The process and ideas for the progress of the module up until this point have shown me that I am mainly interested in just showing progress with my illustrative ability. I feel like my creativity has got a bit stagnant at the moment and recently I've not really been able to create anything I'm proud of and I have also not been seeing any progress in my rendering techniques which is very frustrating to me.
In this module I want to push myself to try new techniques when I'm drawing and to practice the techniques that I find are working for me in order to, by the end of the year, be able to see a notable improvement in my artistic ability. This is even more important as I am more and more sure that eventually, after university, I want to become a freelance illustrator.
In order to do this, I need to research and develop, not only my rendering techniques and artistic ability but also by knowledge about self promotion.
Because of this, I have decided to apply for Dundee Comic Convention (DeeCon) 2016 in order to force myself to progress quickly in my art and also learn more about the industry I am going into. DeeCon is a small convention so it's a good place to have a first attempt at researching marketing techniques, building up a client base and selling some work.
The messy world of Fan Art and Copyright
I have already stated previously in my blog that I wanted to keep creating fan art for this project. This is because it allows me to quickly improve my rendering technique, and allows me to experiment with different processes, without having to spend lots of time making the module all about character design which involves a lot of research into culture/fabrics/costumes ect leaving less time for actually drawing (which is always what frustrates me about my CAP modules, I spend so much time developing my character concept the painting is never to a standard I'm happy with.)
The possibility of an issue occurs when I put the research plan of creating fan art to improve my rendering ability, and wanting to get some hands on practical research with freelance experience, together.
Everybody knows that selling fan art is technically illegal. A fan creator isn't the copyright owner of any fan works they produce as the character/content wasn't created by them.
According to the law, copyright protects intellectual works/works of authorship and so selling derivative works of a copyright could get you into trouble. As long as your work contains any content from a third party the copyright holder of that content has full, legal rights to take action against you profiting from their material, if they so desire. In which case you will be sent a cease and desist which, if ignored, could wind you up in court where "I didn't know it wasn't legal" isn't gonna fly.
It's also worth noting that fan art can be a trademark violation as well, especially if it uses names and titles in a way that causes confusion as to whether they are official.
But at the same time, copyright is civil in nature, not criminal--the copyright holder has to request a court to enforce the law.
Companies don't like it if you present characters in a way that undermines the original media (see "Bronies", adult male fans of My Little Pony, for example.
Despite this, the law can be a complex thing and fan fiction/cosplay and fan art all remain wildly popular and widely tolerated. This is mainly because of:
The Unspoken Rule
From a copyright holder viewpoint, fan art is usually not very harmful. Fans create works that are openly recognized to be non-canon to the story and are not replacements for the original.
In fact, some comanies/creators feel that fan art/cosplay/fic ect can keep fans engaged in a product/series ect between official releases of that product and can also serve as advertising that they do not have to create or pay for.
Also, an issue for a copyright holder would be "going to war with fans". No creator wants to sue their fans especially when those fans do not make very much money from selling fan art anyway, and also, it would take a lot of time and resources for a company to track down and stop every single person selling fan art.
Even if a company could do so, they would also, essentially be attacking their own fans, and this could result in bad publicity. On top of this, most companies have better things to do than to generate bad press by suing small-time artists.
Because of all this, most creators will tolerate fan content under most circumstances.
And on top of this, the argument could be made that if an artist is portraying that media/character in their own way or own media, a certain amount of credit for the creation of that content is theirs. It would be one thing if you were redrawing say, a cover of a comic yourself, but it could be another if you've taken a character and portray it in a way that hasn't been done before.
The real law says one, definite thing, but that can be okay, because people in the real world, real society can adopt an understanding and say actually, its okay and were not gonna do anything about this thing as long as it doesn't threaten or undermine us on a noticeable scale.
I just wanted to take the time to discuss this on my blog in order to show that I am aware of arguments for and against fan art which is a major issue in my field of research (freelance illustration, illustration and online or in fan communities in general)
99% of all art sold at anime conventions is typically fan art and so for the moment (and for this module) I'm calling fan art ok. However, this discussing something to keep in mind and be aware of as I continue my career after this module. Less from a legal aspect but more from the approach of "I would like to be original and if I could create a living through selling original art that could set me apart from other creators in a big way as many/most freelances rely heavily on fan work.
Fan art in artist alleys:
References:
http://chrisoatley.com/fan-art/
http://kirawra.deviantart.com/art/The-Truth-About-Selling-Fanart-212570726
http://graphicleftovers.com/blog/fan-art-vs-copyright-infringement-legal/
https://nabaroo.com/discussion/clairestamper/Selling-fan-art-%11-yay-or-nay%3F
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tyv4b/eli5_how_is_selling_fan_art_legal/
https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/05/13/the-messy-world-of-fan-art-and-copyright/
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