Its a bit erking, I like a healthy belly on a good looking gal but most of what I am seeing lately is a bit more then healthy belly. That being said the whole 'no body shaming' thing has been strongly pushed in western culture lately which would start to show up in more places. Indoctrination and all.

That being said.... I give it the same reaction I give most pieces I don't like, back out of the page and delete it from my notifications the works. My tastes are narrow, too narrow for a few I know online lol. But it is frustrating seeing a artists work, and liking it then get to watch them expand into other fields of..... less desirable material. I know its their choice their work. I'm not about to tell them to quite something or such..... unless they ask in a journal or directly ask me. Or in one case try to involve me....

All in all.... its mainly yet another trend.....

I agree with you. Sometimes it looks a lot like indoctrination. Nobody complain about 5kg more or less, but when it's 20kg or more, you definitely have a serious health problem and should work on it. Aesthetics are second. It's about health.

And for the artists, I bet it's nothing more than shoulder claps from one specific group. I don't think you get much money out of it.

Agreed, and a healthy female is always better in my books then one who's unhealthy. Just like how a happy one is going to look better then a angry one.

To a degree yes, but I've seen artists commission amounts sky rocket with this stuff. I know one personally where he does some beautiful stuff, but for some reason people regularly pay nearly 300$ for a drawing of a female who has zero form left she's so fat >.<

But.. that leads into another issue.

If it's profitable, I can understand it. People have to pay bills.
But as an artist, your name and artwork is a kind of brand. My idea, I would create a new second brand. That keeps your audience and let you serve the others without loosing anybody.

I noticed that too. There are tons of cool art who end ruined (for me) with a chubby belly. I'm pretty sure it's the whole "It's not realistic to have a flat tummy", which is at level of "with these huge breasts her back must be killing her!!" despite the fact it's just art, fantasy. Something which doesn't needs to be realistic (I mean, for realistic bodies just go outside and watch anyone at the street!!)

True. But being muscular or fit isn't unrealistic. It's just harder to achieve. No regular Joe can workout 8h a day while having a day job. That's not the point.

Big difference between slightly overweight or fat because you give a shit about your eating habits, downing 3 beers every day and your only walk is to the toilet.

You basically nailed it but forgot about personal taste. Some people like chubby physiques and stuff like that without it being a fetish and all that. I personally fall into category 1 with my bear, and I like chubby appearances but not to the point where I would call it a fetish, and even then there are limits. I do agree with the part about completely normal looking and then boom big gut that looks out of place though.

And in my personal bubble, I honestly see the opposite, most ychs, and all that stuff is always based around that average skinny physique or a muscular one with maybe a handful allowing for a chubby physique rarely.

I can understand the bear thing. They're pretty massive and more "round". It's a part of the body. A skinny bear wouldn't look natural.

I think the ych "problem" is more a technical issue. Ych is method for the artist to maintain his idea and style and making money without breaking it and saving time. When you using a normal size/build base character, you able to slap on 90% of all characters. Too thin, too thick, fat, muscular, and it didn't work anymore. The "average" is the most efficient and economical body shape for this kind of commission.

Even without the ychs I do still see more average/muscular body types than chubby ones. Like yeah, I see more chubby physiques as time goes on but that's still far and few between within the sea of average/muscular. I think it's just that some artists you look at the most are swapping over and it looks like it's becoming really common, or there are just more commissioners with chubby characters getting picked.

Like a said, you much more versatile and cost efficient when you use average body types for YCH's.

On the other hand, some artists probably get more money for drawing these uncommon types. If it's profitable, can't say anything against it besides that it isn't my taste.

I noticed the trend of "no fat shaming" which is an idea meant to help people to avoid falling into depression so they have energy to lose their weight. However, it seems some overweight or fat people use that as an excuse to don't do anything about their body. That's real life thing I noticed.

Regarding the art? I have specific preferences for characters that are slim or have a bit of healthy fat that gives them the soft look, so I tend to pay attention to them mostly.

I would say it always come from people that use it as an excuse. No young or middle age men or women can say it's healthy in any way. It's not and it didn't help a bit with depression. You cannot exclude overweight people but you must remind them they have a problem which could kill them. Imagine you tell an addict he can stay healthy this way. That's dangerous.

Pretty much this

Risky words now a days, but very correct.

People must accept the truth. It's not meant to be rude or insulting. Belittling or turning this into a "normal thing" is a danger to everyone's health.

But we all know what's the reason behind to refuse this fact.

I've already noticed that, personally I prefer normal and skinny, I also don't like breasts, asses and bellies that are unnaturally large -_-

Looks like I'm not the only one.
I'm all for normal/athletic shapes.

There ain't anything wrong with some plush on a person

I find your style unique, and among all of this mass generic it's like a breath of fresh air. Stay original and independent - stay yourself, sir!

That's nice from you. Thank you! 🙂

It's about the physical appearance. BMI is also a pretty unrealistic measure method and you cannot apply it to drawn characters anyway. I'm not talking about hyper fat balloon characters, that's a whole other topic, even not regular body's without a Sixpack and normal body fat.
What I mean are drawn characters which defenitly has an real reference with the typical problematic zones, for example overhanging bellys or asses. Sometimes less, sometimes more. And in most cases, just from the look of it, I bet they can't run a mile. I won't link examples, because I don't want to be rude. Everyone have his taste and I respect it but it seems I'm not the only person who see more of this kind of shapes latly.
My personal opinion on a wider scale is, it's more harmful then beneficial to promote and normalize a symptom of an unhealthy and often undisciplined lifestyle.

I ain't into that sort of thing. My follows don't have any of that. 8o

😁

Well for me personally I like a mix of both some thicc chub and nice toned or limber bodies and stuff.

Since well, my characters/OCs are purely fictional, no self insert or whatnot, I just like the asthethic, gives them a certain character and also helps to contrast the pairings with my other characters.

Of the two thicc characters I own.

One of them is an irresponsible hooker MILF.
Another's a thicc shortstack whos tummy is not just from the flab but also from stretching due to her size and volume training being a size queen.

I've been noticing a lot more chubby art on the main page. But those are by accident because I always stay away from the main page since FA doesn't have a blacklist that will hide the stuff you don't want to see. Chubby is not my thing since I have a soft spot for lean/athletic/muscle (not overly muscle), but chub lovers are gonna chub, like how I ship human x anthro relationships.

Yes, I rarely visit the main page myself. I browse through the favs of my watches to find new art.
Would be better to have a blacklist.

Maybe, maybe not. I like the trend. Self insertion is great imo, if it helps a person love themselves more.

Plus like. Skinny people arent the norm? Atleast not in america. In america, a bit of a pudgy gut is very normal. Its called 'average'. I think its more a case of people realizing that the standard for art has mostly been keep everyone skinny and above average, instead of expressing what they want in a healthy way. Hopefully this trend is here to stay

The average in a society is not always normal. Sometimes people are too fat, sometimes they starve.
Normal and healthy is, what's good from a medical point of view. Being obese isn't and having 0% body fat isn't healthy too.
I like to depict characters above the average. It's my taste and it often fits a realistic purpose. Like with action heroes. They must be fit, otherwise they cannot deliver.

Well its a trend because quite frankly, its a real problem in actual Western culture. Being overweight or even obese in not long considered "problematic". And since art generally reflects RL you now seeing that reflected in furry characters. It can be a touch cyclic as well I supposed. After all if you think back during the Renaissance period there was also a time when "chubby chicks" were an in thing to sculpt or paint. Admittedly for different reasons but their you are.

An unhealthy civilization is always problematic and normalizing these problems is very dangerous.
But yes, you have some trends and cycles. For example, look how the general physique of comicbook heroes look back in the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2k. Now it's totally fucked up, but every decade has a trend. I'm curious what will be the next.

Hark, a dog whistle.

I noticed it as well but just like you I just black out. I'm pretty much a bean stalk so I'm not qualified to talk about it but I assume, like others mentioned, it has to do with the whole "no fatshaming" and "love yourself how you are" mentality. I can personally name two overweight people who I know personally. One got fact thanks to a side effect of her medication and is currently working to get it all down. The other using "I am fat, and?" as an excuse even though her body mass is troublesome for her health while making no moves to lose it. Even after a doctor told her so.

I don't care what other people do. It's your life. Especially in today's society where everything is racism and discrimination right away. Society today is made out of special snowflakes who want to live in their safety bubble where facts don't exist if they don't like them. At least from what I have noticed.

Yes, true. Sad thing is, a lot of people aren't that horrible but they see those weirdos and extremists on social media and think thats normal and or have to tolerate or accept shit like that. They don't have to.

I have been noticing a lot of it lately and it is rather weird. Sure, I have some chubby characters, but nothing too overweight. I've also been noticing a lot of other things...

Other things?

There's been a lot of vore and scat/piss trending

Oh God, please no.
And I have the feeling inkbunny is full underage content.

Yeah, some people... And I have no desire to join inkbunny

Yeah. I'm not that active on inkbunny. Compared to here on FA, there's nearly no interaction with watchers.

DA, FA, NG and Discord is where I spend my time. Not gonna be joining any shit show sites and I killed my FB account last year

I actually agree with you on many points and personally prefer meat over fat. As for the source of the trend I believe it's another viral wave of pageantry. Several good artists made a commissions, fans get adored and take up the slack. Healthy weight is a thing, but there's nothing "healthy" in obesity. That being said, the beautiful aspect of art is you can draw anything beautifully.
Technically, it's easier to draw rounded, puffy shapes with vague structure rather than muscles and skeleton. Besides, round shapes are a kink by itself, it's just in our genes to see rounded, glossy things as a sexy object. Like a tit, but imagine the whole body made of "tit" lol So, 2+2, add current social sentiment here and voilà, a recipe for easier success.
Besides, kink-trends was always here. Masses get bored of regular stuff and begin to pay more attention for new. But it's all temporary. There's a standard of sexiness, and no matter how much sjw's and msm want to dismantle healthy society standards it's gonna die out anyway because... nature. Human nature eventually will chew and spit out whatever the crap will be. And then there will be another trend... That's how it goes.
The interesting thing about tastes - they are not necessary reflect the person IRL. I like drawn femboys (which is also a huge trend but I already see it declining) for example, but at the same time I indifferent to them IRL and I see classic masculinity and femininity being under relentless attack and want to see the new rise of crude, buff dudes with attitude, speaking one-liners, looking for girls :D IRL tastes often differs from web tastes. For another example - I doubt you'll prefer sex with animals :)) just like any average person.
I think art should set big goals, such as god/goddess body and way of endeavor, instead of just pleasing the view and settling with "love yourself as you are". But it can't be just one thing and here's two nuances - art nowadays is more accessible than ever, hence more people with different stances will participate; and second - art is too vast field for standardization, especially forceful one. Art is an endless competition, so just go and fight for your beliefs.
In the end, I'd like to see people from all sides of the debate take more easily things on the internet and especially on Twitter. We're use web to feed our demons and look for more. Let's leave it that way.
Man, that's a lot of words! I'll probably make an article out of it on Minds :D

Yeah, this was a lot 😁
It's not that easy to say humans attracted to round shiny things. That's not the case. Most people are attracted to a very specific shape that symbolizes health and fertility. Everything else is individual based on culture or just Kink. Beauty is in the eye of the observer, yes, but there is always a common ground for 99% of all people. Now you can decide witch kink you want to serve. But then you just be successful in this niche. For example, I draw this furry and scaly stuff. No regular classic comic or manga fan will be interested in this. It just isn't his taste.
Same for objects. Look at cars. Taste is one thing but there are enough examples most people will agree, this car is ugly.
Or body and face proportions. If you messed them up or do it wrong, the drawing looks bad. Like I said,it's not that simple.
When we look at social media, it would be very interesting to see how artwork would perform if you can choose between like and dislike.
For all that body positivity thing. I would say: love yourself but don't destroy yourself. Improvement not perfection.
Don't blame others for your own weakness. Never idealize a flaw or disfunction.

Honestly, I don't see how like and dislike system could show us anything objective for art (or anything else in general) simply because of character of exposure: certain content watch certain audience. For example: I won't put a dislike on diaper-fetish pic because I stay away from it as far as possible :)) Watchers, in their turn, usually consists of something like 99% fans and 1-2% haters.
At least somewhat objective valuation will be possible only if watchers will be required to chose and required to make it for all pieces, but this is unfeasible. Otherwise, they will just watch what they like and smack a dislike on a piece that fell in their feed by a happy accident :)

Yes, you right.
Maybe a Poll could be more accurate? No harm, just votes.

Same problem - exposure to a certain audience. People who vote will be consists of ones who get to your art and from their numbers - ones who are willing to vote, which is very-very shallow voting pool of very specific people.
Thinking of this - it's really unsolvable conundrum imo. Either we build our own echo-chambers or this hypothetical platform will be unusable, or at least awfully unpleasant to use which will lead to its abandoning.
I can give as an example my Newgrounds account. NG have pretty advance star-system which is poll by itself, giving people a lots of option to express their evaluation of my art. Then I upload a pic it's very often gets very low score, that means at least a couple of people put a 0-1 score on it (hence - haters). After that initial votes, the number slowly goes upwards to the ~4-4.5 stars mark where it stops. Keeping in mind the fact that my account isn't very popular and have pretty low engagement, 4 stars is already a high mark. That means a couple of "haters" votes was diluted by a couple of dozens of "fans". And I don't see 4.5 stars as an objective value of my stuff tbh, because 3 is already a positive mark.

I'm 50/50

I do enjoy some chubby characters, I do draw a lot of them mostly cause I find it pleasant to draw dynamic lines and building a character at the same time, I also adore strong and sculptured characters.

I don't know about the trend, I always drew like this X_x,,

I've noticed this with morbidly-obese characters becoming more common, yes.
As an overweight person myself, I don't much care for it. Little bit of pudge/curves, all well and good.
I've noticed the same thing happen with other fetishes in the past too, having a temporary surge in popularity as people try to cash-in on the trend or people decide they can fly the flag of their fetish while it's seemingly more accepted. It'll probably die down again eventually. I really do wish FA would implement a blacklist filtration feature finally!

Is there anybody who uses the main page? I just use the search function or other artist favs to discover new art. A blacklist would be a great feature.

But yes, it might be just a trend. Like the Judy Hopps Trend, the Hellhound Girl Trend, the Giant Vampire Lady Trend. OK, these are characters but I got some other trends. Ahegau trend (don't know to write it) or the put your finger in the other ones mouth trend.

Now we have the chubby trend.
Everyone can have his kink. But regarding to the current climate I have the feeling some people want to change a kink into normality and I think that's not OK.

On occasion, when I'm bored. XD ...but I've seen shit I didn't want to see, literally. >.<

Ahegao, or O-face in layman's terms.

Yeah, not bashing others for their kinks is one thing, letting people force them on *everyone* is an entirely different thing. It seems the two often get conflated nowadays.