Is it worth it to get an Instagram account as a furry artist? I see a lot of furry artists on there, but their posts never receive as much feedback as they do on other websites, even normie websites like Twitter. I'm talking maaaaaybe 10% of their normal interest.

IDK just looking at other backup websites now that DA is all glitchy.

Boy oh boy, oh boy, the results are in. Are you excited? I'm excited! \o/

So first, I didn't respond to everyone's entries like I did in the last contests because I didn't want to mess up the comment count. Basically, I was keeping track of the entries by looking at the total # number of comments left on the picture. If there were new comments, I would go and update the spreadsheets for those comments.

Speaking of spreadsheets, here they are:
http://sta.sh/0141qgv88hkl - FA entries
http://sta.sh/02ery6sscekj - DA entries

We ended up with 49 tickets on FA, and 231 tickets on DA. Both sites had around the same number of unique entrants (~30), but DA's rules were a little different in that one person could have 10 tickets instead of just 2 like on FA. (Seriously, FA won't let you encourage people to make advertisement journals for some reason. -_____- )

Aaaaanyway, I generated the 10 winning entries for both sites using Random.org 's sequence generator: https://www.random.org/sequences/ Both lists were generated using a pregenerated randomization for April 9th (the beginning of the contest).
https://www.random.org/sequences/?m.....ate.2016-04-09
https://www.random.org/sequences/?m.....ate.2016-04-09

After going over the top 10 entries, I finally decided the winners would be...

wait for it...

---

1)  tatiilange - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/196.....#cid:107411350

2) bluefoxaurora - http://comments.deviantart.com/1/60.....019/4102878739

3) OnTheMountainTop - http://comments.deviantart.com/1/60.....019/4104402470

---

Congratulations! :la:

Even if you didn't win, I thank you for signing up and for watching me! Seriously, you guys are what keeps me drawing!

Hello again!

I'm running another art exchange through my group, anthro-fantasy-club. The sign ups are here if you're interested:
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....-Ups-553995024
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....-Ups-553995024
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....-Ups-553995024

Now, you will need a DA account to join, but I don't mind if your main gallery is over here on FA. Just give me a link to your FA account when you sign up. *nods*

Oh, and the journal should have all the information you'll need, but please let me know if something is unclear or confusing. I'm trying to find a way to cut down on the journal's length, but everything I've included in the journal is stuff I've been asked before... so I don't know what to cut. |D

How do you feel when someone thanks you for commenting on their artwork?

I try to thank everyone for all their comments (since I totally love it when people take the time to comment on my artwork) but I'm not sure if some people are annoyed by it. I've seen people leave notices like "Don't thank me for watches or comments!!!!!!11!!!" on their pages, so I know some people are annoyed by it... but is it a majority?

I wonder too because FA's commenting system is a bit clunky - basically, the comment itself doesn't show up in your inbox like they do on DA, so you have to click back to the picture to even see what the person said. It might annoy some people to click on a new comment to only see "Thanks!"

I do like to express thanks for when people comment on my artwork, but I'm not sure if that's annoying to a lot of people. So... what do you dudes think?

I'm writing this journal to let you know that I am NOT pleased with FA's new management, or their inclusion of porn ads in their ad servers. I am a clean artist, and I do not, by any means, want my artwork associated with blatant porn. The fact that they would do this at all makes me incredibly uncomfortable about posting here in the first place.

And, yeah, the thought of leaving makes me sad (especially considering the awesomeness of the fandom) but I can't risk losing real-life opportunities because of IMVU's mistakes. Fortunately, IMVU has said they're going to make it right, but if they keep screwing it up like this, then I'll have no choice but to leave.

Now, before someone points out the obvious: yes, I realize that FA allows erotic art. But there's a huge difference between erotic art (which has a long, long history in the art world) and outright porn. Besides, every other art site allows erotic art as well, so the stuff you find on here really isn't *that* much different than the stuff you'll find on DA, or other art sites when it comes down to it. Even the porn on tumblr annoys me less than this, because it can't pop up randomly on my tumblr page.

I plan on staying for now, But if FA keeps going down this road (since it's obvious that they care very little about the community) you can find me here:

http://aboveclouds.deviantart.com/gallery/ -- finished artwork
http://abovecloudsart.tumblr.com/ -- works in progress. I haven't used it for a few years now, but I've recently wiped the dust off of it and I plan on using it more in the future.

(Note: I have adblock on, but it's not like everyone uses adblock at all times.)

Hey guys!
I'm running another art exchange through my group, Anthro-Fantasy-Club on DeviantArt. It will last until the end of July, so now is the perfect time to join if you're out of school for the summer.

Now, you *do* have to have a DeviantArt account and be a member of the group to post your artwork after you've finished it, but I don't mind if you join the group just for the exchange. Membership to the group is automatically approved, so anyone can join.

Here's the sign up journal if you're interested:
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....-Ups-535169973
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....-Ups-535169973
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....-Ups-535169973

And please let me know if you have any questions about the exchange. I'm always happy to help. :)

Does anyone know the filter for it? I already tried:

furaffinity.net#TD(class=alt1)

But that hid the entire table (including the submission). |D (Seriously, don't add that one.)
So looks like the sidebar and the submission are part of the same table, and I don't know if adblock has a way to hide a single column in a table. I know you can hide an entire table based on its size, but I don't want to do that.

However, I was able to get rid of the massive spaces with these two filters if anyone wants to add them:


This gets rid of the space at the top, below the banner
###ad-extra-flat


This gets rid of the space in the sidebar
###ad-extra-square


This one is good for DA too:
deviantart.com##DIV[class="mczone mczone-you-know-what"]


It'll get rid of that "Advertisement" section at the top of your inbox.

But, yeah, a sidebar filter would be good.

So I have some questions about art auctions.

If you're a buyer:
-How do you feel about an auction for a commission slot? I'm not talking about a YCH auction, but an auction to win a full painting or a portrait or something else made from scratch.
-Would you avoid commissioning an artist if they only hold auctions for commission slots?
-Would it annoy you if an artist sometimes holds auctions for their slots and sometimes has flat-price commissions?
-Would you prefer it if an artist only holds auctions for YCH things, and then sticks to a flat rate for normal commissions?

If you're a seller:
-Is there anything to look out for? I know that you can have deadbeat bidders, so it's always good to say "you have to send payment by XXX to keep the slot and empty accounts can't bid", but is there anything else to watch out for?
-Have auctions worked out for you, or is it better to just set a price and leave it at that?
-Can it cause drama? I've seen people complain about the high price of auctions before, but I don't know if that's just the internet being the internet.
-What's a good amount for an autobuy price? Like, 150% of what you would think you could get for it, or higher?

Thanks! :)
(And please let me know if anything is worded oddly or is unclear.)

Hey, guys! I'm running a Secret Santa art exchange through my group, anthro-fantasy-club. It has some quality controls in place, but that's just to make sure that you know how to make a finished picture. All visual art types are accepted - traditional, digital, 3D art, sculpture, etc. - so don't worry about your artistic medium. Here's more information about it:

http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....ange-497595436
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....ange-497595436
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....ange-497595436

Note: You will have to join the group to participate in the exchange. Membership is automatically approved, so joining shouldn't be too difficult. I don't mind if you join the group just to enter the exchange either.

And please let me know if you have any questions. ^^

---
Also, does anyone know if Sculptris will work on Win 8.1? Their website says that it's for Win 7 only, and I've heard that it crashes on 8.1, but all the posts I saw about it were from a year+ ago. Maybe they've updated something? Who knows~

Here are the winners of my Thousand Watcher giveaway!

Are you excited? I'm excited! \o/

Okay, so, I ended up with 54 valid entries over on DA, and 61 valid entries here on FA. I put the numbers into here: http://www.random.org/sequences/?mode=advanced , set it to use a pregenerated randomization for Sept 12th for the DA entries (to represent the start of the contest) and Sept 20th for the FA entries (to represent the end of the contest), and let it run. The first nine numbers from each set are the entries that I had to choose between.

So here are the 18 entries I chose between:
http://sta.sh/01660so8vtfh

If you're wondering, I decided to narrow it down beforehand because I had a super hard time choosing between 70+ characters last time. But even with narrowing it down beforehand, you guys STILL didn't make it easy for me. Seriously, I'd love to draw any of these cool characters, ahhhh. It took me a couple hours of hemming and hawing before I finally made up my mind.

So without further adieu, here are the three winners:

1. kauriana on deviantArt
2. Zedex
3. Genetta

Congratulations, you three! And to those who didn't win - don't feel bad! Everyone who entered had super awesome characters, but I only have so much time to devote to a giveaway. Better luck next time!

There are about 12 hours left to join my Thousand Watcher Giveaway! I haven't responded to any of the comments yet, but I will respond to them when I'm tallying the entries at the end.

THOUSAND WATCHER GIVEAWAY
GO HERE TO ENTER
WOOO

I recently hit 1,000 watchers here on FA, so I'm holding an art giveaway to celebrate. You can enter by commenting over here:

WATCHER GIVEAWAY WOOOO
SERIOUSLY, GO LOOK AT THIS.
LOOKIT.

Also, does anyone know how to show code on here? As in, [ b ] without the spaces? I tried [code], but it didn't do anything. :s

Note: I think my computer is biting it, so I might not be around much for the next month or so. It's been kinda off for a while now, but I've been avoiding getting a new computer because I don't want Windows 8. I really, really, really dislike Windows 8. Just... no. But I guess I'll learn to deal with it if I have to.

So, uh, does anyone have any brand recommendations for computers? I've heard that Lenovo is good, but is there anything better? And no, I am not interested in building my own computer. I tend to kill everything I build, so that's out of the question. I mean, I probably killed a good thousand diodes in Electronics Lab II alone (and that was following specific schematics) so I don't trust myself with more expensive parts.

What's happening is that the laptop makes a grinding... fan-rubbing sort of sound whenever it starts up. It goes away and works find after that, but it tends to pick back up if I do anything that's CPU heavy. It doesn't seem to like it when I visit my familiars on Flight Rising (maybe the HTML5 food doesn't agree with it? XD) and it also tends to run hotter than it should when I'm not doing anything. The grinding sound is coming from near one of the fan vents.

I run noscript and adblock and I don't download anything so I don't think it's a software thing.

The Anthro-fantasy-club icon contest is now closed. You can see all the entries and vote for your favorites over here:

[link] | [link] | [link] | [link] | [link]

If you don't have a DA account, you can vote in this journal.

I'm holding an icon contest for my group, anthro-fantasy-club (on deviantArt). I'm offering several neat art prizes for the winners and Stygma is giving out points to winners. Random contest participants can win art from me as well.

More information about the contest:
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371

There are only 9 entries right now and I'm offering art for 1st-3rd place. I'm also giving out *another* prize for a lucky random participant. That means you have about a 1/2 chance of winning something.

I'd love to see you participate. ^^

I'm holding an icon contest for my group, anthro-fantasy-club (on deviantArt). I'm offering several neat art prizes for the winners and Stygma is giving out points. Random contest participants can win art from me as well.

More information about the contest:
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371

I'd love to see you participate. ^^

I'm starting to worry that my screen's calibration is off. Things look okay to me, but, apparently, my gamma is off. I just checked it and I think it's set on 1.0. The standard is 2.2 from what I read, but 2.2 looked horrible when I tried it out.

I also checked my monitor's brightness and contrast using this thing, but I'm not sure if the results were "okay."
http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

On my screen, the difference between the shadows is very, very clear. The difference between the whites isn't nearly as noticeable. As in, I have to look for it to see it. Is that normal?

I changed my monitor's contrast which seemed to help slightly, but now the overall colors don't look as nice. I'm not sure if I'm simply *used* to seeing weird, over-bright colors or if I should just go back to what it was.

Note: I'd prefer to hear from people who have actually calibrated their monitors. If you're getting the same results as me and you haven't calibrated your monitor, chances are your monitor needs to be calibrated as well.

I'm holding a new contest through my group, anthro-fantasy-club (on deviantArt). The point of the contest is to make an updated icon for anthro-fantasy-club. I'm offering several art prizes for the winners. Random participants can win art from me as well.

More information about the contest:
http://anthro-fantasy-club.devianta.....test-402110371

I'd love to see you participate. ^^

Oh wow, I recently got a bunch of new watchers. Normally I'd go around and thank each of you individually, but I don't wanna be spammy so I'll thank you in a group instead. Thanks guys! It really means a lot to me that you like my artwork enough to follow me. <3

Here are some interesting things to note:

-2,000 watcher giveaway: I'm going to hold a contest when I reach a combined 2,000 watchers on here and on DA. Here's the contest I held for 1,000 watchers: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9110459/ It will probably be for portraits this time, though. I'm a bit too slow for full illustrations, haha. |D The rules will be simplified as well.

-30,000 pageview kiriban (on DA). Yep, pretty self-explanatory.

-5,000 pageview kiriban (on FA).

Is anyone else on Flight Rising? If you are, feel free to friend me. My username on there is the same as my username on here.

Or, hey, have a link to my profile thingie.
http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=.....e&id=11191

By the way, I *am* willing to make artwork for wildclaws or spirals with nice colors. Eyespot/seraph markings are definitely a plus. Really, any genes aside from gembond would be a plus for me as long as the markings work with the dragon's colors.

My 25,000th pageview on DA is coming up soon. I have a kiriban going for it, but instead of doing the normal "send me a screenshot" thing, I want to make a game out of it. :P

THE RULES
-You have to be watching me to be eligible for the kiriban. Why? Well, I want the prize to go to someone who actually likes and appreciates my artwork - not someone who just likes free stuff. The way I see it, if you really like my artwork then you'll watch me. If you don't like my artwork (and you're just after free stuff), then you wouldn't bother to watch me before asking for free art. Simple.

-You have to be watching me on DA to enter on DA. You have to be watching me on FA to enter on FA.

-To enter, just guess a number between 20,000 and 25,000 in this journal's comments. That's it. When the kiriban passes, I'll go to http://www.random.org and select a number. The prize will go to the person who is closest, but not above, my randomly selected number.

-One number per person! It isn't fair for one person to make a billion guesses. :(

-If two people guess the same number, then the prize will go to the person who guessed it first. You can quickly check if someone else guessed your number by pressing ctrl+f (or command+f) and searching for your number.

-If two people guess the same number on DA and FA, then the prize will go to the person on DA. (That's why it's a good idea to search both journals before you choose your number. P: ) The DA journal is over here BTW: http://aboveclouds.deviantart.com/a.....here-369764464

-The prize will be a flat colored, waist-up sketch (anthro/human/humanoid characters preferred) or an inked icon (all character types) - your choice:

---

PRIZE EXAMPLES
http://sta.sh/018so8yrhi85 | http://fav.me/d5g3yid

---

-Expect to wait for the prize. I do free artwork at my leisure, when I feel like it (hence why it's free).

---

DOUBLE OR NOTHING
If you're the gambling type, you can double your winnings by correctly guessing whether the random number will be odd or even. If you guessed the closest number and you're correct about the number being odd/even, then you'll get two prizes. If you're wrong, the kiriban will go to the person with the next closest guess. If you want to try your luck with "double or nothing", just fill out this form in your comment:

I guess number: _______
The winning number will be (even or odd): _______

I need to get the last journal off of my page. :I

Soooo, once I finish off all of the stuff on my to-do list, what would you like to see from me? Would you like to see more of my characters? Do you want me to post some studies? Make some tutorials? Or would you like to see fanart for the random things that I like? Any suggestion is cool as long as it isn't "Draw this character of mine!" :P

I really want to gauge what people like from me. :U

Hey there guys!

So, I'm drawing a scared dragon and I need help finding some expression references for it. This is the sort of expression that I'm looking for ->
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7470010/ (the one on the right)

More info:
-I'm looking for over the top, toony expressions. I tried looking through Airu's gallery and Henrieke's gallery, but I didn't find any "scared" expressions. :C
-It doesn't have to be a dragon. Any long-nosed animal will work since I'm only using it for expression reference.
-Profile view is preferred but other views are fine too
-SFW please!

Thanks!

(note: I tried looking at stock photos, but they're generally terrible for expressions. They're usually super fake and staged.)

For some reason, none of the avatars on here are showing up for me. :| The space where an avatar *should* be is just an empty space right now.

Is this happening for anyone else?

(note: Avatars are enabled for me, so I should be able to see them. Yes, I already checked that.)

Hey guys!

I'm holding a kiriban for my deviantArt group, anthro-fantasy-club. It's over here if you'd like to read more about it:
[link]
The prizes are currently two icons from me and a subscription from stygma (more prizes from other people might be added later).

(Note: You can exchange the subscription prize for another icon prize if you don't really use DA. You'll need a DA account to win the prizes, though.)