A question about your experience with fan art contests!

[FritzC]

Hi!
I'm looking for some different fun things to do with the community surrounding my webcomic. I've done merch, I've done mini comics and I've done Q&As, but something i keep seeing pop up is "do Fan art contests" and honestly.... How do you do that.....??

I don't know if its because I just don't have enough subs to have fan art made or whatnot, but doesn't it seem a little selfish to do a fan art contest, effectively asking people to make art of your characters?? And how do you pick a winner??

I'm not sure, and since I don't actually receive fan art, I'd feel awkward asking people to make it... But that might just be because I'm afraid to embarrass myself if no one participates.

I'd love to hear if any of you guys have experiences with these kinds of things and if it's actually something a comic community usually enjoys.

[darthmongoose]

I didn't really do a "contest" so much as a showcase. You can find the thread here:

We are gradually closing on the end of chapter 1 of Errant! It's been a pretty wild ride with the community pick and staff pick in the middle of it all, so for the end of the chapter, to celebrate both hitting that milestone and passing 500 subs along the way, it's time for a fan art challenge/showcase! 'Cause cross promo is fun! [:tapa_pop:] Chances are, if you're on the forum, you're already familiar with Errant, but in case you're not, it's a very colourful Action Fantasy with lots of LGBTQ…

I'd considered using just the best ones, like a competition, but in the end, it was a reasonable amount to have as two updates (one for single pieces, the other for omake and some content from a panel redraws thread), and everyone did such a good job there weren't any pieces I didn't want to show.

The "reward" or "prize" was simply exposure on a comic with a moderate following. Most of the people who sent stuff had smaller followings than my comic, so it was a chance to hopefully get seen by a wider audience (It'd be great if people did gain a few subs off this). I made sure to showcase each comic with a thumbnail of the comic cover and a clickable link to encourage readers to check out comics by people whose pieces they liked.

Overall, I'm really happy with how it worked out.

[FritzC]

Before you did the showcase, did you have much fan art made already?

I think my worry is that I don't really have any people already making fan art, so I don't know if a showcase/contest would just fall flat and die

Edit: also thank you for responding this is very helpful

[darthmongoose]

Before you did the showcase, did you have much fan art made already?

I think my worry is that I don't really have any people already making fan art, so I don't know if a showcase/contest would just fall flat and die

I had one or two pieces, and people who had said they'd like to do fanart, and historically I've generally tended to get a fair bit of fanart on my webcomics, even when they have smallish followings because my character designs are very bold- like I do value "cosplay/fan art appeal" and how easily the design can be simplified or drawn in other styles while still being recognisable pretty highly when making them.

I also asked my readers before doing the event whether they wanted a Q&A or a fanart showcase and the responses favoured the latter overwhelmingly.

So overall... I think even though my following is just "moderate", I was in a good place to run one. It's possible that something like a Q&A or some guest comics or omake would make a better event for a comic with more down to earth character designs or a different sort of readerbase, even if it does have a larger following.

[FritzC]

I thought about guest comics but don't have the money to ask people to do them, which is fair, because I wouldn't wanna ask anyone to do a guest comic for free

I've never aired the idea of a fan art showcase directly to my reader base, though. I've had a few people say they'd wanna make Fan art and people did like my characters during art fight so maybe I should just go for it... I don't know why but it just makes me nervous, it feels way more vulnerable than a Q&A to me

[DualDragons]

I did a fanart contest back in June/July. The pandemic didn't really help popping in and a lot of people were too busy. I did end up having enough entries for a top 3 though.

I rewarded the winners with art of my own (I'm still waiting for the third guy to respond to my question which character they want drawn)

[Legendofgenii]

On Instagram there are a lot of Do This In Your Own Style contests. Could you do it this way? It’s less pressure on your contestants (hopefully) as you’ve already given them the character etc. They just need to copy it.

The only fan art I’ve had so far was via here in request threads or panel redraws etc. So they weren’t organic or anything.

I imagine it feels really nice just being surprised by a drawing from a fan. I’d see it as a great compliment.

[DualDragons]

I imagine it feels really nice just being surprised by a drawing from a fan. I’d see it as a great compliment.

Oh yeah that is a great feeling, I've received a few of them. Mostly because of memes/inside jokes but still

By @aqua03

By @nathanKmcwilliams

[FritzC]

That’s a really good idea!! I got some positive feed back on Twitter abt some friends wanting to do the showcasing which made it less scary because then I know I’ll a least have something

I think I’ll launch a fan art showcasing event and see how it unfolds but I’ll definitely keep the draw this in your style challenges in mind for the future!

[Legendofgenii]

The Wallace and Gromit one! Haha! I love it.

My MCs draw their own fan art - that’s how sad I am.

[aqua03]

That's a powerful image right there.

[aqua03]

I imagine it feels really nice just being surprised by a drawing from a fan. I’d see it as a great compliment.

Yeah, I get that as well. I know I felt great when I woke up one morning to find that an artist I like did a doodle of Selena out of nowhere for me a while back.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBaIyI4jCbE/

[KoreanTacos]

Personally not a fan of doing a fan art contest myself, but have participated in a few of them for mutuals.

I'm just not a fan of pitting my own audience against each other and raking in their work if they dont win. It just doesnt rub right with me. But when participating its fun and gives me a chance to make art for a series I like.

[FritzC]

Ah yeah, I felt like I didn't wanna pick any winners/losers too, that's why à showcase is a much better idea in my opinion. So you don't pick, you just show what everyone did.

[CursedBeasts]

I endered one ages ago on deviantart for a person's fic. Got 3rd place. The prize was supposed to be a sketch but I never really got it =|

[FritzC]

Wow that sucks im sorry

[CursedBeasts]

honestly i kinda dodged a bullet cause i found that artist years later on tumblr and they're basically a giant jerk who doesn't think nonbinary people exist, holds their fic hostage unless people write essay level verbose reviews (that they probably dont write because of the author's intimidating attitude) and the fic itself turned really weird in a bad way.

It was a big disappointment because I used to look up to that artist's art when I was just starting out on deviantart.

More ON topic I kinda agree with doing a showcase as opposed to contest.

[FritzC]

Well, a blessing in disguise, but never the less sucky that they didn't give you your prize!

And yeah, I guess I'm planking to do a little showcase of all the entries (I'm assuming there won't be too many since I've never done this before), and the "prize" is just getting featured on my comic and having fun with the gang