Craww

This is a thread to post about trends, techniques, and faux pas that annoy you in fan art. If you're posting a pet peeve, don't point fingers. Nobody likes to be singled out. But, if you're feeling gutsy, and you really want to improve, post your art for some critical (but civil) feedback.

To start us off?

I think we're seeing a real incline in IN YOUR FACE brushes and gradients. Opacity levels exist for a reason, people.

Text really should be in a color that is selected from the art, or at least something not from the menu of basic primary colors. It needs to match, or it just shouldn't be there. It should go without saying that you need to anti-alias. Make sure the text doesn't cover faces or take up the entire art. You don't need the whole song to make your point. In fact, you usually lose your point when you post the whole song. Also, just because everybody is using a font doesn't mean you should. That's how fonts get stale.

There's a difference between brightening eyes and tinting hair and making a person look demonically possessed.

Okay, that's all for now. Share your own, my pretties.

Puppet Of Love

Aspect ratio.

Slowly and phonetically so we're all clear:

ass - pect ray - she - o

A huge, huge problem with a lot of beginning artists, and when left unchecked it carries over and ruins what would otherwise be very good art.

This is a problem with screen caps, especially. Before you use caps, look at them and make sure they're the correct size. That it's not smooshed one way, for lack of a better term. If it looks to stretched out one way, adjust the size. Because really, it's just . . . bad. And it makes the baby jesus cry. Do you want to make him cry? Well do you? No? Then be careful with your aspect ratio, please.

Also, perspective. I mean, if you're playing it for "Lookit! Angel and his giant forehead of grief are looming around the front of my art, all broody and verklempt! But Buffy? Well Buffy's small and lonely, way back here in the background." That's fine. It's concept art, to a degree, and there's not enough of it around. But if you want the subjects to be interacting with each other, they need to be the same size. Please. I know as well as anyone that sometimes it's hard to recognize this in your own art when you're in the "zone" as the kids are saying these days. Show someone else, ask them. Close PS or PSP for a minute or so then go back and zoom out on your art. Be sure. Because when Syd is all pretty and Vaughn is looming behind her and one of his forehead wrinkles is sucking on her hair, no one is happy.

Craww already talked about brushes, and gradients, and text, and all the other things that make me cry. The only other thing right off the top of my head is "blending" and "cropping". Look, call it harsh if you want, but blacking out Harry and Hermione, resizing, coloring, and slapping "WEASLEY IS OUR KING!" on the picture is not fanart. It's not. Neither is cropping that stupid whore Liz out of a Roswell picture, and writing "MAX IZ SEW HOTT!"

Now, blending is tricky. I'm pretty much going to get yelled at by someone no matter what I say on the issue, but . . .I don't really care. So here I go anyway. When you take 9 screen caps, erase the edges, stick them on a blank canvas, color it pink, and write "Dawson/Joey 4evs" on it, no. If you insist on a blendy collage, at least try to make the caps fit in some sort of order that's visually pleasing. You'd be surprised how much rotating and cutting out certain parts of caps can do to make an art look better over all. Don't be afraid to focus on a detail, as opposed to the whole picture. Details are our friends. They're like little bunnies in that way. Well, little bunnies who aren't rabid.

[ 03-25-2004: Message edited Puppet Of Love ]

Cristinethegoodwitch

A few weeks ago, on another message board, I was being asked how to use the Smart Blur filter and decided to make a tutorial out of it. Well, it seems I ended up creating little monsters. Most of the people that frequent the board were newbies so they didn't really know the meaning of the word, "subtle." The end result were all these warped looking, unnaturally smooth finished fanart. So the lesson is...less is more! Learn to use the techniques properly and put some care into making you collages. Don't just paste the images and apply a filter. It makes you piece not so pleasant to look at.

I also agree with aspect ratio. I hate looking at art with faces that either look too skinny or too wide. The trick is holding down the shift button as you drag a corner pivot.

(ps. Liz from Roswell is not a whore!! She's just confused. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] )

[ 03-25-2004: Message edited Cristinethegoodwitch ]

Craww

If you don't use the dragging method of resizing, which I don't...

In Image Resize in PSP there is a button with Maintain Aspect Ratio. You usually want that checked. But if you're going to fix an aspect ratio? Uncheck it. Say you have Yoda, and he is 500x300 pixels. That's wrong! He's smushy! Well, moreso than usual. Once Maintain Aspect Ratio is unchecked, keep the width the same, but make the length longer so that it stretches him. Here is 500x370 (which still doesn't look right, but it is, because he's Yoda and therefore funnily shaped.) In my version of PS, in the Image Size, it's exactly the same thing except the box says Constrain Proportions.

Also, what Cristine mentions is so sad and true. I think all filters should be applied on a duplicate layer of the image. That way you can select areas you don't want it on strongly (eyes, other features, sometimes hair). With the eraser brush, and opacity, you can control it completely. The cheeks could be smooth as cream cheese, while the chin was smooth but has more definition, while the eyes are completely sharp.

Ashiva

Pet Peeves:

*Swirly brushes can look great when used to create sort of swirly border for a collage, but otherwise their usage usually should be banned.

*Slapping images onto canvas without adjusting colors to match each others at least some degree

*Fan art trends. For instance I made awhile ago a piece in which I used shattered glass stock photo. Not a most original idea, I know, but it worked really well for the scene, and I actually quite liked how the piece turned out. After I posted it to one forum there was, however, a huge surge of pieces using excatly same idea. Result - I nowadays hate the whole shattered glass look and my wallpaper.

*Bad manipulations. Manipulation is meant to look like real image not of manipulation! And if you absolutely must use a body that isn't like person's own body adjust it to be more like it - make breasts smaller/bigger, fatten/make slimmer the body, shorten/make taller it etc. Also why the worst manipulations are always Spuffy ones. Why, why, why? If you can't manipulate choose some other couple as your target, please, and leave my facourite couple alone, ok?

[ 03-25-2004: Message edited Ashiva ]

Agnes Bean

Overused fonts. Like Scriptina. I mean, Scriptina is pretty and all, but it’s everywhere!
On that subject, why is everyone using Will&Grace now adays? That’s a font I use ALL the time, and now its getting old because everyone uses it. Blah.

On the topic of Smart blur, what really gets me is a smart blurred picture that stil has edges. You know the way smart blur leaves some parts not smooth? Yeah, those should be smoothed out with the blur tool (around 50%). Really, they should.

Vacate

Feather! Please feather! Some pieces would look so much better if they at least feathered a bit--instead, they look really choppy.

Wildfire Girl

Hmmm ... very interesting thread idea.

My really one and only pet peeve: People who think someone else's ART isn't "good" because they don't like the color/style/texture/effect/picture/ used.

Seriously. [img]smilies/look.gif[/img]

Art is art. That means it is subjective and unique to each person. While many arts are sophomore and novice, it doesn't mean they are *bad*.

I've done some of the very things you all have listed above for effect. The one that I laught at is the mention of brightening eyes to make demonic. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] There is a character Cruz on Third Watch nearly everyone hates [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Because she is evil. So for the fun of it, I created a demonic version by changing her tints and colors.

Seriously, to me, fan art is fun, not a formula of things to do and not do to fit into everyone's idea of good. And my personal pet peeve is when others criticize and downgrade people's arts because they don't like the style.

[img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

Nicole D

Huge pet peeve #1 - those "gifted" souls who seem to pump out mediocre art in 5 second intervals. Now, there's not set time limit when making fanart, but DAMN people, take some time and evaluate what you are about to post BEFORE you post it. It's about QUALITY not quantity.

Peeve #2 - Why post a wallpaper that you're not happy with? It annoys me when people post something and then add - " i really don't like this wallpaper but i'm posting it anyway." Ummmm why? I post things I like. I post something that I can be proud of. I don't post something that makes me cringe because that would embarass me.

Peeve #3 - Over filtering. Ew. Sure, filters are nifty... IN MODERATION. Do not, by any means, over filter a piece into something unrecognizable. It's tacky.

Peeve #4 - "trends" ... THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. It's not that hard. Don't just make something to MAKE something. If it looks similar to someone's else's art, do something different to it. Please.

Peeve #5 - Cat Eyes. They're cool. I have to admit, i've used them before... way back when. But like Craww said (and this brings back the over filtering peeve), don't make the person look like some kind of demon... unless that's the look you're going for.

Peeve #6 - crappy blending. I bow down to the awesomeness that is Puppet of Love. I couldn't agree more. Blending is more than slapping a bunch of screencaps together. 'cmon, people should KNOW that.

Agnes Bean

Well, I’ve gotta say, I do this sometimes. I’ll never post something that makes me cringe, but sometimes I’ll struggle with a piece of art for hours, and it’ll be beaten into a shape I semi-like, but aren’t thrilled with, so I’ll mention that.

Craww

Fan Art is fun. But viewing it as just fun takes any self criticism out of the picture and turns it into Fan Computer Graphics instead of Fan Art. Art isn't supposed to be all fun, and if it was, it wouldn't ever be great.

Of course it's not a formula. I mean, I don't think any of these rules should never be broken, because I've broken many of them in the name of concept art. But none of them are good ideas for everyday art.

Cristinethegoodwitch

I totally agree with what Craww said. Fan Art is fun. I'm speaking for myself when I say that I am very critical of my own work. I'll work on a piece for hours and even after all the time I've spent on it and I still don't like it, I'll just hit the delete button and erase everything.

My personal pet peeve is when people churn out wp's like they're some kind of factory. There is nothing wrong with making lots and lots of art but at least take some care and pride in your work. I find a lot of these artists who spit out "art" almost every day don't take the time to improve their work. It's almost always the same thing. We all learn by trying different things so don't be afraid to experiment.

Another pet peeve is when artists don't take the time to comment on other people's work (constantly), but I guess this is more of a posting peeve than a fan art peeve.

Wildfire Girl

I totally agree. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

And yes, it annoys me as well when artists expect people to *praise* their art, but they don't take the time to comment on others art.

And trying new things is a must. My arts evolve often (though they probably aren't *good* in many people's books). I'll have a style or something I bump into while playing around and use it for several arts and bump into something else, etc.

Agnes Bean

Could you clarify this a bit? Because the way it reads, it sounds like people aren’t allowed to not like something. Because, I mean, yeah, it’s art so everyone is entitled to there own opinion, but that doesn’t mean I can’t think something with crappy blending is bad. I don’t think I could say a piece of art WAS bad, but I could say I think it’s bad. Or is that what you were saying?

silvercrystal

Yup I agree with that. There are plenty of arts I've started and then just deleted because I didn't like the way they turned out. And then there's the stuff I look back on and think I was insane for thinking it was any good. So personally I see criticism as a good thing, it gives you something to work on and improve.

I would see that as partly a fanart peeve. Getting feedback is important, good or bad. Always just posting art and not giving feedback but expecting it in return annoys the hell out of me. I'm not saying I always leave feedback but I do try. So feedback = good.