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.
Confessions of a Lion King Fanartist 