Sta.sh
~JamieKinosian recently posted a journal which expressed why she loves to do fanart. [link] It was a great read and it got me to thinking!
I don't have anything against people's original characters, in fact I think it's a great thing, but it's sad when someone is often discounted as an artist because "oh you draw fanart, you unoriginal loser, lololol" I'm not even gonna go into how silly that seems when many OCs are from a pre-existing universe, or sometimes just blatant copies of an existing character. (ask me about my ~original manga~ when I was 14 that was just ripped from everything I'd seen or read until that point!)
It's true that you can only go so far with fanart. You obviously can't profit from it (well, besides at cons, amirite) or promote yourself as "an artist" because it doesn't belong to you. But for me, if I just sit down and say "I'm gonna draw something" nothing comes out because I don't FEEL anything. If I sit down and say "I'm gonna draw this MEGA EPIC CRAZY ASS PIC OF THIS AWESOME CHARACTER BECAUSE THEY'RE SO AWESOME" then lines just vomit out of my pencil or whatever and the rest is history. It's not great, but it's there and it makes me happy, and I'm not trying to do anything else with art besides makes me (and possibly a few other people) happy. However, it's an issue I still feel insecure about because it's like PEOPLE ARE JUDGING ME, I CAN FEEL IT
"Oh that bitch drew ____ again, is she ever gonna get over that shit?" etc. etc.But I just need to embrace the facts. I love fanart. I love to draw stupid pictures of crap from works of fiction that have affected me throughout my life. And I love to share them and meet people who feel the same way, or even differently, and have epic discussions and possibly even make new friends. Actually, just read the journal I linked because she says it better than I ever could! (AND she's an awesome artist, and not just fanart either, unlike me....I readily admit I AM unoriginal.)
Ok, feels better man.
I love fanart too- it actually gets me really excited to see other people draw characters often ;A;
....I draw the line at recoloured Sonic "my character lurlz".
Haha, Sonic recolors are definitely not my thing but if it's what they enjoy... As long as they don't get on a high horse about "I DO ~ORIGINAL~ STUFF" then it's all good to me.