Yeah, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that with fanart, especially before digital printing became somewhat cheap, it was a unique item sold. I don't think the financial outlay for making the original for fanart is the real difference, but that if you get say a mimeographed or later xeroxed copy of a typed story the experience is pretty much the same as if you saw the final edit of the original.
You assemble the relevant bit in your head, whether the text is a crisp professionally typeset black or a slightly fuzzy just typed blue. However looking at a mimeographed or standard xeroxed version of a drawing is decidedly not the same as looking at even an ink drawing made with b/w reproduction in mind.
Even b/w good image reproduction is non-trivial (otherwise there wouldn't have developed whole art styles and techniques around the limitations) and it only gets exponentially worse and expensive as soon as color gets involved. And that was far more true before color computer printers got both cheaper and better.
So (pre-digital) fanart is more like cottage fancrafts that way, like people selling a handmade Star Trek tricorder replica or such. Without serious reproduction know-how and financial outlay it is not going to be a mass produced competition to the official stuff.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-01-26 07:42 am (UTC)You assemble the relevant bit in your head, whether the text is a crisp professionally typeset black or a slightly fuzzy just typed blue. However looking at a mimeographed or standard xeroxed version of a drawing is decidedly not the same as looking at even an ink drawing made with b/w reproduction in mind.
Even b/w good image reproduction is non-trivial (otherwise there wouldn't have developed whole art styles and techniques around the limitations) and it only gets exponentially worse and expensive as soon as color gets involved. And that was far more true before color computer printers got both cheaper and better.
So (pre-digital) fanart is more like cottage fancrafts that way, like people selling a handmade Star Trek tricorder replica or such. Without serious reproduction know-how and financial outlay it is not going to be a mass produced competition to the official stuff.