Why Fanart is Important.

Fanart. DTIYS Challenges. It's all so much more important than you might think.

I hope you enjoyed my drawings of Nani Pelekai from Lilo and Stich!

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[ergojosh]

Why are there suddenly Korean subtitles? lmao Don't hold me to whatever words they actually mean.

[Timooee]

Fan art is such a great way to help your creative brain start up again after a long time of not knowing what to draw. Plus it’s fun!

[khunagueroagnis]

Fanart is so fun! You can learn a lot of things that you never knew before from the characters, the style, and what you like.

[SketchesByKev]

Fanart is so relaxing to do because you can turn off your brain and explore this developed character in a new perspective/context. It helps develop my style further as I'm taking what someone else has already done and translating it to how I would approach/draw this character. Fanart is a way of expressing my love for a character but also a way to share with others who also appreciate this char.

[elsv]

"How are you supposed to inspire when you're not inspired?"

- Fraser MacLean

[harasnicole]

Fanart is what helped me discover a love for drawing. I started with Simba, Ariel, and about a year ago, Sokka. I've been wanting to pick up my sketchbook again lately, but never do because I don't know what to draw, so I think I'll start back up with fanart again.

[STICKYArt]

It’s a great way to study master artists techniques. I think mixing fan art with a good balance of sketching from life reference and sketching creatively are all great ways to study and grow!

[deligeorgieva]

fanart breaks my artblock and helped me improve in my art and my style a lot. i can create better character designs now and i almost got into animation because of it

[magnum]

One thing I find really nice about doing fanart is not having to actually DESIGN something. A lot of times, struggling to design certain parts gets in the way of me actually progressing the piece. It give my overthinking brain a certain level of freedom to just draw/paint

[snakepowr]

Every inktober I’ve done is basically fanart I’ve wanted to draw but not found the motivation or time to do so and I love it

[chaii]

Making fanart has actually helped me improve my art, ever since I've got into fanart I have actually filled all of the pages in my sketchbook instead of just ripping them out.

[biancamo]

I'm a hobby artist who makes almost exclusively fanart. It brings me joy and makes people in my fandom community feel things...that's more than worth it to me. Maybe one day I'll move on to making more OCs or "original" content, but in the meanwhile, fanart is helping me grow my skill and have a lot of fun.

[DDBATZ]

I stopped doing fan art for a while bc of what teachers where telling us regarding copyright and the the idea that more original art is important. I had a heavy depression spot and I kinda missed doing fan art so I started doing Zelda fan art recently and I felt better .

[Quezecotyl]

This was a great confirmation for me. I've almost always avoided fanart like the plague so it's really helpful to hear the benefits you listed! Thank you!!

[KamilaRosa]

ahhh thank you so much for this video!! sometimes I feel like I'm not a "real artist" bc most of my artwork is fan art 😥 but it helps me a lot to develop the style that I have today...

[freerangeeggs]

My advice to anyone who asks me how to get good at art is "you have a favourite character? Draw the shit out of them." Fanart has helped me progress so much it's incredible. I'm a huge Zelda fan and drawing link over and over again has motivated me so much to improve and have fun with art.

[streloklex]

After watching your video, I am finally convinced that I am on the right track. And so, in order.


I used to have a negative attitude towards fan art. Here, again everyone draws on this or that topic, here, again this Inktober, how tired I am of you. And so from year to year. But something happened to me this year. I decided to try and the first thing that came to hand was an Inktober.


It was September 30th. The next day, I myself, not understanding what I was doing, began to perform tasks, to do according to the drawing.
Just by October 5th, I started to notice another fan art about the game of squid. And I thought, cool, interesting and just watched.


And so, last week, I had an idea for fan art and I went headlong into drawing a character. I finished it yesterday. I drew a day as it turned out, sometimes an hour, sometimes 15 minutes. But, having finished drawing, I was delighted with how it turned out, just because of the beautiful picture and what I could. I felt like a part of something bigger than myself. It's a cool feeling.

And yesterday I found your channel by accident, I liked it. And today this video. Now I will definitely not miss a single fan art and will draw more, because it's so cool. Thank you for your videos and just for what you are doing not only for yourself but also for others.





This is my story. I apologize in advance, I do not speak English, translated via google translator. Greetings from Brest, Belarus.

[suzume_artz]

I watch your videos/podcasts during the weekends when I get time off from college & honestly, they've been so helpful. I have been drawing BTS Fanart since I started taking digital art seriously in 2020 & the growth I've noticed in my style is so evident & unique. I used to get unsupportive comments from my irl friends who said that I should do more than Fanart, but I'm glad that I didn't stop doing it. Now, I also do original artworks based on songs/poems along with Fanart & it's been super helpful in my art journey. Thank you for emphasizing the importance of it!

[hjordisbackman]

wow thank you so much for this video. i do basically only fanart and got into art generally through fanart, and feel like that's where i get inspiration from. (i do fanart of singers and artists that i like.) i rarely see people speak about fanart in this way so it was really refreshing to me. sometimes i don't feel like a real artist just because i do fanart but this video really inspired me to keep going, so thank you! <3

[asimian]

Honestly. Fanart is fine. Anyone who tells you: you can't do this or that or use reference has no idea what they're talking about.

Let me give you a tip for those struggling with their fan art. If you struggle with proportions, trace the image and then draw it. Rinse and repeat until you can draw it from memory. Now, don't use this for anything beyond your sketchbook. Use this as a base to do your fan art in your own style: distort it, play with the proportions, etc... but it should still be recognizable as the character.

Oh, tracing is totally fine for learning purposes. It's a dirty little secret for artists. Many professional portrait artists trace for commissions where exactness is expected; they still have to do the hard part of rendering it. As a learning tool it's great, but never use it as a crutch. For analog get a USB light table (around $20). For digital, create a layer with the reference image. Lower the opacity of that layer. Create a new layer on top and trace, but always remember to do your own drawing next to the trace.