If I do fan art of a particular video game, is it illegal to sell it?

Question

I am looking into doing paintings in acrylic on canvas, based on (but not copies of) several video game characters. If I then put these paintings onto my website to sell, is this legal? Is there some sort of loophole I can dive through, if so?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Basically, copyright is to block you from trying to cash in on someone elses came. In this case, the popularity of the game is something that only they should be able to cash in on.

In some cases you can sidestep it. Such as if the are is for World of Wonder but you dont actually say that and instead use WoW which is generally recognized by its players as the same thing, then it would be hard for them to slap you for it.

If you dont actually come out and blatantly SAY that its their game (and dont directly use any of their art of course) then you are probably safe.

Another route, which I often recommend to people doing fan shirts or mods for game which is based off of something else... ask. In my experience, about 50% of the time that works. And in some tiny percentage it even leads to a cross support arrangment.

Answer 2

Wow - good question!