ratcreature | curious about fanart style preferences

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curious about fanart style preferences

I'm curious what kind of fanart styles/types people like best for live action fandoms. For the purpose of this poll assume that the artist is skilled at the style in question, e.g. just because there are a ton of badly done "my hed iz pastede on" photomanips that shouldn't count against the style as such, if you can appreciate well done manips of that type. For this poll consider 0="don't like the style at all" and 5="like this style very much".

Poll #4052 What fanart styles do you like in live action fandoms?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 49

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artwork in traditional media that is very realistic in style and used identifiable promo/screencap images as reference, e.g. many realist character portrait paintings/drawings or collage paintings that merge several portrait images for effect (like a collage of canon h/c scenes)

View Answers
Mean: 2.57 Median: 3 Std. Dev 1.32

0		4 (8.2%)
1		5 (10.2%)
2		15 (30.6%)
3		13 (26.5%)
4		8 (16.3%)
5		4 (8.2%)

the same but done with digital media, e.g. "paintovers" and such

View Answers
Mean: 2.10 Median: 2 Std. Dev 1.42

0		8 (16.3%)
1		10 (20.4%)
2		11 (22.4%)
3		11 (22.4%)
4		7 (14.3%)
5		2 (4.1%)

artwork in traditional media that is very realistic in style but shows fully imaginary scenes rather than character portraits and drawings based canon scenes

View Answers
Mean: 4.14 Median: 4 Std. Dev 0.99

0		0 (0.0%)
1		1 (2.0%)
2		1 (2.0%)
3		12 (24.5%)
4		11 (22.4%)
5		24 (49.0%)

the same but done with digital media

View Answers
Mean: 4.06 Median: 4 Std. Dev 1.13

0		1 (2.0%)
1		1 (2.0%)
2		1 (2.0%)
3		11 (22.4%)
4		12 (24.5%)
5		23 (46.9%)

artwork in traditional media that is basically still realist (e.g. in proportions etc.) but more stylized, e.g. characters rendered in art noveau style, a realistic comic style etc.

View Answers
Mean: 4.45 Median: 5 Std. Dev 0.83

0		0 (0.0%)
1		0 (0.0%)
2		2 (4.1%)
3		5 (10.2%)
4		11 (22.4%)
5		31 (63.3%)

the same but done with digital media

View Answers
Mean: 4.35 Median: 5 Std. Dev 1.04

0		1 (2.0%)
1		0 (0.0%)
2		2 (4.1%)
3		5 (10.2%)
4		11 (22.4%)
5		30 (61.2%)

manga-style artwork

View Answers
Mean: 2.90 Median: 3 Std. Dev 1.40

0		3 (6.2%)
1		6 (12.5%)
2		8 (16.7%)
3		13 (27.1%)
4		12 (25.0%)
5		6 (12.5%)

cartoony artwork

View Answers
Mean: 3.69 Median: 4 Std. Dev 1.26

0		1 (2.1%)
1		2 (4.2%)
2		5 (10.4%)
3		11 (22.9%)
4		13 (27.1%)
5		16 (33.3%)

photomanips of the collage-type, e.g. multiple pictures from canon and non-canon sources are arranged, layered, changed with textures etc.

View Answers
Mean: 2.16 Median: 2 Std. Dev 1.40

0		6 (12.2%)
1		13 (26.5%)
2		8 (16.3%)
3		14 (28.6%)
4		5 (10.2%)
5		3 (6.1%)

photomanips of the type that merges/blends pictures into a single non-collage image, e.g. putting characters in period costumes, giving characters wings, head/body mergers to get explicit art etc.

View Answers
Mean: 2.18 Median: 2 Std. Dev 1.38

0		7 (14.3%)
1		10 (20.4%)
2		9 (18.4%)
3		15 (30.6%)
4		6 (12.2%)
5		2 (4.1%)

digital artwork that is not painted or manipped but primarily 3D rendered

View Answers
Mean: 1.49 Median: 1 Std. Dev 1.24

0		13 (28.9%)
1		10 (22.2%)
2		12 (26.7%)
3		7 (15.6%)
4		3 (6.7%)
5		0 (0.0%)

ETA: I probably should have been more precise in that what I'm curious about is preferences for styles of 2D, non-moving picture-type fanart; the phrasing was not meant to imply that things like fannish fiber crafts, sculpture or vidding or other arts weren't "fanart".

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Give me an example of the last category -- I'm drawing (hee!) a mental blank.

For the purposes of this poll, I classify chck's chibis as "cartoony", not "manga-style". Is that what you had in mind? I need to change my vote if chibis are "manga-style".

Edited 2010-08-09 15:41 (UTC)

Yeah, I count chibi as cartoony. I realize manga is very diverse, but I meant the common manga-influenced comic styles, which I singled it out from other "stylized" category because it is such a common group, and recognizable even while diverse. Obviously there is something of a continuum between many of these, and mixes are possible too.

With 3D rendered I mean art done with Poser and other rendering programs, where people reate a more or less realistic 3D grid for people, objects and background and then the computer renders that in 3D. Sometimes people then do a little digital painting touch up, to make it look better. Basically CGI art, like Pixar movies and the like.

Have I seen 3D-rendered art in SGA? blaaaaaaaaaaaaaank.

It's not that common yet, especially in live-action, I think because rendering is still fairly complicated, and with the simpler programs looks fairly stiff if you do humans rather than space ships. I've seen some in SPN somewhere, and some in Star Trek iirc, but neither where that skilled. And I don't even like the style in movies, much preferring traditional 2D animation myself, so I don't go looking for this art.

Well, I shall continue to leave that one blank, because I have no opinion.

This is kind of fascinating. Would you mind if I link it in a post later?

No not at all. With any public fandom posts I usually aim for maximum visiblity (crossposting, making my journal searchable and indexed etc), so I'm happy when people link.

Very interesting poll. I personally prefer the more stylized art, such as manga-style art and comic book style. It gives the canon a new perspective that I very much enjoy, a new way to interpret things through the artists' eyes. What most people don't realize that with manga-style, there is good art and bad art. They jump all over the bad art and think that's what it all looks like. I don't know, maybe it's because of cultural dissonance, but I wonder why non-Asians have such a hard time believing there is a difference in art styles in the manga world and the same degree of quality variance as found in more Western art.

Well, it's the same with any style. With non-collage photomanips people who don't like them often first think of grotesque head body mismatch accidents, with collage manips of inept simple c&p of screencaps, and with Western comic art the broken spines and bizarro tits come to mind and so on and so forth. I realize manga styles are a range just like Western comics, but IMO there are still enough commonalities between the majority of manga that it is not more unfair to lump them together than to lump all realistic art together.

As for disliking manga, I don't think it's just ignorance. It's just taste. I have seen manga art in comic contexts since the late 1980s which was when I first started seriously collecting comics, going to comic cons etc, and frequently people wanted to convince me to like them, and of course their rising poularity got quite a bit of exposure in the comic special press long before anyone in mainstream media too notice, and of course there's mutual influence between Eastern and Western comics too, and I just dislike manga. I've seen a range of styles: by now more than half of every comic shop is stacked with manga so you see covers, and I've seen some underground manga when independent comic zines here dedicated to comic art translated a couple of less mainstream ones when they first gained popularity, I've looked at exhibitions at comic cons showing some famous influential manga art from past decades, and yet I still dislike them, even when I can see that they are well done technically.

I agree it's the same with any style (I thought I had included a line about that, but perhaps I hadn't). I just simply don't find most photmanips or overly cartoony art appealing, but every now and then one comes along that appeals to me. And I'm not saying it's unfair to lump manga-style together, because it does have definitive patterns and similarities. I don't think I suggested it was bad to lump it into one category. I just said it's unfair when Westerners react to it and essentially say "It all looks the same!" There are manga that are often very similar to Western comic books in their realism.

Sometimes it is taste, but sometimes the hatred towards manga/anime-style is ignorance. Sometimes it's even cultural chauvinism, born of the ingrained assumption that Western art is "better" because it's more "realistic." I'm not saying that's how it is for you, or that you need to like manga (I honestly did not know if you liked or disliked it before making this post). This was not an attack on you, but my observations of general reactions from a lot of Westerners. Forming an honest opinion based on seeing several varieties is absolutely valid. Forming a kneejerk opinion based of a few examples (usually from children's shows) is not, imho. I never suggested you were the latter.

Sorry, I'm just a little startled by your reaction. If you thought I was criticizing you, my apologies, but I was offering my own opinions and observations on art styles based on my experiences.

I didn't think you criticized me as such, it's more that I have a sort of kneejerk reaction by now, because almost every time when I've casually mentioned "I don't like manga" in fandom -- much like I might say "I don't like soap operas" or "I don't like sitcoms" as generalization (even though I've liked the occasional sitcom just like the occasional manga style art), it draws the reaction of someone explaining to me how I just hadn't found the right mangas, and really they are very diverse, and this was just an unfounded bias, and if I just read this one or that one I'd surely like them and so on, and now whenever I say that I don't like manga I tend to add that really I know that they are not all the same in anticipation.

Fair enough. I was more offering a perspective, and I honestly didn't know how you felt about manga in art until now (if you've ever said anything, I've forgotten it). I think that the overexplaining on the variety in manga comes from the average person who has seen advertisements for Sailor Moon and Pokemon and assumes it's all like that. Probably our own kneejerk reaction to people eyeing us funny for liking manga in the first place. XD

Yeah, I can understand that reaction. I mean, whenever someone tells me that they don't like comics I have the impulse to rec them some, because surely they can't dislike a whole art form? Actually I think most SF and fantasy fans are like that too when someone tells them they don't like SF&F.

I think there may be an effect that because manga and western comics are two kinds of the same thing, that there is a stronger impulse to "convert", because there is more bafflement that you could like something so similar, but not the other.

FWIW for the first two decades of me liking and collecting comics I was even more averse to US superhero comics than to manga, only reading and collecting European and US indie comics, and that eventually changed, and I've been now a superhero fan for a couple of years, so who knows, maybe I'll end up liking manga eventually. I mean, I have been charmed by ATLA, which while Western is definitely anime influenced...

I think it might be a SF&F thing, now that you mention it. I actually started out on US superhero comics, myself. And now I don't read them at all, instead choosing a few manga series to follow. And I'll eb the first person to admit that manga is like everything else in the world: 90% of it sucks. It's just that what I love I really, really love. I've actually not read too much European or Indie comics. I may like them a lot better than the US superhero ones that, frankly, often leave me cold these days.

If you want to try it (and please don't feel obligated), I can only recommend Hayao Miyazaki's films, in particular Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds, and Spirited Away. Miyzazaki was actually one of the inspirations for the ATLA creators (and his influences were one of the many reasons I fell in love with the show). If he can't charm you, then yeah, manga/anime may not ever work for you. Imho, he's the best animator ever born, but I'm an unabashed fangirl of his, so I am very, very biased. ;)

THESE RESULTS FASCINATE ME A LOT. Thank you for making this poll, it's one I've always wondered about, but could never put into words.

I'm excited to read the comments, but I wanted to know first if it's ok for me to link to this poll from my own LJ?

Oh I saw your comment to Reflectedeve, so I went ahead and linked to the poll as well.

I think the one that interests me the results for the 3D rendering preferences. I fully understand that people can sometimes prefer manips and collages over drawn artwork when it comes to fanart in media fandoms - but the whole idea of 3D rendering has always been a nebulous one for me in both media (aka live-action) fandoms and 'imaginary' fandoms (like Harry Potter or comicbooks).

Yeah, I think 3D rendering is interesting because it's only beginning with home use I think. So there is not that much around yet in fandom, and as with anything much isn't that good, so for the longest time I only associated it with horribly stiff pictures made in Poser. But while following some links I've browsed some CGI forums and such and some of the rendered stuff looks good.

I mean, I'm still not that fond, because even with what the movie companies produce on the best computers, I still prefer 2D for animated movies, and drawn characters for art, and don't really like the CGI characters, whether it is Toy Story or Wall-E or whatever, but clearly many people like them, and it seems to me that people doing rendering and such as hobby are now having good enough computers that stuff besides spaceships starts to look good.

Absolutely. The more responses the better.

Quite often I've heard claims about which fanart kind was most popular, but little to back that up. Like someone would say that that in live action fandoms the very realistic fanart was liked best, or that photomanips were the most popular or any number things, and I kept wondering about that as I was browsing and editing fanlore, and seeing all the old zine art and the different styles, so I thought: poll time!

I reconciled myself that many of the media fandoms:
a) preferred graphics/icons/banners/manips because they were derived from photos of the characters.
b) were fine with artistic (drawn) versions as long as they were beautifully super-realistic rendered portraits directly based off a photograph
b) didn't really encourage fanartist community building
c) didn't really care for fanart/ preferred fanfic more

But you know I think I started seeing a change with (of all things, lol) Supernatural. it was the first time I was able to timidly poke my head into the fandom and show them my stylised art and the fandom responded with a resounding "Heck yes! In fact, here's a whole pile of other SPN fanartists with stylised art that you can hang out with!"

It was pretty novel, at the time. I think the shift away from the waning HP fandom was a HUGE contributer to migrating HP fanartists (used to having a fanartist community or at least fanart recognition) making new homes in live-action fandoms.

Yeah, I had that perception too in early online fandom and only started drawing fanart for comics, because I was intimidated by the portrait likeness requirements I had assumed. But ever since I've been editing fanlore with all the old zines, that actually do not all have super realistic art, I'm starting to think that maybe early online fandom was something of an "abnormal" blip wrt the fanart situation, partly fostered through the text-only environment of mailing lists, and that the tastes actually may not have been all that different.

These are my "straight" answers, as in "if I wanted serious art"; however, cartoony styles and photomanips do have their place in my heart because nothing else quite makes funny comics/macros as funny. And I think it takes a definite artistic sense to make a good comic, obviously, but also to make a good macro!

Yeah, I can see that. Good point about the macros, though for me they fall in a bit of a different genre an not really what I thought of here when talking about fanart styles. I mostly had pictures in mind. I mean, in a wider sense all sorts of crafts for example are also fanart, and of course sculptures and such (I've seen some very cool Calvin and Hobbes sculptures, I guess because there's no official merchandise, so fans make their own figures, and one memorable Spock/tentacles porny sculpture...)

I think for me, it totally depends on the artist. I always thought that fanart in live-action fandoms was generally not my thing (I loved fanart in cartoon/comic/anime fandoms, but all I'd seen for live-action fandoms left me cold), until I got into SGA and discovered the wonderful variety of art that's available. I think my own preferences tend to lean more towards cartoony fanart rather than realistic fanart, but there are some realistic fanartists whose work is just gorgeous and I love it too, and a lot of manips kind of weird me out, but I've seen some utterly brilliant ones too, so ... I don't think there are any definite answers for me. I think it just depends utterly on the artist and whether or not the art is aesthetically appealing to me on its own.

Up to a point that is true for me as well, because I might like say a very skilled photomanip better than a pedestrian drawing even though I prefer drawings overall, but when I think of the pieces in each style I like most, I do like some styles better inherently.

Edited 2010-08-11 04:04 (UTC)

Awesome poll! I'll be lurking with interest to see the discussions this sparks.

The responses have been somewhat surprising to me so far, because for example quite often I've heard it said that people only like very realistic art for live action fandoms, or at least like it much better, but among the responses so far that doesn't seem to be the case. I mean, I wouldn't have thought that realistic character portraits drawn from a reference were turning out to be the least popular drawn style.

I must be funny because I don't like extremely realistic original pose paintings.

Well, they tend to be ugly, even when well done, and always make me feel a little uncomfortable. I prefer a touch of the cartoony.

How do you mean "ugly"? Do you not like the style in general? I mean for example in general painting. Or is it just in fanart?

I have a slight preference for stylized art in general, and photorealism (or near photorealism, like say Academy style historical painting) is not my favorite. I also think that even within realistic styles with an edge of caricature it's easier to make the humans emotionally engaging. Like if you look at Norman Rockwell. His humans are not photorealistic, but exaggerate expressions a bit, which you can see in particular if you compare his photoreferences with the finished paintings.

I don't much like realistic paintings in general, but I like them even less in fanart. I assumed this means stuff like, say, the covers of Star Trek novels, or a number of fantasy/sci-fi novels, and it just really turns me off. I like some leeway in my imaginings, which is my main objection to realistically painted book covers, and in fanart for live action media, I prefer that it's expressive and catches the feel of the characters rather than painting a detailed realistic picture that's bound to be stiff and probably too real to be attractive or inspire imagination.

If it's a painting of someone I don't know, realism is fine, although I find even then I kind of dislike realistic paintings of people alive today, who I've seen in photos. I prefer a realistic painting of Wellington to one of Hillary Clinton.

Norman Rockwell's stuff is great. :D

What I had in mind with "very realistic fanart" was the realism level of styles like Lorraine Brevig's art:
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Lorraine_Brevig
or Suzan Lovett's
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Suzan_Lovett

if that helps to illustrate.

I did not like either style. :D

Clearly they're both very talented. I just find their styles unattractive, as a personal experience, and it's specifically NOT how I want to see beloved characters. I have to say, though, if these were generic characters, I might appreciate the bold use of colour in both of them and of shadow in Suzan's. ...But I still wouldn't hang them on my wall. :D

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curious about fanart style preferences

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