Recently I decided to start a series of illustrations about famous people. My intent is not to explore the vanity of fame but rather to take on the challenge of documenting current events through the visual study of public figures. My art recipe is an amalgamation of two elements, a Portrait, and Story-Telling through Visual Cues with a pinch of abstraction. So I’ll be researching and implementing visual elements into the canvas of the person being portrayed.
What prompted me to share this is to make a clear distinction between what is Fan Art versus an Illustrated Study. There have been times when I made and posted depictions of famous people. Reactions vary from criticizing the celebrity that I was portraying and implying that I support them or assuming that I am making Fan Art. What’s funny is that some of these pieces are made for editorial publications that negatively criticize the person being featured.
In short, I do sometimes portray those who I’m inspired by, but I rarely make Fan Art. Instead my approach is similar to a Writer/Journalist in that I am observing, collecting and presenting feature materials but in my art style. I think the assumption is that artists only create pieces based on personal interests. It comes from the romantic notion of us being motivated by a muse, a person or personified force who is our source of inspiration.
This can be an approach for some, but we can also make art as observers or to highlight relevant topics and current events.
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Here’s an In Progress Drawing Video of one that I’m working on during the time of this blog post. This does not yet have narrative elements…it's the first half of the illustration where I get familiar with the face.
Some definitions to consider:
FAN ART:
Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers to artworks that are neither created nor (normally) commissioned or endorsed by the creators of the work from which the fan art derives.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_art
*I would also apply this definition to celebrities, since they represent a persona or character and do not commission or endorse artworks we make of them.
ILLUSTRATION:
- the action or fact of illustrating something, either pictorially or by exemplification.
"by way of illustration, I refer to the following case"
- an example serving to clarify or prove something.
"this accident is a graphic illustration of the disaster that's waiting to happen"
- a picture illustrating a book, newspaper, etc.
"an illustration of a yacht"
Source: Google
JOURNALISM:
Journalism, the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through such print and electronic media as newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, social networking and social media sites, and e-mail as well as through radio, motion pictures, and television. The word journalism was originally applied to the reportage of current events in printed form, specifically newspapers, but with the advent of radio, television, and the Internet in the 20th century the use of the term broadened to include all printed and electronic communication dealing with current affairs.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/journalism