To this day...

[zackfig]

...it still cracks me up how there was some drama, some months ago, among some really popular DA and FA artists complaining about other artists that suddenly got really popular, sometimes even more popular than the guys doing the complaining, just because the popularity bump came from doing Friendship is Magic fanart.

To them, I say

Comments

[midnightfury]

As an artist, I can understand being frustrated when you see someone gaining sudden, intense attention because they're simply drawing fanart of someone else's ideas (especially in the situations where these people are VERY skilled, but only ever draw fanart and never try to branch out into some of their own ideas). For me, though, as I can only speak for myself and don't know what could be going through the heads of others, I have taken a kind of "rolls eyes" approach to these things. They're only popular because someone else's idea is popular, not because they worked hard on their own characters or style and got the attention on their own. They had to use someone else's style and ideas as a crutch. Such popularity is empty. And, often, it fades when the fad associated with it fades, as most do in time. Those who have attacked others for their sudden popularity because they draw FiM stuff probably haven't thought of or learned that yet, but hopefully, they will eventually.

[zackfig]

But some of these people being criticized were already really good but still obscure. Can you blame them for using the FiM craze to draw some exposure to themselves?

I still find the whole thing of artists jelly-ing on FiM-related art as risible to be honest.