Yuletart: What is fanart?

[glockgal]

FANART MUSING
It's interesting to see the sign-ups at yuletart as well as the questions us Mods get from participants and potential participants. Questions that are unique to a fanart fest, I think. Like

Comments

[sabrebabe]

- can I mail my art to my gift-receiver after the fest?

You know, after both ss/hg exchanges, I did indeed give the reciever of the giftart their pictures after the fest was over. Granted, I've only participated in 2 exchanges, but both were very happy to have reall artses to show off afterwards. :D And I didn't have to try to find someplace to store it in my teeny little hovel. :D

[glockgal]

I think it's really sweet for artists to arrange mailing their art to the gift-receiver!

I definitely don't think that question/concept of mailing the fanwork is unique so much to Yuletart as it is to fanartists (versus fanfic writers). :D

[devidarkwolf]

Hmm, interesting to think about! Fanart - and art in general - encompasses such a huge variety of media that sometimes it's really tough to nail it down. So I can understand why there have to be some judgment calls made, and ground rules laid down. As for vidding, I think fandom in general has kind of divided it into its own category, but I do know a bunch of artists that do vidding and consider it as art, so. :D

[glockgal]

It's pretty cool how much can be folded into the fanart field! But you have brought up a really good point!! One I'm gonna hold to; now I feel better for having to exclude some types of art. *MWAH*

[jlh]

I think there's a difference between "is what I write considered fanfic" and "is what I write acceptable for this fest". A lot of the is-it-acceptable questions that I see center around rpf and genderswap. There are more and more multifandom fests that accept rpf as rpf becomes more mainstream, but there are still plenty that don't, and many rpf fandoms (particularly Idol and bandom) assume that they are not welcome in most multi-fandom spaces. I know genderswap came up for the last femslash fest and they decided against it.

That said, I know that over on FA they specifically reject songfics and poetry and stuff written in chat format, that sort of thing.

[glockgal]

I can totally see how fic requirements have to do with content (as opposed to process). I mean, most fests I've seen generally have a word count rule - I think that's the only fic rule that needs to be stated?

Ahhh! Yes I forgot about songfics and I never thought about chat format fics, but you're right that would totally be a fic category that might be excluded. Thanks!

[reflectedeve]

It's all so fascinating! I'm pretty happy with the restrictions you've set up for the fest, I must say. I can't articulate it yet, but it seems to me that manips are in a very different category from drawn art, etc, and while I think that graphics certainly qualify as a type of art, I just wouldn't be interested in a fest that included icons and wallpaper. But I'm not sure why, or what these lines are! (It's not an old vs. new technique thing, I don't think, because I'm entirely down with digital drawings and paintings, oekaki, etc.)

I'm curious what "I don't consider myself a fanartist" means, also. I've seen something like this come up (or at least, it's come up in my own head) with yuletide, where you can write "fic" based on things like world mythology, Arthurian legends, etc (things that you can also write perfectly "legitimate" pro novels about), but I'm less clear where it applies to yuletart in most cases. Although . . . I remember when I had an Elfwood account, and they rejected some of my FanQuarter pieces because they were "book

[glockgal]

Yeah. :/ I don't deny that graphics are art, but I dunno. I've seen icon/banner/wallpaper fanart being accepted in some exchange fests, which is cool because I know a lot of authors don't like drawn fanart. But I figure in a forum like Yuletart, it just wouldn't be viable?

I'm curious what "I don't consider myself a fanartist" means, also.
Oh! I mean people who consider themselves ficcers, but decide to try out fanart or people who perhaps have just lurked in fandom but decide to participate in this exchange. :D

Although . . . I remember when I had an Elfwood account, and they rejected some of my FanQuarter pieces because they were "book illustrations" rather than "fanart." (I never did quite grok the distinctions that site used to make between various categories.)

Wow, that sounds like a very moderated place. I've visted it before, but yeah - the categories and rules didn't make me want to sign up because I wasn't even sure if my art at the time qualified, ahaha!

[reflectedeve]

I agree! There's something about it that's just kind of . . . apples and oranges, I guess.

Yeah, Elfwood was always a little ridiculous. When the sci-fi and fantasy galleries were separate, they used to insist that only "high fantasy" qualified for the latter; I had pieces deleted a few times because "that elf is wearing modern clothes," and so it somehow didn't count as "fantasy." /o\ I finally wound up deleting awhile after deviantART opened; I really don't miss the moderation roulette I used to go through, or the ridiculously long moderation queues, for that matter.

[cellia]

Sometimes I just read your posts and think, "how are you so awesome?" Like fandom stuff and social justice and ... ok time to lie down. :D <3

[glockgal]

BRB DYING RIGHT NOW. XD XD

Being unemployed right now gives me a lot of time to think about stuff, ahahahah!!