UCLA’s Danusia Francis scored a perfect ten on her beam routine earlier this week and I need y’all to catch this dismount. Apparently it’s one of her signatures, but I’ve never seen it before and I bout stood straight up off my couch when she stuck that. And her spirit fingers are just the cutest! We might see her in the Olympics this year. In 2012 she almost made the British team, but she served as an alternate instead. This year she’s competing for Jamaica so she might actually make it to the big show.
I love how the colored girls are truly giving it to the gymnastics world these days. I mean, aside from Simone and Gabby at the very top of the sport, clips from college meets keep going viral and I have yet to see the next Shannon Miller or Svetlana Khorkina or Shawn Johnson going viral. It’s always a brown girl. Danusia’s teammate Sophina DeJesus went viral a couple of months ago, but it was Lloimincia Hall’s floor routine from awhile back that really set the tone. Go ‘head, y’all. Shake the sport up some more. Let me see a nae nae at the Olympics.
Recently I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not I should continue drawing art for fanfictions. Because of my internal struggle I decided to write out all of the positives that come with drawing fanfiction art as a reminder to myself, and maybe even convince some of you artists out there to consider it in the process.
1.) They deserve it
Fanfiction writers create some amazing stories, sometimes they even create characters or worlds. These things take some serious time and skill! They spend their personal time to create free stories for your enjoyment. Creating art for them is a great kindness to fanfiction writers who have given you ten times that kindness back.
I don’t really give reviews of fanfictions. Mainly because I never know how to explain what I like about a fanfiction without giving them a ten page paper or ending up sounding like a pterodactyl. Drawing art is a great way to show your appreciation without screaming in their faces!
2.) It is great practice
Very rarely do I have something that allows me to draw demonic dolls, blushing demons, a man whose slowly breaking apart and going to space, ghost gangsters, robots with electricity sparking from them, a boy with a bloody knee blaming it on parkour, desperate hugs, two men fighting off ice cold oceans waves, the list goes on and on!
Fanfiction provides some great scenarios for art, that let me branch out and try new things. It’s a great challenge!
3.) It gives them a reason to keep writing
Do you enjoy this fanfiction writers work? Want to keep them excited about writing so that way you can see more great, high quality, work? Well boy oh boy do I have the solution for you! Fanfiction art!
Fanfiction art, at least to me, is a big way to show you care. Writers put time and effort into their pieces and you have given back something that also has time and effort put into it. Seeing that kind of support can really encourage a fanfiction writer! With fanfiction art you are showing that you deeply care about their work, that you are inspired by what they’ve done.
If that’s not a big thumbs up, I don’t know what is!
4.) Positive response
I’ve seen some fanfiction writers response to my art and let me tell you, it’s positively heart warming. The writers who I have drawn for have been so excited with the art! I don’t know about you but seeing someone who deserves something get it is super satisfying. Of all the reactions to my art, fanfiction writers reactions have been the ones I remember the most. There responses kept me smiling for days on end, it’s truly moving.
Don’t be afraid to show them your art!! Let me tell you my art is not perfect but I worked hard on those pieces that I gave those talented writers, and that is enough. It’s the thought that counts, and fanfiction writers deserve as many supportive thoughts as they can get!
As a fanfiction writer, I’ve been very fortunate to receive some beautiful pieces, and some funny pieces, from readers who spent their valuable time creating art of my story, especially my OC.
There are not enough words to express the feeling I get when I see that someone enjoyed my writing enough to create art about it. It’s the ultimate compliment and should never be taken for granted. It’s inspiring and it’s refreshing to see your characters and your story through someone else’s eyes. Sometimes these pieces influence your writing and influence the creation of new scenes.
If you create something based off of a fanfic you’ve read I highly recommend that you share it with the author. Rough, sketched, polished…doesn’t matter. Your piece of work may be the only compliment, comment, or positive reinforcement they’ve received in a while. Trust me, your writer loves it. And sometimes, they need it.
The stages of someone sending me unexpected art based on my fic:
Cry (no really; actual tears from my eyes–THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS).
Internally freak out. Externally freak out (usually involves a lot of bouncing in chair.)
Show someone. Usually husband. Often cat. You know that picture of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith where he’s like “LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE?” – I’m like that. Only “LOOK AT WHAT SOME BEAUTIFUL PERSON HAS DONE.”
Reblog art usually accompanied by excessive use of caps lock and/or exclamation points. (!!!)
Have exceedingly warm happy feeling for days, renewed up every time art is remembered.
Save on computer; look at art every time sad, discouraged, in need of inspiration.
Basically never stop being amazed at how wonderful people are.
Whenever people have made art of my fanfics I’ve just… completely lost the ability to think for the rest of the day. It’s so incredibly overwhelming that someone to take the time to put effort and talent – their amazing, glorious talent – into making something based off things that I, stupid little me, wrote.
Truly, fanart of fanfic is the best gift.
This has only happened to me once, and eight years later I still treasure it.
I would love art of my fanfiction.
Casual reminder to fellow artust that we can single handedly make someone’s day a little more awesome.
Romeo and Juliet: For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
Julius Caesar: For never was a story of more blood and guts/ Than this of Rome and her Julius.
Othello: For never was a story with more calling an innocent lady a ho/ Than this of Desdemona and her Othello
Macbeth: For never was a story of more death/ Than this of Lord and Lady Macbeth.
Titus Andronicus: For never was a story more ludicrous/ Than this of Titus Andronicus
Richard III: For never was a story of less chill/ Than this of Richard and those he killed
King Lear: For never was a story more weird/ Than this of three girls and their dad, King Lear
Antony and Cleopatra: For never was a story of dying in more agony/ Than this of Cleopatra and her Antony
Coriolanus: For never was a story of more gayness/ Than this of Aufidius and his Coriolanus
Hamlet: For never was a story more overblown/ Than this of Prince Hamlet and the Danish throne.
we joke about procrastination but nothing is worse than the nauseating feeling of having every intention of doing something but physically not being capable of doing it and then feeling like you want to throw up because the deadline is just getting closer and closer.
