How to Get a License to Sell Fan Art
How fan art can get you paid
Creating fan art is a pop style for artists to show their appreciation for a discipline they love. Yous only accept to glance at sites like DeviantArt or ArtStation to meet enough of inspiring tributes to popular culture icons. Reimagining famous characters is more than just a practiced way to keep your creative skills precipitous, though. It can as well give your portfolio the leg up it needs to grab attending in your called industry.
One of the principal benefits of your fan art being noticed past a studio or another big client, besides the reassuring confirmation that what you're creating is worth your time, is the prospect of being paid a handsome sum for your work.
This also flies in the face of the idea 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 material when the show's producers commission you to create art for the premiere of the next series.
Here nosotros talk to some artists who have forged careers from their fan art, and pick up some tips for how to draw fine art that will pull in commissions.
Main illustration: Fellipe Martins
Netflix commissions
Bannon Rudis found 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 primary Jim Hopper in the show.
"It kinda snowballed from that point and popped up on a agglomeration of different sites," says Rudis. "Netflix's advertisement partners got hold of me via Twitter about a year after." Rudis was one of eight artists picked to represent an episode from the original serial equally part of an Instagram marketing campaign. He was lucky enough to be landed with episode half-dozen: The Monster.
"I decided to make 8-bit animation shorts for them that looked like a potential existent Stranger Things game, since all the characters and backgrounds were made like bodily game avails," explains Rudis. "There were three shorts in total and a couple of title cards."
Comic volume covers
While Rudis had to wait a while for Netflix to get in bear on, Fellipe Martins had a much quicker turnaround when he posted his tribute to Adventure Time's Marceline on Tumblr. "One day later after I posted it, [the show'south creator] Pendleton Ward shared it on his Drawing Tumblr."
Martins is no stranger to his fan art doing the rounds. His outset slice of digital painting dorsum in college was a piece of Super Mario fan fine art that ended up existence featured on the likes of Kotaku. "The fan fine art piled up with Links and Megamans, until I got my outset job as a concept artist in 2007."
Jumping on the success of his Marceline analogy, Martins quickly got in contact with the editors from Boom! Studios, who are responsible for all the Cartoon Network licensed comics, including Take chances Time.
"They saw the fan fine art, saw my portfolio at the time and I was offered to illustrate a few Adventure Time comic book covers, then Regular Evidence 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, likewise."
Disney posters
1 of the nearly exciting parts almost putting fan art out in that location is watching it grow and attract an audience. This happened to Claire Hummel when she started posting her historical Disney princess series online back in early 2011.
"I posted Belle in a 1770s version of her gold brawl gown to all the usual venues (DeviantArt and Tumblr were probably my biggest communities at the time), and information technology immediately took off in a way I hadn't seen before," she explains. "As a result I expanded information technology into a series, and by the end of 2011 I had churned out about ten 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 grapheme designs for BioShock Space. "They cited the historical princesses when nosotros initially talked over the phone, saying that they specifically wanted to bring a more historical centre to the characters," says Hummel.
"I was a huge fan of the original BioShock, my boss at Xbox at the fourth dimension gave me the become ahead to accept on the freelance, and so I said yes!"
In that location might have been a clear path between Hummel'due south princess series and landing piece of work on BioShock Infinite, simply for Dan Mumford information technology hasn't been quite so clear cut. Instead, it was exhibiting his art in diverse grouping gallery shows that led to new projects and calls from clients who saw the work.
His trajectory has never quite been a straight line, and he's become 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 VII: The Strength Awakens," he recalls.
"This has been the case with quite a few projects. Getting involved with big grouping shows at the more than prominent pop culture galleries is a great manner to get your work noticed. A lot of people are paying attention to those lineups and the piece of work that gets created."
Back upwards fan art with substance
While fan art can be a useful hook to catch people's attention, Hummel is nifty to indicate out that what really makes artists stand out from the crowd is having their own distinctive creative flair. "I think it'south pretty rare that employers are looking for people to draw what they already have," she reasons.
"Fan art is a hook that tin can go the attending of employers, yes, but you still have to accept a lot of substance to back information technology up," she adds. "Part of that tin exist the content in the pieces themselves – in my case with the princesses and Irrational, that was appealing costume design and extensive research into historical fashion – but I however had a portfolio and resume beyond that series to support my case."
Martins agrees that while his Marceline fan fine art gave his freelance career the sparkle that information technology needed to lift off, without a strong portfolio to dorsum it up, the art would just be a viral paradigm.
"You lot need a strong portfolio – and that's it," he says. "Fan fine art drives the attending of a broader audition, which means that creators might see it as well. When luck knocks on your door – and information technology will – make sure you are ready. Y'all tin only exist sure with a strong portfolio to make that first contact. You too demand to do to keep upwards with the demands. If you are serious nigh it, be gear up."
If y'all desire to become 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 attract a lot of eyeballs. Just how do artists set their fan art apart from the noise on social media?
"If you want to become noticed, honestly, practise what is popular," says Rudis. "Look up pop hashtags to see if anything in that top x that's trending is something you love. If and then, hop on that train and get to drawing."
Cartoon for the likes and retweets is all well and good, but Hummel warns against artists trying to make their suspension by sharing fan fine art via social media specifically. "A watched pot never boils and all that – and so a watched fan art tweet never gets retweets, I guess.
"I do, nonetheless, remember that challenging yourself with how you approach fan fine art is a neat way to make the process more satisfying, and to make the resulting fine art more unique and compelling. It's a win/win!"
Draw what excites yous
Mumford falls somewhere between Rudis and Hummel. "There are many swell ways to get your artwork out there, but creating fan artwork for something popular is certainly going to get the attention of people, and if that leads to people seeing more than personal work then that'south fantastic," he says.
"At the end of the solar day, creating good artwork and putting it out there volition become yous noticed."
It seems that the reputation of fan fine art has improved over recent years, with studios keeping their eyes peeled for interpretations with a fresh twist. Martins puts this downwards 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 fourth dimension to time," he explains. "In any case, a good art piece is e'er a good art piece, be it original or fan art.
"From a personal point of view, do what your centre desires," he adds. "There should be no barriers to what you desire to create."
This article was originally published in 2017.
Related manufactures:
- 36 inspirational examples of tattoo art
- How to suspension into movie concept fine art
- How to make money on Instagram every bit a creative
Related articles
Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/features/how-fan-art-can-get-you-paid
0 Response to "How to Get a License to Sell Fan Art"
Enregistrer un commentaire