Fanart: A guide to terminology
May. 8th, 2010 01:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunatiqueFanart: A guide to terminology
Written by:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
littlewolfstar and yue_ix, with the assistance of pseudo_geek and xenakis_
Fanart is to art what fanfiction is to fiction. That is, visual artistic creations based/inspired by an original source material, created by fans, for fans.
The fanlore FANART page is a great place to learn about the history of fanarts and fanart trends.
This guide is intended to clarify some of the fanart vocabulary that can often be misconceived.
Fanlore explains this better than I could: "Colloquially, fanart most commonly refers to the art for a series that is drawn or painted either traditionally or digitally. However, colloquial use can also be dependent on the fandom. For example, in a fandom where photo manipulation is the dominant form of art, "fanart" for the fandom often implies "photo manipulation" not traditional art. Some fandoms also refuse to consider icons or banners as "fanart." "
This is our motivation for making this guide; to establish a clearer definition of various "fanarts" to avoid mishaps related to terminology.
For the purpose of this guide, we are looking at mediums, styles and types as they are generally used in the context of fandom, but not necessarily in the art world at large. Since some definitions are nebulous and hard to explain, we've incorporated examples to illustrate concepts in ways we couldn't with words.
Wiki defines a medium as "the materials and techniques used by an artist to create and produce a work."
Understand that any medium can be done in any style and will give it a different flavor, and that styles are often combined.
Usually when artists say that they do traditional art, it means that they draw/paint with with tangible pigments on a physical surface.
Painting and Drawing mean you are creating an image by making marks on a surface.
The mediums used often include, but are not limited to: pencil, colored pencils, pen, charcoal/conté crayon, pastels, markers, watercolor, acrylics, oil, ink (the border) and airbrush. Many traditionnal-like effects can also be copied digitally, though there are always some difference. (ex: traditionnal watercolors VS digital watercolor effect)
Traditional painting and drawing are often paired with digital mediums. One of the common way is drawing lines by hand and coloring inside them digitally.
EXAMPLES:
Eirlys cover by berlinghoff79
Pencil + photoshop piece by timetraveled
Digital Art is perhaps one of the terms most often confused, since it can encompass a great many things without distinction. Most Digital Art we encounter in fandom fall under one of the following categories
This category is pretty self-explanatory.
The principle is the same as traditional painting and drawing, but using digital technology to do so. A very large portion of "fanartists" tend towards this.
They use programs such as Paint, Gimp, Photoshop, Corel Painter, OpenCanvas, SAI painter, Flash, etc.
(1)CG: Short for Computer Graphic: A term used mainly to describe all manners of digital paintings and drawings. Used mainly in japanese-oriented artist communities. Not to be confused with Graphic Art (see below).
EXAMPLES:
Sketches by Trolleys Great example of freehand digital drawing
The Sun Tarot Card by Xenakis Example of digital drawing with heavy usage of graphic elements such as textures
The Worg by Xenakis a superb stained-glass style drawing using elements of digital collage
The Magician Tarot Card by Semiramis and Death Tarot Card by Searains Examples of a pure digital painting style
The Fool Tarot Card by Littlemute Example of Comic style digital drawing, with clean lines and bold colors
!! NOTE ABOUT DESIGNATION !!
Many people tend to use the term Traditional Art to designate art that is freehand (painting and drawing) in both traditional and digital mediums. This is in opposition to Graphic Art, described below.
Graphic Art usually refers to artworks created using pre-existing images (digital photographs, textures, brushes, etc) that have been modified and/or reassembled to create a new image. This is done in various degrees of intricacy to various purposes.
Just to be clear: A photograph to which one has upped the contrast and added some color filters and a lensflare should not immediately be considered Graphic Art. Just as Fanfic should be to the original source material, graphic fanart should be in some way transformative to the original image, by presenting the viewer with an enhanced, re-imagined and/or altered view of it.
As with every style, it is always good to specify as much as possible what you have in mind to circumvent differing definitions of something. Particularly true with graphic art, two artists doing the exact same work might call it differently, and two doing vastly different types might call them by the same name.
!! NOTE ABOUT DESIGNATION !!
I have seen many uses of the term Photoshop Art in contexts that suggest it solely designates art that is made using pre-existing images modified in Photoshop. Thus, using the term Graphic Art is perhaps more appropriate if my assumption is correct.
After all, there are many beautiful hand-drawn "traditional" fanarts out there that are drawn using a graphic tablet and Photoshop.
Icons/Banners/Buttons/etc
Are otherwise referred to as web graphics or simply graphics. "Graphics" are distinguishable from the rest of the graphic art category by the purpose of these images as "decorative" elements meant to be used in profiles/journals/layouts/etc. They also distinguish themselves by their sizes, carefully regulated depending on their functions.
Images in this category typically rely heavily on cropping, contrasting, saturating, filtering and/or texturing images, but doing so to create a different or enhanced "feel" to the original image.
Graphic making does not necessarily involve an amalgamation of many images, but often do.
Digital Collage
Digital Collage is a form of graphic art that pieces together images from different sources into one final image. This can be done in a way that adds elements to the surroundings of the main subjects to enhance it, or to add/remove/substitute elements of the main subject itself. It is usually somewhat obvious that it's made by pasting different images together.
EXAMPLES:
Merlin Wallpapers by Inderpal A typical example of digital collage
Fairy Court by Suaine A digital collage incorporating drawing
Arthur and Merlin by Sandrainthesun A good example of the use of textures in digital collage
By Design by Followthehorse An example of a collage textured and stylized to resemble a drawing
Photo manipulation
Also commonly called manips,this category falls under the broader umbrella of Digital Collage, but is a bit more specific. As the name suggests, it involves taking parts of different photographic images and to meld them together to create a new whole. The "stitch line" between images are more subtle, usually hidden, and relies more heavily on photographic imagery than textures. While these are all photo manipulations, the term designates an even larger range of style and effects. The name "manips" is probably derivative from this category but often includes digital collages.
EXAMPLES:
Morgan by newkidfan A typical example of a well-realized photomanipulation
Arthur, Merlin and Morgana by aesc is part collage of pictures from different sources + textures + drawing + effects, thus creating a new whole image.
The separation line is often very thin between digital collage and photo manips, and there's a lot of overlap, so perhaps using a more general term can benefit in such cases.
EXAMPLES:
Of the Earth by Newkidfan uses a tasteful mix of digital drawing and collage to create this mix media collage, whereas her similar work Elemental utilizes more manipulation of the source image.
Fanvids with non-canon fantasy/sci-fi elements will often have both collage and photomanipulation, such as Blade Runner-merlin crossover Vid by Newkidfan.
Most wallpapers and cover art also fall into these categories and everything in between, as seen in Merlin by Sandrainthesun
!! NOTE ABOUT DESIGNATION !!
In some fandoms, including Merlin, fans tend to understand "manip" as the smooth collage and blending of a character's part onto a new body. Nicci-mac's works come to mind, such as this Chained Merlin.
However, please note that manips are not restricted to blending human body parts, but all manners of elements as long as the result is meant to be viewed as a believable "original whole". See The Family Business by Gwen and how the artist attempts to create a "seamless" melding of the people into the background.
To that effect, please keep in mind that not all Graphic Art involves photo manips, and disliking "manips" does not automatically mean dismissal of the broader Graphic Art genre. It is good to be as specific as possible when expressing preferences pertaining to these categories.
Images being given a narration and rhythm while staying within a single frame. The most known examples of images in movement are fanvids, animated icons or flash animations. Initial images used can be of any origin or a mix of sources. They can be complemented with a sound track, text, or special, and often are a mix of all these.
EXAMPLES:
Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death by Nerjav : Video clips taken from a series of filmed sources and sometimes merged together into a single scene
Beginning's End by lolryne and Cat_77 : Drawn separate images were given movement through effects to match a story
Arthur x Merlin Animation by woshibbdou : This artist takes it a step further by animating her serie of drawings much in the same way a gif animation works.
Merlin following Arthur wherever he goes not-really-a-game game by Shiya : is a flash game, where drawn elements are animated and coded to make the animation interactive with a user's input.
Undress Merlin Game 15 sec by Prince-kristian is another example of an interactive game.
If the medium is your pen, then the style is your vocabulary.
A visual art style is a "way [to] paint, apply colour, texture, perspective, or the way they see shapes and ideas, the artist establishes a certain set of "rules". If other artists see the rules as valid for themselves they might also apply these characteristics. The works of art then take on that specific "style". (According to Wiki)
Examples of various styles are realistic acrylic paintings, Calvin and Hobbes styles comic strips, Anime-style CGs or these varied drawings by YueIX.
Of course, each artist's style is unique. But there are common trends.
A Doodle is a quick drawing/painting that represents a simple but completed idea.
A Sketch is the first stage of a more elaborate piece, the skeleton is you will, or the floorplan. It should represent a full idea in one of its stages of development, like the concept summary or outline for writers.
These terms can be, and often are, mutually inclusive. (Blurry line isn't it?)
However, the term "Sketchy", as opposed to "clean lines", is often used to name a visual style (usually referring to the lineart). It does not necessarily imply an "unfinished" or "quickly done" state.
Arthur and Merlin by Ladykuja and Dirgelaeth by Natche are sketchy in style but complete and time-consuming works.
Anime/manga style is very specifically ressemblant to the japanese anime and manga characters, with large eyes, glossy flowing hair, and exaggerated expressions. It also tends to use conventional symbols such as sweatdrops, veinpops and other such signs to illustrate the character's mood, or uses screentones (spaced dots to represent shades of gray).
Comic Style is more "cartoonish" than strictly realistic art. It's a stylized type of drawing in the vein of American comic books or franco-belge BD (Bande Dessinee).
However, there are as many comic styles as there are artists. A lot of people nowadays use a mix of all these styles or draw inspirations from them with or without calling them as such.
A trope from the Anime/manga drawing style that makes characters look smaller and cuter by blowing up their heads/eyes disproportionately to their bodies.
Bunnies and wolves by eva_angelb are a classic example of chibi style.
Another style that has different proportions but keeps the same effect is Oteap's style.
YueIX's Chibi Merlin summary series are another great example
While a lot of fanart are stand-alone pieces, not all of them are. Illustration is probably a term we've all heard floating around. What's the difference between that and, say, using the words "picture" or "image"?
Wiki says "An illustration is a visualization [...] that is created to elucidate or decorate textual information by providing a visual representation."
Illustrations drawn for fic typically uses a short segment of text/scene that the image directly refers to, but not always.
EXAMPLES:
Crown of the Summer Court illustrations by trolleys
Voice of the Sea by Lizardspots
Non-character focused
Artworks, whether traditional or digital, do not always have to be about a character (or characters) to convey something about them, their situations, or their relationship.
See The Bridge by ptelefolone.
Cover art can be in any medium and with any effect. The difference from illustrations is that they will try to represent the whole of a concept, and generally have text indicating the title of the story and name/username of the author in there. A lot of Big Bang works fall into this since there is rarely time to do more than one piece.
EXAMPLES:
Can go from medieval-like illuminated pages to this dramatic digital manip/collage
Here are some more examples of covers that are Simple digital enhancement and Heavily texturized collage
And one that was put together from scratch: Digitally drawn cover art by YueIX
Note here that some Cover art are pretty specificly an illustration of a scene.
On the other hand, She'll be apples by YueIX is another example of Cover Art that uses a strong resemblance to movie poster style compositions, and is an effective way to portray the feel and intrigue of a whole story.
Narrative art is art that tells a story. Not to say that all art doesn't or shouldn't, but we speak specifically of sequential art(series of images that show a progression), usually incorporating some measure of text. It goes without saying that most fanvids are narrative art.
Comic/Comic Strips
Sequential art where one scene and the next are typically separated by boxes, or panels.
Dirgelaeth by Natche A typical manga page, distinguishable from other stylized sequential art by it's slanted panels, or having several of different sizes in a single page, few of them regular squares or rectangles.
Club Camelot Calvin and Hobbes-esque panel comic
The Physician's Dilemma by loweryourwand
A Hard lesson by Pandora_gold
XKCD-ified merlin by Xenakis
Macro Stories
While macros stories such as Kirk's DVD marathon and Dr. McCoy's tribbles are not individually considered graphic art as such, they are a type of visual narrative. To add text to the image gives it new meaning and to use a series of images to form a storyline is just another alternative to comic strips.
Other examples of Narrative Art
Escape velocity by aesc : A truly stunning piece of graphic work that incorporates words to create a poetic narrative whole.
Arthur x Merlin Animation by woshibbdou : This artist takes it a step further by animating her serie of drawings much in the same way a gif animation works.
Dr. McCoy's Handy Dandy Flowchart for dealing with frequent Sexual Harassment by Pouf : A flowchart full of humour
Elemental by Zephre and Sophinisba : Where the art incorporates typography so as to tell a story through both the artistic arrangement of words and their relation to the drawing
Compostion: The way elements of an image are places within its frame. Different compositions have heavy effects on projected mood, story-telling and significations.
Contrasts : Dramatic use of light and dark
Flat coloring : Each section/shape/object is colored with a single flat color. No shading
Cell-coloring or cell-shading : Shadows and light parts are sharp and have clear 'edges'
3D coloring : Shadows and lights are blured into the main tones
Greyscale : Black and White and in between
Lineart : A painting is typically differentiated from a drawing by its lack of clearly defining lines, called lineart.
Stick figure: Often a sketch or made as placeholders to figure out positions, stick figures are also a genre of their own, popularized by XKCD webcomic but also in fandom by works such as Miints' Royal Bathtime. They are very useful to give a quick idea of a picture's composition and setting.
Vectors : Lines and shapes made from mathematical equations. Very clean and sharp look. The advantage of vectors is that they can be blown up or minimized to any size without loosing quality. Usually embroidery stands or t-shirt print shops and such ask for vector graphics, and they are usually the norm for professional graphic design jobs.
NOTE:
You will notice that this guide is in no way representative of ALL the types of fanart. We have omitted photography, craft, textile, metal smitthing, cosplay and other types of visual artistry because the purpose of this guide was to clarify upon the terms used to describe 2d visual art forms. These other mediums are rather self-explanatory, and a subject for another time. :)
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. We hope it was in some ways helpful.
Comments/concrit/suggestions/thoughts/etc are much appreciated! <3
Written by:
littlewolfstar and yue_ix, with the assistance of pseudo_geek and xenakis_WHAT IS FANART?
Fanart is to art what fanfiction is to fiction. That is, visual artistic creations based/inspired by an original source material, created by fans, for fans.
The fanlore FANART page is a great place to learn about the history of fanarts and fanart trends.
This guide is intended to clarify some of the fanart vocabulary that can often be misconceived.
Fanlore explains this better than I could: "Colloquially, fanart most commonly refers to the art for a series that is drawn or painted either traditionally or digitally. However, colloquial use can also be dependent on the fandom. For example, in a fandom where photo manipulation is the dominant form of art, "fanart" for the fandom often implies "photo manipulation" not traditional art. Some fandoms also refuse to consider icons or banners as "fanart." "
This is our motivation for making this guide; to establish a clearer definition of various "fanarts" to avoid mishaps related to terminology.
For the purpose of this guide, we are looking at mediums, styles and types as they are generally used in the context of fandom, but not necessarily in the art world at large. Since some definitions are nebulous and hard to explain, we've incorporated examples to illustrate concepts in ways we couldn't with words.
I)What is a Medium?
Wiki defines a medium as "the materials and techniques used by an artist to create and produce a work."
Understand that any medium can be done in any style and will give it a different flavor, and that styles are often combined.
1- TRADITIONAL ART
Usually when artists say that they do traditional art, it means that they draw/paint with with tangible pigments on a physical surface.
Painting and Drawing mean you are creating an image by making marks on a surface.
The mediums used often include, but are not limited to: pencil, colored pencils, pen, charcoal/conté crayon, pastels, markers, watercolor, acrylics, oil, ink (the border) and airbrush. Many traditionnal-like effects can also be copied digitally, though there are always some difference. (ex: traditionnal watercolors VS digital watercolor effect)
Traditional painting and drawing are often paired with digital mediums. One of the common way is drawing lines by hand and coloring inside them digitally.
EXAMPLES:
Eirlys cover by berlinghoff79
Pencil + photoshop piece by timetraveled
2- DIGITAL ART
Digital Art is perhaps one of the terms most often confused, since it can encompass a great many things without distinction. Most Digital Art we encounter in fandom fall under one of the following categories
A) Digital Painting and Drawing
This category is pretty self-explanatory.
The principle is the same as traditional painting and drawing, but using digital technology to do so. A very large portion of "fanartists" tend towards this.
They use programs such as Paint, Gimp, Photoshop, Corel Painter, OpenCanvas, SAI painter, Flash, etc.
(1)CG: Short for Computer Graphic: A term used mainly to describe all manners of digital paintings and drawings. Used mainly in japanese-oriented artist communities. Not to be confused with Graphic Art (see below).
EXAMPLES:
Sketches by Trolleys Great example of freehand digital drawing
The Sun Tarot Card by Xenakis Example of digital drawing with heavy usage of graphic elements such as textures
The Worg by Xenakis a superb stained-glass style drawing using elements of digital collage
The Magician Tarot Card by Semiramis and Death Tarot Card by Searains Examples of a pure digital painting style
The Fool Tarot Card by Littlemute Example of Comic style digital drawing, with clean lines and bold colors
!! NOTE ABOUT DESIGNATION !!
Many people tend to use the term Traditional Art to designate art that is freehand (painting and drawing) in both traditional and digital mediums. This is in opposition to Graphic Art, described below.
B) Graphic Art
Graphic Art usually refers to artworks created using pre-existing images (digital photographs, textures, brushes, etc) that have been modified and/or reassembled to create a new image. This is done in various degrees of intricacy to various purposes.
Just to be clear: A photograph to which one has upped the contrast and added some color filters and a lensflare should not immediately be considered Graphic Art. Just as Fanfic should be to the original source material, graphic fanart should be in some way transformative to the original image, by presenting the viewer with an enhanced, re-imagined and/or altered view of it.
As with every style, it is always good to specify as much as possible what you have in mind to circumvent differing definitions of something. Particularly true with graphic art, two artists doing the exact same work might call it differently, and two doing vastly different types might call them by the same name.
!! NOTE ABOUT DESIGNATION !!
I have seen many uses of the term Photoshop Art in contexts that suggest it solely designates art that is made using pre-existing images modified in Photoshop. Thus, using the term Graphic Art is perhaps more appropriate if my assumption is correct.
After all, there are many beautiful hand-drawn "traditional" fanarts out there that are drawn using a graphic tablet and Photoshop.
Icons/Banners/Buttons/etc
Are otherwise referred to as web graphics or simply graphics. "Graphics" are distinguishable from the rest of the graphic art category by the purpose of these images as "decorative" elements meant to be used in profiles/journals/layouts/etc. They also distinguish themselves by their sizes, carefully regulated depending on their functions.
Images in this category typically rely heavily on cropping, contrasting, saturating, filtering and/or texturing images, but doing so to create a different or enhanced "feel" to the original image.
Graphic making does not necessarily involve an amalgamation of many images, but often do.
Digital Collage
Digital Collage is a form of graphic art that pieces together images from different sources into one final image. This can be done in a way that adds elements to the surroundings of the main subjects to enhance it, or to add/remove/substitute elements of the main subject itself. It is usually somewhat obvious that it's made by pasting different images together.
EXAMPLES:
Merlin Wallpapers by Inderpal A typical example of digital collage
Fairy Court by Suaine A digital collage incorporating drawing
Arthur and Merlin by Sandrainthesun A good example of the use of textures in digital collage
By Design by Followthehorse An example of a collage textured and stylized to resemble a drawing
Photo manipulation
Also commonly called manips,this category falls under the broader umbrella of Digital Collage, but is a bit more specific. As the name suggests, it involves taking parts of different photographic images and to meld them together to create a new whole. The "stitch line" between images are more subtle, usually hidden, and relies more heavily on photographic imagery than textures. While these are all photo manipulations, the term designates an even larger range of style and effects. The name "manips" is probably derivative from this category but often includes digital collages.
EXAMPLES:
Morgan by newkidfan A typical example of a well-realized photomanipulation
Arthur, Merlin and Morgana by aesc is part collage of pictures from different sources + textures + drawing + effects, thus creating a new whole image.
The separation line is often very thin between digital collage and photo manips, and there's a lot of overlap, so perhaps using a more general term can benefit in such cases.
EXAMPLES:
Of the Earth by Newkidfan uses a tasteful mix of digital drawing and collage to create this mix media collage, whereas her similar work Elemental utilizes more manipulation of the source image.
Fanvids with non-canon fantasy/sci-fi elements will often have both collage and photomanipulation, such as Blade Runner-merlin crossover Vid by Newkidfan.
Most wallpapers and cover art also fall into these categories and everything in between, as seen in Merlin by Sandrainthesun
!! NOTE ABOUT DESIGNATION !!
In some fandoms, including Merlin, fans tend to understand "manip" as the smooth collage and blending of a character's part onto a new body. Nicci-mac's works come to mind, such as this Chained Merlin.
However, please note that manips are not restricted to blending human body parts, but all manners of elements as long as the result is meant to be viewed as a believable "original whole". See The Family Business by Gwen and how the artist attempts to create a "seamless" melding of the people into the background.
To that effect, please keep in mind that not all Graphic Art involves photo manips, and disliking "manips" does not automatically mean dismissal of the broader Graphic Art genre. It is good to be as specific as possible when expressing preferences pertaining to these categories.
C) Images in movement
Images being given a narration and rhythm while staying within a single frame. The most known examples of images in movement are fanvids, animated icons or flash animations. Initial images used can be of any origin or a mix of sources. They can be complemented with a sound track, text, or special, and often are a mix of all these.
EXAMPLES:
Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death by Nerjav : Video clips taken from a series of filmed sources and sometimes merged together into a single scene
Beginning's End by lolryne and Cat_77 : Drawn separate images were given movement through effects to match a story
Arthur x Merlin Animation by woshibbdou : This artist takes it a step further by animating her serie of drawings much in the same way a gif animation works.
Merlin following Arthur wherever he goes not-really-a-game game by Shiya : is a flash game, where drawn elements are animated and coded to make the animation interactive with a user's input.
Undress Merlin Game 15 sec by Prince-kristian is another example of an interactive game.
II) What is a Style?
If the medium is your pen, then the style is your vocabulary.
A visual art style is a "way [to] paint, apply colour, texture, perspective, or the way they see shapes and ideas, the artist establishes a certain set of "rules". If other artists see the rules as valid for themselves they might also apply these characteristics. The works of art then take on that specific "style". (According to Wiki)
Examples of various styles are realistic acrylic paintings, Calvin and Hobbes styles comic strips, Anime-style CGs or these varied drawings by YueIX.
Of course, each artist's style is unique. But there are common trends.
Doodle VS Sketch
A Doodle is a quick drawing/painting that represents a simple but completed idea.
A Sketch is the first stage of a more elaborate piece, the skeleton is you will, or the floorplan. It should represent a full idea in one of its stages of development, like the concept summary or outline for writers.
These terms can be, and often are, mutually inclusive. (Blurry line isn't it?)
However, the term "Sketchy", as opposed to "clean lines", is often used to name a visual style (usually referring to the lineart). It does not necessarily imply an "unfinished" or "quickly done" state.
Arthur and Merlin by Ladykuja and Dirgelaeth by Natche are sketchy in style but complete and time-consuming works.
Comic style VS Anime/Manga Style
Anime/manga style is very specifically ressemblant to the japanese anime and manga characters, with large eyes, glossy flowing hair, and exaggerated expressions. It also tends to use conventional symbols such as sweatdrops, veinpops and other such signs to illustrate the character's mood, or uses screentones (spaced dots to represent shades of gray).
Comic Style is more "cartoonish" than strictly realistic art. It's a stylized type of drawing in the vein of American comic books or franco-belge BD (Bande Dessinee).
However, there are as many comic styles as there are artists. A lot of people nowadays use a mix of all these styles or draw inspirations from them with or without calling them as such.
Chibi or SD (short for Super Deformed)
A trope from the Anime/manga drawing style that makes characters look smaller and cuter by blowing up their heads/eyes disproportionately to their bodies.
Bunnies and wolves by eva_angelb are a classic example of chibi style.
Another style that has different proportions but keeps the same effect is Oteap's style.
YueIX's Chibi Merlin summary series are another great example
III) Types of fanart
While a lot of fanart are stand-alone pieces, not all of them are. Illustration is probably a term we've all heard floating around. What's the difference between that and, say, using the words "picture" or "image"?
Illustration
Wiki says "An illustration is a visualization [...] that is created to elucidate or decorate textual information by providing a visual representation."
Illustrations drawn for fic typically uses a short segment of text/scene that the image directly refers to, but not always.
EXAMPLES:
Crown of the Summer Court illustrations by trolleys
Voice of the Sea by Lizardspots
Non-character focused
Artworks, whether traditional or digital, do not always have to be about a character (or characters) to convey something about them, their situations, or their relationship.
See The Bridge by ptelefolone.
Cover Art
Cover art can be in any medium and with any effect. The difference from illustrations is that they will try to represent the whole of a concept, and generally have text indicating the title of the story and name/username of the author in there. A lot of Big Bang works fall into this since there is rarely time to do more than one piece.
EXAMPLES:
Can go from medieval-like illuminated pages to this dramatic digital manip/collage
Here are some more examples of covers that are Simple digital enhancement and Heavily texturized collage
And one that was put together from scratch: Digitally drawn cover art by YueIX
Note here that some Cover art are pretty specificly an illustration of a scene.
On the other hand, She'll be apples by YueIX is another example of Cover Art that uses a strong resemblance to movie poster style compositions, and is an effective way to portray the feel and intrigue of a whole story.
Narrative Art
Narrative art is art that tells a story. Not to say that all art doesn't or shouldn't, but we speak specifically of sequential art(series of images that show a progression), usually incorporating some measure of text. It goes without saying that most fanvids are narrative art.
Comic/Comic Strips
Sequential art where one scene and the next are typically separated by boxes, or panels.
Dirgelaeth by Natche A typical manga page, distinguishable from other stylized sequential art by it's slanted panels, or having several of different sizes in a single page, few of them regular squares or rectangles.
Club Camelot Calvin and Hobbes-esque panel comic
The Physician's Dilemma by loweryourwand
A Hard lesson by Pandora_gold
XKCD-ified merlin by Xenakis
Macro Stories
While macros stories such as Kirk's DVD marathon and Dr. McCoy's tribbles are not individually considered graphic art as such, they are a type of visual narrative. To add text to the image gives it new meaning and to use a series of images to form a storyline is just another alternative to comic strips.
Other examples of Narrative Art
Escape velocity by aesc : A truly stunning piece of graphic work that incorporates words to create a poetic narrative whole.
Arthur x Merlin Animation by woshibbdou : This artist takes it a step further by animating her serie of drawings much in the same way a gif animation works.
Dr. McCoy's Handy Dandy Flowchart for dealing with frequent Sexual Harassment by Pouf : A flowchart full of humour
Elemental by Zephre and Sophinisba : Where the art incorporates typography so as to tell a story through both the artistic arrangement of words and their relation to the drawing
Vocabulary
Compostion: The way elements of an image are places within its frame. Different compositions have heavy effects on projected mood, story-telling and significations.
Contrasts : Dramatic use of light and dark
Flat coloring : Each section/shape/object is colored with a single flat color. No shading
Cell-coloring or cell-shading : Shadows and light parts are sharp and have clear 'edges'
3D coloring : Shadows and lights are blured into the main tones
Greyscale : Black and White and in between
Lineart : A painting is typically differentiated from a drawing by its lack of clearly defining lines, called lineart.
Stick figure: Often a sketch or made as placeholders to figure out positions, stick figures are also a genre of their own, popularized by XKCD webcomic but also in fandom by works such as Miints' Royal Bathtime. They are very useful to give a quick idea of a picture's composition and setting.
Vectors : Lines and shapes made from mathematical equations. Very clean and sharp look. The advantage of vectors is that they can be blown up or minimized to any size without loosing quality. Usually embroidery stands or t-shirt print shops and such ask for vector graphics, and they are usually the norm for professional graphic design jobs.
NOTE:
You will notice that this guide is in no way representative of ALL the types of fanart. We have omitted photography, craft, textile, metal smitthing, cosplay and other types of visual artistry because the purpose of this guide was to clarify upon the terms used to describe 2d visual art forms. These other mediums are rather self-explanatory, and a subject for another time. :)
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. We hope it was in some ways helpful.
Comments/concrit/suggestions/thoughts/etc are much appreciated! <3
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Date: 2010-05-09 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-09 04:13 pm (UTC)How are you, lovely?
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Date: 2010-05-09 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-09 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-09 12:34 pm (UTC)I conciser my graphic to be a manip. But in the description it was included with, 'its a smooth collage and blending of a character's part onto a new body'. Thing is, in The Family Business by Gwen. I didn't do that. That really is Bradley's body and Katie's whole body. I just plopped Bradley's little butt onto a car. This is where I get confused, if I use the whole body and transport it into a picture of my choosing does it still count as a manip?
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Date: 2010-05-09 04:12 pm (UTC)We do in fact also consider your art a manip due to the "seamless" melding of the people into the background. We should have mentionned it's not restricted human body parts, but all manners of elements as long as the result is meant to be viewed as a believable "original whole".
Thank you for pointing that out! O_O Must go correct that! :)
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Date: 2010-05-09 04:28 pm (UTC)You are so welcome and thanks for taking all this time to make this awesome guide I just LOVE this kind of discussion.
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Date: 2010-05-10 01:18 am (UTC)I just LOVE this kind of discussion.
Me too! I've actually been meaning to do a guide like this for ages, cause I am fascinated by how fandom uses these terms and how many misconceptions there are about one thing or another. :) I'm glad you found it worthwhile!!! Thanks for providing a great example~ ;)
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Date: 2010-05-09 03:30 pm (UTC)As this guide was born to address communication between writers and artists, I thought I'd bring up a freehand art vs graphic art breakdown for the purposes of writing and art challenges. It seems to me that most art requests (if there is a preference) break down along those lines and separating the traditional painting and drawing into the broader "Traditional Art" category and digital painting and drawing into the broader "Digital Art" category will lend itself to confusion. Especially since right now the Traditional Art category from Paper Legends seems to encompass traditional and digital painting/drawing.
I do understand your current category breakdowns, but it reads more like a general fanart lexicon rather than a guide for a writing and art collaborative challenge.
Or perhaps the challenge mods can use the information from here and redefine their categories as traditional/digital drawing and painting, graphic art, video, fanmix. There are a lot of ways to go about this, especially if your purpose for this guide is to not limited to collaborative challenges.
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Date: 2010-05-09 04:20 pm (UTC)For the purpose of BigBangs/collabing, I really should be adding a category to address this issue. Thank you for pointing that out! :0 I'll go edit that now.
I just read the sign-ups and I've also noticed the tendency to use the term "traditional art" to signify drawing/painting in both traditional and digital media. O_O I don't really know how the mods will go about it though, since I'm not even sure exactly how far the "art" requirements extend. Are we allowed crafts? fanmixes and videos seems to be implied in a lot of requests/offers.
♥♥
no subject
Date: 2010-05-17 07:17 pm (UTC)