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Pretty Things (on a Bandom theme)
Jan. 8th, 2011 12:59 amTHING ONE: Has everyone seen Lindsey Way's gorgeous sequence of dioramas? I already thought she was pretty damned awesome, but these knocked me for six. So much intricate detail! What lovely wee things she's made! It's a sequence of pieces around the theme of a funeral - my favourite is the one where the chaps with the deer headdresses are sacrificing a fluffy wee beast (a cow or bull, I think?) and the gory guts bursting out of its belly are butterflies. Lyn-Z, you are made of win, lady. And the giant squid/kraken one, with the fragile curls of sea foam and the light shining in the squid's eye - that's lovely too. And, okay, I really liked the second piece, 'Tears Explode Like Bombs', with the fireworks echoing the strings of tears. Basically, I think these are fabulous, and my girlcrush on Lyn-Z just increased tenfold.
THING TWO: It occurs to me that I may have given the impression that I think ALL fanart is pants, or something. Or that it's mostly pants. And that is very much not the case - I pretty much expect it to be awesome (and any time that anyone's done an illustration for one of my stories I've been completely &hearts _ &hearts about it, and OMG they have been lovely) which is why I am all DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD: on those few occasions when I see someone getting Big Bang Art that is not so much with the awesome. (It is taking a great deal of self control to keep from posting links to the 3 pieces I'm thinking of, but there is no way that could be anything other than crass and needlessly cruel, so I won't. But I WANT TO. Because I am petty)
I have huge respect for Fan Illustrators - it's a very particular skill set, being able to compose and execute something lovely and fitting which reflects a moment in a story AND ALSO depicts characters who are based on real people so that they are recognisable. I don't feel confident that I could do it - certainly not to the standard that I see from the good fan artists out there.
So I thought I would provide links to things that ARE lovely, in a variety of styles. This is totally not a comprehensive list, or anything methodical, because I don't tend to bookmark things, so this is more a grab bag of pretty things I happen to have seen in the past couple of days:
All the artwork by various artists for Novembersmith's excellent Frank/Gerard AU 'Anatomy of a Fall' (which is one of my favourite stories in all the world at the minute. Just - love. Love love love. It's like the perfect teen supernatural romance antidote to 'Twilight', and I wish it was published, albeit with a find'n'replace on the names, because teens deserve this much more than they deserve Meyer's ouvre, imho).( Read more... )
The illustrations for 'A Presumption of Functionality' by Sunsetmog (Steampunk P!ATD, Brendon/Spencer)( Read more... )
The illustrations for JJ Taylor & Ataratah's 'Only Going One Way' (Bandom/Due South crossover, Frank/Gerard and Ray/Fraser - and, lord, this is an adorable story. 'Due South' is one of my very favourite fandoms to read - the tone of the show was just so wonderfully warm and quirky, and I &hearts the combination of a romance and a procedural wrapped up in a faintly surreal and gently comical package. Throwing in the Bandom lads just cranked the awesome up to eleven.)( Read more... )
The illustrations for impertinence's 'Not The Passionate Dance' (Ashlee/Pete, Historical AU Sherlock Holmes fusion thingy. This was AWESOME. I loved this spin on Sherlock Holmes, with the Watson figure being a woman who'd spent years crossdressing in order to study to be a Doctor, and who'd ended up enlisting in the army. Ashlee is unspeakably kickass and pragmatic and just fabulous in this, and Pete is fairly fucked up (and doesn't have any kind of useful meds to help with that), and for all that it's probably a bit wobbly and anachronistic and whatever, it's a delightful read, brimming with UST, and with a decent bit of thought about gender and class roles. I love nonheteronormative het romances, and this is a lovely example.)( Read more... )
So there we are - those are some of the pretty things I've seen in the past few days. Lots of people make awesome Big Bang Art - and awesome other art. Which is why I want to cry when I stumble across the crappily executed, carelessly knocked out stuff, and feel really bad for the writers.
Have you any examples of lovely fanart you've encountered the past week or two that you'd like to point me at? Any fandom? (Sorry, I realise these are all Bandom, but I don't think they're anything to scare the horses.)
THING TWO: It occurs to me that I may have given the impression that I think ALL fanart is pants, or something. Or that it's mostly pants. And that is very much not the case - I pretty much expect it to be awesome (and any time that anyone's done an illustration for one of my stories I've been completely &hearts _ &hearts about it, and OMG they have been lovely) which is why I am all DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD: on those few occasions when I see someone getting Big Bang Art that is not so much with the awesome. (It is taking a great deal of self control to keep from posting links to the 3 pieces I'm thinking of, but there is no way that could be anything other than crass and needlessly cruel, so I won't. But I WANT TO. Because I am petty)
I have huge respect for Fan Illustrators - it's a very particular skill set, being able to compose and execute something lovely and fitting which reflects a moment in a story AND ALSO depicts characters who are based on real people so that they are recognisable. I don't feel confident that I could do it - certainly not to the standard that I see from the good fan artists out there.
So I thought I would provide links to things that ARE lovely, in a variety of styles. This is totally not a comprehensive list, or anything methodical, because I don't tend to bookmark things, so this is more a grab bag of pretty things I happen to have seen in the past couple of days:
All the artwork by various artists for Novembersmith's excellent Frank/Gerard AU 'Anatomy of a Fall' (which is one of my favourite stories in all the world at the minute. Just - love. Love love love. It's like the perfect teen supernatural romance antidote to 'Twilight', and I wish it was published, albeit with a find'n'replace on the names, because teens deserve this much more than they deserve Meyer's ouvre, imho).( Read more... )
The illustrations for 'A Presumption of Functionality' by Sunsetmog (Steampunk P!ATD, Brendon/Spencer)( Read more... )
The illustrations for JJ Taylor & Ataratah's 'Only Going One Way' (Bandom/Due South crossover, Frank/Gerard and Ray/Fraser - and, lord, this is an adorable story. 'Due South' is one of my very favourite fandoms to read - the tone of the show was just so wonderfully warm and quirky, and I &hearts the combination of a romance and a procedural wrapped up in a faintly surreal and gently comical package. Throwing in the Bandom lads just cranked the awesome up to eleven.)( Read more... )
The illustrations for impertinence's 'Not The Passionate Dance' (Ashlee/Pete, Historical AU Sherlock Holmes fusion thingy. This was AWESOME. I loved this spin on Sherlock Holmes, with the Watson figure being a woman who'd spent years crossdressing in order to study to be a Doctor, and who'd ended up enlisting in the army. Ashlee is unspeakably kickass and pragmatic and just fabulous in this, and Pete is fairly fucked up (and doesn't have any kind of useful meds to help with that), and for all that it's probably a bit wobbly and anachronistic and whatever, it's a delightful read, brimming with UST, and with a decent bit of thought about gender and class roles. I love nonheteronormative het romances, and this is a lovely example.)( Read more... )
So there we are - those are some of the pretty things I've seen in the past few days. Lots of people make awesome Big Bang Art - and awesome other art.
Have you any examples of lovely fanart you've encountered the past week or two that you'd like to point me at? Any fandom? (Sorry, I realise these are all Bandom, but I don't think they're anything to scare the horses.)