Merlin Art

Merlin is a fandom with a large, active community of fan artists and a high degree of collaboration between visual artists, fic writers, and other fan creators. This page will give information on graphic fanart and crafts. 
For more information on collaborations and other types of fanworks, see the main page and :Category:Merlin.
Pairing centric artwork is popular, but works featuring a single characters are very common as well. Recently, the dA communities have had a notable increase of fanworks concentrating on the actors behind the characters.
==Crafts==
Merlin fandom has an active community of crafters doing things from knitting and cloth printing to explicit cake making. Various types of dolls (knitted, clay or ball-joint) are common and craft works are often made in pairs, generally to represent the maker's love for Merlin/Arthur. LJ community Craftalot was made exclusively for Merlin-related crafts a short time after the end of the first season, in December 2008, as a community "for sharing creative, crafty things inspired by the BBC's Merlin. All kinds of handicrafts are welcome, including (but not limited to) cooking, sewing, costuming, knitting, decorating, jewelry-making, and papercrafts."Craftalot Profile
==Cosplay==
Cosplay is often done in groups with representatives of the main four characters, Arthur, Gwen, Merlin and Morgana.
==Drawing & Painting==
Drawing and painting gained even popularity in the hiatus after the first season. Digital and traditional methods are both common. Primary ships in terms of fanworks created are Merlin/Arthur and Arthur/Gwen with example numbers of 224 for the former and 59 for the latter taken from BBC Merlin Newsbbc_merlin_news's fanart category (date March 28th, 2010). However, those numbers are contested on the ground that the newsletter's fanart tag isn't applied only to drawn fanart, and that the very definition of what counts as a pairing in a drawing can be more subjective than in other types of fanart"Gen" discussion on Camelot_Fleet.
For more information about the art examples click the images or follow the links: 
File:On the knob training.jpg|On the Knob Trainingcover by Yue KX
File:Merlincold.jpg|Wrapped in Warmth by lizardspots
File:Merlinbathing.jpg|Tending To My Lady's Bath by lizardspots
File:Onfindan merlin chibi yue ix.jpg|Slaughtering Foul Creatures by Yue KX
File:Neverending2.jpg|The Neverending Legend by Yue KX
File:Merlinafterglow.jpg|Afterglow by lizardspots
File:Merlin Arthur Animated Coin Walk - h-l-w.gif|Merlin and Arthur, magic and knight, two sides of the same coin. By H-l-w.
Fancomics/cartoons:
*Merlin/Calvin & Hobbes fusion comic strips by shiyasim
*Shifts in Crystal and Gold - Merlin/Arthur fancomic by nachte (WIP)
==Icons==
There are many LiveJournal communities for icons, some of them open only to elite icon makers, some running challenges or contests like LIMS. Icon posts are accepted at most pairing- and character-centric communities, even if the icons are seemingly 'gen'.
Icons are the art form most likely to feature minor characters and characters not so often present in other fanart.
File:Elena.jpg|by Red Scharlach
File:Great Dragon.jpg|by Red Scharlach
File:Nimueh.jpg|by Red Scharlach
==Photomanipulations and Banners==
There is no central community for posting manips and banners, but they are accepted in most general and pairing communities. 
Modern AU manips and banners are often used for fic headers and as vid banners.
Image:Radiant 07.jpg|Story banner by inderpal, cover art for the circus AU Radiant Under Every Sort of Light, Chapter 7.
File:Onlyinmyminday3.jpg|vid banner for Only In My Mind
File:Wind.jpg|vid banner for Something in the Wind
File:DPTM R41original.gif|award banner for the vid The Hitchhiker's Guide to Camelot
==Vids==
:See main page and :Category:Merlin Vids
==Communities==
*Main article see List of Merlin Communities
===On Livejournal===
*Craftalot
*Drawmelot (LJ/DW)
*Themed: 
**Kinkelot
*Gift Exchanges:
**camelotsolstice
**merlin_santa
**merlin_the_elf
**Merry Merthur
**merlin_holidays
*Fests: 
**Box of Magic (a Big Bang)
**Paperlegends (a Big Bang)
**reel merlin (a Reel)
===On Y-gal===
*Merlin club is strongly character oriented towards Arthur and Merlin and the pairing Merlin/Arthur.
===Deviantart===
*HeartMerlinArt, Merlin-Fan-Club and Merlin Fans are dA groups for fans of Merlin accepting fanarts submissions of all types, sometimes including fanfiction. 
==Recs & Resources==
*MerlinFanArtRecs - a rec tumblr
==References==
Category:Merlin