Fanart: A guide to terminology

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? )
( II)What is a Style? )
( III)Types of Fanart )

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