fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5823 ]

[ SECRET POST #5823 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5823 ⌋

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

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 10 secrets from Secret Submission Post #833.
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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So there's an artist in my fandom who has a decent-sized following. For the most part, she draws two characters who are part of an M/F ship -- sometimes alone, sometimes together. A few months ago, she was drawing them both fairly realistically (except that the female half was smiling a bit more than I'd like, but that's a minor quibble and totally down to my personal preference). But over time, something strange has happened: first, the woman has gradually morphed into an anime-like character, while the man has remained realistic. Her rationale for this is that his actor is Mexican, and therefore it would be wrong of her to draw him any other way; whereas the woman's actor is white, which makes it less problematic to stylize her.

Second, and more importantly, the woman has shrunk. Like, a lot. So much so that a chunk of fandom thinks she now looks like a child, as does everyone to whom I've shown the artwork (which I did to make sure I wasn't going crazy). The response from those who didn't know the characters was, "is that a little girl with her father?" According to the artist, this is because she has now deeply studied the proportions of the actors, and her quest to depict them as accurately as possible has led to her settling on these new sizes.

Her most recent drawing has the woman sitting on a counter, with her legs wrapped around the man -- or, at least, she's trying to wrap her legs around the man. She is now so small and short, and he is so huge, that they don't quite make it; her heels hang uselessly just past his sides. It looks like a dwarf canoodling with a giant.

In real life, the woman is 5'3, the man is 5'10, and they're both built similarly: thin, with some wiry muscle. There's a height difference, sure, but he's not so much bigger than her that she wouldn't be able to wrap her legs around him. The artist used to draw them in a way that reflected this difference. It's been very odd to watch her exaggerate it (while turning the woman into an anime character), and then claim that the exaggeration is more true-to-life than her old work. It's also kind of a shame, because her new drawings are so jarring to me that I no longer look forward to new pieces from her (nor do those who feel as I do). She's still got a core of ardent followers, though, so at least she and they remain happy.

Share tales of witnessing similar things in your own fandom, if you have them -- artists (or writers) moving in a direction that strikes you or others as bizarre!

Not exactly what you're talking about, but I was once in the middle of an ongoing multi-chapter fic when the writer apparently got sick of writing it. She put a big note in the middle saying "This has no plot! Why hasn't anybody even noticed that this has no plot!" (It was a romance and I wasn't reading it for the plot, just for the characters falling in love. And it did have a plot in the sense of "interesting stuff happening.") She went on to imply that she thought the fic was so bad the readers were stupid to continue to read it. So I didn't. Eventually she finished it but I didn't care. I talked to at least one other person who was reading it who said they decided to finish it but the note really bothered them too.

I haven't seen this art you're talking about but that does sound weird to me. I can see why you don't want to see her stuff anymore.

Edited 2022-12-16 00:55 (UTC)

SA

That's...so strange! I wonder what was going on with her to make her feel so hostile toward her own work and readers?

Wow, insulting one's readers as a way to address one's lack of confidence (or whatever she was doing), great idea!

I was expecting you to say the author abandoned the fic or something, which is disappointing but hardly a felony, but just insulting all the readers randomly? Wtf?

A fanartist I followed moved from mostly drawing the lead of the show, to drawing a side-character who ended up as their fave. Totally fair, nothing wrong with that and I kept following them because I liked their art in general and even though I didn't like side-character-D as much as they did, or the D/OC ship they made up for their fandom enjoyment. I'm not gonna tell people how to fan.

But one day a week or so ago they went on a massive like 20-tweet tirade about how the fandom was 'so unwelcoming' for them and how 'bullied' they were because... other people didn't care as much about their fave or their D/OC ship. They were mad that the rest of the fandom was into the canon A/B ship and not fawning all over their fave and their non-canon doesn't-exist-in-the-narrative-ship as if everyone was personally attacking them for not being interested.

I ended up unfollowing and muting them because they just kept doubling down when people pointed out that: the fandom is small, most people will be there for the main pair, but this was apparently 'harassment', which, alright. I've got no time for people with that lvl of Main Character energy tbh, lol.

Oh jesus christ I'm so sorry for the triple spam, I just hit post once!

Happened to someone else earlier this week. I don't know what's causing the bug, nonny.

SA

I get how they were probably feeling; it sucks when people aren't engaging with your work, especially if they once did. But, man, if you're creating niche or self-indulgent art, you've gotta expect there will be fewer people into it, and it doesn't mean you're being "attacked." People are allowed to not like things!

Yeah I can understand feeling lonely and looking at the fans of A/B and wishing they could have the same attention... but like you said: if you're making content for a niche ship you can't expect the same numbers, it just won't happen no matter how hard you work. I'm sympathetic in that respect because I've written for tiny or dead ships before now, but I'd never claim that other fans were stupid or attacking me for simply not being interested. Sometimes you just get unlucky with your fandom fixation.

I've written niche ships and minor characters for most of my fandom life. I just accept that the readership will be small. And I'm grateful to get the readers I do get. Just the other day someone read some of my very old fic for one of the small pairings I used to write and told me they're making fanart for the couple. It made me so happy.

Ah that’s so nice that someone is inspired by your work!

I’ve got a fic for a dead fandom that I never thought would get to 10 kudos since the ship was super unpopular even when it was active, and it recently hit 40 which I am so surprised and delighted by. :)

IMO, sounds like artist has a fetish and is trying to justify it with bullshit.

+1

definitely some kind of fetish

That is weird, anon. Like really weird.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #5823 ]

The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work

Re: The strange evolution of a fan artist's work