art At the heart of our Fandoms
And how we can steal like an artist to make something new
Today I’m considering how fan art is a truly underappreciated form of creativity.
I make fan art all the time: I’ve recreated my own versions of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” more than once. I copy the style of Studio Ghibli often. In the gallery across, you’ll even see Party Poison, from Gerard Way’s The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys comic books (and MCR’s “Na Na Na” music video — my favorite!).
Fan art is not just about visual art, of course. Storytelling is just as important as the aesthetics of the thing for me, and I’m always looking to learn from the media I consume. I mean, come on, wrote an entire play based on the Greek Mythology you’d find reading the Percy Jackson series. And my years of Harry Potter fanfiction are something I look on with pride, even if we the fandom have separated the art from the author these days.
(In fact, while we’re on the subject, feel free to check out Masks, my take on the love story of Lily and James through their time at Hogwarts and the rise of Voldemort — if they were both transgender.)
But I digress: despite how miffed I am about the author’s bigotry, I have to admit: the story of Harry Potter continues to enrapture and inspire me all these years later. And it’s not just me: the Ao3 tags for Harry Potter are full of brilliant stories, some of which have been so repeatedly read and loved by the fandom we accept them as canon. There are entire TikTok pages dedicated to putting on little skits of background Hogwarts characters or analyzing the text in a classroom setting. And one of my favorite instagram accounts is a HP fan artist, potterbyblvnk!
That’s the wonderful thing about good art and good stories: they ask us to tap into our own
imaginative well of creative power and see what comes pouring out of it.
Sometimes it’s easier to take an already-established character and project a totally new story onto them (Hello, Barbie movie!). It’s also a common tactic for art school students to take a famous painting and try recreating it or drawing it in their style. You may wander into a museum and find an artist doing exactly that (namely: me). You know why? Because not only is it a great way to practice your craft, but it’s important to accept that nothing you will ever create will be totally original! Which sounds kind of bad, and makes you wonder, “What’s the point?” Because it’s all been repackaged and repurposed to fit a modern audience. Another new superhero movie. Another Star Wars comic. A remake of an 80s classic turned play — over and over and over again.
But what’s actually beautiful is the new way YOU, both the artist and the audience, look at the old story. The old characters, the old morals, the old style can all change to fit with the current times if you shift your perspective on them. As the great Effie Trinket (Hunger Games) once said, “Everything old can be made new again… like democracy.”
Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like An Artist, is such a valuable piece of literature for the budding creative, and I revisit it often. We all have to start somewhere, and borrowing from what you already know is a great way to begin. All of that is to say this: You are an artist, even if you solely make fan art. Just because society tells you it isn’t as valuable as “real art,” that doesn’t make it true! You’re practicing a craft as old as time itself.
Remember, Even the great masters themselves had great masters to learn from.
Here are some examples of fan art I’ve made over the years to get your inspiration cooking!
I drew these as prompts for Inktober one year because I wanted to work on my watercolor painting and practice drawing things somewhat closer to realism. But you can select any medium: from sketches to collage to writing to film: Whatever you make will be awesome, just because it is YOURS.
When you choose to create your own work through fan art, RUN WITH IT! There are people who will love your style, your interpretation, the heart you put into your art, and they will come along on the journey with you. Make something weird and keep being weird, even if you think it’s way too out there. Look at E.L. James, rolling in the millions because they wrote a rather spicy Twilight fanfic. The possibilities are endless! Create whatever Alternate Universe you want, with the characters you love at the helm. The ultimate self-expression!
So here’s an art challenge for you I like to dabble in from time to time!
I want you to think of three pieces of media you enjoy, or that you think define you as a person:
One you read (books, fashion magazines, newsprint, etc)
One you’ve watched (TV, anime, movies, youtube, etc)
And one you listen to (music, podcast, audiobooks, etc)
Create three fan art works based on these favorites. Write your own play, build an outfit based on a runway design, paint an new album cover. Try out that Wes Anderson film trend that’s been going around the internet the last few months. Or perhaps you could combine fandoms, while you’re at it! In the below gallery, you’ll see my interpretation of Hagrid: Mother of Dragons a la Daenerys Targaryen and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If you know, you know. That said, let your imagination run wild!
And by the way, who cares if you don’t get noticed by a publisher, or an art gallery, or a film studio? Publish yourself! Make the story you want to see in the world! Don’t let the burden of earning money on your art stand in the way of your creativity. It’s a bonus, for sure. While it’s wholly possible, and a brilliant goal to have… please, don’t let money be the hurdle that stops you before you even start. The Wattpad- slash- Fanfiction.net -slash- LiveJournal Millennial in me wants to see what you make, even if the huge corporations don’t. What do you have to say about the art you consume and how it reflects the world we live in?
So the next time you feel called to make something that could be from the Upside-Down in Stranger Things, just do it. I’ll be right there cheering you on, and so will the Internet at large!
Here’s a few more doodles, just for fun, because even though I practice many different mediums, I doodle concepts about fan art all the time. From quoting Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters to the ghosts from Beetlejuice, from Holly Golightly to The Hunger Games’ very own President Snow, I hope these images will help you get inspired!
