Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to art derived from visual media such as comics, movies or video games. Examples of fan art would be artwork depicting Wolverine from the X-Men comics or a picture of Son Goku from Dragonball appearing as a Super Saiyan 5, or Cloud from the video game Final Fantasy VII. Usually, it refers to artworks by amateur artists, or artists who are unpaid for their fan creations--so that, for example, a professional comic adaptation of The Lord of Rings movie would not be considered fanart.
Copyright
The legal status of fan made art in America may be tricky due to the vagueries of the United States Copyright Act. Generally, the right to reproduce and display pieces of artwork is controlled by the author or artist. However, fan art using settings and characters from a previously created work could be considered a derivative work, which would place control of the copyright with the owner of that original work. Display and distribution of fan art that would be considered a derivative work would be unlawful. However, American copyright law allows for the production, display and distribution of derivative works if they fall under a fair use exemption. Generally small excerpts from larger works that have no financial impact on the original and that are done for non commercial purposes could be considered a fair use. American courts also typically grant broad protection to parody and some fan art may fall into this category. This is a legal gray area, however, and legality can often not be determined under after litigation has concluded.
See also
Fan fiction
Fanposter
External links
Fan art at mediaminer.org
Funart Central
FanTent
fanarts.net
comicbookfanart.com - Comic book fan art
[1] - a personal fan art site
Sonic Wind - A Sonic Fanart site
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_art"
Bluelunar.net- Contains anime and asian celebrity wallpaper.
