The Online World is a weird place for artists.

People who draw fanart are largely popular, but only with a certain crowd, and then all other crowds are like "This is shit, This isn't even art, why do you still breathe?" etc.

But people who put effort into making their own OCs aren't recognized despite being more talented or drama-less people or whatever.

If you draw nothing but Fanart, you get snubbed by more original and talented artists, but if you start drawing your own OC's you loose the popularity you had when you drew things that other people were familiar with.

Furthermore when one draws nothing but their own OC's and then begins drawing a ton of fanart, the community turns on them and starts bashing them for wanting to become intantly famous for drawing popular things, even if that was not their intention.

It's so unfair that people who are so original and have wonderful, new and interesting ideas can be thrown by the wayside because they don't draw 40 billion pictures of SoraxAxelxRoxas threesomes.

I have seen some original artists, such as =kilara , =Shinerai , ~SilverPoot , etc. who don't do any or at least, very little fanart, who are very popular, but I often feel it's largely due to their increadible talent, and that if they weren't as far along in their drawing prowess they wouldn't be as poupular and not many people would care about their OCS.

On the flip side, I see many people who aren't as far along in their drawing progress as the aformentioned artists and still rack in hilariously, and sickeningly at the same time, amount of fans and relentless supporters simply because their gallery is completely made up of fanart.

I dunno. I'm NOT saying NO ONE SHUD DEW FANARTZ, because it IS fun! I've done fanart of many games, anime/manga and other artists etc. and plan to do more in the future. It's jsut I don't think thats ALL one should draw. Make your own characters and your own things from your own imagination. You may not grow in popularity as quickly as people who draw nothing but fanart, but you'll be recognized one day. And people will have more respect for you the more original you are.

So in short, Do OCs. Do Fanart, but keep it level, don't stray to just one side. Oh and don't cry about stuff, because drama is sometimes funny and interesting, but MOSTLY it's just annoying as hell.

K done with this rant.