What is "Fan Art"?

Fan art can be many things, but for the purposes of this sub, it is art that includes an image derived from a popular movie, TV show, video game, comic book, novel, or any other form of popular media. For example, anything related to (but not limited to) Star Wars, Pokemon, Batman, Legend of Zelda, The Big Lebowski, Breaking Bad, etc. would be considered "fan art".

That being said, portraits of real people -- including celebrities, musicians, actors, and athletes -- are allowed, as long as it is of the real person and not one of his or her characters. So a picture of Bryan Cranston is fine, but not Walter White. Johnny Depp is fine, but not Captain Jack Sparrow. Charlize Theron, yes, but not Imperator Furiosa. And so on.

Why do you need this rule?

Please understand this is not personal. Fan art is a perfectly valid genre of art. It's a Reddit thing, not an Art thing, and the main reason we have the rule is because it unbalances the sub. As a "default" /r/Art is seen by all of Reddit, not just the subscribers. The average Redditor upvotes something familiar much more than something that is quality. Fan art receives upvotes because people like the subject, so much so that other works of art get pushed off of the front page. Without the restriction, more than half the top posts are often fan art.

This is why we started /r/fanart so it could have its own sub with its own supporters. Yes, it's not a particularly popular sub at the moment, so we encourage those of you who enjoy fan art to post there and help it to grow.

We want /r/Art to be more than a forum for fan artists to market themselves, and for karma whores to milk popular media for upvotes. Without strict moderation, the lowest common denominator dominates, and this place becomes even more focused on illustration and representative art. This is also why we have rules against karma-bait titles and memes, to encourage people to look at the art before upvoting, and not just knee-jerk upvote based on a clever or attractive title.

How come you pulled my posts when I see so many other "fan art" posts at the top of the sub?

The rule has been in place since May 2015. Any posts older than that get a pass -- it's not fair to remove them for breaking a rule that didn't exist when they first posted. Please report anything more recent, and we will take care of it as appropriate.

What about using those images as "found art", "pop art", or in some other conceptual/satirical/ironic context? Would you pull the art of Roy Lichtenstein or other "pop artists"?

As with any rule, there are exceptions. We will evaluate these individually. If you think we've pulled something in error, message us and we can talk about it.