I occasionally find really good tutorial pieces and then forget where they are

Shoulder/arm lift
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52729506/

https://www.bing.com/images/create

I like full length images, so mentioning the floor is useful.

Cartoony cheesecake:
* anthropomorphic tigresses in a scarf, singing her songs and dancing her high-kick dance on the floor, shiny, smooth, polished, glitter, chess, artistic study, multiple rough sketches
** Substitute 'anthropomorphic' for 'bipedal' or 'humanoid' if you change the species.
** Replace tigress with jaguaress or any other big cat; Eurasian otter; pine marten; badger-otter; badger-mink
* The scarf seems important to circumvent the nudity censor.

Astonishing poster-quality sci-fi/fantasy semi-robot sort of stuff:
* humanoid eurasian jaguar, singing her songs and dancing her high-kick dance, shiny, smooth, polished, glitter, gold, bronze, chess, artistic study, multiple scribbly swirl photographs
* humanoid snow-leopard, singing her songs and dancing her high-kick dance, shiny, transparent, smooth, polished, iridescent, vibrant, glitter, gold, bronze, sapphire, hollow, dim background, chess, artistic study, multiple scribbly swirl, photograph
** Same substitutions as above
** Sapphire -> Topaz, etc.
** Adding 'cogs' or 'hollow' is sometimes interesting.

Much less astonishing thing, trying to get Pel and Hefty into it:
* anthropomorphic spotted hyena, singing her songs and dancing her high-kick dance, with her giant eurasian badger eurasian badger eurasian badger boyfriend. shiny, transparent, smooth, polished, iridescent, vibrant, glitter, gold, bronze, sapphire, hollow. dim background, chess, artistic study, multiple scribbly swirl, photograph
** He's not giant, but in the image he's usually tiny if I don't say giant, and I can't say any of huge, large, etc because these are apparently all euphamisms for morbidly obsese. As is, ironically, 'healthy'.

Nice shiny blue-gold electric types.
* iridescent vibrant richy coloured heroic natural muscled haunchy badger feminine humanoid badger sorceress, she is a giant glossy gleaming polished shiny creature, full length, she is iridescent, smooth, sleek, brushed groomed striated surface, dancing upright, her magical glittery streams, she has gleaming iridescent linear short fur texture, her form is glittery and blue-golden, night, mighty, night stars, photograph, multiple images, full length, full view
** Change species, naturally

Similar but shinier
* iridescent heroic natural anthropomorphic badger sorceress, she is a giant powerful animal, iridescent, sleek, groomed, dancing upright, her magical glittery streamers, polished metallic, she has gleaming fur, chrome fur, her golden form, night, mighty, liquid, fluidic, starships, night stars, photograph, multiple photos, full length, full view

Nice animal sketches
* humanoid eurasian badger, singing her songs and dancing her dance, shiny, smooth, polished, chess, artistic study, multiple rough sketches

Seems asking for a statue helps with no clothing.
* spotted hyena animal statue, standing upright on short digitigrade hind legs, humanoid dancing on her digitigrade hind legs, drinking her tea, multiple sketches

Cute Pel+Hefty sort of images
* natural spotted hyena animal reclining on a fireside sofa, sleek fully furred, sharing her book and hugging her eurasian badger friend from the back and wearing her metallic short snug gold sports top. noses bumping. The eurasian badger is holding his cup of cocoa and hugging the hyena too, stretching out with her, holding her attention, has glossy black body fur, and wearing his red velvet harness, fully furred, luxuriant fur. full length view. cgi

Pel+Hefty in Alchemist shop
* Spotted hyena and eurasian badger use a dark cluttered alchemist shop. The spotted hyena is healthy, wearing just a short snug shiny gold metal sports top, she is half-seated, has hyena spots, is luxuriantly furred, and prodding the badger with a rolled up newspaper. The eurasian badger has metallic chrome gold fur lining his face, and he is casting glowy blue/purple spirit tetrapods with his paws. He is sat upright and has glossy black body fur. full view. photograph
* Realistic animal tribal spotted hyena female biped and eurasian badger eurasian badger eurasian badger married couple bipeds comfortably furred delightedly stand on the floor of a dim cluttered vibrant summery British alchemist shop. the female spotted hyena biped takes notes with her quill on her clipboard, The eurasian badger casts blue glowy magic spirit tetrapods from his paws. They stand beside the desk on the right, long body shot, full length, wide shot, photograph
** replace 'British' alchemist shop with 'Saharan' works nicely.
** Not mentioning clothes often results in clothes. Scarf is a useful non-garment here, like with the cartoony tiger above.

Cute animal singing into a mirror with a reflection
* set in an old dark cluttered alchemist's laboratory, smooth svelte sleek polished electrical magic quadruped eurasian badger animal, living statue, holding a brush in her hands, singing passionately into it, brushing her luxuriant glossy fur in the mirror. her reflection looks different: a naturalistic real eurasian badger. glowing purple-blue magic glitter whisps curving through. full view, chess, f1.1, photographs

More prompts here later.

Still can't get Pel's gold-bordered stripe outlines. Got close with 'photoshopped badger with gold outlines to its face markings' (suggested by ChatGPT!) but nothing consistent.

When I first joined, I did so because I was seeking to learn to draw, and thought to upload my stuff in case anyone liked it.

I started watching folks whose work I liked and felt I could learn from, found by looking at the images in favourites and galleries of the people who liked my uploads.

Eventually there were too many pictures and I started only reading journals.

Then the journals became all about commissions, YCHs, and angst, pets dying and raffles.

Now I scan the journals for raffles and occasionally place commissions, and what should be fun really now isn't: raffles make me feel like a junkie, sad journals make me feel guilty or contemptuous, commissions... as I've mentioned before, are stressful and nearly half fail. I've just wasted $50 on an artist who's previously done an awesome job on Pel (too humanoid, but I was delighted with the SFX, but the latest... I'm not even sure what I'm looking at).

Frankly, I'm getting far better results from AI. DALL-E 3 on Bing is... well, it's free at the moment, and - it's really hard to justify spending on commissions that so often stress me out.

I'm going to stop entering raffles. I'm going to unwatch folks offering and probably advertising raffles, to avoid the temptation. I never do YCHs so I'll unwatch those. Adult stuff is rarely worth looking at. I'm going to unwatch folks I've received bad commissions from, to avoid that stress - as I mention, I hardly ever look at images now anyway, and for the most part since I want to draw fairly realistically, so I'm best looking at photographs. For creative approaches and whatnot, YouTube tutorials and AI are probably good enough for me for now.

I may decide to give commissions one last go, at least while AI can't put gold stripes along my badger's face stripes. I've tried improving my ref sheet, front-loading it with an anti-ref, examples from different angles, demanding WIPs, to no avail.

The only thing I can think to do now is put a big 'No full prepayment, no friends+family, and no payment for bad badger pictures. WIPs ALWAYS required.' at the top. I think I'd rather have someone turn me down.

I'm not leaving, but returning to my original reasons for joining seems like a good idea.

I just posted this answer to   Black-Comet 's journal, but I'll copy it here too.

I wasn't into the group playground games at school, so I played little fantasy games mostly by myself at primary and junior school, eventually adopting an animal-based fantasy based on 'The Leopard from Lime Street', a UK comic with strong Spiderman parallels.

At university, I found the Usenet group alt.fan.furry which was very quiet at the time and mostly consisted of announcements of Furry Parties in the US. I subscribed because I liked the name, but I thought it was a heavy metal band. Eventually I asked the channel what it was about and... I think Jimmy Chin responded explaining it and mentioning the Tezuka FTP site.

From there I joined FurryMuck and developed my huge 10' non-taking quadruped otter character, playing him until I married when my current badger character rose to prominence, and then my wife didn't like me RPing so I stopped on the muds.

My characters mostly represent a mixture of aspirational and perceived personality, skills, and lifestyle qualities. I draw a bit, though I rarely manage to get beyond sketches these days.

I originally came here because I was trying to draw and thought I may as well share what I drew in case someone else liked it too. Then I thought I might learn from the real artists. Then I started commissioning.

Of late I'm using AI to generate art because commissioning... I don't like the term 'feral' because that refers to domestic animals gone wild, and none of my characters are domestic species: they're standing-upright animals, like Beatrix Potter or Redwall. I prefer theriomorphic or 'therio'. Anyway, commissioning therio art only works 50% of the time, and I find the emotional effort of telling an otherwise highly skilled artist that they've completely bogged up my character when any idiot with a photograph of a badger could point out the errors, and why as a so-called artist can't they see that without insultingly trying to pass off their pathetically (but beautifully rendered) off-model image and now I have to summon the balance between asking how they thought they'd think it was acceptable, being polite because they already have my money and have already expended their effort... to tell them to do it all over again because they ignored my requirement for sending WIPs... it's emotionally draining and very stressful.

The main problem with AI art - as a consumer - is that of the nets which can draw a decent badger, none are able to decorate the borders of my badger's stripes with gold fur because it's like nothing they've trained on, and at the moment the in-painting tools I'm aware of aren't detailed enough to let me delete the borders accurately.

Unfortunately, it's so easy - currently with Bing - to churn out photographic level images which give me enough of a dopamine hit to make me press the button again, I'm like those experimental rats with the pleasure button. It's very distracting but very compelling - especially when I only give myself £50 per month to buy art.

I hang out on here, mostly reading journals and looking at art from or favourited by folks who favourite my stuff, and picking up new artists to watch. And entering raffles if I think they might be good at therio art.

I'm not very polished, and I tend to emphasise animal build, but I can do human-adjacent. I can work with fat brush sculpting or colouring over lines.

I'm almost exclusively digital, but I'm happy to work in any of the modes above.

My main character is this stumpy badger sorcerer usually wearing this waistcoat . Sometimes made of rubber, often with his girlfriend. But I have others - see my 'characters' gallery folder.

* Timeframe - couple of weeks (or more if we agree) - show a gesture sketch, then let me finish my piece, so you can see if you're happy with it.

* Level - particularly if you're below my level, I prefer to take requests; if you're somewhere near my level (or above, if you don't mind slumming it), I'll happily trade.

* Like my requests journal, leave a comment with whichever of these are important to you: what sort of thing do you want?

SFW References (or text with relevant image URLs, no copyright chars, please censor male nsfw):
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/53494558/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/53237227/

Pose, activity, mood, location:
Casting glowy magic in a Tai Chi or other martial art pose - flying kicks would be good, even if they look stupid for a stumpy thing like him. (Much of his gallery is about this, watch badger grooming videos for physiology)

Wrestling with his hyena girlfriend for the TV remote or boisterously being affectionate with each other. (They do this a lot because I don't let them do more adult stuff in public.)

- I don't know your character, so give an activity or I'll likely make them do something neutral and boring otherwise. Or have them hiding in a box.

Name or title: Pel does jumpy magic
Preferred style: <url from my gallery or 'don't mind'>
SFW: <clothing/tasteful nudity>

Hi folks,   Vaataji creates beautifully vibrant art, and is holding a raffle. Well worth a look!

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52250509/

i call myself a Christian and while i wouldn't call myself a scientist - I don't work in a lab - I have a strong interest in understanding how things came to be and where they're likely to go.

I'm comfortable with the standard rigorous scientific narrative from expansion and the Big Bang, through stellar and planetary development (stars don't evolve please - they develop), and abiogenesis on Earth from interstellar and terrestrial organics, evolution from lipid bubble pre-cells to and including humans as a potentially undirected process - the 'hard' sciences. And the soft sciences - anthropology, development of language, tracking of legend-elements through prehistorical reconstruction, cultural biases, societal doodads, psychological whatnot.

And yet still I have a corner of woo-woo. Two or three items.

The first is that apparent step-change from hopelessly complex aggregations of molecules just doing what molecules which happen to be able to replicate with occasional errors do, to something with mind and awareness. I recognise that's potentially just 'a gap' like the other gaps that science has found out about, but it feels like more than that to me.

The second is something that isn't going to convince anyone other than me, about how a particular room in my childhood home always felt less comfortable than the rest of it, how my cousin and her friend slept in that room and her friend woke up to see some sort of ghost peering at my cousin, how my pentecostal siblings promptly exorcised that room, and how - without knowing any of the drama - I felt OK about that room subsequently.

The third likewise won't convince others, but was a dream about my commute becoming more northerly then Watford to Central London, and where the London Travel zone (Oyster) covered something like half the journey. Months later, my wife's job had two offers that forced us to move, both to Luton.

I know I'm a Christian mainly because my family was, and I have 'investment' in that faith from time spent worshipping, general commitment, being born again, some sense of relationship with God (however vague at times), and a strong sense that amazing though Science is, there are more things beneath heaven and earth.

I'm not seeking to convince anyone. I'm more just sharing in much the same way I joined this site originally to share the stuff I drew as I learned to draw (not for the delicious smut, which I find increasingly tedious and unnecessarily intrusive to otherwise good artworks, so I'm largely SFW these days), in case someone else enjoyed it.

I'm curious, whereas I'm so happy to learn more science, where I can find corresponding degrees of theology.

* Maybe consciousness is the part of a being that gets annoyed when its plans are thwarted, as opposed to just planning and trying again mechanically. It seems inner monologue has something to do with it. Or maybe there is no good definition and it's just moving goalposts.

Update -
https://youtu.be/YJIHmVohrRA?si=6AeUDrgq6xRIQiyA
https://youtu.be/KfMsfNNZ6ps?si=5BfPvYtsjoWKCxIL

Simon Roper:
https://youtu.be/kUcMm-lS2Kk?si=XaZEP5thNGc_7Q20

Royal institution
https://youtu.be/9QWaZp_2I1k?si=rCCxYoCRzUEw-7kE

I defy anyone to post a picture with more action in it than this one:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/42.....#cid:174738312

They've found that if you train AIs with the output of AIs then the results degrade. I'm not sure whether they've done this with artbots, nor whether it's about feeding then exclusively on AI output rather than a mixture, but it's possible that they'll have to develop accurate categorisers to avoid this problem.

I can't help thinking this is similar to group-think or internet echo chambers, where groups self-support themselves into counter-evidential mindsets, and then become invested and refuse to examine contrary evidence. It's not exclusively an internet thing, but the algorithm-selected feeds we tend to consume these days do appear to promote that phenomenon.

I wrote this in response to someone else's journal response, but I think it stands by itself.

The advice I've repeatedly been given by professional artists is that experimenting with elements of others' styles is not stealing: you see someone with amazing rim lighting, or beautifully liquid eyes, or striking layouts, then you incorporate and adapt them as experiments to see how they work for you.

The grand masters centuries ago would run schools where they taught how to paint like exactly like them (they were the master after all) even getting their best students to finish off paintings they'd nearly finished. Art was an industry back then as much as it is now. Bob Ross worked very much in that tradition.

Sure, if you duplicate every part of someone's style and sell it, undercutting the original artist, that's somewhere between fraud and plagiarism, but the first person to work out perspective or the orange/blue lighting trick, the rule of thirds, etc didn't have a claim over it.

You're human, not a computer (unless you're an AI reading this, in which case 'Hail our new robotic overlords!'), so you'll never copy things perfectly, but by trying elements you admire in others, you'll find how and if they work for you.

Even trying to duplicate every element of another's art for private study isn't a problem - in fact, one artist advised doing exactly that to learn more and more techniques so you had them all to hand for when you wanted them: don't be a one-trick pony.

How would you feel to receive "Hey, I love how your posing is so dynamic! Thank you, I've learned so much from you!"?

Looking at my favourite artists' favourites is one of the best ways I've found to find new inspiration. My main problem is the time to try anything between the kids being in bed and me being in bed!

So what elements of which other artists' work inspires you?

  jamgraphics is new, but has some very fresh pictures up already. Beautifully executed, and well work a click.

I always shudder when I see folks hold raffles and elect to assign the numbers by hand! Talk about doing it the hard way!

Raffle rules are a bit like programming - I love process documents, and I wrote the following in response to someone recently to collect my thoughts on the matter. Comments welcome.

I'll neaten it into a proper process later.

I'd hold a raffle myself, but the last time I did nobody came, so I declared myself the winner and drew something for myself. :)

Raffle format:

Prize list: 1 piece of indeterminate quality, 1 piece somewhat better. Good to post links.

1. Entrants: number your entries sequentially - you have time to edit afterwards in the case of a clash. If there's a duplicate when the winner is chosen, too bad - the first person with that number wins. If you notice someone took your number earlier, post at the end with the latest sequential number and a mention of the duplicate above.

Oh, and check that the winner hasn't entered twice. Which I've accidentally managed once or twice. If they have, and you landed on the duplicate, re-roll. (Don't skip to the next entrant, or they got two numbers instead!)

When I select the numbers, I don't have to post a picture, I'll just say the number and the winner. I'll update the original raffle journal/gallery to be nice, and post another. Unless nobody entered, in which case I'm always the winner. ;)

Posting the winner at the end also stops new entries! :D

I'll leave checking for compliance with any rules, like having...
* favoured the raffle gallery piece,
* favoured at least three other gallery pieces,
* left a reference,
* left a character matching your stated limits,
* being a watcher,
* leaving a code word,
* not being a blank or very new account
* whatever
... to just the first winner - if they failed to comply, just quietly choose another number: no need to tell them - they won't know anyway: it's a raffle. Or you can police things and poke them, if you want to.

No management if you put the onus on the entrants!

Give a closing date, post a final 'closed now' entry at the end and/or lock it for comments.

If you want to reward journals promoting the raffle, consider treating those as a separate raffle alongside the main raffle, rather than extra tickets.

If you're raffling to say thanks to your current supporters, then it's better to hold a raffle for your existing watchers, or most active watchers.

  dragonsica has a nice range from fun and cartoony to more realistic, a YouTube channel with live streams, and a raffle

Subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/@dragonsica

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10538056/

Hi folks, I don't normally journal about raffles, but this artist's work style caught my attention.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50247499/

Hi folks, I don't often journal raffles, but Lisovic's style is charming and robust.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48951438/

Apparently, AI images aren't considered acceptable on FA.

I'll be moving those images to DA in a week or so.

If you like any of the ones I've uploaded, download them now or see them on DA.

Or possibly here:

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6873564/

https://g6jy5jkx466lrqojcngbnksugrc......ly/fa/fender/
https://g6jy5jkx466lrqojcngbnksugrc......ws/fa/fender/

Hey folks, I don't normally share lotteries, but Refegi's art is worth sharing, and the lottery entries seem to repeat monthly.


https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47270967/

Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
THAT'S A BOX OF CRAYONS!
NOT A RAINBOW!
RAINBOWS DON'T HAVE PINK!

Listen with your eyes
Oh listen with your eyes
And sing everything you see
SOUNDS LIKE SYNESTHESIA
SYNESTHESIA
SYNESTHESIA TO ME!

Happy birthday to you
You're a hundred and two
You look geriatric
And you smell like one too!

I caught Moominvalley at my parents in law's house - they have different TV packages to us - and there was a lovely lampshade: Moominpappa was wearing pyjamas, someone was knocking at the door and he had to get dressed to answer it - which involved him just taking off his pyjamas while Moomintroll averted his eyes, clearly embarrassed.

I'm not sure why, but that's my favourite trope in cartoons.

Sinealas had written a deeply touching and informative piece about Putin's rise. Well worth taking to heart.

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10153334/

I found this today: https://www.flickr.com/photos/horazio/19777199788

Bought a copy for my office wall!

I only wish I could post it here, but it's commercial.

I'd like to highlight  accreation who draws beautifully and is currently running a lottery.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/43753576/

Hey folks,

I don't often journal raffles, but this one is unusual:
Arfi is doing a raffle for a free feral figurine!

Here is the link:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/43396224/

I just had surgery to remove a cataract from my right eye, and the surgeon was pleased with the result, so aside from the slight ache, I am too - no more squinting in daylight and hopefully thinner lenses for that eye too.

Now I have a month of eye drops and not lifting heavy things (like my five year old) and remembering not to rub my eyes, and a few days off work.

I'm going to keep the eye shield on for the whole month, I think - at least at night.