Selling Fanart at Conventions! ✰ BunBun's Art Community News

Catch up on the latest news in the Art Community together with BunBun!

Hello Guys, trying out a new format besides the studio vlogs, where I talk recent and interesting topics in the small business and art community! This is only a test run but let me know what you think and if we should do this more often?

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[Bogoro]

very well done summary! i think one thing that does need to be pointed out in the AX situation is that this was for artists selling in exhibitors and /not/ the artist alley, artist alley is usually the gray area most companies and license holders will look the other way, but the exhibitor spaces are the hard line usually, it was the same for anime central

[thebunbunshop]

guys! I’m back with a cute new format where I talk about recent and interesting news in the art and small business community! Let me know how you like it and what we should call it? 🤔

Dokomi Vlog will be coming this Friday (sorry it took so long, I was tired)

[SweetGir]

I came back to this video bc I'm preparing myself for my next convention and organizing a magical girl stamp rally, so the shows like sailor moon, madoka, winx etc are included and I got worried if we might get into trouble for this... Generally speaking, I think that IP holders are slightly cutting themself more than the artists when going to such lengths as to deny fanart entirely...Mainly because the artist IS the community, and the IP holder maybe doesn't make their own merchandise in those styles or transformative ways as the fan-artist does. If they want artists to not sell it but still keep the art being this interesting, at least they could hire the artists to do fanart and sell it on their own. The community wants to see their favorite characters in newer ways. As well as artist alley having fanart I feel is also a sort of marketing strategy? Because it keeps the hype of the show and general merch alive. So the IP holder can then continue to profit with figurines, apparel etc. Taking those few 100€ from a fanart artists seems petty to me...I personally love seeing fanart, mainly because it's a lot of times more interesting than the original illustration since it tries to do something different.

[rillystar]

I think it's a bit misleading about the situation. The contract for vending in the exhibitor's explicitly says no fanart/unlicensed merch that those artists agreed to when choosing to table within the exhibitor's hall, so it's not like they should have been unaware of this requirement. I heard from a few artists who regularly sell via AX Exhibitor's hall that they check to see which IP holders will be present that year and avoid fanart from those in attendance (which still is breaking the rules but I guess they're being smarter about it?)

No one in the artist alley was handed a warning from Viz. There was no such rule for the AA and I verified with a number of artists I knew who were at AX AA this year to confirm.

I expect that in the future more of the bigger cons will go this way (turning a blind eye to AA and keeping exhibitor's hall to licensed only items)

[waterking]

Whoever viz media hired to hand out those C&D letters to the people at artists alley must of have a massive power trip.

[KamiraSoyane]

I honestly love fanart cause it's something more unique 🥰

[LetsKei]

Great, concise video! It's so interesting how many people are still quite naive about this topic and think due to the "grey area" they are totally okay to sell fanart. Don't get me wrong, I am mostly in favour of and support fanartists, but you can tell that many still assume a lot falls under "fair use", when it just... doesn't. |D (Although the same can be said about many other things like tax stuff etc. when selling at conventions, but oh well.) My point is: Everyone should do proper research and then decide for themselves if they want to take the risk. Just relying on "everybody does it" is not enough.

[Jazzatic]

Ok imma need a response from the audience
If you go to an anime convention or a certain expo Are you actually bothered by people selling art and merch of the anime and things you enjoy or is that the thing you actually enjoy while there?

For me killing fan art is in part killing the convention.

The difference between me owning a character and someone else selling it is if the other person says it’s their character, not their fan art of my character THEN there is an issue.

[sometimeslemons]

In my opinion it doesn’t matter who owns the character. It should be about who made the piece that’s being sold. If you put in the time and effort to make the drawing then you should be able to sell it, period. If someone made and sold fan art of my own character I would be happy or just indifferent

[AaaaNinja]

The point is not whether an artist making fanart is taking from the COMPANY (and I think you're conflating the term license-holder with the company that owns the IP). By selling your own non-licensed merchandise you are potentially encroaching on a market that someone who went through the proper process to become a LICENSE-HOLDER occupies. Like, for example somebody scored an exclusive license to make Naruto T-shirts. Someone selling their own T-shirts with fan-art would be stealing sales from THEM. Some license-holders are small businesses. You're not stealing from large companies you're stealing from others who did the right thing to get permission. And making their effort to do it properly meaningless if there is no difference.

[romieabel]

Personally, I want to get the licensing rights go use Doraemon characters someday.