For fan artists who don't want to be accused of being unoriginal.

I draw fan art. All right? I don't do it for pageviews. I don't do it to be popular. And I certainly don't do it because I can't think of my own ideas. I draw fan art because I like the characters or fandom in question and it's my tribute to them. Call me obsessive if you wish, but at least I don't go around spewing "OMG INUYASHA IS MY BISHIE!" or some stupid shit like that. Hell, I don't even pay attention to the mainstream that much. If I was really doing it for pageviews, then why would I reside in a fandom as ambiguous as the one I'm in now?

I also don't copy the official art of the characters that I draw. I'm aware that they don't belong to me. The least I could do to make up for that is draw them in my own, personal, unique style. I personally don't respect the ones that do copy the official art and are popular for it. Now, if they can copy multiple styles, as well as using their own every once in a while, then that's a different story. That shows versatility as an artist.

I have a lot more original characters than I let on. I just choose not to draw them much in favor of fan art because fan art usually interests me more. Like I said, I treat fan art as a tribute to characters or things you like, and that's what I go searching for. Note than when I say "original" character, I mean original character, not fan character. An original character is a character you thought of from scratch that takes place in your own original world that you made up. A fan character is a character you make up in a fandom, as in a world that already exists. There's a difference. I have many original characters. I have... maybe three fan characters, and they're all in the same fandom. Even then, I wouldn't even dream of pairing them with the canon characters. But that's a rant for another time.

Feel free to use if you do have original characters but just like fan art more.