Hmmm... it's hard to argue with an opinion,
as everyone is entitled to that much...

But saying a fancel "reeks of unoriginality, 
laziness, and deceit" because it's a copy of
a screencap or existing cel... well, I really
disagree there.  I do agree that making fancels
to sell them as the original is morally wrong...
but sometimes the best way to learn how to do
something is to try to copy the original form.
Learning how to paint a cel (or adopt the 
art styles of the masters) is probably 
fascilitated by trying to copy a screen shot...
The closer you can make it look like a real cel,
I think the better you are at the art.  And if
you can take a character that exists and change
the pose, design, etc. to YOUR style and then
paint your own cels, you're an even better
artist.  Cels are sometimes fun to paint, though,
if you have the patience... and I like to try
to see how good I can make it look.  (However,
I would NEVER try to pass a fancel off as an
original, whether is was something I painted or
something someone else painted...)  I personally
like to see well-done fancels that take either a
scene and elaborate on it (ie. what happened next
or "behind the scenes") or that take a small image
from the movie (ie. character in a corner) and
then make it the main focus of a fancel...

I personally don't like the look of any signature
on artwork, but can understand the moral reasons
behind signing things... I just think writing on
a cel really, really takes away from the image...
even when people have production cels signed by
key people (which I had done before and really
regretted it as I couldn't stand seeing writing
on that beautiful artwork) I think it looks 
awful...

Just my 2 cents, feel free to disagree.  ^.^

Kim
aka Lady Zatara
(who should REALLY be paying attention to 
class...)