Subject: Harry Potter Roundtable Discussion II: Fan-artist’s Forum

[aah_mod]

Everyone is encouraged to participate in the Roundtable Discussion. Please refer here for the Roundtable Discussion guidelines.

Topic: A Place for Fan-Artists to Discuss the Experience of Being an Artist in Fandom - proposed by raitalaHere are some potential discussion points, but really this is just a friendly space for fanartists to get together and

Comments

[lillithium]

Hey Rai! Thanks for hosting the forum!

- How fests work for us fanartists.
For me it's a great opportunity to produce work that's different from my usual style/content/material. Maybe I'm crazy but I have always tried to make my anonymous fest submissions unrecognizable, and failed every time. :-P Am I the only weird one here?

- Collaborations with writers
One question comes up to my mind (and it's nothing personal): do you prefer (1) collab-ing with a good friend / an average writer? Or (2) a great writer whom you're not acquainted to? I'd pick (1) for fanart because it would be fun working with people you like over characters we're both obsessed with, but I guess if I were a pro illustrator I'd like to work with writers whose stories I enjoy reading.

- Different techniques
I used to feel undecided whether I should expose myself to a wider variety of techniques, or concentrate on improving a specific one. Now I just do whatever I want, 'cuz fanart is all about having fun. :-D

- Illustrations versus original ideasI find

[raitala]

[gin_biscuit]

I have never tried to do proper illustrations, but seeing as most of my art results from sketching I can see that it'd be a problem for me. I find drawing can be harder if you're trying to follow a certain plan, especially if you want to do a fic/scene justice. But, well, that's just my personal opinion. :)

And yeah, all the little details would make the whole thing even trickier!!!

[mific]

- How fests work for us fanartists

[aah_mod]

I hear you about hands! For the first 3 years of my fanart, you will notice a distinct tendency for my characters to keep their hands out of sight! :D

It is a difficult balance to strike sometimes when illustrating, between checking through for authenticity in relation to the text and just going with your own imagination. Collabs with writers while they are writing, rather than after they have posted, are good, because you can both feed in to the story. It is brilliant when a writer takes an idea from your illustration and incorporates it into their story.

With my trad media work, especially watercolours, I often use my digital camera to photograph the painting. I find that gets better results than scanning.

[yumekutteikt]

> Hard to draw with your own hand crooked in various positions in front of you at the same time!

Haha, agreed!:-D
Though I've never felt drawing hands as a burden in fact. Not that I'm good at drawing hands by any means, as I still stumble drawing hands and took hours to get satisfactory look for that body part sometimes. It's just, hand expression is very useful next to facial expression when displaying emotions of characters and it really exhilarates me when I succeed to draw some good-looking hands!:-)

Anyway, here's the reference for hands which I use:http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/
Go "Hands for Drawing", then choose the hand model(000-020) from the right pane and just drag n' move the 3-D hand model on the left.

[mific]

That's a great resource- thanks for the link!

[sugareey]

I'll do my best with these, since I've only been drawing for fandom for a couple of years

[raitala]

[yumekutteikt]

> Fests can be occasionally frustrating, when the prompt you get was clearly devised for a fic and you struggle to turn it into a single image.

Agreed! That's the very reason that I recently gave up joining one fest, in which the given prompts are too specific and self-contained, and seemingly have no room for free interpretation by the artist. Or maybe it's just I don't have time nor ability to coordinate multiple images as one work, gah.

[rotaryphones]

Hello lovely art people!

I want to throw out a topic that I've been wondering about for some time. Do you think there's a preference in fandom for certain art styles? I guess I'm asking because I see a lot of realism in fanart, which I have *nothing* but respect for - especially considering that I'm not at all good at it. :P My own work is usually really stylized and graphic, and sometimes I feel like it's not very conducive to what I want to say in fandom. But maybe I'm just crazy. Do you find that certain styles work better for you than others when doing fanart? Do you think some styles are more popular in fandom at large?

Thanks for humoring me. :)

[mific]

Yeah, realism is common isn't it? Maybe it's the concreteness of canon and the associated fanfiction - it's not especially conducive to abstract interpretations. Surprised there isn't more graphic stuff though, like comic-book styling.
I don't think the fandom would respond to abstract interpretations, but to graphic styles, yes. I find manga pics hard to take in the HP fandom though - they just seem to me to be from too-different cultural roots, to clash a bit.

[rotaryphones]

See, that's what I was thinking - since fanart is often about telling a story, it makes sense to use realism for that. I *have* seen some excellent cartoonists in fandom, however, and I wonder if they get the same kind of comments and reception.

That's an interesting point about manga and HP. It's almost like crossover art, isn't it? :)

[raitala]

[vividzephyr]

I'm a fanartist who hasn't actually illustrated for any writer's fic or collaborated with writers or anything yet. I'm fairly shy and just a little busy irl, so I guess that doesn't help much. :) I'd love to collab or draw for a writer (as long as it's not something too out of my comfort zone

[raitala]

[vividzephyr]

Oh! I see what you mean now. I didn't really understand the discussion point very clearly