Comments | mefa_banners: Welcome to Banner Makers, + First Banner-Making Challenge

telperion1 in mefa_banners

Welcome to Banner Makers, + First Banner-Making Challenge

May 20, 2011 02:01

First, a hearty welcome to all of our banner makers.

Elena Tiriel
Elleth
Ellynn
Nath

Thanks so much for volunteering to help out with our awards. If you want to make banners but aren't listed above, just comment to this post and I will give you posting access to this community. If you don't have an LJ account I can give you the password to a " ( Read more... )

tp-nominee, admin, gr-landscape, gr-water, artist-marta, sz-banner

Comments 3

ladyelleth May 20 2011, 06:33:19 UTC

The rules are fairly clear on which art may/may not be used, so please forgive me for bringing this up. In the past few years there were some artists/illustrators (Alan Lee, John Howe, Ted Nasmith) whose art might be used, but I'm guessing these are off-limits as well this time?

telperion1 May 20 2011, 06:58:34 UTC

That is a rule change for this year, and I meant to explain it in my email last night. So thank you for bringing that up!

In the past we assumed that artwork by professional artists would be so easily recognizable that it was okay to use them. Not like someone would think that Alan Lee's Gandalf was drawn by me! But someone (Neume Indil? I'm forgetting offhand) brought up the point that at least some of those authors didn't like their artwork used as the base for new creations. It's not a question of recognition, but of an artist maintaining control over their artwork.

So, from now on we are treating all work by other artists in the same way, whether it's by a fan-artist or a professional artist like Lee, Nasmith, etc. If you are using someone else's artwork, then...

Is it public domain? ... then it's fair game
Has the artist put it out there for anyone to use, like the photos at the stock exchange? ... then it's fair game

Otherwise you need permission from the artist before you can use it. That doesn't mean a Lee painting is ( ... )

ladyelleth May 21 2011, 06:27:45 UTC

You're welcome, and thank you for the clarification. I think it's a very fair approach.

(And just as a quick heads-up, John Howe does have a FAQ section on his site detailing usage rules for his artwork: http://www.john-howe.com/forum/smf/index.php?topic=1910.0. I couldn't find any similar information for either Lee or Nasmith.)