they actually say so. Two, regardless of the skill level, there are artists (and writers, and meta-providers, and memers, and RPers, and cosplayers) who are so addicted to attention that if they don't get enough attention for something they post, they start whinging about why people don't like their shit and you just don't have the heart to say "because it's not very good."

I'm no saying it's required for newbies picking up a thing to openly remind everyone that they're new to this and please be gentle every time they post, but I absolutely would get behind people having a little more self-awareness and humility. That goes for consumers as well; if someone has put out a piece of fandom content and not asked for critique, do not openly critique. Consume to whatever level is best for you, but the easiest way to not bully anyone over their art/fic/whatever is to keep your goddamn mouth shut unless they've specifically asked for advice to improve.

[(Anonymous)]

No to mockery/bullying. But also I mute and block artists with low-quality fanart and styles I don't like. I am glad people are learning new skills, it's really cool. Still I don't want seeing this fanarts, I am not a teacher.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree, but it still frustrates me when you then get really crappy art (like 2D floating people with no apparent fingers) in an exchange. They should post all they like on their own tumblrs or fandom platforms, fans shouldn't bully new artists, but it's fine to block quietly if you want.

Comparing fanart to fic

[(Anonymous)]

I’m not really into fanart, do you think “baby’s first fanart” gets more flak than “baby’s first fic”?

Re: Comparing fanart to fic

[(Anonymous)]

I suspect 'baby's first fic' tends to get more flack while 'baby's first fanart' is more likely to just be ignored entirely. Like the whole Mary Sue hate thing that was big some years back, and what are Mary Sue fics if not 'baby's first fic'? I feel like people are more likely to click on a newbie's fic (especially if the summary sounds legitimately interesting) and then be annoyed when it sucks, while bad fanart is more often just scrolled past and ignored unless the artist either starts flooding the fandom with art or they start throwing a fit about being ignored.

Re: Comparing fanart to fic

[(Anonymous)]

It's also a matter of the time people invest in looking at it. Reading even a short fic tends to take longer than just taking a glance at fanart, and if it sucks, people can feel kind of weirdly betrayed by having wasted even a fraction of their time.

Re: Comparing fanart to fic

[(Anonymous)]

I'd say so. People interacting with fanfic is typically going to be other fanfic enjoyers/writers. People interacting with fanart tends to also include non-fandom people and internet bros looking for something they can mock.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's good to normalize not bullying people for their art or not giving concrit when it wasn't asked for, but I also think people are under no obligation to praise/like/reblog art that isn't very good and that they don't really like, just because the artist is new. And if an artist is going to enter any kind of exchange/big bang/zine etc. I think it's perfectly fair to expect a certain level of quality. There's room to learn and new artists should be encouraged but I also don't think they need to be coddled (and at some point they should start learning and improving, I've been in fandoms where one artist is constantly complaining about not getting any attention but they've been drawing the same shitty MS Paint drawings for years at this point. If you want attention in fandom improve enough that people will want to reblog your stuff).

[(Anonymous)]

I get zines limiting their participants since physical products means limited space but is it fair to put a quality bar for exchanges/big bangs? I wouldn't know how to judge that, but at the same time I feel bad if a fantastic and experienced fic author got paired with a newbie artist...

[(Anonymous)]

That's really the issue with exchanges/big bangs, because it would suck to spend a ton of time writing a long, immersive fic only to be paired with an artist whose art is half-traced official art badly scanned on regular paper and colored in crayon, especially if all the other fics got really nice looking art. Same with exchanges, I feel like it would be unfair for one artist to draw this lovely detailed piece and get shaky MS Paint art in return. It might suck for new artists but they're just not skilled enough to handle that sort of thing (and I would feel the same with fics, a newbie fic writer with poor grammar and bad plotting entering a big bang and paired with an experienced fanartist wouldn't really be fair either).