[Caption: A realistic digital painting of Rihanna. Portrait is from the waist up. Rihanna has long dark hair, and she’s dressed in a pale gold satin gown, off the shoulders, with a cape gathered around her arms. She’s wearing a diamond necklace and diamond earrings. The background is a gradient from deep warm red to pale lavender overlaid with a lotus design.]
I had a dream in which I doubted all my artistic abilities and I sat in front of my sketches and almost cried, but then euclase showed up and said that all kind of art is amazing and with enough practice I will be able to achieve any goal I want. All I have to do is to keep going and never give up.
It was literally one of the most positive dreams I had, ever.
One of my fellow fanartists sent this message, and I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to publish her name, but she asked a really good question:
I was talking to a friend of mine whom I haven’t seen for some time and she’s missed the part where I became a so-called fan artist. She’s an artist herself and she was like “I don’t get fanart. Why do people do it? What is the reason?” And I couldn’t find one except that I love these shows and I love portraits. I feel like that wasn’t an explanation at all, though. What would you say? Why fanart? Why not anything else? I felt so awkward. I didn’t expect I would have to explain myself to another artist…
This happens to me a lot.
Most of the time, I just call myself a pop artist. Artists who don’t understand fanart know what pop art is. They know Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. They know “the artist who painted Ben-Day dots.”
I almost never explain fanart as fanart to people unless they are genuinely receptive. In my experience, when someone says, “I don’t get fanart,” they usually do get fanart, but they don’t like it, and they expect you to defend it. “I don’t get fanart” is code for “Why are you wasting your time drawing this?”
I don’t waste time explaining myself to those people.
But for times when I think someone is genuinely receptive, or for times when I’m tired of the stigma of “fanart” and “fangirl,” and I’m fed up with feeling ashamed to call myself a fanartist, and I don’t think neatly fitting myself under the male-established pop art umbrella is satisfactory enough, and I’d rather be a loud motherfucker who pisses everyone off, which is always, I might say something like this:
The fanart I make is similar to pop art, but instead of commenting on pop culture as a whole, I share my art with a tightly knit and passionate community of mostly women and people in the queer community who are also fans of that story. And together, our communityas a whole disestablishes male-dominated media by reclaiming mainstream stories for the minority. Fanart is a form of underground or outsider art, and it’s one powerful way that we take from a story and its characters the things that we relate to the most or enjoy the most as women and members of the queer community and transform them into our own stories and derivative works of art in order to reclaim the mythology that has been taken from us by a straight, white, patriarchal media.
I think the key word in all of that is “community.” Fanart is something you do because you want to be part of a community.
I’ve never been invited to a fandom before. I’m not surprised it’s the vampire fandom.
You’re a darling thank you. ❤
Of course I notice a typo in my message above but whatevs the feeling stands! If you guys don’t know @euclase, check this amazing artist out. Not just a talented artist, but they also answer questions about art in a thoughtful and thorough way, and shoot down the occasional troll with so much grace and dignity.
That post by @euclase that I reblogged has enraged me. I keep seeing time and time again, on Tumblr specifically, posts about how women are ‘too old’ for fandom.
I appreciate that the average age of Tumblr users is lower than other social media platforms but let me tell you fandom is not something you grow out of. I’ve been part of some form of fandom since I was a teenager. I am now coming up on 40. The only real difference is that I can’t stay up until 4am reading fic anymore because I need sleep. The passion I have for fandom is still there, I still write fic. You don’t suddenly stop caring about the things you love when you hit a certain age point.
If you think someone in their 30s or 40s is too old for fandom
I should introduce you to some of the amazing women in their 60s that I met through the Man From UNCLE fandom. Hell, some of my friends that I met through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom back in the 90s are now in their 50s and 60s.
TL;DR You are never too old for fandom and if you think that’s true I pity you when you reach whatever arbitrary age you think is the cutoff point.
Gosh, you don’t even have to worry about what bills I pay. All you see is my hobby. Isn’t that nice of me?
You know what. No. I have more to say.
This pisses me off. The implication that 45 is too old for a woman to have fun is fucking bullshit.
JJ fucking Abrams is 50, and he’s a fanboy. He’s making AUs, and he’s doing the exact same thing as any fangirl is doing only with a much bigger budget. There are plenty of dudes just like him, too. Comic book artists, writers, directors—all men, all older than me, (I’m 35 by the way, not 45) who are no different. The only difference is that their work is called work and not “being a fangirl.” Their work is respected. Even though fangirl is exactly what they are.
So fuck your jealousy, fuck your misogyny, and most of all fuck you for presuming to know a goddamn thing about my life and what kind of hard work I’ve had to do—not just to draw this well (read: better than you) but to allow myself to be happy about it when the whole entire world has decided I’m not allowed to be. Fuck you for every girl you ever made feel foolish or pathetic for not sacrificing every bit of herself to you.
THIS
You can’t hear it, but I’m clapping for you right now. This. All of this. It’s absolutely perfect. Go you. Fuck them.
Plus, dude, the Renaissance Era is full-on people being forbidden to draw/sculpt/write anything else than Greek and Roman Mythology(/fairy tales) Fanart (or Christian stuff). At the end of it there were debate over debate about “The Ancient and the Modern” as in : the Ancient had come up with the only possible creative stuff, now poor ol’ us cannot do anything better and don’t you dare be original. Tell any French person that Jean de la Fontaine was pathetic because he wrote fanpoems of Aesop and they’ll laugh in your face. The man managed to full on criticize the King who created Absolute Monarchy through poems that are still learned by every person in the country nowadays. Or say that about
Michelangelo or Botticelli. Most of these artists had fun and many loved Greek Mythology. The idea that everything “has” to be original stems more from a reaction to that time period than to an objective Reality.
Yes but EVERYONE YOU MENTIONED IS A MAN.
Michelangelo, Fontaine, Botticelli. Da Vinci, whoever else. Painters, sculptors, writers.
Whenever people use the argument “Renaissance art is just fanart of the Bible or Greek myth” or whatever else, they’re forgetting that all of that stuff was made by men. The reason it’s legitimate and the reason we hang it in museums and remember it isn’t because it’s fanart of the Bible—it’s because men did it.
The second men don’t do it, it stops being legitimate. Of course Renaissance art is fanart. OF COURSE IT IS.
I know fangirls who could out-scholar a room full of Shakespeare professors. I know fangirls who are the greatest writers, the greatest artists, the greatest talents you’ve ever seen. The most passionate, brilliant ladies speaking more passionately and giving more of their time to the things they love than any man. But because they’re fangirls—the operative word being girls—everyone is waiting around for them to grow up and stop this foolishness.
And what a huge loss. What a huge fucking loss.
The absolute best part is that, even if you caved into their stupid demands, they’d still complain, “Why aren’t you doing fan art any more? no one wants to see your original characters!” and other bullshit.
There’s no appeasing these fucking fools who sit and try to dictate how you should live your life, because it’s not that they are upset you are doing something, they are upset you are a WOMAN doing something.
You are 100% right, the reason that when I was in grade school classes talked about art and poems and stuff of people from long ago is because they were made by men and they are considered valid. The reason that women throughout time have sat down and used a pseudonym on their work is so that people would think they were men, so that their work would be taken seriously.
It’s all a stupid world, a world built by old white men who are afraid of people doing what they want, doing what they like, having fun, because they don’t understand it, because they are sexist or homophobic or whatever, they are afraid; They have power as long as you bend to their will and don’t do what you want, don’t enjoy your life, so screw them, scare them, do what you want and have fun doing it!
Some of you may remember the fanartist self-portrait project I helmed several years ago. It was an awesome success, as you can see above. And since I love self-portraits and fanartists so much, I’ve decided it’s time to do a reboot. While previously I invited only Supernatural artists, this year I’m opening it up to any fanartist in any fandom.
Here’s how it works:
Stop drawing Bucky Barnes and Castiel for five seconds and draw yourself! Send your portrait to me. I’ll turn us into a group portrait. BAM.
The details:
Draw in your own style. No nudity or gore please.
All ages and skill levels welcome.
Make your portrait 300dpi, whether you’re drawing digitally or scanning something traditional. Transparent formats are best, but as long as you keep the background simple so it can be erased, you’ll be fine.
To keep the group portrait looking as uniform as possible, avoid dramatic lighting or poses. Keep things simple. Draw from the waist up. Use the group portrait above as a guide for lighting, pose, colors, etc.
Email me your portrait here: keyblackfox[at]gmail.com
If you aren’t a fanartist, and you still want to draw a self-portrait with us, of course you’re free to! Self-portraits are great practice and good for the soul. Tag your portrait #summerportraitproject so we can see you!
If there’s enough interest, I may make the final group portrait available to buy as a poster—with profits going to charity, of course, but we’ll look into that option once we get that far. (Wouldn’t a poster be rad though? Omg.)
Let’s make the portraits due June 25, 2016. That should give you plenty of time.
Can I tell you a secret, though? My favorite style of art isn’t mine. It isn’t realism.
I like what I make because it feels the most like me. And I like lots of kinds of art, but my favorite styles that I like looking at the most are probably not what you’d expect from a photorealist. I like things like animated gifs and fan art and street art and vaporwave and amateur comics. I like selfies and cosplay and little kinky cartoons and monsters and cats in space. You know why that stuff is my favorite? Because it’s not about being “good.” Or being realistic or whatever. It’s about being yourself. To me, “good” art is when you can see the artist in the art. My favorite style of art is the artist.
And everyone is already themselves, you know? Everyone has opinions about what is pretty or what inspires them. Everyone has an artist in them. You just gotta figure out how to show it, which you will. All it takes is time and practice.
I-want-my-IWTV 