A few sketches executed in Procreate | Instagram: @malgorzata_mikart

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Developing your skills as a digital artist can be a challenging task. Juggling work, commissions, and university is often exhausting, leaving you with little or no time for your digital drawing practice. There are times when reaching your goals is more unfeasible than traveling to Pluto and back at the speed of light, but hey! All frontiers are challenged with a bit of determination and proper tools.

1. Grow Your Practice With Habit Trackers

Digital drawing is all about habit. You will progress faster as an artist if you turn your practice into a regular activity. You may squint at the thought of squeezing your creativity into a calendar slot, but it is a vital step towards making your progress a real thing. This is where productivity apps may come in handy. Since most of us are smartphone users (iOS or Android-based), it is easy to find an app that will let you stay on top of the commitments you made to yourself without taking away all the fun. The one that works for me is Habit Tracker (iOS), as it offers a clear layout and sound notifications reminding me of the practices I need to maintain. On top of that, I am able to track my progress and determine my efficiency.

2. Get Yourself a Paper Planner

If a slightly rough paper texture is what keeps you grounded, opt for a diary/planner that will keep your schedule in check. However, finding a proper one is crucial for your development: its aesthetics and practical layout need to match with your personality, and, with the abundant choices bookstores offer you, it can be a daunting task. Buying a diary/planner “for looks only” is counterproductive as you would not dare defile it with your ugly handwriting ; so is acquiring one with an over-complicated or uninspiring layout. Therefore, make sure that a diary/planner of your choice has a proper balance of aesthetics and usability – being a tool that helps you fulfill your goals instead of being a burden that will further discourage you from your practice.

3. Take Your Sketchbook (and Use It) Everywhere

Do you spend a lot of time on a train or a bus? Having a pocket-size sketchbook may become a blessing in this situation. Usually boring and unproductive, a 40-minute commute to work or school may be turned into a creative studio time. A cheap Kmart sketchbook and a few drawing tools will do the trick! You will have a perfect opportunity to practice poses, sketches and even draw some imaginary creatures modeled on your fellow commuters. Drawing regularly in your sketchbook will give you a chance to make a few doodles with some non-digital tools allowing you to practice with a different medium altogether! And guess what? Thanks to your sketches you will be able to trace your progress more effectively and, in some cases, find inspiration for your digital works!

4. Take Time For Time Off

Creativity, no matter the medium, can be draining. Spending a lot of time in front of the monitor just to get the colors right will be taxing on your eyes, shoulders, spine, etc. A few aches in your neck or those persistent wrist problems will tell you it’s not just mundane physio babble. Although periods of uninterrupted work are essential for your progress, it is equally important to wind down and relax your stiff muscles. To do this effectively, you can use a Pomodoro Technique. A combination of work slots and break times (e.g. 60 minutes of work followed by 15 minutes of break), Pomodoro will give rhythm to your work while helping you regain some of your lost energy. Apart from obvious health benefits, your practice will get a proper structure giving you the blissful feeling of staying in control of your time and progress.

Pomodoro apps I find helpful are:

• Pomofocus (available via a browser)
• Yet Another Pomodoro Application -YAPA - for Windows users
• Pomodoro - Focus Timer (iOS)

5. Find an Online School With an Active Community

Conjuring epic characters and mind-blowing environments out of your stylus is a dream of many aspiring artists. At the same time, finding that inner drive to pursue it on your own is, at times, challenging if not completely insurmountable. If you feel you cannot progress effectively in isolation, signing up for a budget-friendly online course can be a U-turn in your development. The best comprehensive (and beginner-friendly) courses I took in the past have been released by Paintable.cc, Evenant or Character Art School. Not only did I find their content informative, but their student communities are also quite encouraging and highly motivating. If you crave direct mentor support while still learning in a virtual space, consider an online school, such as CG Spectrum which offers an array of courses aimed at developing skills in the fields of concept art, animation and VFX. On top of that, you will become a member of their thriving student community that will help you perfect your craft in the direction you ultimately want to follow.

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Further reading: 

10 Tips for Artists to Increase Their Productivity

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“Wednesday” fan art executed in Infinite Painter | Instagram: @malgorzata_mikart

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Let’s talk about fan art. Yes - this sleazy subject spiced by occasional controversy and screams of awe or woe. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, fan art is “an artwork based on popular works of fiction (such as books, movies, etc.) that is created by fans” (Merriam-Webster, 2020). You have probably seen it popping up on Instagram, DeviantArt, ArtStation or even LinkedIn whenever a major movie or a TV show release gets the fans’ heads turned. The movie industry is not the only one populated by reiterations of their own creations, as fan art spans a wide spectrum of entertainment (sports included). Its derivative character is what makes some advocate against it while others eagerly cheer it on. How does it make or break your development as an artist

Fan Art Boosts Your Enthusiasm and Drawing Skills

Are you bored of repetitive gesture studies or classic academic drawing? Studies, though unavoidable and necessary, may be tedious in the long term. Fan art can bring you relief. Drawing something you hold dear to your heart can boost your enthusiasm in drawing, transporting you into the universe you identify yourself with the most. Additionally, emulating the style or a certain type of aesthetics can help you grow your artistic skills while lifting the burden of difficulty from your shoulders, … or simply distracting you from it!  Frequent “fan art exercises” will invite you to imitate the qualities of the original, capturing its essence and recognisable traits. Fan art long-term benefits are popping up like mushrooms and science seems to back it up!

As Marjorie Cohee Manifold from Indiana University states in her paper, almost 79 percent of young people learned to draw/paint fan art by continuously creating it, and 33 percent developed their artistic skills purely through the pursuit of their own interests and routines. Some of them acquired more complex drawing skills by copying the characters verbatim to “make them look right,” or turned to each other for “professional advice” (Manifold, 2009). Contrary to what a few disillusioned souls may claim, copying another artist’s work is not ‘cheating’, but an act of learning, and as such should be praised. Thus, if copying Rembrant is not your thing, try Wednesday fan art journal instead! Progress will surely creep your way!

Fan Art Can Bring You Fame and Money

Love can go a long way if you’re talented … and lucky enough. Internet audiences love to see their favourite heroes and villains drawn in a fresh new way. If your artistic interpretation is to their liking, fan art will get you noticed by more like-minded people who will make your artwork viral. In some cases, these people can be the producers of your beloved franchise! Such was the case of Bannon Rudis who was hired by Netflix to create promotional art for the second season of “Stranger Things,” or Claire Hummel whose versions of Disney princesses caught the attention of Irrational Games studio (Carter, 2018). Producing fan art can turn out to be an investment that pays off once you add your personal touch to it: a peculiar tweak to a pose, your own style of drawing (semi-realistic, cartoony, anime, etc), or (re)interpretation of a story. The artists listed above have a body of high-quality artworks to back their fan-based projects and so should you. Fan art, no matter how stunning, should not be the goal in itself, but the means to find your way through shapes and colours. At the end of the day, it is your own creativity that attracts a potential employer with fan art being a cherry on your artistic cake.

Fan Art Can Make You … AND Break You!

While fan art can be a great way to express your love for someone else’s original artwork, make sure it does not hinder your own. It is easy to fall into a trap of constant reproduction, forgetting that it is your own creativity that helps define who you are and what you represent as an artist. If you are submitting your portfolio to an art school or even a potential employer, make sure that fan art is not a dominating element in you. Originality and innovation, though not absent from fan art, are still the qualities that shine more brightly in your original creations rather than the most ingenious re-creations. 

Legality of fan art is the next issue to consider; copyright laws and fair use doctrines are not uniform in all the countries in the world, and some companies may have a more biased approach to fandom creations than others. With the proliferation of fan art on social media, it may be challenging to take you to court over your own version of a franchised character, but it does not mean you are safe either. Fan art, being a generally acceptable form of  reproduction, may lead to copyright infringement (Morgan, 2021). If an artwork you shared online is deemed too similar to the original, and you are suspected of earning money from your fan art, an artist or a company hiring their services may ask you to take it down. Hence, it is wise to secure your piece with your personal version of a “not-for-profit” statement in the description. 

But is it enough to keep you legally bulletproof? Not really! In some (rare) cases, you can still face gruelling litigation if the “damage” to the artist, or the portrayal of their work is considered to be significant. Artistic resemblance coupled with your own (re)interpretation of the original piece may act against you as copyright acts and fair use doctrines are vague and address a creative market rather inadequately. Therefore, you will never have a 100 percent guarantee that your artworks do not break the law somewhere in the world. 

Should you then stop producing fan art for fear of being sued? I am not a lawyer and cannot give you legal advice. Yet, I can assure you that creating and sharing fan art can be very liberating and its benefits far outweigh the potential risks that come with it. It is a way to grow as an artist and show your appreciation of someone else’s creation. As a concept artist, I cannot resist fan art, and the freedom it gives me to express my admiration for artists far better than myself. I just happen to do it in the best way I can -  in colours, shapes and forms.

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Bibliography: 

Carter, D. (2018). How fan art can get you paid. [online] Creative Bloq. Available at: https://www.creativebloq.com/features/how-fan-art-can-get-you-paid [Accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

Manifold, M.C. (2009). Fanart as craft and the creation of culture. International Journal of Education Through Art, [online] 5(1), pp.7–21. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249919110_Fanart_as_Craft_and_the_Creation_of_Culture [Accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

Merriam-Webster (2020). fan art. In: Merriam-webster.com. [online] Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fan%20art [Accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

Morgan, R. (2021). Conventional Protections for Commercial Fan Art Under the U.S. Copyright Act. Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal Journal, [online] 31(2), pp.514–573. Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1773&context=iplj [Accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

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