How to Write a Good Fanfic

2.1 Recolors, Tracing, Edits and Bases

"Hey! Look at this picture I did of my character Animus Rover!" Rudd held up his ipad and showed the picture in question to his friend David.

David almost choked on his soda. "Rudd... isn't that just a recolor of Kurosaki Ichigo from Bleach?"

Rudd frowned. "So? It's still my character. Doesn't he look cool?"

"Cool... I guess Shiba Kaien from Bleach does look cool. I don't see him adorning his uniform in the manner you had him decked out in."

"Hey! My characters name isn't Shiba Kaien. It's Animus Rover!"

"Sure..."

...

On August 2009 the first issue of the Incarnate series was released by Nick Simmons. By February of 2010 the Bleach fandom became aware of the plagiarism in Incarnate, and it ended up documented on the bleachness Live Journal by the LJ user karenai. The entire series ended up being pulled because Nick Simmons fell into the practice of what is known as re-coloring. Why is this issue important?

– There are quite a few people out there who think re-coloring is a legit art form.
– There are quite a few people who think re-coloring is just a form of editing.
– There are quite a few people who think re-coloring a character from any given series makes the re-color of said character "their" original character.

Before I get farther I wish to define a few terms.

tracing ~ making an exact copy of the original either by placing one sheet of paper over another, or using another layer in a digital graphics program, or an artist repaints the lines on an existing picture

editing ~ this is taking two or more pictures and turning them into a new image
recolor ~ an image is copied by tracing the lines of the original image and possibly adding a few new lines; then the colors are changed and the person claims said image is new
parody ~ an image where the writer tries to imitate another work as closely for possible to make some kind of statement
fair use ~ how a copyrighted work can be used; this determines how much editing is needed for an image to constitute a new image
base ~ the artist uses a predefined body to build their character upon

One of the mistakes people make in regards to fair use is to assume that it counts as fair use if you're not making money off of it. That though is only one part of fair use – there are actually other criteria that one ends up judged by: purpose, nature, amount taken, effect on market.

As one may notice I didn't list "not making money" as one of the criteria because it actually isn't one of the criteria. It actually falls under "effect on the market" – a person making money off a person copyrighted material basically becomes competition for the original seller. In the same regard dojinshi are favored in Japan because they actually have a positive effect on the market, and they know if in the rare case a dojinshi circle does turn a profit they can easily go and get a fair recompense from said circle. The real reason copyright holders turn a blind eye on fanfiction is because it amounts to a positive effect on the market for them, not because it is actually legal.

Another criteria is amount taken. Just like you can't take Rowling's work and only change Harry's name to Harriet, his hair color to red, his identifier pronouns to she etc. you can't take another persons character and do a recolor of said character in order to claim it as your own. Nick Simmons changed Orihime's hair and eye color, and changed up the composition a bit – the character though was still Orihime from Bleach. This isn't to say certain characters can't end up looking like each other. In most cases the style ends up changing, and the picture isn't drawn over another character that looks like theirs.

This brings me to the amount taken. Most recolors don't fall under fair use because of the amount taken. On the flip side recolors are allowed when an artist is doing parody or satire of recolor art work. That brings me to the point of purpose – parody and satire get a clean pass despite the amount taken because said image is trying to make some kind of point. Creating your own characters does try to imitate another persons art form, but it doesn't serve the purpose of making a statement – it simply is being used as a cheap way to make new characters.

Bases are another matter though – in some cases an artist will use a copyrighted image as a base for their image. Again the purpose almost always happens to be for parody and satirical purposes where they want certain characters to pay homage to a certain pose. In these cases the artist still gives due credit to the original creator either by making it out right obvious, or noting it somewhere in the credits. On top of this artists will try to recreate another persons art work without any form of tracing, but again they don't claim it as their own.

One of the purposes ways recolors are used for parody and satire purposes is to poke fun of recolor artists and Mary Sues. A less common purpose though is to make the point that two characters look like each other – like Pinkiepie from My Little Pony and Amy Rose from Sonic. Some artists work specifically with character morphs where they will create you-tube videos and morph and image into another existing character, but not their own original character. They don't post the work as anything as a video or a side beside though because the point is side by side comparison. Another is genderbending an image.

Editing is a very different process then recoloring. It's about morphing two images into a new image, not slapping two images into the same picture. Many times more then two images are also used. It also comes down to purpose. Satire and parody means less editing is needed. Photographs are given more leniency then other art mediums as well. You are though allowed to recolor your own work as you wish, and you are allowed to recolor art work you've received permission to do so.

One of the reasons people do recolors is because of self-esteem issues. Nick Simmons is a prime example. His work was rejected for publication because it looked like chicken scratches. Instead of trying to improve his work he went and recolored another persons. One of the questions I have of people who recolor is why they do it. Some people who recolor think they put a lot of work in it, but the recolors I've done have not taken anywhere near as long as pieces that really are my own work

What though does this have to do with fanfic writing? If your struggling with the issue of recoloring other people's art work, then you are likely also struggling with this in regards to your fanfiction. Chances are you're characters are also Mary Sues, but more on that topic later. Recolors also set a bad image for yourself as a writer.