Reminder Revisited

Remember that post I wrote about the TLKFAA Uploading Guidelines five days ago?  Well, Brian just posted a new message on the main page of the Archive which is even more thorough and clear, so hopefully there will be less drama about what is “on topic” and what is not (I’m not exactly holding my breath on that one).  I highly recommend that you read it if you’re an artist at TLKFAA.

The heart of what Brian is presenting, for me, comes down to the fact that TLKFAA is a site for Lion King fanart.  Not for wolves, kittens, dragons, griffins, unicorns, fanart of video games, fanart of other Disney movies, fanart of any other movies, fanart for virtual pet sites, furry art, R-rated art, original species, original species from outer space, original species that look suspiciously like wolves or dragons, etc., etc. to infinity. Y’all can take that crap to DeviantArt or some other site.  Please.

It reminds me of what happened last summer during Canon Days, a week in which artists decided to draw canon art (of their own free will, not a requirement or mandate).  Some artists freaked out because… they never draw Lion King art.  WTF?  Really, how do you upload on TLKFAA and not have a single piece of canon-related art?  These artists felt “attacked” because suddenly lots of artists were uploading canon art to their galleries.  The rationale behind that is honestly beyond me.  For 1/52 of the year, some people want to celebrate the roots of this fanart community, and that is offensive to you?  Just…wow.

I know there are always people who snark, “If u limit what ppl can upload then every1 will leave!  Losers!!” (or something to that effect) To them I would say, “What a relief that would be, to have a close-knit community focused on Lion King art drawn by Lion King fanartists.”

Is it wrong for me to wish that TLKFAA could be more like that?   :\

Just a Reminder

Apparently I have been missing some dramaz in the TLKFAA bulletins about off-topic art.  But I thought it might be a good idea to post some important quotes from the Uploading Guidelines, just to refresh the memory.

“The Lion King universe encompasses African animals, big cats, created big-cat-like species, and the general natural setting of southeastern Africa. It does not include non-African wolves, horses, or the human world (including dogs and house cats)—though some art of these subjects may be allowed, as long as it does not dominate your gallery.

Not Acceptable:

• “Furry” or role-playing characters that have nothing to do with the Lion King universe. No humans, Pokemon, South Park, anime, dragons, Neopets, or “furry” characters that don’t have anything to do with TLK. “Crossovers” are fine, but please be reasonable about it.
• Characters from movies or shows other than TLK (especially if they’re not big cats or African animals).

Note well that this site is not a democracy—it’s a privately run and financed community resource.”

So…yeah.  On topic is the way to go.  And there are plenty of other online art communities out there for you to discover if you would rather not draw Lion King / African-themed art.  Don’t worry, be happy. =)

Character Copying

I recently have been assembling my first uploaded Kiara/Kovu spawn (something new and different for me; I’ll talk about it more when the ref sheets hit TLKFAA), and have been fussing quite a lot over these babies.  The thing is, as with any of my characters I want them to be “unique”, and not consciously-or-subconsciously similar to other artists’ renderings of Kiara/Kovu cubs.  As you can imagine, this is very difficult, as there are only so many ways you can combine the traits of these two lions.

For example, I loved the idea of Kiara-ish fur coloring + Kovu mane coloring, but that has been done before (Capricornfox’s Chaka comes to mind).  So my male Kiara/Kovu offspring will not have that specific combination.  I try to make these original characters unique partly for uniqueness’ sake, but also because massive dramaz happen whenever fanartists think that “their” character designs are being ripped off. There are significant examples of this on the Archive, and I really don’t want to bother bringing them up again.

Instead, I’ll give you a very personal example of being accused of design-taking myself…before I had even been one month on TLKFAA.  I was very proud of my character Blitz, a melanistic 3/4 lion, 1/4 lynx, and I thought it would be kind of fun to create a whole pride of black lions.  So I adopted another melanistic cat, a lion offered up by the artist now known as Bonebreaker.  Then I drew my first picture with two black lions in it, Blitz and this new character Ravenstorm.

Just over an hour later, I got a comment from Endless Night telling me that I should change my characters’ designs (both of them) because they were too close to her “Maazeousi lions”.  First of all, I was shocked that I should have to change my characters because they just happened to have the same fur color as someone else’s lion pride.  Second, I was pissed.  I had never heard of this artist, had no clue what the heck a Maazeousi lion was, and knew for sure that I had not copied one as I had never even seen one.  I didn’t give a darn that they were apparently “invented” in 1998, because as far as I could tell, there were no similarities between my lions and Endless Night’s lions at all.  Look at the differences for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

I have later come to realize that Endless Night was just full of herself.  She has written: “Endless Night was the ORIGINAL black and white lion.” and “Yes he IS the original black and white lion. You have a black and white lion that looks similar to him and chances are I’m going to ask you to change it. Why? Because he was the first and he’s been around the lionking.org fanart gallery since long before there was a fanart.lionking.org and he was also on Kubo’s spot.” She came up with an idea she thought was unique about 12 years ago, and then attacked anyone else who came up with the same idea (which happened frequently because honestly, black-and-white lion designs aren’t that unique).

I was a newbie when all this went on, however, and I was scared to death of someone who claimed to be the O Wise Ancient Of All TLK Fanartists With The Sacred Black/White Lion.  So I left a response that I hoped would appease her and continued making my pride…but I never created a black lion with a white mane.  I kind of want to do it now, almost 4 years later, but I really don’t want to stir the beehive again.  It’s in my potential “to-do” list, anyway.

What I gained from this experience was an intense hatred of artists who attacked others that unknowingly made characters like theirs, and a desire for a different sort of community.  Thankfully I’ve seen this other sort growing…it can be seen for example with the design similarities that spring among various fanartist Urus and Ahadis.  I’ve tried to contribute…as with my idea for Mheetu being a white lion, which has led to similar designs by other artists; Half-Tail, for one, even very politely asked me if it was all right to use the same idea.

The way I see it, fan art is done because fans love the original material. Fan art should not be based on sniping and accusations and suspicions. Those belong to the “original” art world.  I have seen that drama erupts more often with non-canon-related characters, particularly original species.  It’s yet another reason why I advocate for a more on-topic archive; send those who want to be original to other art sites and pick at each other there. In a fan art community like TLKFAA, we don’t even own the canon characters to begin with, and inevitably any lion design we make is essentially a rip-off of the canon.  It would be nice if more fanartists had a sense of humility, and remembered that.  But I’m not holding my breath.