Fandom frustrations.

[hannah]

A moment to gripe, please.

I just got my art for one of the pieces I did for werewolfbigbang. And it's more than slightly frustrating to realize not only did the artist put little effort into the stuff, but didn't even read the story. I know there are better things out there to get frustrated over, like people hogging the clothing dryers and not hearing back from potential employers, but this is something where I can point to a line in the story describing an object, point to the art of said object, and say, "That's incorrect. That isn't what it looks like." And that sort of situation is just made for online griping.

And I'd better get to bed, since the moment's passed.

Comments

[moony]

This is what I'm afraid of for the Sherlock Big Bang. Only a few of the artists are actually artists while the rest seem to think slapping together some photos in Photoshop is "art" - or they're just awful. :(

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

Only a few of the artists are actually artists while the rest seem to think slapping together some photos in Photoshop is "art"

As a mixer for several Big Bangs (who takes pride in taking the time to make nice cover art) I'm going to take umbrage here. Good graphic design is as much art as anything else. I've seen just as much terrible traditional art as terrible graphic design and just because one is more prevalent on the internet doesn't change the fact that there's no real reason to rate one above the other.

[moony]

No, I know there is good graphic designers out there, I've seen it. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the ones who put no effort into it. Who clearly spent about five minutes taking a photograph and turning it black and white and maybe using a brush here and there, putting some words over it (without thought to font selection, re: comic sans), and Bob's your uncle they're done. I think that's lazy and uninspired. The ones who take their time and put as much thought and creativity into it as the author who wrote 50,000 words, the ones who know that Photoshop or whatever program they use is a powerful tool, I appreciate. Believe me. I've seen gorgeous work from those people.

And yes, there are also crap traditional artists out there, as well, who faff about rather than take pride in their work. I'm just as leery of them as I am bad Photoshoppers.

I didn't mean to offend. I ought to have been more specific in my grumpiness. Thank you for pointing it out.

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

No worries. I get a little overly touchy about it sometimes, so sorry about jumping on you.

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

Some of the pieces I got are icons, which is a nice idea - simple enough, right? - except that these are some pretty terribly animated icons.

Although I checked out the artists' stuff already, since I saw the name on the artist sign-up post, so I've been bracing myself for a while.

[evilmissbecky.livejournal.com]

I don't blame you for being annoyed. I would be too. *hugs*

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'd been worried about getting something like this for a while, and I guess it finally came to pass. I e-mailed the artist last night, so I should hear back soon enough.

[joe-pike-junior.livejournal.com]

How do people even do that? I mean, I know how they do it -- they sit there and do very little, and they don't even bother to do other things, and then they click their mouse a few times and hand in something, all the while using less than 50% of their arse. But why? Why sign up for something if you're not going to produce something that a) you can be proud of and b) isn't offensive to the person you're remixing?

I'm always meticulous about my fic remixes, because I have a fear of getting a comment from the remixee that says something along the lines of "No. It isn't like that AT ALL." And jokes aside, I think that sort of comment is justified in this case.

How did you know they didn't read the story, by the way? Could it have just been a mistake?

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

The object that's described incorrectly is a business card case. I put "business card case" into Google last night and found that the source image for the poorly-done piece was the first result. With the main character's name poorly Photoshopped onto it. Without changing the business cards in the case itself.

In the story, the case was described as having floral designs on its front cover and being able to flip open along its spine instead of flicking open like a Zippo, so I know the artist didn't read the story closely enough to figure out what it looked like.

Also, going by file names for other pieces, they didn't go beyond the first couple of pages for Google Images to get the sources for the other things they made.