Thoughts on my choices for potential Fan Art
polycounter lvl 9
Hey Polycount!
So our class had a guest speaker last night that reiterated the benefit of having fan art in your portfolio because it has the potential to make your portfolio into a conversation starter. And it's fun to work on stuff you like. So my last character was supposed to be fan art, but I did a kind of crap job picking out what to do. I did a character from "Y the Last Man" and I thought everyone was a fan of that series because all my friends like it 10 years ago. On top of that I chose to make a really minor character from the series. So my approach at fan art was not very smart and probably pretty obscure, now that I think about it. So I'm going to try again when I make my next character and I would love your thoughts on it. Here is what I posted to my facebook earlier. I'll just past it here.
Hey internet. I want to have a little fan art in my portfolio so I was thinking of achieving that with my next character. My last character was supposed to achieve that but I think I failed myself on that angle my choosing a minor character in one of my favorite comic book series. I need your help choosing because left to my own devices I will choose really obscure shit that no one really knows, I guess. So keep me in line and help me out?
My thoughts on my next character:
The Goon: I've actually always wanted to recreate The Goon from the comic book series, but a really kick ass 3d movie kind of beat me to it My instinct is that it would be redundant to create a 3D goon. Thoughts?
The Sandman: It would be fun to sculpt out Morpheus or Death from this comic but this series is kind of old now. And I feel like I've made a bunch of character that are stuck in the 90's and it is starting to make me feel like I'm stuck in the 90's
The Walking Dead Novels: Ewww, you can't tag the comic book version without it saying Novels. wtf? So this was one of my favorite comics. And then they started making a TV show, which is great because I could never get my boyfriend to read the comics but he will watch the show. If I did do the The Walking Dead I would want to base it off of the comic and not the series. Bad idea?
China Mieville: Okay so I wouldn't sculpt the author but this dude has created a whole universe of creatures that exist throughout several of his books. He does such an amazing job describing this universe that I have always wanted to create something from it. Back when I did more environments I really wanted to create the floating Pirate city from The Scar (still might someday when I have a life again) I was thinking of creating a character from this universe like a Khepri, a Remade, a Vodyanoi, or a Anophelii. But am I fooling myself? Is China Mielville obscure? I don't even know anymore.
Thanks to whoever takes the time to read this and I would love any thoughts whether you're an artist, friend, relative, old friend, or whoever.
So, I would also love your opinion polycount.
So our class had a guest speaker last night that reiterated the benefit of having fan art in your portfolio because it has the potential to make your portfolio into a conversation starter. And it's fun to work on stuff you like. So my last character was supposed to be fan art, but I did a kind of crap job picking out what to do. I did a character from "Y the Last Man" and I thought everyone was a fan of that series because all my friends like it 10 years ago. On top of that I chose to make a really minor character from the series. So my approach at fan art was not very smart and probably pretty obscure, now that I think about it. So I'm going to try again when I make my next character and I would love your thoughts on it. Here is what I posted to my facebook earlier. I'll just past it here.
Hey internet. I want to have a little fan art in my portfolio so I was thinking of achieving that with my next character. My last character was supposed to achieve that but I think I failed myself on that angle my choosing a minor character in one of my favorite comic book series. I need your help choosing because left to my own devices I will choose really obscure shit that no one really knows, I guess. So keep me in line and help me out?
My thoughts on my next character:
The Goon: I've actually always wanted to recreate The Goon from the comic book series, but a really kick ass 3d movie kind of beat me to it My instinct is that it would be redundant to create a 3D goon. Thoughts?
The Sandman: It would be fun to sculpt out Morpheus or Death from this comic but this series is kind of old now. And I feel like I've made a bunch of character that are stuck in the 90's and it is starting to make me feel like I'm stuck in the 90's
The Walking Dead Novels: Ewww, you can't tag the comic book version without it saying Novels. wtf? So this was one of my favorite comics. And then they started making a TV show, which is great because I could never get my boyfriend to read the comics but he will watch the show. If I did do the The Walking Dead I would want to base it off of the comic and not the series. Bad idea?
China Mieville: Okay so I wouldn't sculpt the author but this dude has created a whole universe of creatures that exist throughout several of his books. He does such an amazing job describing this universe that I have always wanted to create something from it. Back when I did more environments I really wanted to create the floating Pirate city from The Scar (still might someday when I have a life again) I was thinking of creating a character from this universe like a Khepri, a Remade, a Vodyanoi, or a Anophelii. But am I fooling myself? Is China Mielville obscure? I don't even know anymore.
Thanks to whoever takes the time to read this and I would love any thoughts whether you're an artist, friend, relative, old friend, or whoever.
So, I would also love your opinion polycount.
Replies
A good example would be that Darksiders Link that was posted on polycount some time ago. So I would say, create any character you really love regardless of if people have heard of it or not, and try to make it special with your own touch. Personally I don't read comic books because my childhood was a joke, so I have no idea who the hell any of those people you listed are.
It goes back to scope, you could do fan art of a character from a video game, but what if the people who see it never played that game? Your artwork should be awesome enough so that people know it's badass without knowing who you created or where you got your inspiration from.
At least that's my opinion, whatever you choose to do, good luck!
The reasons for my fan art is all around exposure and what has been mentioned putting your own spin on things. The best part about making comic book work is the reference your working from is 2D and entirely up to your interpretation and what style you choose to create this character in. Realistic or "cartoonish" or even Anime, ect.ect.
As for your choices I also wanted to create the Goon at one point or another I am sure most have as well but the creator of that piece blew it out of the water and done an amazing job on it.
If I had the time and wanted to I would try to replicate almost exactly (even though it wouldn't be) what that artist has done, it would help me learn a bit more as to why he did what he did for certain areas of the character.
Though doing this would not be the best course of action for a portfolio piece, granted you'll learn but it won't really be an "original", piece.
I would like to think the best course of action to take on fan-art would be to put your own spin on it (as mentioned) but perhaps to also steer clear of designing the character along the same lines as someone else, so if they did realistic do Anime, if they did stylized cartoon, do relaistic, vice versa, ect.ect. to keep things fresh.
Think many would agree that seeing a character over and over does loose that pizazz and your just like omg another one of these and nobody wants that, I don't think.
Best of luck this does spark a conversation if nothing else.