↩️ TREE 227: I was wrong about fan art
One.
Bruce thought it would be fine to stare at the sun with his bear eyes.
Two.
I used to think drawing fan art was dumb. How is copying someone else’s work creative? I thought. Just create your own new thing, I thought.
I was wrong, for three reasons.
How can you make something new when you don’t understand what already exists? Humans learn by copying. You may copy an entire work or a single technique, but if you’re learning, you’re usually copying. When you learn actively, you make sure you not only learn what to do, you learn why. Over time, your copying gives you the skills of the craft and the understanding of the principles. And then you can create your own new thing.
You can learn faster when you use someone else’s experience.
Someone needs to draw Batman. The world doesn’t always need a new thing. Sometimes a continuation of an existing thing is exactly the right thing.
Three.
This groove, this flow – they are exactly the right thing.
Speaking of copying, my drawings this week are very much influenced by this Victoria Semykina illustration.
Grow slowly
Jeff