Fan Art Dilemma

What up, Deevz?

So here's the thing... I'm a sucker for fan art. Literally EVERY day, I think of something to draw that would fall into this category. Whether it's Star Trek characters, or the Muppets, or some sort of mashup of the Muppets AS Star Trek characters. Ooh. That's a good one. Sweetums could be Lt. Worf and... Bah! THE POINT IS I enjoy fan art, as do many of my new fellow deviants, I'm sure.

But as hard as I try to make my fan art "my own," with different artistic styles or whatever, I can't help but feel that it's never TRULY my own. The core of the work, be it the Muppets or Harry Potter etc., will always be the property of someone else and I ask myself constantly if I will ever really go somewhere as an artist if this is, for the most part, all I do. And yet, day after day, I hear that tempting little voice in my brain, "Draw Short Round... and then Sallah... ooh no wait, Steampunk Danger Mouse!"

On the other hand, I hesitate to post more original work for fear of being ripped off. If someone tries to pass my fan art off as their own, it wouldn't necessarily hit me as hard because the "rights" or what have you never really belonged to me in the first place, and no one would be able to take false credit for creating the Muppets, etc. anyways. But with my original stuff, it's different. You can't really own and copyright an idea. Someone could easily take my work and pass it off as their own, going in all kinds of directions that I might or might not have ever thought to go, and no one would ever be the wiser.

Then again, if I just keep it all to myself, I still wont get the credit because no one will ever see it and I will go no where as an aspiring artist.

So... yeah. This is my dilemma.

All of that being said... I hope you enjoy my fan art.
I just uploaded all of my Disney Star Wars characters that I drew about a year ago, and went over well with a lot of people. If you haven't seen them until now, then I hope they go over well with you too.

Laters.