Can I Get a Book Printed With Fan Art
How fan art can go you paid
Creating fan fine art is a popular way for artists to show their appreciation for a subject they love. You only have to glance at sites similar DeviantArt or ArtStation to see plenty of inspiring tributes to pop culture icons. Reimagining famous characters is more than than just a good way to proceed your creative skills sharp, though. It can also give your portfolio the leg up it needs to grab attending in your chosen industry.
One of the main benefits of your fan fine art being noticed by a studio or some other big client, besides the reassuring confirmation that what you're creating is worth your time, is the prospect of beingness paid a handsome sum for your work.
This also flies in the face of the thought that fan art is somehow of less value than other genres – those hours hauled upward in your studio working on Game of Thrones portraits won't be seen as such a waste product when the testify'due south producers commission you to create art for the premiere of the next serial.
Hither we talk to some artists who have forged careers from their fan art, and choice up some tips for how to depict art that will pull in commissions.
Principal illustration: Fellipe Martins
Netflix commissions
Bannon Rudis plant Netflix knocking on his door to create promotional art for the second series of Stranger Things after some fan art he posted on Twitter was shared by David Harbour, who plays police chief Jim Hopper in the show.
"It kinda snowballed from that point and popped up on a agglomeration of different sites," says Rudis. "Netflix's advertising partners got agree of me via Twitter virtually a year afterwards." Rudis was i of 8 artists picked to represent an episode from the original series equally part of an Instagram marketing campaign. He was lucky enough to be landed with episode half-dozen: The Monster.
"I decided to brand 8-chip animation shorts for them that looked similar a potential real Stranger Things game, since all the characters and backgrounds were made similar bodily game assets," explains Rudis. "There were three shorts in total and a couple of championship cards."
Comic book covers
While Rudis had to wait a while for Netflix to arrive bear upon, Fellipe Martins had a much quicker turnaround when he posted his tribute to Gamble Fourth dimension's Marceline on Tumblr. "1 twenty-four hours later later I posted it, [the testify's creator] Pendleton Ward shared it on his Cartoon Tumblr."
Martins is no stranger to his fan art doing the rounds. His first piece of digital painting back in college was a piece of Super Mario fan fine art that ended up being featured on the likes of Kotaku. "The fan art piled up with Links and Megamans, until I got my start job every bit a concept artist in 2007."
Jumping on the success of his Marceline illustration, Martins quickly got in contact with the editors from Nail! Studios, who are responsible for all the Cartoon Network licensed comics, including Adventure Time.
"They saw the fan art, saw my portfolio at the time and I was offered to illustrate a few Take a chance Fourth dimension comic book covers, then Regular Testify covers, then Steven Universe covers," says Martins. "Eventually I illustrated my own Amazing World of Gumball comic volume story. I believe I have a Bee & Puppycat script laying around here somewhere, too."
Disney posters
1 of the most exciting parts nearly putting fan art out in that location is watching it abound and concenter an audience. This happened to Claire Hummel when she started posting her historical Disney princess series online back in early on 2011.
"I posted Belle in a 1770s version of her gilded ball gown to all the usual venues (DeviantArt and Tumblr were probably my biggest communities at the fourth dimension), and it immediately took off in a way I hadn't seen before," she explains. "As a result I expanded it into a series, and by the end of 2011 I had churned out about x princess in their respective historical periods."
Then in May of 2012, Hummel got an email from Irrational Games studio out of the blue, asking if she'd be interested in doing graphic symbol designs for BioShock Infinite. "They cited the historical princesses when we initially talked over the phone, proverb that they specifically wanted to bring a more historical heart to the characters," says Hummel.
"I was a huge fan of the original BioShock, my boss at Xbox at the time gave me the go ahead to accept on the freelance, so I said yes!"
There might have been a clear path between Hummel's princess series and landing work on BioShock Infinite, but for Dan Mumford information technology hasn't been quite so articulate cut. Instead, it was exhibiting his fine art in various group gallery shows that led to new projects and calls from clients who saw the work.
His trajectory has never quite been a directly line, and he's go used to waiting months between projects – but his technique did win big eventually. "My work with Gallery1988 led to me creating four posters for Disney and the release of Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens," he recalls.
"This has been the case with quite a few projects. Getting involved with big grouping shows at the more prominent popular culture galleries is a smashing way to go your piece of work noticed. A lot of people are paying attention to those lineups and the work that gets created."
Back up fan fine art with substance
While fan art tin can exist a useful claw to take hold of people's attention, Hummel is smashing to bespeak out that what really makes artists stand out from the crowd is having their own distinctive creative flair. "I think it's pretty rare that employers are looking for people to draw what they already have," she reasons.
"Fan fine art is a claw that tin get the attention of employers, yes, only you yet have to have a lot of substance to back it upwards," she adds. "Part of that can exist the content in the pieces themselves – in my case with the princesses and Irrational, that was appealing costume blueprint and extensive enquiry into historical fashion – simply I even so had a portfolio and resume beyond that serial to back up my case."
Martins agrees that while his Marceline fan art gave his freelance career the sparkle that it needed to lift off, without a strong portfolio to back information technology up, the fine art would only exist a viral image.
"You need a potent portfolio – and that's it," he says. "Fan art drives the attention of a broader audition, which means that creators might come across it besides. When luck knocks on your door – and it will – brand sure you are ready. You can only exist sure with a strong portfolio to make that first contact. You also need to practise to keep up with the demands. If you lot are serious about information technology, exist set."
If you lot want to get noticed, honestly, do what is popular
Bannon Rudis
So, if you've got a killer portfolio that only needs to get seen, a juicy slice of fan art, shared smartly, can concenter a lot of eyeballs. Merely how exercise artists fix their fan fine art apart from the noise on social media?
"If you desire to go noticed, honestly, do what is popular," says Rudis. "Expect upward pop hashtags to run into if anything in that superlative ten that'southward trending is something you lot love. If then, hop on that railroad train and get to drawing."
Cartoon for the likes and retweets is all well and good, but Hummel warns confronting artists trying to brand their break by sharing fan art via social media specifically. "A watched pot never boils and all that – so a watched fan art tweet never gets retweets, I guess.
"I do, however, think that challenging yourself with how yous arroyo fan art is a nifty fashion to make the process more than satisfying, and to make the resulting art more unique and compelling. Information technology's a win/win!"
Draw what excites you lot
Mumford falls somewhere between Rudis and Hummel. "There are many great ways to get your artwork out at that place, merely creating fan artwork for something popular is certainly going to get the attention of people, and if that leads to people seeing more personal piece of work then that's fantastic," he says.
"At the end of the day, creating practiced artwork and putting it out there volition get you noticed."
Information technology seems that the reputation of fan art has improved over contempo years, with studios keeping their optics peeled for interpretations with a fresh twist. Martins puts this down to brands such as Blizzard wanting to develop strong communities around their products.
"They encourage fan artists and cosplayers to participate, even hiring them from time to fourth dimension," he explains. "In any case, a good art piece is e'er a skillful art piece, be it original or fan art.
"From a personal betoken of view, do what your heart desires," he adds. "There should exist no barriers to what you want to create."
This article was originally published in 2017.
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Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/features/how-fan-art-can-get-you-paid