Fan art

Fan art or fanart are artworks created by fans of a work of fiction (generally visual media such as comics, movies, television shows, or video games) and derived from a character or other aspect of that work. 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.

A different, older meaning of the term is used in science fiction fandom, where fan art traditionally describes original (rather than derivative) artwork related to science fiction or fantasy, created by fan artists, and appearing in low- or non-paying publications such as semiprozines or fanzines, and in the art shows of science fiction conventions. The Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist has been given each year since 1967 for artists who create such works. Like the term fan fiction (although to a lesser extent), this traditional meaning is now sometimes confused with the more recent usage described above.

Fan art can take many forms. In addition to traditional paintings and drawings, fan artists may also create web banners, avatars, or web-based animations, as well as photo collages, posters, and artistic representations of quotes from a work.

The broad availability of digital image processing and the Internet has greatly increased the scope and potential reach of fan art. U.S. TV producer Bryan Konietzko wrote in 2013:

Due to the nature of fan art, there are many debated facets of the topic. One of the most prominent controversies surrounding fan art is its validity as art at all. Some people in the art community believe that since fan art is based on someone else's original content, it doesn't deserve to be considered "art." Their definition of art entails that it must be an expression of the artist, and artwork that is derived from already-existing content cannot fulfill this. A counter-argument to this statement is that fan artists add their own individual style to the art they create. Although the concept may derive from someone else's work, the content equally as individualistic and expressive as any other form of art.

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