Discussion Benefits of supplementary fanfic artwork

As both a writer and artist, I sometimes like to do concept and cover art to go along with the stories I write.

For examle, since the (only) fanfic I'm currently working on is OC-dominant, I usually provide some concept art (and cover art for each chapter in the DeviantArt version of the story, and if I know I'm allowed to, I may include them in the JCF version of the story as well) for the major characters to solidify mental images, provide previews of what the reader's going to be seeing and bring in ideas that I can bring up later in the story itself.

Does anyone else do the same thing or see any other benefits to this?

 

I do a lot of supplementary artwork for fics and RPs, and even other art projects. Character designs help to solidify character descriptions, and I've drawn the occasional map to plan out a room. Sometimes I'll draw a scene. I have pages and pages of stock and supplementary artwork lying around, most of it not scanned. I'll scan and post a character design here and there, but a lot of the stuff I do for my fics and RPs are basically just notes in picture form.

 

I have concept art in my head, but I'm not good enough at drawing to transfer it on paper...so, I used some random person generator to make portraits of my Human characters and, at this point, I'm just imagining others.

This applies to scenes, entire layouts, too.

 

I have very vivid mental images of characters but can't draw that's why I paint with words.

 

I've done some character portraits for one series, but have not gotten around to posting them in the story thread yet -- partly because I'm still working through the character design choices. As for cover art, I've considered making some but am not sure that I can bring off the kind of look that I'd want for something like that. If it's right out front and center on page 1, the perfectionist in me wants to be really picky.

 

I've drawn one of my OCs - though that was partly because it was for a collaborative work, so I wanted the other person and I to have the same image in our head - and one time I illustrated a scene from my fic because I had such a strong image of it and I wanted to see if I could get it down in drawing form. I don't do that sort of thing on a regular basis, though.

 

I've done quite a few supplementary images for my work in Photoshop, though this consists almost exclusively of illustrations for Fanon Wiki articles relating to the organization that most of my stories revolve around (namely, the Republic Marines). My artistic skills are limited to inorganic objects, however, such as weapons and possibly starships, though I can take a pre-existing line drawing of a humanoid and tweak it to make something else. I've also used Photoshop to craft some interesting book covers.

 

Adding onto what I said earlier, I'm usually creating not just new characters, but new factions, vehicles, weapons, creatures and species (sometimes of the non-humanoid variety). While I do use some pre-existing planets most of the time, I also create original ones. Even though I have little more trouble drawing certain types of things, that doesn't stop me from trying.

 

That sounded...motivating.


*opens Illustrator*

 

I've drawn storyboards on occasion for various things, mostly audio productions. These tend to be rather simplistic, as I'm using them mainly for blocking and speaker placement. Like with other drawings of that nature, they're really only meant to be seen by me (and whomever I'm working with). I've also done maps and enemy placement for when I'm DMing a forum RPG, and sometimes even when I'm not DMing, but am just a player. Again, mostly for my benefit and I never scan them.

 

UUUGGGGGHHHHHH, I WOULD DO THIS IF I HAD TIME. I know how to draw and have Photoshop, but I'm way too slow, and it's very frustrating because I'm a very visual person. There are a lot of scenes I write that I'd rather portray or at least supplement with an illustration because I want to convey the characters' expressions or capture a moment that I feel I can't really do justice to describing with words alone. (I guess, the truth is, I'd almost rather make my stories into graphic novels rather than a plain fanfic, but that's beyond a pipe dream.)