ChopStix said:
Golly, this could be very long discussion about artistic value spread amongst the interwebs - albeit it will be very intriguing.
As a pursuer of the arts, I am obligated to say that I'm not a big fan of neither Kr0npr1nz or any of the artist that I'm going to mention, but I am deeply fascinated with their approach to achieve the style they have. The style that Kr0npr1nz has, including a multitude of other artists such as Sakimichan, Paul Kwon, Kawacy, Shilin, etc., all have certain elements that make them popular; however, to each their own, they have emphasized certain aspects of those elements to their own preferences. The few elements, most of them revolving around a particular trend on the female anatomy; the use of color choice; and lastly, the effects of Patreon.
All of the artists previously mentioned all have a certain style - while at first glance seemingly unique - none of the art is actually unique. I have reason to believe that if an art style is popular enough, it'll become a trend. A momentary event in time that will cause the mass majority to pick up and attempt to replicate and/or mimic what's popular. Of course, it's not easy to prove that any of these artist have had any direct correlation to the upbringing of their style, but I believe that they have had some form of influence on each other in some way. The following links will provide a visual representation of the evolution of style throughout the 1960s to late-2000s.
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18i23wnny4zmejpg/original.jpg 1960s to 1980s
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--TiiBvXjM--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/18i23wloxwsuzjpg.jpg 1980s to 1990s
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4/eaafe6edca2074ba11dcd42bc0af614a1380939299_full.jpg 1990s to 2010
As you can see, there is a clear influence from artistic style that evolves from picture to picture - ever so slowly, but it's evident that it does happen. The counter argument would be that there were limited animation studios, and I rebuke that statement by mentioning that most of these animations were adaptations from manga, which many - if not all - animation studios tried to replicate the original artist's art style. This example is perfect because it's an example of a much wider industrial reach where individual artists can influence the artistic style a little at a time; and at this very moment, Sakimichan, Kr0npr1nz, Paul Kwon, etc., are in the defining moment where they are influential on the community. It does go without saying that there are better artists out there, but what makes these particular three the Queens of the Ball? There's a simple reason: the art style is appealing to the community.
DeviantART is big - very big. It's the behemoth of the artist's community. Giving precipice to this, I was once a member of the community in the early 2000s, but left not too long ago when I witness (unfortunately later than I would've realized) that the community was turning into a heap of garbage. I digress, but my point is still valid - the community is very big and heavily influential. When you have artists with exceptional skill to display art that popped to you in a moment's notice, it would be Sakimichan. I realized that Sakimichan, upon looking through her earlier works that it the colors she chose were complimentary to DeviantART's website color. hues of red upon the hues of green. If it was purposely done, it was an excellent plan to get her art noticed. Personally, I didn't notice the other artists until the past couple of years when I found out that there were others that also noticed them as well, and what struck me as odd was that the art was awfully familiar to Sakimichan's latest style. YouTube has a very interesting system that gives you recommendations during or after you finished watching some videos, and you'll notice that they all have a similar theme with a couple that aren't like the others. Delve enough, and you'll see that you're no longer in Kansas. The styles were impeccably similar that it made me wonder why it was even worth bothering to look at their art. The focus on the large eyes, cheeks and lips, slender frame of the face, narrow neck, etc. These are all elements that make these artists - each differing slightly, but when slumped together, it's hard to tell the difference. However, with the correct choice in color, it's pretty differentiate the artists - until they start copying each other.
Color choice. I talked about this briefly about Sakimichan, and her choice in color in her early days of DeviantART. It's a genius idea. There's one thing that makes color awesome is that it can influence the attention of the person looking at it. Have complimentary colors, and everything just pops! It's fucking amazing! Sakimichan utilized this incredibly, but she doesn't do it anymore. Why? There's two reasons for that answer: she doesn't have to, and she uses extremely bright and vibrant colors to compensate for it. In all of her drawings, they are very bright and vibrant. How does this compare to Kr0pr1nz art style when it's the complete opposite? My theory is that because it's the opposite that it'll get attention. Remember when I mentioned a while ago about YouTube and video recommendations? There will always be a couple of suggestions that aren't like the others and because it's different from the rest, it'll get some attention. The art style is extremely similar (analogous would be the better word choice in this case), and because it's the same style but represented differently, I believe that's the reason why Kr0npr1nz became so popular. There's that, and the conspiracy about Kr0npr1nz's tracing and plagiarizing of existing works. Lastly, Paul Kwon. While I'm typing this, I realize that he's really only popular because he directly works with League of Legend, and the art is pretty good. There's nothing really special about his work, but there is something that is special about all of them which is their success in Patreon.
Finally, time to talk about the elephant in the community - Patreon. Due to Sakimichan's undeniable success (nearly $65,000 per month, that's how much I get in a year...), it's no longer a dream that artist can finally live off of commissions from the people that wish to support them - but why now? Artists has always had a means of getting money; either by opening slots for commissions, small jobs, or donations from their following, but none of those compare to the amount of money that artists are obtaining now. Personally, I believe that this can be compared to Kickstarter or IndieGoGo which that all of them allow the people to throw money at an idea and expect to receive perks. The idea behind perks is a simple catch and bait system that will offer a ridiculous perk that's easy to pay and easy to receive when the time comes. You have 30 people give you $1 for a single drawing that I'll hand out every week, that's $30 per week which results to $120 per month. That's from 30 people giving $1. Hand out a perk that you'll give them a much higher resolution or the .PSD file for $5, that's $150 per week, $600 per month. Honestly, it's a deal that even Gabe Newell would love to implement in Steam. The hard question would be: is anyone losing money? Not exactly. The person wanted to pay a measly $5 for a .PSD file; and if I could bump that up to $10 and not hear a complaint, it's a steal. Literally. It's very easy to come up with a generic picture and let the people give you money for it because it's no longer about the skill of the artist, but the popularity the artist holds. If I could get 2,000 people to give me $1 to $30 every month, they're basically paying everything for me and more for generic - and often considered worthless artwork. There's no reason to try when people will pay for anything, especially when it's simply an idea.
Wow, this turned into a essay. Damn you college.
You shouldn't really expect people to reach through your comments because of that text color. For example, in my case, you should first achieve some value, establish respect, in order for me to strain my eyes to read through that.
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