Okay, so…pretty frequently I see people wondering why some artists are as popular as they are when they’re “not actually good at art” or whatever. Speaking as someone who has had these thoughts as well, insofar as I can tell, possible factors in artistic popularity (at least fandom-wise) are as follows:
1. Prodigious technical skills, based on a traditional interpretation of the term “skill”. Aesthetically-pleasing, well-made art. Stellar craftsmanship. Et cetera.
This is not strictly necessary, however, if you have one or more of these in addition to even decent technical skills:
2. Niche appeal. A unique style, a favorite character/ship a fraction of the fandom is passionate about, or a skill few other people have acquired (like animation, for instance).
3. Powerful concept. Not just making pretty doodles, but art with a narrative or a wealth of extra details or thought-provoking features.
4. Wow value. I think this really only works in combination with a really good concept, but if you can really power through something huge and impressive that other people wouldn’t generally have the dedication for, they tend to sit up and take notice.
5. Prolific creation. Making a lot of stuff keeps people interested, even if all of it isn’t super-wow-awesome.
6. Being nice to people doesn’t hurt.This isn’t meant to be a guide to popularity–rather, next time you’re like “why is that person’s art so popular? I think they suck”, you might consider these points and maybe ease off a bit. The artist, after all, is just doing what they enjoy. You may think everyone who likes their stuff is having some kind of mass hallucination, but that’s their business.
Tag Archives: on art
Am I the only goth who is really uncomfortable with “Hannibal” due to the horrible transmisogyny in “Silence of the Lambs”?
I think you have to consider Silence of the Lambs was written in 1988 and the knowledge the general public had about transsexuals let alone their attitude towards them was a whole different ball game than it is today. Thomas Harris, for the crassness on how the subject is treated, does a decent job of explaining that being transsexual does not make one a serial killer considering the time era.
All great works of art are products of their time and will reflect that. You learn to acknowledge without it getting in the way of your enjoyment. Just like other great works of literature reflect the racist and sexist time era they were written in but that doesn’t devalue their significance.
when you really want to draw but vampire …human anatomy refuses to work for you and you just sort of think for two hours what kind of shoes they’d wear in different eras.
When I get totally stuck I just use them as an excuse to draw different historical clothing. I should do that again; I haven’t drawn the vampires forever (or much else) because my confidence is crap. :S
Yes, that is exactly what I’m doing! Also – they’re a good excuse to google a lot of scantily clad skinny men and draw. For the sake of practice.
I’ve only recently got into drawing them at all so it’s all still sort of taking shape. But yes you should – drawing clothes is so much fun and there’s never too much VC fan art around!
I-want-my-IWTV 