Fan art

Forms

Fan art can take many forms. In addition to traditional paintings, drawings, and digital art, fan artists may also create conceptual works, sculptures, video art, livestreams, web banners, avatars, graphic designs, web-based animations, photo collages, and posters, Fan art includes artistic representations of pre-existing characters both in new contexts and in contexts that are keeping with the original work.

The broad availability of digital image processing and the Internet, as well as text-to-image generators, has greatly increased the scope and potential reach of fan art. American TV producer Bryan Konietzko wrote in 2013: :"I remember back in the Avatar days [2005–2008]... the typical fanart we would get would be a charming, childish crayon drawing stuffed in an envelope. Nowadays on Korra [2012–2014], I take a skewed screenshot with my phone, post it, and shortly thereafter someone un-skews it, crops it, separates the character levels, clones the background, 'Ken Burns' it with a multilevel slide, animates the characters blinking and talking, tints it, and makes a GIF out of it, that I then see on the same phone with which I took the original picture. Times they are a-changin'..."

Rule 34, the idea that everything is represented in internet pornography, commonly takes the form of erotic fan art.

Fan art can also serve as cultural commentary or criticism, presenting established characters in new situations or contexts which would never appear in canon. This allows fans and artists to explore deeper or alternate meanings, as well as fan theories, about their favorite media.

Copyright

United States

The legal status of derivative fan made art in America may be tricky due to the vagaries of the United States Copyright Act. Generally, the right to reproduce and display pieces of artwork is controlled by the original author or artist under 17 U.S.C. § 106. Fan art using settings and characters from a previously created work could be considered a derivative work, which would place control of the copyright with the owner of that original work. Display and distribution of fan art that would be considered a derivative work would be unlawful.

However, American copyright law allows for the production, display and distribution of derivative works if they fall under a fair use exemption, 17 U.S.C. § 107. A court would look at all relevant facts and circumstances to determine whether a particular use qualifies as fair use; a multipronged rubric for this decision involves evaluating the amount and substantiality of the original appropriated, the transformative nature of the derivative work, whether the derivative work was done for educational or non-commercial use, and the economic effect that the derivative work imposes on the copyright holder's ability to make and exploit their own derivative works. None of these factors is alone dispositive.

American courts also typically grant broad protection to parody, and some fan art may fall into this category. This has not explicitly been adjudicated with respect to fan art, however. Moreover, while parody is typically afforded protection under § 107, a court must engage in a fact-intensive, case-specific inquiry for each work.

References

References

1. Konietzko, Bryan. (30 March 2013). "I remember back in the Avatar days…". Tumblr.
2. (18 May 2009). "Rule 34".
3. (2009). "What Art Educators Can Learn from the Fan-based Artmaking of Adolescents and Young Adults". Studies in Art Education.