Other people's ideas

[secondlina]

I love seeing the characters other people create. Especially when it's an artist. Because you only get these bits and pieces of a character in the form of lavish illustrations and there's so much personality. You don't know the character, but you can see really clearly that it's a strong character. That this character has a whole story fully composed and detailed in the person's head. I just want to reach into their brain and READ. More and more, I find myself adding artists to my internet watch because I just want to see more of their characters.

I think it's kinda sad that people seem to be interested more in fanart then in these incredible characters. For example - in my own deviant art gallery, my fanarts get a ton of hits. Original art? I'm lucky to get 20. And it's the same for a ton of people. Don't get me wrong, I adore fanart too (I look at them a lot too) but more and more, I want to see these new ideas.

Maybe it's hard for people to appreciate a character when you only get bits and pieces of them? Maybe people just want to cater to their fan side? Maybe there's just too much and some of it is crap? Maybe maybe. Well, i'll be looking at least.

Sometimes i'm so jealous of people's characters too. I see something awesome and just go "GAAAAH WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?"

So, here's a fanart of someone's characters (oh the irony of this sentence). For YoukaiYume, inspired by her short comic "Willow".



Oh, and some Megamind fanart. It's not... sexy, but it is too people on top of each other, so i'm putting it behind an lj-cut. This is for you, kit_a_licious .




Yesterday I drew like a woman possessed. Sometimes I just get in the zone and need to ink ink ink until I drop. I watched the Muppet's Christmas Carol while I drew. I watch that damn thing every year. Still fun. Though some of the stuff is a little cheesy.

- Isa

Comments

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

See I create characters, but usually they're additions to certain established fandoms. Kind of like intergrated into the current canon. I give them histories, families, certain apperacnes, all of that. If I could draw, I'd draw them also.

Maybe I'm just weird that way I guess.

Awesome arts, dear!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Fan characters are pretty fun too! At least the original ones. I saw someone invent "Toph's long lost sister" once. Who also happened to be blind... Yeah.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I hear you, man! Hey, if only to make the situation funnier, right after posting this, I checked out my deviant art to see that someone had posted a message to my gallery, asking me to draw more How to Train your Dragon and Avatar fanart. Wait, did I say asking? I mean DEMANDING. I get messages once in a while of people asking this. But rarely do I get something so rude and badly spelled.

It was this :

"kk could u make more Avatar and HTTYD art? You are so good and I think itÀ's a good idea for you to make more. I can even give u ideas if u need em. Give me your email and i'll send em. Remember to credit thg lol k k thx"

[zelgadisfangirl.livejournal.com]

I like looking at people's fanart and characters too. I can't draw, but I write down ideas for my characters and I can see them clearly in my head, even when I'm listening to music I can see them singing and dancing to the song.

I love Muppets christmas carol. The song "Bless us all" still makes me teary. And I had no idea Michael Caine was Scrooge!

[kuridee.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about original characters. My thing is, I can't get attached unless there's a story--every time I see someone on dA with a cool character I go, "Wow, they look pretty cool, where can I read about them?" Aaaand most of the time there's nothing to read. It makes me sad. ;_; (Then we have Namesake, which I have already gotten attached to, I have to say. XD)

But yeah, that's why I stopped posting on dA. I didn't want to do fanart anymore, and the fact that nobody gave a crap about my original stuff was really deterring. So in order to not let that bother me, I just kind of stopped posting.

I do love both these arts, though. Guh, your linearts...and coloring...so pretty. :D

[paynesgrey.livejournal.com]

Lovely art! Both of them!
I actually didn't know YoukaiYumi did a short comic so it was nice to give that a look as well. :)

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Creating characters is just fun. I think half the fun is to think of a character and then imagine a good story for an excuse to use them.

XD This is so funny because I just read Willow yesterday myself. It's so good! I want to read more. ^_^

[chameleon9999.livejournal.com]

I have fan characters and OCs too, but I'm a little too afraid to post them to DA. Maybe one day in my own journal...

Although when HTTYD came out, a bunch of my OCs became moot because the story was similar to one I came up with. ::sigh::

LOL, I love the pic hanging in the MM one.

[prettio.livejournal.com]

I kind of agree with you. I used to just upload original art on my gallery long time ago and realized that any of my fanarts reaches about 1000 visits and one of my original drawings hardly has more than 200 visits if I'm lucky.

I got really tired. I also had some problems and arguments with some spanish people and decided to stop uploading original art to my galleries. I think most of the people do not care about our original works because they're not published, they don't see them as proffesional works... I think it's unfair to underate somebody's work just because it's not published or you can buy it on a store or watch it on TV, but people seem not to care at all.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I try not to do stuff like that. I do gender swap sometimes too.

[gullwhacker.livejournal.com]

-wait, they want credit for an idea...for fanart of someone else's fandom.

....yeah.

[torreadora.livejournal.com]

So the pigs WERE an ode to Bacon! :D You are awesome, Isa. I praise your name!

Your Willow drawing is gorgeous. Full disclosure: I read Yume's comic and was unimpressed. I hope that doesn't make me an asshole. I find her anime to be run-of-the-mill and her plot was something I could have written (and probably did) in the fourth grade. She's capable of so much better, I've seen it. This was meh. But your drawing is lovely.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

That Megamind fanart is awesome! The angle and perspective is VERY well done!


Most people who browse DA do so by typing their favorite character/show into the search engine. I assume that's why most original art gets lost in the shuffle while even a stick figure labeled "Naruto" gets 10,000 views.
...well, that, and the fact that most OCs you find there are drawn by lazy artists who just xerox the generic "how to draw manga" style to create some lame character named "Yume Mary Sue Snowflake-chan". -_-

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Woo! I be praised!

Yeah, I wanted to do something that mixed both things Kit adored. But i'm not too happy with this sketch. so I might take another stab at it. :D IT IS BACOOON!

I don't think disliking YoukaiYume's work makes you an asshole. If anything, I agree to some point. She is a bit stuck in a more classical anime look. However, considering her age, she shows a lot of promise. She has a great grip on anatomy and structure. Back in the day, I used to draw in this really stereotypical anime style myself (no, really. Look. http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/secondlina/plate.jpg) and I had pretty predictable stories. I modeled my style to be more personalized in the last 5 years (when I went to art university and started this journal). So I really appreciate her art for the quality and the potential. I can agree is lacks a bit of originality, but her strength comes mostly from the possibilities she has before her and her enthusiasm.

Then again. That's my opinion of course. I really want to encourage her to do more original work, because she could develop some really neat stuff.

*laughs* My god. I always see good sides in art. I'm sorry. I hope it doesn't make sound condescending.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Oh I see them when I listen to music tooooo! It's the most awesome thing ever!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

People on DA barely put OC stories. But again, it's mainly because they know most people are not interested. It's very sad.

And yeah, Namesake is NEVER GOING AWAY! *tosses Warrick at you*

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Please do!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

It's a story with a lot of potential. Especially if she makes the hell freaky and weird.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

People got angry at you for uploading original art? WHAT?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

LOL BEST NAME EVAR.

I think most people when thru the xerox-mary-sue phase. We just didn't have deviant art when we did.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I know I went thorough a Xerox and a Mary Sue phase (and I thank God everyday that I didn't have easy internet/scanner access when I did! LOL).

[brendala.livejournal.com]

It's unbelievable that someone not only has the gall to tell you what you should draw; but then offers up his or her brilliant (and badly spelled) ideas and demands you credit them. Oy. -_-

[kit-a-licious.livejournal.com]

Wait -- for me? Really? OH YAYZ.

I just left a comment on the community about how much I love this piece, but of course, it deserves many more! It's a hell of a fun picture, and I can't stop looking at their hands! You nailed them.

Hmmm, I may have to tag you back, sister...

[zelgadisfangirl.livejournal.com]

I know right? :)

[disembodied-cat.livejournal.com]

1) Flippin adorable!

2) I had to post to you, because I realized you commented on rufftoon's page - she's my friend and one of my favorite people at DW! :3
(On a hilarious side note: We had a great conversation about how everyone is going to awkwardly ship everyone in the movie we worked on .. er, she IS working on, I worked on, lol.)

[noseless-wonder.livejournal.com]

As someone who likes art but can't draw worth crap herself, I can sort of see why fanart would be more likely to get traffic.

First, fanart is very easy to find. I know that I like series X and character Y. I can search for those two terms on Google or DA and pull up exactly what I'm looking for. It's even better when the character has a unique name like Gourry or Aang. I'll probably run across a couple of pieces that make me want to wash my eyes out with bleach, but chances are, I know I'll probably enjoy what results from that search. With original art, I don't know what I'm necessarily looking for until I find it. Do I feel like realism? Abstract art? Animation? Landscape? Do I feel like a sad piece, a happy piece...etc? Sometimes I don't know until I find it, but I always know when I'm in the mood for fanart. That's why I like the Daily Deviation from DA though because it allows me to look at several pieces from different mediums and genres and browse through a gallery from an artist that catches my eye. The problem is, this takes a lot of time - and even though I might like something that landed them on the DD board, I might hate everything else in their gallery, so committing the time to look their gallery may be a bit of a gamble.

On another note, I think you struck a chord when you said that people simply don't connect with an original character as easily when they only get bits and pieces of them at a time. I connected with the Namesake characters because the drawings I initially saw looked unique, dark, and a little playful at the same time, but a lot of works don't show so many dimensions. Plus, this was reinforced by seeing follow-up pieces on your feed later.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I think there's a certain amount of familiarity involved -- people have already fallen in love with characters, so they want to see more of them. It takes more for them to invest in a character they never knew to begin with.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Shallow little teenager much?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I can't believe it. And the think that really grates my cheese is the spelling. If you're going to be annoying, at least do it with proper grammar. Amiright, lit majors?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

So what are your characters like?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

You made a story with awesome vikings? ME TOO! One of them had an epic hammer of epicness!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I just pestered my friends with it. But I still had an awesome story to go with it. In the end, I created a giant story with my friends about a version of us in a world that was like a Buffy-Slayers-Namesake mix. It was COOL.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I'll take the tag back! For sure! :D ART EXCHANGES FTW.

I still kinda want to draw you something else because i'm pretty dissatisfied with this sketch... But I still wanted to show it to you! I like some parts of it. Mostly i'm angry at Roxanne's face. Why can't I get her face right. Grrr.

Next drawing I do for you will be pure Snap Crackle Pop.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

1) Why THANK you!

2)*laughs* That's hilarious. For some reason I keep meeting people that are close friends of Rufftoon! She's one of my heroes. I adore her work. But I doubt she knows who I am. I just leave comments once in a while because of the PURE AWESOME. Plus, I kinda love that she reads european comics.

Oh god. The shipping. It's coming. It's going to be weird. But Arluk beat everyone to it anyways.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

As usual Holly, you bring a compelling argument to the table. OC's are hard to search for (I TRIED A LOT) and often, you're not sure what to look for. And scanning thru someone's gallery is long and sometimes not interesting.

But I think it's important that there is people who try to check out the dailies and the galleries. I know a few people added me to their deviant watch just for a certain category of work. when I add people, it's because I love their gallery, Ocs and fanarts combined (I'm PICKY).

The whole "flat oc's" argument is also true. Some people's original characters lack... originality and dimension. But some are just... WOW. But I guess it's the same rule for originals and fanarts - 90% is bad, 9% is good, 1% is AMAZING.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

True, true.

But some people... the way they draw their original characters is so fun and impressive. It creates the interest and the story.

[chameleon9999.livejournal.com]

LOL, well they weren't vikings, but it did involve a little dragon riding. I had two dragon stories, and if you put them together you'd get something similar to HTTYD for the most part.

One was set in medieval(?)(honestly I keep forgetting the exact time period)England, where the dragon did all the talking opposed to his human knight friend who literally couldn't. ::shrug:: The plot and characters got so huge I never finished it.

[cxco.livejournal.com]

I love what you just wrote on original art. I can only agree with you, I just love to re-read your entry. Makes me want to draw more OCs

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Dude. You should create more original characters! It's fun!

You know, after the holidays we should make it a point to at least have a day when we can draw together once a month. That would be so awesome! :D *huggles you*

[cxco.livejournal.com]

Yaaaay! We totally should/will.

I dunno, your text really gave me a huge inspiration push I've been trying to get into for a while now. I've got my pencil in one hand, I'm about to draw, look out paper, you're in for a terrible ride.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Wooo! I await you're amazing sketches.

And yes. We WILL. :D

Besides, we can leanr from each other, so it counts as homework. Homework with FUN.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I agree -- and with both writing and art, isn't it great to stumble across that new, original, fresh creation?

[amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com]

Since I'm horrible at thinking up my own characters, I tend to lean towards the original ones. >D But I love seeing what other people come up with, too!

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

Aw! Cute Megamind fanart! XD That's a hard angle to draw! (I have a hard time with that ind of angle anyway ;)

It's sad that OC work is rarely appreciated on DA, but i think that's mostly due to the unknown aspect. People look up what they are wanting to see, and if they have never seen or heard of it before, it leads to lack of motivation. :/ It's sad as there are so many cool ideas floating around that are refreshing artistically.

[kit-a-licious.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I'm working on your sketch now. But girl, you crazy! How can you not be satisfied with this drawing? It's adorable and sexy and well done. Not that I'll discourage you from doing more, of course...

And hey, if you do anything SCP related, that's a huge compliment! I love to see other people interpret the characters.

By the way, I am fully with you on Muppet Christmas Carol. It's a yearly tradition for me and the family as well. It never gets old! "Even the vegetables don't like him!"

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I'm just so amused by Rizzo and... "Dickens". and I love all the ghosts. And the song when he girlfriend ditches him. And also HELLO PRETTY SCROOGE.

[jason-register.livejournal.com]

Very romantic, well done expressions!