Closed special are pretty inane for the most part since a lot of them look like stuff thats already out there.

Most of them are stuff thats like a fox with a lions mane

i feel like at this point most people agree that tracing can be a valuable learning tool ngl. the one thing i'd add is that someone has to have a basic understanding of fundamental construction/3d shapes before tracing will be of any use to them. otherwise you're just going to be copying chunks of what you think is there as opposed to breaking something down into actual pieces

i've also noticed a lotta ppl coming down on closed species and tbh i can see why. it's basically someone making you pay them for the rights to draw certain premade characters, which is different then normal adopts in that there you're selling all rights to the character. there's so many legal pitfalls to making them work, so really they just run on an honor system. but lbr, i could draw any closed species rn and get away with it if i used the right terminology lol

gawd didnt we leave that shit back in 2009 deviantart? nobody cares about your neon blue wolf, esp not the 3000000000 ppl who made one before you did

art theft done by smol children is kinda endearing. Don't get me wrong, correct the behavior. But I more mean before they learn sources and copyright. they just, pull this cool picture off the net and say "This is my character! his name is so n so"

yeah, art "theft" among kids is cool and fine. they'll grow out of it and they don't need to be screamed at for it. by the by, reposting someone's art isn't theft unless you're claiming you made it. it's just copyright infringement, and anyone whos pirated a movie shouldn't be so upset when it happens

yeah I get that but recently I had someone steal a character I had recently purchased and had been using it for fetish art while claiming it as theirs, and they were clearly a child lying about their age.
they demanded I made them their own character or free or else they wouldn't leave my character alone.
like yeah it can be endearing but at some point it can get really damn fucking exhausting to deal with.

Oofors, well this one is not okay, I more mean in the 3 to 8 y/o range... Before they even understand that cuz cuz it's on the PC, doesn't mean it's yours.

Tracing isn't bad in all aspects, or borrowing from others finished pieces.

Closed species are a joke.

You can't copyright a f**king pose. (YCHs)

You can't copyright a color scheme.

TL;DR- Eventually all ideas will overlap. Get over it and have fun making art! lol

this is THE big brain comment. can everyone get the massive stick they have crammed in their asses out so we can all make some good shit lol

Closed species are stupid, and the way people act when you make something close to them is atrocious. Unless the creator has a patent on the species they created it is OK for someone else to have a similar specie.

My Norwegian Angle Dragons are very popular. They breathe mathematics and live in fyords.

So long as they don't communicate via squeakers.

Silly! They use matrices.

I like your specie.

Cheap at £35 each. Buy five today!

Or I will make Swedish Java Dragons, where they will speak only in Javascript, and live inside Google.

I think closed species are fine as long as they're closed in the way that's like, an artist created this for themselves/their original universe or piece of media and feels uncomfortable with the idea that people they don't know or trust could just go out and make a character of them. Like, I have original races that I use in my original stories and I reeaally don't feel comfortable with people I don't know possibly making a character w/ that race kdfhasj

also tbh I think selling closed species would be better too, if all of the design adoptables were sold at the same price, and what made the rare ones """valuable""" was that they just wouldn't pop up very often. At least that's just what I think.

yeah lol. i get the appeal for creators but at the end of the day you're just micromanaging fanart while convincing people to pay you for it. always felt a little skeevy to me but if you're making bank you're making bank

i think more ppl have come to the opinion that tracing is a fine way to learn so im not gonna add to more of that

i think picking colors from existing art or designs to see what they are and understand them is a great thing to do. even taking colors and using them in your own design so long as it doesnt obviously copy the other design in any form. colors cant be claimed! and hell im gonna learn about the colors ppl pick that look so nice together.

others have said some good shit about closed species and i will add too that closed species are often dumb tho i do wish i could be a creator of one and get all the fucking cash!! i mean fuck ur selling a furry dragon species for $100 a pop? yeah, i do wish that was me lmao.
ok but. i really really do not understand ppl who hoard and spend hundreds on closed species like what the hell are you even doing with them??? why not commission artists for unique pieces of work instead of the same recolored species base? it is SUCH a poor use of money imo mostly with how insanely pricey they get for no reason other than fake "rare" traits n shit.

people gotta accept that sometimes that idea is so basic and generic that many people wouldve come up with it. this applies to a lot but considering the rise of adoptable designs, original species, etc in the art community a lotta ppl just get too damn fussy.

i feel like theres one more on my brain i cant recall so... i may pop back.

lol yeah i think the "unpopular" opinion that tracing isn't automatically sinful has become pretty mainstream among artists who aren't frothing at the mouth about art theft all the time. we gotta start expanding on it. e.g. tracing even not for the sake of learning is a natural part of most kids' artistic development and shouldn't be scolded until it becomes unlawful

ive learned more about color theory from actively stealing colors and seeing why they work in combination then reading 10+ years worth of reading material on it. almost like........ its useful..... to do that

i also don't really get the appeal of buying up designs only to never use them. its none of my business and ppl can do whatever silly shit they want with their money (ive spent a pretty penny on pieces of plastic before ffs, who am i to judge) but i can't wrap my head around it. i'm not the kinda guy who regularly makes ocs for funsies so maybe i'm destined to never get it, but like. what good are all these designs if you never put them to use?

its pretty exhausting dealing with people who scream and cry anytime someone else does something similar. i kinda understand the feeling, but it's one of those feelings thats irrational and childish when u dissect it enough becus its usually about wanting all the attention and recognition to yourself despite not doing anything thats truly unique or impressive lmao. we all gotta learn to let it go n unclench our bootyholes

if u ever do find it in ur grey matter i'd love to hear it!

oh for sure, i did quite a bit of tracing and some "very close eye-ing" of art i would find on DA, before i was versed in posting stuff online lol. i would search cool fantasy dragon art and trace the hell out of it. my parents were unaware enough to think i genuinely drew those thing lmao... but hey i drew out of that, obviously. and no reason to get mad at a kid like that for doing anything like it.

honest to god never read anything about color theory i just pick colors from ppl and use a ton of color correction in PS so i can see how i can get better results when i go and pick colors myself! its still learning!

ive definitely had moments where someone does something similar to me be is concept or design wise, and its natural to be irked or upset at first. but as ive grown and gotten older and seen more stuff its a feeling i push away bc like, its not *that* big a deal. no reason to throw a fit unless its somehow a literal copy of your work. and the few times it has happened to me it just takes a bit of thinking in my head to be like "well, its pretty general/a simple idea/typical color scheme/etc so thats kind of it. no problem there". i think a lotta the opinions here really lean on being emotionally mature enough to not react like an asshole lol....

i did have One more pop just earlier actually as i scrolled the twitters. which is a bit of a back and forth angle-- i absolutely hate the idea that all artwork anyone posts online must be critiqued, not all work is put out there as a master piece you want feedback on. BUT at the same time i think a shit ton more artists need to be accepting to what critique they really need to hear, mostly when they are making some kind of career out of it. ive seen some gorgeously rendered works with horrendous anatomy (mostly in NSFW art), well made 3D models with shitty animation, or nicely drawn characters with shit colors- etc. and then i see ppl getting paid to do some of these things in a near professional sense but they never...improve, on anything. the problem is i feel ppl have fallen too much into "well i dont want to be rude-" but critique isnt inherently rude, ppl can just be assholes about recognizing what they need to improve on and thus get all angry about anyone suggesting they need to work on whatever aspect on their work. ppl need to get back into asking for and accepting neutral critique.

it kinda feels like Deviantart brought in a lotta art criticizing to the web, but it got a bit out of control in letting dummies in and saying mean things, thus causing people to pull back on the "critique" stuff and then ppl have just decided "critiquing" as a whole can be too "mean", but everyones just gotten quite backwards on it.

i agree w/ alla this but esp with the end paragraph. i have this theory that dA radically affected the way online artists of all stripes view critique, copyright, etc. basically any and everything we drawpeople argue about lol. like i remember the constant flame wars in comment sections about how critique was either basically a war crime and the worst thing any artist could ever experience, or there was no difference between critique and harassment and if you didn't like being called a piece of shit for drawing weird then you were just too much of a pussy to be an artist. i still see these sentiments more often then i'd like to and it makes me feel very tired and very old lmao

my personal policy wrt offering crit is to only give it to ppl who ask (otherwise i'm wasting time and energy to get even less then a thank you outta someone) and to offer solutions instead of creative ways to discuss how ugly their shit is lol. some ppl will be babies about critique they ask for thats worded with all the kindness and patience you'd offer a 5 year old and their macaroni art, and its just. hair tearing sometimes haha. but i guess its a good way to weed out who is and isnt worth your time - crit can hurt, but its always nice when someone tempers that hurt with poise

one of my biggest issues through DA was seeing popular front page artists having critiques open but every single one was five stars and pointed out no flaws lol. and then on the other end you just have critique that turned into hate and harassment. i think critique only got so hateful due to peoples reactions in the first place and it just blew it up into a useless negative, something no one would find any use out of bc people just dont know how to critique anymore!

people really fail on understanding the point of critique isnt to just say you dont like their style or look- rather point out methods for improvement. but its obnoxious as hell when ppl take all critique as bad. id really love to hear ppl sometimes say what i could improve on-- but asking for critique online has really become a gamble nowadays due to all these issues. i get a lotta nice comments and i also get a lotta people say "but your art is so good, you dont need critique!" as if thinking critique would be *rude* when its *not*.

I have a lot of those but these are my favorites

- stop putting vaginas on stomachs

- stop putting balls in the ass crack

- getting mad at color picking is some stupid business

- chromatic aberration does not make your art better

porn artists whos anatomy is whack is the funniest shit like how am i supposed to have a gentleman's lark to your anime husbando's testes if they're not even on right lol

all the filters in the world can't improve shitty draftsmanship and yet every digital artist ever tries to make it so. i pretend i do not see it

a lot of anime art is fucking basic as shit and fucking boring. There, I said it. Like I am so fucking sorry but I'm not going to lie to make someone feel better. No, if all you fucking draw are the SAME body shapes, the SAME hair styles, the SAME skin tones, over and over and over again with no fucking diversity at all how tf am I supposed to care about that shit, hm??
oh pretty white anime boy with big eyes BRO WHO TF CARES??? WHO CARES??? like skdjfhakj god I get lots of people like anime styles but please for the LOVE of god if you're going to do anime art please don't be like "well I only draw charactes as skinny, pale skinned, conventionally attractive and able bodied, it's my ART STYLE UWU"
at least put some fucking effort into making your art interesting or original, like how tf am I supposed to care about your art or characters if it looks no fucking different than literally everything else I just SDKhdjskhjkhdk AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i have nothing to add to this, i just feel it becus im not a weeb lmaooooooo

Bad art absolutely exists but there's no way to write definitive rules for what makes art bad

this statement shits me up becus i agree and disagree with it lmao. like, if i had to explain why, i think i'd put it as "all art is subjective but art that follows subjective observations as to what makes something appear more well structured and 'correct' to the mind's eye will be seen as better without fail". i.e. fundementals make art prettier to most ppl

Good artists copy, great ones steal.

The furry community has 0 idea about how copyrighting works and its sad.

This is a porn community. Not an art community

to be fair, most amateur artists (and even pros!) don't know how copyright works either. outting myself as a dumbass here but at least i try lol

as an expansion on your last point (if its based around this site n not just the fandom at large), the furry fandom is sex based all around. it originated in kink spaces, most of the earliest furry art was pornographic, and there's a reason most furry spaces have some degree of sexuality built into them as an inherent part of their structure. ppl who have 0 sexual interest in dog-head people are an exception among furwads, not a rule

Late response, But I'll go

Oh im not expecting every furry artist to know about the in's and out of 100%, I just want them to know that firt of all just because you drew a pose once doesnt mean you own it for eternity; and secondly you dont own color palettes.

Also, I know this subculture pretty much based on porn, problem is there's half the people in it dont want to admit it.

But what else could it really be about

yeah idk why furries are so pressed about admitting even a faint sexual interest if its part of their fandom participation. itd be obtuse for me to assume literally everyone with a fursona wants to fuck people with animal heads, but its not an unreasonable assumption to apply to the community broadly. all this talk about furry pride and not being meanies about ppls weird sex in places like this, and they cant even admit that they like buff wolves becus their dick/vag likes buff wolves lol

Fetish art that doesn't contain sex/nudity should still be marked as nsfw. I don't wanna see an inflated giant pokemon with some dude licking it's feet if i have the sfw toggle on. Nothing about that is sfw!

Saaaame

agreed. if its obvious you beat your meat to it, it should be considered porn. softcore if that makes anyone feel better, but porn all the same lol. post it all you want but don't force people who don't wanna see it to look at it, and don't bitch when people ask you to filter it

inb4 "but its not sexual to me!!!" honey do you expect me to believe that your obsessive interest in this highly sexualized activity/body part/whatever just coincidentally happens to be totally unique from everyone else's overtly horny fascination with it? puhleeeeezzz

Been said before but I don't think tracing official art of something is bad lol especially like for example, lion king, my little pony ect half of the people who do that are often beginners/kids anyway so who gives an eff.

YES. recolors are good actually and ppl who simp for major corporations wrt children's copyright infringement are obnoxious and probably need to get laid

Crayons is food

art opinions that will give you Massive Genius Brain Disease