Hello! (It's me again) Thank you for your previous response! It helped me figure out just how much I need. I'm here again for some more help...I've been doing research on fan art and licensing and decided I don't really want to run the risk of getting into trouble...however 80% of my current work is FANART and I don't know how to start creating oc merch people would be interested in? I have a couple of OC's and planning on making a comic someday but my AA is in a couple of months? Please help!
This is a common problem! Hope you don’t mind me answering this publicly, I think this will help others. One way to approach this, which you hinted at, is to focus on your comic first so that people connect with your characters and want art of them! But like you said, you don’t quite have time for that.
If you haven’t already considered this, the other way I’d approach this is to use this as a chance to exercise your art skills! If you can’t leverage fanart, can you leverage great composition, color, pose, expression, etc? People really like art that looks visually interesting and compelling, even if they don’t know the character that is being featured in an illustration. Even in fanart, if two illustrations show the same beloved character, people are going to gravitate more towards the one that looks more visually interesting.
A first step might be to take a look at original prints of artists you follow that you really like and sit and think about why you like them. How do the background and characters work together? What is the color scheme, and why does that particular color scheme work for this piece? Is there something about the expression or pose that’s interesting?
Another thing that might help with this is to watch other people’s art process to see why they do the things they do. Check out livestreams on Twitch or speedpaints on Youtube. Shameless plug: I built a website for people to upload and share their art processes, so also take a look and see if you find any inspiration for techniques to try.
Then, pick one of these techniques that you’d like to try out in a new artwork you make. Do lots of thumbnailing. Change up your usual art process. Explore lots of ideas! Use this as a chance to push yourself.
So, I know that’s not an easy thing to do, but I feel like this is the most effective approach you can take (both in terms of your own growth as an artist, and in terms of attracting customers to your original art). I hope that helps!
