How to Make Fan Art

Co-authored by Kieren Dutcher

Last Updated: April 16, 2024 References

Fan-art is a broad category of art that includes any visual artwork inspired by a work of fiction you like, such as an anime, a television show, a novel series, or a comic book. Making fan-art is a great way to both show your love of a character or series, and practice your drawing skills.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Getting Started

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Gather your materials. You'll need something to draw with and something to draw on. Paper and pencil is recommended. If your pencil doesn't have an eraser on the end, you'll need a separate eraser. You'll also need a pen, and either markers, paint or colored pencils if you want to color your art.
- Alternatively, you may want to use a computer to make digital art.
This will be the inspiration for your fan-art. If you can't find a show or character, just find a person who inspires you greatly. Another option is to find any picture of a person or character to practice drawing from a source.

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Make a light sketch of your inspiration. If it is an anime, or character it doesn't have to be in a situation, clothing, etc. that the original creator has positioned it in. You can draw it in whatever position you like or want the character to be in.^{[1]
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- For example, if the series you've taken your inspiration from is usually very serious in tone, consider putting the character you've chosen in a more lighthearted situation.
- Every good sketch is going to start by framing out the figure with basic shapes that indicate the proportions and locations of the body parts. For example, you can start with a single line to indicate the spine, and then draw two ovals to position the torso.^{[2]
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Take inspiration from, but don't imitate the original style. It's great to take ideas from the way the original artist portrayed them, but add in some of your own style too. Examples of this include drawing the character with a more realistic or cartoonish face, changes the proportions of the character, making other objects such as a fashion range inspired by your character, or adding details to his/her outfit.
- A common way to make your fan art a unique take on the original inspiration is to change the art style. If you're taking inspiration from an anime, try drawing the character in a more western cartoon style. If you're taking inspiration from a live-action show, try drawing the character in a manga style.

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Finishing Your Fan-art

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Flesh out the sketch. Take a step back and look at where your sketch could use improvement. Erase as necessary and keep sketching until you're happy with it. Add in all the details, like pockets, hair, and facial features, that were left out of the initial rough sketch.^{[3]
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- How much detail you add will depend on the style you've chosen to draw in. A realistic drawing will require the most detail, including detailed facial features, folds and creases in clothing, and anatomically correct muscle shapes. A very cartoony drawing won't require much more than an simplified version of body anatomy and basic, bold shapes for clothing and hair.
- Pay attention to what details about the inspiration you're drawing from stand out and define the character, from the obvious things like hair color to the subtle things like the size of the eyebrows. Carrying these details over to your fan artPlace bold text here is what will make your fan art recognizable as fan art, and not an original character.
Go over your sketch with pen. Once you have the final sketch, trace it over with a pen, going extra slowly and carefully to avoid mistakes. This way you can erase all the un-needed lines in the sketch.
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Add color or shade to the character you have finished tracing. The most common coloring materials used are markers and colored pencils. If you wish to keep it un-colored, it's best to shade it with a pencil.
- The easiest way to start shading is to imagine a light source off in one corner or side of your drawing. Sides of objects and body parts opposite the light source will be the darkest, and should be shaded appropriately.
- Options for coloring include: colored pencils, illustrating markers such as copic markers, and digital coloring using a program like Photoshop. For Photoshop, you'll have to first scan your inked sketch and then open the scanned image in Photoshop.

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Drawing Fan Art in Various Styles

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Draw realistic style fan art. To draw your fan art in a realistic style, you'll have to learn human anatomy, specifically, how to draw the various muscle shapes on a figure, and the proportions of each body part. The best way to do this is to find a figure drawing anatomy book, such as Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers.
- There are plenty of resources online that will help you learn how to draw realistic figures. Typically the process looks like this: start with the frame of the body, add in the basic body shapes, detail the muscles of the body, then add clothing last. Keep your lines light as you sketch, so that when you go over your sketch in pen, you can erase all the pencil easily.^{[5]
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Draw manga style fan art. Manga style drawings are characterized by exaggerated proportions and facial features, and simplified and stylized hair. The main difference between manga and realistic figures will be in the face, so if you're going from learning realistic figure drawing to manga drawing, focus on how to draw manga faces.
- Manga faces typically have large, highly detailed and shaded eyes, with much simpler mouths and noses. Often, manga noses and mouths will be drawn with two simple lines.^{[6]
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Draw cartoon style fan art. The great thing about drawing in a cartoon style is that you aren't restricted by realistic proportions or body shapes. In fact, the more exaggerated, the better. Cartoon faces are more expressive than real faces, and poses are more extreme. Typically, cartoon heads are larger in relation to the body, which helps with making expressive faces.^{[7]
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- With cartoon sketches, it's often not necessary to sketch out the whole body before adding the clothing. Just start with the simple body frame, lines for the shoulders, hips, spine, and appendages, draw the basic shapes of the body, and then start filling in the details like the clothes and hands.

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Are there copyright issues when doing fan art? Copyright infringement?

Community Answer

No, there should not be copyright issues, as long as you do not make money from your fan art or mass produce it to give away. If you are drawing this purely to display in your own house, or to post online for free, this is perfectly legal!

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If I'm a beginner in drawing, should I go through learning the basics or focus on learning how to draw the character?

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Learn the basics and draw everyday, this way you'll get better and be able to interpret the character better.

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What if the character is from a book? This seems to work only on actors and characters from a TV show or a movie.

Community Answer

If your character is from a book, carefully read through the description of your character to note key details of their appearance. This may require reading a substantial amount of the book and taking notes as you go. Then, try drawing a character with these features from your own imagination, in whichever drawing style pleases you.

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Tips

Try to change something about either the character or drawing style to make your fanart a unique piece of artwork in its own right

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Have an idea of what positioning you want the 'inspiration' to be in, otherwise you'll be erasing a lot more than you want.

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It is perfectly fine to draw a character with the same position and background. This is called a screenshot redraw.

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Warnings

Don't sexualize any characters who are under the age of majority. Fictional child pornography is illegal in some countries and you risk getting in serious trouble.

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Be careful when drawing fanart. Some copyright holders, especially Disney, are strict with copyright and will fiercely protect their IP. If you post it anywhere and the original creator finds the art infringing, they can and will sue you if they get the chance.

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