FANART

It's Pretty... But What Does It Mean?

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by Annoying Schizoid

Okay. So you see a painting of a sailboat floating along in waters that are so calm and so clear that it has to be fake—and on that cute little boat is a sailor, a pigeon, and a bag of Lay’s potato chips. It’s beautiful, no doubt—so beautiful that it dazzled the admiration and checkbooks out of the many wealthy art collectors in the gallery who are right there with you. But what are you thinking? Most likely, your thoughts are something along the lines of, "WTHBBQ?", "Oh, that’s pretty," or some awkward combination of the two.

Later on, however, you may find out that the painting was meant to capture a Greater Meaning. The sailboat was supposed to represent humankind, floating adrift in the vast, beautiful—and fish-filled—ocean that is our universe. The pigeon was supposed to represent the human conscience, and the bag of chips symbolizes the struggle between good and evil that rages on within every mortal being. And the sailor? Well, he was just there to sail the boat.

Some believe that complicated and hidden meanings are what make works of art masterpieces. When you think of it that way, the greatness of a painting can be measured by how beautiful and how confusing it is. Well, fortunately for us, no one expects fanart to be so-called "masterpieces". Fanart is clear, concise, and to the point. If a fanartist were to draw a picture of a boat with a sailor, a pigeon, and a bag of chips, I’d know without a doubt what it would be. It would be a picture of a boat, a sailor, a pigeon, and a bag of chips. No strings attached. No Greater Meaning. No point being made. Why? Because fanart is pointless. (In a good way.)

So then the question is what are fanarts supposed to portray?

There can be several answers to that because there are several things people want to see in their fanart. People want to see the characters of their favorite book come to life in color and ink strokes. They want to see scenes from a movie or show captured in a snapshot. They want to see their own alterations of those scenes. They want to put characters in absurd situations so they can laugh at their expense, and they want to see their favorite fictional couple share a tender kiss.

If you are an Artemis Fowl x Holly Short "shipper", for example, then you might draw a picture of the two on a date. But if you’re like me and you’re not the romance-type, you might draw a picture of the characters in their own element: Artemis smiling his Vampire Smile™, Butler training Juliet in the art of karate, Root turning a vibrant shade of purple, Cudgeon applying ointment to his face…

The choices are endless. But what if you can’t think of anything to draw? Don’t even think you’re creative enough? Well, then that can be remedied by a bit of brainstorming and a confidence booster!

The first thing you must remember is this: there is not one person on this Earth who is without an imagination. Artemis Fowl fanartists have it easy, since there are so many things in the series that just cry out to be drawn. Just flip through the book and maybe an interesting scene will catch your interest. In the first AF book, the opening scene where the sprite’s green hand shoots out to Artemis for the bottle of wine is great for people who like to draw dark, mysterious settings.

(Quick Tip: if there’s something you don’t particularly like drawing, like hands or feet or detailed backgrounds, you can cheat your way out of drawing them by covering them with something else. Example: avoid drawing feet by having a person stand behind a bush; cover up the hands by positioning them where you can’t see or making the character hold something; shadowy places and carefully angled viewpoints make backgrounds a lot less stressful on us starving artists.)

Or for people who love emotional scenes, the end of the Arctic Incident where Artemis collapses from relief and happiness at the safe return of his father is the way to go. But for people who like humor: any scene involving either Foaly, Mulch, or the word "flatulence" will do.

Scenes not your thing? For those who prefer to keep it simple, I’d suggest drawing just the characters, or making up your own scene. This way, you have the freedom to draw things the way you think they should look. Draw Artemis and make a mental image of him in your mind. Like your own personal mannequin, move around his legs and his arms, play with his facial expression, dress him up in anything you like (I’d suggest either an Armani suit or a pink muscle shirt). You can also try your hand at comedy. The best thing about comedy is that it doesn’t have to be pretty to be good. No matter how bad you think you are at drawing, everyone loves something that will make them laugh. Sure enough, people are turning out stick figures with witty lines next to them, and everyone else is eating it up, myself included.

If you’re looking for a fun, new theme for your next fanart, then you can always look for a challenge or a fanart contest to inspire you. The gallery below has examples of the type of themes used in contests, so if you’re looking for that spark of inspiration, try entering and see what you turn out.

GALLERY: Contest Winners

As mentioned in our last issue, the deviantART club ArtemisFowlfc hosts regular fanart competitions. In this month’s gallery, we’re featuring the winners of those past contests. Here’s how these contests work: the club specifies the theme/subject for participants to draw and after the submissions have closed, the winners are decided by popular vote. I would love to feature all the placers and entries for the ArtemisFowlfc contests, but unfortunately my humble little gallery can’t handle that many images.

First, I would like to apologize for misspelling aqane’s name in our last issue. (Well, I guess it’s a good thing that this article is about art instead of writing, isn’t it?) Enough about me, let’s talk about this fanart.

This is the winner of the Christmas contest from last year, showing a lovely scene with the Fowl cast. Having Artemis (on Butler’s shoulders!) and Holly putting the star on the traditional Christmas tree puts a smile on your face and a giggle in your belly. And if you take a good look, you can see that more AF characters make appearances in this fanart: (from top to bottom) Root, Foaly, Mulch, and Juliet as adorable, round Christmas ornaments. I love that even these mini-characters are drawn with detail—seeing a ball-shaped Juliet in jeans and a WWF t-shirt just made my day.

If the artist’s always unique drawing style wasn’t good enough, the clothing and shading in the folds are done with a good amount of detail, and the positioning/posing of Holly, Artemis, and Butler is also very nice. The deal sealers, however, are the stars and Holly’s wings. Like something out of our childhood memories, they light up the picture, like magic. Fairy magic, perhaps? Or maybe it’s San D’Klass making a special visit.

This fanart is really cute because, hey, who doesn’t like to play dress-up with book characters for the holidays? Juliet looking pretty. Butler as Santa. Artemis as Santa’s disgruntled little helper. And Angeline Fowl, looking as if she was the one who lovingly forced her dear son into such an adorable outfit. Oh, and there’s also one more character: a sneak cameo from Holly, who is the "angel" (or elf, rather) that sits atop the Christmas tree.

The coloring here is done in neat cell-shading, using a lot of red, green, and white, to get us into the Christmas spirit. I particularly like this artist’s depiction of the characters, because their personalities are put on display, as well as their cute costume designs. Most fanarts feature Artemis, Butler, or Holly, but I like that this one has also included Juliet and Angeline, of whom (in my humble opinion) there are not nearly enough fanarts.

It’s Valentines Day for Artemis and Holly and…Foaly, too! Well, I can see that this fanart swept the AH voters off their feet, and even non-AH shippers can have a little fun with this because it’s such a funny scene. This fanart definitely gets points for creativity. Come to think of it, if Artemis and Holly ever did get together, I bet Foaly would be right there watching all the way. A little Valentine’s Day blackmail, anyone?

The characters here are drawn in a way that just makes you giggle (or snicker, for those who are too manly to giggle). Foaly, our favorite sarcastic centaur, is complete with headset and carrot accessories. Holly is smaller than Artemis, but not so much as to make the scene look awkward or disturbing. And Artemis, sporting a cute little blush, looks like he’s either in love or in shock. I think that sums up the Valentine’s Day season pretty well.

Ah…true love. Well, at least that’s what it looks like between Mulch and Juliet in this fanart. Let me tell you, before I saw this picture the MulchxJuliet pairing never even crossed my unoriginal mind. I didn’t know that they would look so good together, but there’s one thing I do know. I have completely been converted to MulchxJuliet now. I think "Muliet" has a nice ring to it, don’t you?

This picture is just great. This scene is funny and romantic! (And it even solves the issue of height difference in fairy-human relationships by letting Mulch stand on a pile of dirt.) In addition to the overall laughableness of this fanart, you also have to appreciate the nice, neat, three-shade coloring, especially with the clean lines and the detailed-but-not-too-detailed drawing style.

Price of Juliet’s jade earrings and ponytail: $50. Trip to the mountains: $78. Each jewel in the picture: a couple million dollars. Having Mulch dig up his secret, underground stash of said jewels and presenting them as a bouquet: Priceless.

This fanart is simple, but still very pretty. Personally, my favorite part of this picture is Artemis’ expression. It’s so very In Character for him; he manages to look thoughtful and at peace simultaneously. It seems so very Artemis to enjoy a beautiful spring day with a computer in his lap. Plus, the breeze blowing through his hair is an added bonus.

Here, cool spring-type colors are used to paint a pretty backdrop of rolling green hills and yellow flowers. The sky is a perfect blue, complemented by a very nicely done cloud. I really like the coloring here, both in the smooth/soft background and in the details of Artemis’ clothes and hair. Voters must have been won over by how nicely it all comes together and the handsome way Artemis was drawn. In this fanart, Artemis is what we anime-lovers call a "bishounen", which, by my translation, means that he’s very, very hot and could he come to life so I can fawn over him, please?

For the last fanart in this month’s gallery, we have none other than Mulch, getting into the Easter spirit. There are a few reasons I can think of that would make people vote for this picture. First, who doesn’t want Mulch to pop out of their Easter egg? Second, the image is really cute and if it doesn’t make you smile, you must be a humor-less bull troll. Finally, it’s Mulch! Enough said.

"Keep cool, it’s Easter," should be a year-long motto. I always love fanart with smiling faces, because those smiles are often contagious. Mulch, who needs braces and possibly a good shampooing, is just the perfect little Easter surprise. Overall, just very, very, oh-so-cute.

Well, that’s it for the September issue. I hope to keep going like this (but hopefully these sections won’t be so long and boring), so I’d love some feedback and suggestions of what you want to see! You can contact me by my deviantART account, or at the Orion Awards forums. Also, if you have a deviantART account, please make sure to give all the fanarts hosted here lots of views and comments on their linked dA galleries!

Next time:

Tips, drawing styles, and a boatload of tutorials! Thanks for stayin', and make sure to come by in October for:

"As Easy As 1, 2, 3"