Fanart or original?

This is something that bugs me and I know it bugs alot of people on Deviant art etc...

Fanart- sure, its pictures of characters we all know and love, and means more to the veiwer seeing it, but is it really appreciated more than origanal art?

This one is hard to ask about- I myself love fanart- to see other people's interpretations. In saying this, I don't give much time to direct copys unless it has been changed enough. I do fanart a heap mysefl, but going around the net, does artists that primarily do original art (such as myself) not get the attention they may get if they primarily do fanart? I mean.... how do I say this....

Does people here rather look at / fav a picture that is ok but a fanart of their favourite character, or fav a great drawing of someone that may not even be beutiful, but a great pic to look at? See, this concerns me, cause I notice that my fanart of popular animes etc... get heaps of attention, but not my Dragon Twins art. Is my art not desirable enough, or is people just not interested?

Does anyone else have this problem too? See, this is a tough subject, cause I'm not dissing anyone that primarily draws fanart and not origanal stuff. I'd do only fanart if I didn't also write.

I guess I want to know if people look only at the subject of a picture, or the passion. Niether is a bad thing to do. I start off saying that I prefure Origanal to fanart, simply cause I appreciate the time put into creating a character, the life and personality, and the fact that you can deside what that person is like. It's alot more freestyle to me, and I appreciate it more.

How about you?

NOTE- I am not expecting any sort of flaming here. If a persona likes fanart or origanal art more, then it is up to them.

I enjoy fan art - especially when the artist takes the time to re-invent the characters they love.  Like Susie - she makes Link and Vegeta look so awesome.

However, at this point in my life I'm searching for striking originals.  I think it's because I have turned my artisitc efforts to my own originals.  So I'm looking for others with the same goals.  I didn't realize you felt that way about your originals.  Hmmm... I suppose we share the same concern then.  ^_^

Most of my fan art get's more attention too. 

 

I think one reason to consider here is that people are activily looking for fanart. They go to the search bar on DA and type in "Vegeta" because they want to see Vegeta. No one is going to type in and search for "Original." So that right there is a reason why your fanarts get more exposure.

I think the Original stuff gets attention when you are on someone's watchlist or when people are looking at the newest art posted. I like both Fanart and Original. I don't really know if I like one more than the other.

Sadly yes which SUCKS

Fanart is always better Recieved than Original art and I am in the minority... I specifically LOOK for original artists.

If I post a Fanart Commission it gets 37 favs in the first hour
I can post an Original Peice I spent weeks working on and it gets no hits and no faves.

Happens every time hon. A sad fact of life, people want fanart and don't look twice at original art. (Because they didn't see it on Toonami! it sucks)

I feel for you, I'm always in the same boat. No love for the really creative people out there, but if you can copy someone else's originals OMG YOU'RE SO COOOL!!!!!11111oneoneone WOW! Liek Fav it all in your gallery man!!1111one DUO IS SO KEWL!!!

*annoying topic for me can you tell?

*sigh*        

I think fablespinner said all I felt inside and would have said... so I second her post...

I prefer original art... And I draw like 90 percent of the time original art... I don't mind fanart, especially if its well done... but it does irk me when its like a subpar piece of fanart and it gets more attention than a well done piece of an original character...

but people are people... and people go to what they know... saddly.

Ahhh- I thougt as much... See, its a bit hard to say that you want to serch for origanals- I agree. It would be great to have more sites about this size ish so that people can see more origanal art about the place- I know that Deviant art have clubs specifically to promote origanal art, but they always get drowned out by the mass entries of good and bad art.

It's kinda depressing, but if oyu love art enough, I guess its tolerable

*grin*  Well, you should know that I prefer originals, since I've only drawn two fanart pieces in my life, and both were done yesterday.  lol!

In other words, I haven't noticed any difference in attention between my originals and my fanart, but I'm not one to say.

I prefer originals because I generally see in them much more soul and personal inclusion than I see in character recreations.  But hey - that's just me.

(I don't go searching for fanart, either.  I search for originals by subject matter, generally).

What are they fanarts of? My Green LAntern fanarts get a little attention, but my DBZ stuff got HEAPS even though it's crap in comparision to what I could do. One girl forced me to ink a sketch of mine so she could colour it cause she desperatly wanted to see it in colour, and I refused to colour it (pictures have a used by date- when the passion is gone for it, I stop and don't bother going back unless it comes back) It's all about what is in the pic. Seriously- my chick pics get twice the favs on Deviantart than my guys do- and I draw 99% men ^^;

Fan art does recive more attention (and I hate to sound awful, but it's a great way to piggyback your original art if you're new to a gallery-- forget I said that!).  

Original character art, though, can get lots of attention if the story around the character is attenton grabbing, it has a cool style, or the character themselves is just good bait.  But, in the end, fan art tends to prevail.

I used to draw a lot of fan art, and I know people who, all they just draw is fan art (or fan characters) and get LOTS of attention.  I stopped doing this compulsively just because I'm tired and I have original characters I wanted to further develop and themes I liked playing with.

Now, if I draw a character that isn't mine, it's usually another artist's character I just draw for them, for fun (like in an art trade or something- WHICH I AM ALWAYS OPEN TO HINT HINT! ), but right now, I want to focus on originals...

...annnd since I started doing that, my DevArt gallery hits went down. But I don't mind. I love making original art, and I love looking for original art. Fan art is there, yes, but original characters let me know the developer behind that character, too.  It really gives me insight on their style and what story they're going to tell me.   I love reading original character biographies, too!  I don't know why I do.

It's more "fresh."

My personal feeling on this is that we are not putting our work up to be judged.  I feel that galleries on PD or DA are not meant to be a competition to get a massive amount of hits.  Sure, it's nice to know that people are looking at your art and maybe commenting on it, but that's not the point.

I know that some of you are trying to make a career out of art, and so hits do matter, but I feel that for most of us, we just create art - whether it is fanart or original artwork - to express ourselves and show it to the world.

I've found that creating fanart can be a source of immediate inspiration, but now I've been moving towards original art.  And either way, I don't care if it generates few hits or comments.

On Mar 11, 2006 11:05 am, Qcvar said:


I know what you're saying- Once discovered, origanal art does get a much beter rep, but I know that I don't draw for page veiws. In fact, most of the time I miss the 1K or 10K flick of the counter. It can easily be acheived by refreshing a page- I know people that make programmes for that so that google picks then up first.

Me personally- in DA, if someone sticks around, then that's what I want. Not a fly by "I'll fav your work cause it has blah person in it"

I sometimes get a litttle bitter though. ^^; I'm such an grumpy child ^^ :3

It's sad, but the majority of people tend to respect fanart more because it is 'familiar ground'. And because they KNOW it, it would appeal to them more.

it is kind of what happens when you draw fanart based on music. If you were to draw a popular band, like Linkin Park, you'd get tons of feedback, while the fanart based on something underground is ignored. It DOSN'T matter how well drawn it is, if people know it, they'll like it more.

It's sad really..but it's truth..

As for me, I like to look at fanart,  but looking at originals is just more interesting. It's good to see people with creativity creating characters with stories...

The one thing that bothers me with fanart on artsites is that if a picture of a character is COPIED exactly as it looks originally, it gets like 60+ favorites. I mean, come one..it's copied for pete's sake! Where is the creativity in that?

On Mar 11, 2006 9:03 pm, Azzy said:


That bothers me a litle too, but only cause they can't technically call it their own art, cause it's using someone else's style. I actually really appreciate seeing a fanart done in the person's own style. It's just sad that reckonision doesn't get given to the same artist's origanal stuff

On Mar 11, 2006 9:21 pm, arkillian said:

Yeah, I get what you mean. Fanart in a person's own style is actually fun to look at! I don't mind if someone copies a picture for practice, but taking credit for a copied picture is just wrong.

I try to think of it this way,  most people on popular artsites (such as Deviantart), arn't really artists, they're art fans. That's just my opinion though. ^^;;

On Mar 11, 2006 9:34 pm, Azzy said:


Oh nononono- That is so wrong I'm sorry! Deviantart may be swarmed by a high percentage of Anime fans, but there is ALOT of well known artists that post there, and there is alot of people that stive to be better at their own kind of art. They have a broader range of styles of submission than here (Which is currently the only thing better than here), but there is still the same percentage of origanal versus origanal artists. You'll find this out very quickly if you go looking for them. The fanartists are only well known cause everyone serches for the things they draw. That's why smaller sites like this is great- everyone sees your art here I like that. I don't like posting a picture and most of the people on the site don't see it. I post art so people can get some pleasure from seeing my effort *shrugs*

On Mar 11, 2006 9:44 pm, arkillian said:

I ment to say there is alot of art fans (anime fans) on DA +fav everything that is anime fanart (even if it's copied). I guess I said that a bit too harshly ^^;  I know there are some wonderful artists on DA, I've been there for a while.

Anyway, back to the real subject..xD

I maybe a little late on this subject. Everyone says pretty much the truth. Folks primarily are looking for characters that they know and find appealing. Makes for it to be very difficult to put or sell your own original up and have it become a favorite or sought after commodity, when it is relatively unknown.
 One of the things that may remedy this is to push your original work in different ways. Make sure that your originals are very appealing to the eyes, make em curious. Have a small free web-site (if possible) with story outlines. Make the information available to veiwers. It isn't really fair to want to come out of the box and desire a original work, to get as many hits as say an "X-men" fan pic. For most all fan art pics, they have HAD an established fan base for many years, where as original designs have to build a fan base from the start. It is a long slow process, for sure, but you can't just post a few magnificent pictures. You have to stand firmly behind what you do. I feel that when people see someone working very hard, and standing behind their original works, they may be more inclined to give it a read or second looks.
 Fan art is awesome in my opinion, because it gives the artist a chance to play with their favorite characters, and make em do what they have always wanted to see them do. Put your own take on em. Like how would you do it if it were you drawing them? But fan art is exactly that, art done by fans of whatever the genre' may be. And I would think is so pop right now because they're A LOT of fans out there!

I maybe a little late on this subject. Everyone says pretty much the truth. Folks primarily are looking for characters that they know and find appealing. Makes for it to be very difficult to put or sell your own original up and have it become a favorite or sought after commodity, when it is relatively unknown.
 One of the things that may remedy this is to push your original work in different ways. Make sure that your originals are very appealing to the eyes, make em curious. Have a small free web-site (if possible) with story outlines. Make the information available to veiwers. It isn't really fair to want to come out of the box and desire a original work, to get as many hits as say an "X-men" fan pic. For most all fan art pics, they have HAD an established fan base for many years, where as original designs have to build a fan base from the start. It is a long slow process, for sure, but you can't just post a few magnificent pictures. You have to stand firmly behind what you do. I feel that when people see someone working very hard, and standing behind their original works, they may be more inclined to give it a read or second looks.
 Fan art is awesome in my opinion, because it gives the artist a chance to play with their favorite characters, and make em do what they have always wanted to see them do. Put your own take on em. Like how would you do it if it were you drawing them? But fan art is exactly that, art done by fans of whatever the genre' may be. And I would think is so pop right now because they're A LOT of fans out there!