ratcreature | pondering my reactions to fanart vs those to fanfic

I haven't been following fandom newsletters for that long, but they highlighted and made me notice that I my reactions to announcements of fanart compared to those of fanfic differ significantly. It's the same with announcements in communities, but in newsletters there's often a bunch of fic links and a bunch of art links, so it became more obvious for me.

I always check out all the art (well drawings and such, I'm not much interested in photomanipulations or icons), regardless of the pairing or content, or whether I know the artist or not, simply because it only takes a few seconds to take a look at the art and decide whether I like it, and then maybe looking closer or slightly longer at some details (I'm not on dial-up, but I'm also just talking about the time it takes to take something in once a page has loaded not connection/bandwidth issues). Whereas I don't click on most of the fic links unless they make me curious in some way, maybe the title sounds interesting, or I heard of the author, or it's a pairing I like, anyway something more than just the link being there, simply because it is always more effort to decide whether I'll give fanfic a try, even if it is just reading the summary and author's notes. So it's quite a bit harder for fanfic to get noticed by me.

OTOH fanart somehow has much less impact for me than fanfic. I mean, fanfic characterizations, arguments, theories and the like, affect how I see the characters and plots in the source, and how I interpret them. Sometimes it's a slight, but cumulative effect (sort of like a fanon build-up), but occasionally it also happens that a single story is just so ingenious in its interpretation of canon that after reading it I see the source differently, for example like a theory or fanwanking that's the background or basis for a fic to explain something, or just a great view inside the head of a character that makes me understand them, things like that. Fanfic I like also kind of stays with me much longer than even the fanart I like most. Somehow, at least so far, fanart has never had such a lasting effect on me. The way a character is drawn may really work for me, but that's more the surface. It doesn't change my view of the character.

So I'm more likely to look at any fanart, and I really enjoy the visuals of good fanart, it produces immediate reactions, and I may feedback, but it's somehow "weaker" for me than fanfic. And I'm curious whether it is the same for others. So have you ever looked at a piece of fanart and it had lasting impact beyond the image and the immediate reactions/emotions it evoked, the way fanfic sometimes has?

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Probably because I'm on the fanart producing end moreso than fanfic, but I don't find it has less of an impact.

Sure, it takes a viewer less time to look it over, but making the fanart takes sometimes just as long as making a fanfic, if not longer. *shrug*

Personally, I find fanart has more of an impact because you can study the construction and what they did to the fanart (composition, the base drawing, coloring, if any, style, not just whether you like it or not etc): it seems to have more concentration than writing.

But that's just my two cents. ^^;

Hmm. I've never written fanfic (well there was this one aborted attempt many years ago that I don't count), but draw fanart, and the technical side that I see more easily in drawings than in writing has no effect on my reaction to the meaning it conveys. I think it is that for me fanart can't make an argument about canon the way fanfic can. I mean, as a crude example, I could draw how character X might look like after he turned evil, but that is unlikely to convince anyone that he has really potential for evil when he's a good guy in canon, not like a fanfic exploring his mind and emotions might.

Came here from

metafandom. Yeah, I totally agree that fic impacts me more than art does. (And I'm speaking as an artist.) Only a handful of times has a piece of art stayed with me and changed, however slightly, my feelings toward the subject. But with fic? I can't even count the number of times that stories have accomplished that.

However, we differ on this part: "I always check out all the art...." The metafandom post quoted this bit, which is why I clicked through, because, really? I end up looking at only a very small percentage of the art that comes across my flist. Well, plus, I'm on dial-up, which adds a bit of a technological limitation to the whole thing. But still.

As far as consumption goes, I'd much rather read someone's fic than look at someone's art. I tend to fall on the "process" side of the product/process spectrum. A piece of art seems rather like an, um, well, like a memoriam for the joy that was the creation. Kind of, almost a husk of a thing. A record of the event. Whereas a story seems vibrantly alive, born fresh for each reader.

Hmmm...

Interesting post. :)

Well, I won't look at art when I know that I dislike the artist's works previously or things like that, but the point is, I want to find cool fandom stuff, and with art it really isn't any work at all to take a look, just a second really. With fanfic it involves reading the story description, maybe giving the first paragraph a try, and making a decision whether it sounds promising and I ought to keep reading, and all of that takes a little bit of effort in a way looking at a picture doesn't.

I love finding new fanfic too, and I actually tend to be more thrilled to find a great new author than to find a new artist I haven't seen before. I'm also not a reader who only reads based on recs or anything. When I have a bit of time I'll browse archives, follow links from different sides, just google promising keyword combinations sometimes, but when there's a list of links like in newsletters, that don't really give me much to evaluate things, usually just a title and a pairing, it takes a very short time to look at twenty pictures and perhaps see one I like so it's no bother to give art a chance, but that isn't the cse for fic.

I see what you're saying. I have a "To Read" folder full of bookmarks to stories. And as of right now, it contains, (cripes!) 339 links.

But I have no corresponding "To View" folder for art. Fic requires more of an effort, yes. If I'm curious about a story and rushed for time, I just stick it in the folder where it won't get lost. But for art, I either view it immediately, or just allow it to slide back into the whitenoise of fandom.

The prospect of missing out on good art disturbs me much less than the prospect of missing out on good fic.

Interesting comments there [Bad username or site: rat creature @ livejournal.com]. It's always positive and constructive, I feel, for people to write about these sorts of things and this is a topic that I can definitely relate to. In most respects, I agree largely with what you say: I almost always check out fan art whereas I am much more discerning when it comes to reading fan fic. This is because of several factors:
1) I get a quicker 'hit' from fan art because, as you say, it's right there in your face
2) I'm a comparatively slow reader and I have a short (internet) attention span and limited online hours per sitting. If a fan fic sounds like it will interest me, I'll take a note and come back to it later. Much later. ;)

This said, the best fan fic does tend to leave a longer, more lasting impression and can often directly convey so much more than a single piece of art. But let's look at why this might be the case. A drawing or a painting might take up your average sized computer screen and you spend say two minutes max looking at it. In many ways, you get out of it what you put into it. A fic on the other hand often gets to use more of your time and demand more of your attention. It can work directly on you and lead you in a way that most fan art isn't always able to. But that's not to say that fan art has a 'weaker' impact. I find both mediums are capable of being almost equally inspiring.

Also I don't deconstruct fan art anywhere near as much as I do fics. If it looks hot or has pretty colours I'm generally in favour of it, though I can obviously still provide constructive feedback. I tend to be much more critical of writing because its flaws are easier to see and, sometimes, easier to avoid/correct.

I tend to be much more critical of writing because its flaws are easier to see and, sometimes, easier to avoid/correct.

Huh, for me it is the opposite. I find it hard to figure out why a story works or doesn't work for me (well except in cases of extreme badfic), whereas with artwork I find it easy to see what I like and what is lacking for me, because with drawings I see the technical side and style choices far more readily. But then I had never any interest to learn writing as a craft or to analyze literature, but I like both for drawings. (though sadly application of theoretical knowledge is much harder, especially as a lazy, non-practicing slacker like me, as I sadly note every time I try to draw muscles, apply foreshortening techniques, or draw shadows and perspective and a bunch of other stuff *g*)

I think what's "weaker" for me with fanart and why I chose that term isn't so much the emotional impact, tough that is shorter, or the enjoyment, but really just its argumentative power (or rather lack thereof) to make me see characters differently. I mean, fanfic can make me see the source itself and the characters in a different light but fanart (excepting fan comics, those also have narrative like fanfic) can't truly "touch" my concept of the source, especially not if the source already has visuals like comics or tv. I admit that for example the LOTR movie visuals influenced how I now visualize the book even though I had read it over a dozen times before ever seeing the movie, simply because I don't naturally imagine books very visual while reading. OTOH my brother for example disliked some of the creatures intensely, because they looked really different in his head based on the descriptions in the books.

Some more interesting comments there. Also, sorry for referring to you as "rat" before. I don't know how that happened. I must have been distracted mid-writing that sentence and forgot to add the "creature" to it.

pondering my reactions to fanart vs those to fanfic

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