I'm no artist, but I happen to like how Dusk looks and earth-tones fit him pretty well.

Personally, I would guess that the downvoting was done by a troll. Ignore it if you can.

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I was figuring a troll might have been the culprit but for some reason that one just got under my skin. Thanks for the vote of confidence, mate. It helped.

I think he looks beautiful and he still fits his name with his soft muted colors. Change is inevitable, and it's good to embrace it especially when it's not my character nor my symbolism. You do whatever it is you feel you need to with your muse. The right people will stick around and youll find more people to replace the naysayers, i'll wager.

Thank you so much. You know, that's a message that's being told to me a lot in a lot of different realms of my life right now so I think there really must be something to it LOL. Means a lot to hear though, so thank you =^.^=

I think he looks fantastic. Though as far as Sofurry I use it myself and generally while my audience there is rather small I get a fair amount of good votes, but if you want my opinion on the downvoting I really think it's not a matter of someone liking or disliking your work. I think it's just someone being an ass for no particular reason. These systems in various sites to vote up or down things are rarely reasoned logical opinions, and not to say they don't have their uses and or purpose to some, it can be easily misused, not to mention damn depressing if something like what occurred to you happens.

Truthfully I wouldn't give it much weight. Odds are it was just someone who just wants to feel better about themselves by putting someone else down for some reason, and they may not care one way or the other or even have a logical reason for their vote. I'd pay it no mind.

Thank you so much, and yeah, I agree. I think people just see an opportunity to abuse an easy to abuse system with the voting thing. I wish there were a way to disable it entirely, but I don't think there is. In any case, thank you! =^.^=

You're welcome. :)

I think I started watching you ~2015, your style stands out in a unique way. I love the distopian setting and the hard lines, however my feedback to you: your presentation is lacking, you present the same perspective time and again, the same linear eye level view presenting the full character(s) to the viewer, with no room to establish an engaging position to include the viewer. My advice, (I am not an artist!, but I like to think i can write...) over the shoulder, birds eye, or a setting level view. These I feel could really help set the setting and establish a real perspective for the viewers. Include other characters as well... I understand your looking to establish a story, however I feel that your art has only followed the singular perspective of a drone at eye level of dusk. I hope this feedback helps. I may be a little direct but your a great artist. Keep it up and don't get discouraged.

Actually, I do a lot of different perspectives. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/30337833/ for one example. The majority of my work is character shots or what you call "eye level perspective" because I'm usually in flux with my designs and trying to establish him. First and foremost, I am a writer. The art came out of a need to see and visually represent my characters and when working on story I do the shots that the story calls for. Otherwise, I do what any other artist I see on here does, and those are pin-up/showcase style character shots. That's a choice, not a limitation and if you really looked at my work you would see that I have pleny of examples showing I can do otherwise.

As for the advice on drawing other characters, you are totally right, but a lot of my other characters are human https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31250428/ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/25517717/ and don't get viewed so I post a lot less of those. I figure that their interactions in the story will show them more but that's where I hit the brick wall of perfecting my story. You've been watching me since 2015? So that's about 1/25th of the time that I've been trying to construct, then tear down, then reconstruct my story. I work hard, I take this very seriously, and even though I'm frustrated with it half the time, I love it LOL.

Thank you for the thoughts though, they are good feedback but they're a bit much. Really this journal was asking a question about my design choices, not my choices of perspective, subject, or other technique questions. Trust me when I say, everything you have just said I know very well. My first degree is in media arts. I draw though to make me happy first and foremost. Most artists are all about pushing their technique and impressing their watchers, but I think they miss the point often. This kind of art is a tool. A tool to tell and build stories. Sometimes the story is one picture, sometimes, it's a longer illustrated piece, but that's it to me.

Sorry for the long summer novel back but I hope that clarifies. Cheers and thanks for the advice all the same.

I was intending to mean that your general submitted artwork followed that scheme, not that you were incapable and that might be the reasoning for the less than ideal validation. I think I've personally witnessed I think 6 redesigns of Dusk while I've been following you, I remember I started with the Black w/ White abdomen or just all black with the white fox "friend"? I was drawn to your style and street-samurai setting. But that may have been posting of old artwork from you, as there timeline of submission is a little difficult to pin down. I wish I could reference actual time stamps, or hadn't cleaned up my submissions every year or so and your gallery only goes back to 2013.

I would also argue that this community flocks to the smuttier side of art. Users here are more drawn to the risque renderings if your watching a user count. As a writer I find this a bit frustrating as well, but it comes with a grain of salt like always and I would recommend you stay with the closest and most important factor of validation you can utilize: How YOU feel about it! You have the added frustration of being your own artist, I have to commission all my own characters, so that may be a blessing in disguise, as I have to cement a design before I shell out the personal cost to have the character rendered. Where you would have the complexity of the dual pronged self-critique.

I feel that all your designs are solid and really have very little lacking.
To answer your original 1). The above comment was intended to remark on the user may have simply seen the six images of a design they didn't feel they wanted, (don't forget this is a fandom that utilizes fetishes as forms of style) and felt it necessary to voice their opinion without voiced critique. Or saw something deeper they didn't agree with. Or, were just an asshole. I took the time to write up the full and direct statement above if I felt you would receive it with professionalism. I just wanted to give you what I had experienced as a viewer of your content and what I felt was relevant feedback, it was a direct but I feel that there is seldom enough communication like that in this community.

To summarize this, how did you call it? This Long Summer Novel;

Your art and designs are good, the dood from the other site was probably just an asshat, the feedback above was just me expressing what I would like to see as a viewer. Follow your own heart, heck me dood, im just some anon on the interwebs. I like the monoblack dusk most, more robo-lions!

So there's a bit to unpack here, thus why it took me a bit to decide how to respond. So the best way forward is straight to the point so please pardon if this sounds blunt, but honestly? I've felt uncomfortable with this conversation since the start and only more so as we continue it. The short reasons for that are that, number one, I think our ideas about critique might differ. It sounds to me like you are of the school of thought that artists are forged in the gauntlet and that harsh critique is a blessing to them. You are not alone as a great majority of artists feel this way. I, however, feel that this is a toxic way to live and think and as a teacher, I find that negative critique and fault picking hurts people and does not help them. It does give them a complex though and can lead them to feeling dependent on other's to gauge their own worth by. So my hackles go up when what I asked boiled down to "Do you guys like the changes I've made to my character" and your answer boils down to "You need to do this and this with your art to truly be a master and this is a bar you must reach" Answer has nothing to do with question and leaves me feeling more negative about my work and also feels like it was out of left field, you see?

Number 2: I think intentions are getting harder and harder to gauge and they were kind of hard for me at first. Text isn't a great medium for nuanced discussion unless you are very careful to write with an open hand. As such, I am trying to carefully avoid traps and pitfalls with this convo as I do not want to insult you, but I am trying to indicate that I was a bit insulted myself.

So the final little piece that made me decide that it's time to be a bit more blunt though is the re-quote of my long summer novel line. I think you missed when I said it what I meant. I was making fun of myself. It sounds like you took it as a jab at you. That is a microcosm of my above 2 points.

So TL;DR version: This isn't necessary, If you want to comment on my individual pieces, that is why there is a comment section. But here it was inappropriate and I feel extremely uncomfortable because I hate confrontation and don't want to offend anyone, but this was inappropriate and a bit insulting. I am not slamming you because as I stated, everyone has different ideas on what is appropriate, but my first response back was a nice hint. Now I have to be a little more blunt. Please keep responses to journals on topic and drama free on my page. Critique is great in the right place but here it just feels a bit tactless to me.

Thanks for the reply and feedback. Firstly, let me clarify my position and tone, I was coming from a position of honesty and personal opinion. In my original post I only wanted to highlight my personal desire to see more of your art in other perspectives and not in any way to obligate you into doing so. It was a personal request that I could have worded more personally, I take responsibility for that.

Now, secondly, allow me to apologize as the original reply was not meant to be in any way insulting or demeaning. You are a great artist and I do enjoy your art populating my submission inbox.

Finally, I was trying to reciprocate the humor in the return of the jab. I can see how this could be taken as sarcasm, it was not intended as sarcasm.

TLDR; I'm sorry that you felt insulted by the original comment, it was meant to be interpreted as general feedback from me not an obligation or requirement. I take no offense from your replies and was in no way trying to provoke any. I was not attempting in away way to invoke drama and I can see how the tone of my original replies were hard to understand. Let me know if you would like to me remove the original post via here or journal and I will do so as soon as I see the response.