Hi everyone,
Just returned from my two-week holiday in norway which explains my absence of comments and lack of journal-babbling. ^^
Anyway, great to see that FA has finally returned and seems to be working (more or less) stable again - because, let's face it: is there actually anyone here who didn't wholeheartedly miss this filthy, dirty site? :D
Gonna catch up on the comments and submissions later after unpacking my suitcase. I made a couple of sketches in norway which I might turn into proper pictures once I find the time, looking forward to hear what you guys think about them... ;3

Before I forget it:  blackwater and I might soon accept commissions which we will both be working on. As of now, I can't really tell when we'll be able to start or what we will charge for a picture, but I'll make sure to let you know once we have decided about those things and are ready to get going.

Oh, and remember - only a couple of weeks left before SPORE finally will be released! xD


- AmF

Who else here can't wait to get their paws on that new game by Maxis? oO Been waiting for that damn thing pretty much ever since it was first announced in early 2005, fortunately it's only 2 days left till they release the free Creature Creator (the demo of the demo, so to speak, as the full version of the editor is gonna cost something).

In case you haven't heard about Spore yet, you should definitely check out their website (www.spore.com) as it's a rather tough to describe the whole scope of this game in detail. It basically let's you create your own creature, all the way from the cell-stage to the space-phase, in which you can colonize other planets and meet other species.

Umm, blatant advertisement, I know, but it's pretty much the one and only game I'm currently waiting for xD



Stuff to do:

 bagheera - Gift-Picture

 frazzle - Gift-Picture

 bombchu - Trade-Picture

 rikkitz - Trade-Picture

Eh, I just figured out that it's been quite a while since my last journal, time for a little update... :3

As the title already hints, I'm getting operated next week. Nothing overly serious, but since this is pretty much the first time I'm ever going to get operated at all (except for that wisdom teeth removal a couple of years ago), I'm a little nervous, to say the least. So in case this is my last journal here ever, you'll know why.

...just kidding. xD



Other than that, a couple art-related things I plan to do:

 bagheera - Gift-Picture

 frazzle - Gift-Picture

 ipoke - Gift/Trade-Picture (Du weißt, was gemeint ist...) 8D

 bombchu Trade-Picture


Well, that's enough for today... ;3

*waits for the incredibly slow installation-routine of Assassin's Creed to finally finish* >> Oh my, 8GB? My poor hard-disk...

... since most people here still don't seem to know it - I doubt I'm gonna shock a lot of people now but:


*drum roll*


- No, I'm actually NOT FEMALE, no matter what my wacky username might imply xD

- And no, my kitty Sanura (aka San) is NOT MY FURSONA, even though I wouldn't mind if she actually existed... >>


Well, that's all for today... *scampers off to play The Witcher again* ^^

*looks around rather confused*

What, FA is back online? oO No, wait, this can't be true, must be some sort of trick... >>

*scampers off to play Crysis instead*

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the absence of new pictures, my computer broke down last tuesday and since then I've been kept busy with doing backups of around 250GB of data and getting the computer ready for being sent to the repair shop. -_-
Fortunately, all the data seems to be intact so I hope to be able to find the time to start drawing with my pen tablet soon again ;)


Commission:

 yurikokinai - Working on concept



Trades:

 ipoke - Concept

 purpleweeble - Finished

 bagheera - Concept

 bombchu - Pending

 karakina - Pending

Out of frustration, I just broke the pen for my Wacom Graphire tablet... oO I guess it's time to order that Intuos A4 I've been wanting to buy for more than a year now... >>



Commission:

 yurikokinai - Working on concept



Trades:

 ipoke - Concept

 purpleweeble - Finished

 bagheera - Concept

 bombchu - Pending

 karakina - Pending

... and yet I'm hoping I will still have a couple of years left... ;) Instead of falling into a brooding and restless mood today, I figured out it's time to see things a little more optimistic. You're not only getting older but probably also wiser with every year that passes... or at least that's what they say, I doubt that this applies to me as well... :)


Random stuff I gotta do during the next few weeks:

- Finish reading the first Felidae-Book - and then start with #2
- Find a way to obtain the PC-Version of "Gears of War" here in germany... >>
- Visit the dentist oO
- and... draw more stuff


Commission:

 yurikokinai - Working on concept



Trades:

 ipoke - Permanent Trade still going on... ;)

 purpleweeble - Outline finished

 bagheera - Concept

 bombchu - Pending

 karakina - Pending

Well, as some of you know, Bioshock was officially released yesterday. I definitely would have bought it. Sadly, I'm living in a country where not even I as an adult am able to buy the uncut version in a shop because it has been set on the list of indexed games - which means, in order to "protect" underage people from playing the uncut version, politicians in this country deem it necessary to keep everybody, no matter what age, from buying it. So in case you're not particularly keen on ordering games via internet, the cut german version is the only one available here.

Yes, I know that the changes in the cut version are absolutely not game-crippling in any way - but honestly, shouldn't I, a person of 21 years, be able to decide for myself whether or whether not I should be allowed to play a videogame that contains gore and violence instead of letting someone else decide what they think might be good for me?
Is there really any other country on this planet that takes these pointless measures? I doubt it. :/

Well, that means no Bioshock for me then... Unless someone can actually convince me that the version sold in germany actually doesn't lack that much... >>


- AmF

...finally! :D
I'm off to norway for two weeks tomorrow, finally got some time again to start scribbling something into my sketchbook... Gotta think of some naughty new poses for Sanura... ^^ *starts doodling while listening to some EBM music*


Cya! ;)

H'llo guys =^^=
I was kind of wondering if anyone else here has an account on #. In short, last.fm has become a large music community site where you can chat with people who have a similiar music taste, discover new bands, create groups, listen to different radio personalized radio stations etc...

Gimme me a shout in case you're also registered there: http://www.last.fm/user/onyx_fox :)


-AmF

I'm thinking about buying a new graphic tablet soon since I figured out that it's getting time to retire that tiny old Wacom Graphire3-Tablet which I've been using since 2004. The question is: which one should I buy? oO I think I'll go for a Wacom-Tablet again but at the moment I have absolutely no clue what type of tablet (Graphire or Intuos) or what size it should be.
Does it actually make sense to spend like 250-500 bucks on one of the larger ones? Or would that be a waste of money since buying a larger tablet doesn't really improve your drawing-efficiency? I have no idea since so far the only ones I've ever been had an active area of less than 4x5.
Would be great to hear some of your opinions since I'm completely at a loss here. ^^

Aye, me hearties! ;) Anyone here who remembers me?
During those past 2 months during which I've not been to this site, I've had a lot of time to think about this whole thing and I guess I'm ready to return to FA now. However, it might be that I might upload stuff even less regularly than before since I figured out that I should only draw furry-related stuff when I really feel like doing so.

In case anyone wants to chat with me: I've added my AIM and ICQ-usernames now. Feel free to contact me whenever you want, I'm usually online from 8PM to 10/11 PM CET.

And before I forget to mention it again... In contrary to what probably most people here still think, I'm actually ... not female! xD

Okies, enough for now.


-AmF

Hi again,
first of all: a happy new year to all of you!

I came back from holiday a couple of days ago and have been reading through the overwhelming amount of comments you guys posted on my last journal here since then. To be honest, right now I'm still kind of confused and don't really know what to think. One part inside me keeps telling me I should leave FA while the other part tells me not to do so. And this changes from day to day.

Again, I'm sorry for all this and I'm sorry for upsetting many of you again even though I said I would try to keep myself from ever repeating this. I absolutely understand if you consider "unwatching" me or already have done so because I'm being such an annoying drama-queen most of the time. One day I go like "waaaah, I'm leaving now, bye" and the next day it's quite the opposite again. I can imagine how ridiculous it must be to read through those journals I wrote, especially since I never give any real reasons for leaving.

A couple of people have been asking me what the reason behind all this is. To put it short: I'm and have always been a person with rather little self-confidence and thus tend to have the feeling that pretty much everything I do is less important, less interesting or generally of a lower priority than something somebody else does. Whatever. So this whole thing with leaving FA is sort of my reaction when I get overly frustrated. The one responsible for this frustration neither is this site nor the community, the one responsible for this whole misery - that's me.

Like many of you said, it absolutely is something I have to cope with at some point or I'll never be happy with my art, no matter what level I've reached and what other people say about it. I guess that being happy with what you do, be it art or something else, should be one of your main goals, no matter how well or little known you've become as an artist, musician etc. And that's something I still have to learn.
So instead of leaving completely, I figured out I'll take a break from FA for a month or two to sort things out. I hope that's ok. I'll re-watch all those who were on my watchlist once I'm back.

Until then, take care! ;)

- AmF

Hey, everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that I do not longer want to draw furry art from now on, gonna start with something completely different. Since I'm obviously incapable of creating the type of furry art people here are interested in looking at, I'll be leaving this site now.

Farewell! ;) *locks the door*


- AmF





PS:

An iPoke, EosFoxx, greex, Karakina & Co: Hoffentlich sieht man sich dann demnaechst wieder aufm ICQ/AIM - nur weil ich keinen Bock mehr auf Furry-Art habe bedeutet ja nicht, dass ich mich nicht mehr online zeigen werde. :)

Hey, everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that I do not longer want to draw furry art from now on, gonna start with something completely different. Since I'm obviously incapable of creating the type of furry art people here are interested in looking at, I'll be leaving this site now.

Farewell! ;) *locks the door*


- AmF





PS:

An iPoke, EosFoxx, greex, Karakina & Co: Hoffentlich sieht man sich dann demnaechst wieder aufm ICQ/AIM - nur weil ich keinen Bock mehr auf Furry-Art habe bedeutet ja nicht, dass ich mich nicht mehr online zeigen werde. :)

Hi folks,

just wanted to say "merry christmas" to everyone who's reading this - doesn't matter if you celebrate it or not ;)

I had in mind to draw something christmas-related but so far I didn't have the time. Might be I'll get to do it tomorrow...


- AmF

I keep reading journals ranting about how many people are leaving. Among those people I'm watching, not even one single user has yet declared that he or she plans to leave... so what's all the fuzz about? xD
No, honestly, I absolutely don't care about the fact that people are leaving, no matter how well-known or how little-known they might have been among this community since in the end, it doesn't matter. Simply let them all go back to DA if they think it's really all that much better there. *shrugs*

Like I said before: I'm not going to leave just because of this absolutely ridiculous discussion going on here at the moment. In case I'll really consider leaving one day, it certainly won't be because of this matter...


So yeah, bye bye to all those who are leaving.

I doubt that this is really of interest to anyone but... it's my birthday today ;) Looks like another year has passed and not really a lot has changed since the last time. *shrugs*

What else is there to say? Well, I'm still drawing and coloring stuff, but it looks like the percentage of my furry artwork has been decreasing lately. Might be I'll draw something new for my FA-Gallery this month, might as well be that I won't. Dunno yet... But considering how long it always takes me to finish something, I have the feeling I should practice drawing more in general instead of focusing too much on drawing anthropomorphic artwork only. You see, it simply doesn't make any sense to work on a picture for several months when the result never looks like what I expected. The whole process needs to be streamlined somehow and I guess that I'll need to adapt the style of my furry pictures to the community. I think that as soon as it takes me a week or less to finish something like my latest picture, I'll get back to draw furry stuff more regularly. I'll post something new here once I can be sure that I'm able to comply with this expectation.


Until then, take care!

AmbberFox


----

Trades:

1. Pipkin - Finished
2. Karakina
3. Kurosa
4. Dago
5. Purpleweeble
6. Scappo
7. Korrok
8. RevanKitty
9. Zenmigawa

I was quite amazed to find out that one of my pictures received its 100th fav a couple of days ago, I honestly never really expected that it'd turn out to be that popular. Thanks a lot, everybody! :)
Since I'm really bad at guessing what type of pictures you'd like to see next, I'm interested to hear your opinions - or a more specific question would be: in which areas do you think should I improve? Write down whatever you think... I'll try to reply to every single one of your suggestions.

Greetings,
AF




Trades:

1. Pipkin - Finished
2. Karakina - Starting soon
3. Kurosa
4. Dago
5. Purpleweeble - Starting soon
6. Scappo
7. Korrok
8. RevanKitty
9. Zenmigawa

When looking at the pictures I've done recently, something I notice is that the actual drawing is never, absolutely never on the same level of quality as the coloring. This is a general problem I have with my stuff, be it the lack of talent to draw or simply my lack of patience when drawing, the result is always that doing the outline does not only take an awful amount of time, it also never really looks the way I want it to be and often turns out way too sketchy. I guess instead of trying to do everything digitally, I really need to focus more on drawing and sketching pictures with a normal pencil again, like I used to do a couple of years ago before I started doing everything digitally.
Being able to paint or color something nice in Photoshop and doing a clean outline in openCanvas is pretty cool, but, seen from an objective point of view, you simply don't gain as much experience since you always have the possibility to undo things, it's less unforgiving than drawing a character on a usual piece of paper.

That means, instead of being forced to draw a lot of drawings and pick out the best, you can spend as much time as you want - which is both the biggest advantage when working digitally, but it's also the biggest disadvantage. :/

So, what I want to start doing in the near future is to:

- practice drawing with a pencil again
- try to draw a lot more often to avoid getting out of practice, maybe I should buy myself a sketch book
- find a style, which doesn't make my characters always look so sketchy

What do you guys think? ^^

(sorry for my bad english)

---

Trades:

1. Pipkin - Finished
2. Karakina
3. Kurosa
4. Dago
5. Purpleweeble
6. Scappo
7. Korrok
8. RevanKitty
9. Zenmigawa
10. Kisu
11. iPoke

I'm sorry for overreacting a little in yesterday's journal. Those who have been watching me for a little longer now have probably noticed that this happens every once in a while, especially when I haven't really done anything art-related for a couple of days. I immediately get the feeling then that my stuff, compared to everyone else's work here absolutely sucks. And that really gets me down. At times this feeling can be used in a very productive way but if it gets too overwhelming, I get the urge to rip apart every single picture I have ever drawn in my life and forget that I ever did something art-related. This might sound very exaggerated but that's simply the way I often feel and there's nothing I can do to prevent this from happening every now and then. Every artist has his own way of "motivating" himself, you know... ;)


I'd like to announce that I don't plan to leave FA anymore. However, what is very likely to happen is that the amount of pictures I'll upload here will decrease quite a bit since I plan to focus more on other things.
I'd still like to continue with the trades, here's the updated list:

1. Pipkin - Finished
2. Karakina
3. Kurosa
4. Dago
5. Purpleweeble
6. Scappo
7. Korrok
8. RevanKitty
9. Zenmigawa

Now, coming back to FA after a couple of days without having visited this site, I suddenly realize what a complete waste of time drawing anthro pictures is. Honestly, there's no point in investing around 20 - 30 hours into a picture just to find out that the result doesn't only disappoint me but everybody else as well.

Every single picture I've uploaded here so far sucks in some way so there's really no reason for continuing like this. The colored version of my trade with Pipkin is the last picture I'm going to submit to this site for a very long time. I hope all of you are still able to enjoy this site the way it's supposed to be - I've finally completely lost my interest FA.

No need to comment on this journal, a final statement will follow before I'll log out of FA for good.

Have fun.

- AmbberFox

As some of you might have noticed, I haven't really been on FA during the last 3 weeks. Since the reasons for this absence wouldn't interest anyone, let me just say that I probably won't be able to visit FA for another 3 or 4 weeks.

You know, drawing anthro pictures is neat but if you look at the whole field of art, it's not really anything more than a very, very specialized area in there. Being able to draw awesome anthros doesn't mean you're able to draw, for example humans, just as well. You could spend dozens of years drawing nothing else than anthros but then again, is there really a good reason for doing so? At some point you might be able to perfectly draw and color some sexy anthros but instead you could also focus on a much broader field which would mean you wouldn't only be able to draw anthros.

Conclusion: I feel that I've done enough in this area for now and instead I should start working on the areas in which I really need to improve. I'm starting to get a little annoyed by drawing anthros and the fact that people here seem to think that a picture is only good if it's more about yiffing than about being a good-looking picture. I know that this is what FA mainly is about but... somehow it's really starting to annoy me. Thus, I'll stop commenting on or faving pictures which I feel only serve the purpose of containing yiff or pr0n and nothing else. There's already enough of that type of stuff around and I'm honestly getting tired of it. No matter how many hundreds of favs those pictures get, it's basically all the same.

I'm sorry for not having replied to anyones comments, notes or artwork during the last few weeks, gonna catch up on that as soon as I'm back again before leaving this place for good at some point later this year.


umm, sorry for my bad english.



Tradelist:

1. Pipkin - Working on sketch (and really looking forward to see what Pipkin's version of my egyptian kitty looks like ^^)

2. Karakina (gonna reply to note)
3. Kurosa (gonna reply to note)
4. Dago (gonna reply to note)
5. Purpleweeble (gonna reply to note)
6. Scappo
7. Korrok
8. RevanKitty (gonna reply to note)


Greetings to the following FA-Users (in alphabetical order):

Aelius, AirGuiTaR, AriChan, ArtemisVulpes, Aure, Auric, Bagheera, BenAnderson, Bigwolfbebad, BlueVon, Calorath, Chrisdragon, CJWolf, Cunjo, Daddyfox, Dago, DarkTorst, Darkwolfe, DemonWolf, Dragonrider1227, Edge, Emerson, EosFoxx, Evol, fatpanda, FenrirB, Fio, Foux, FoxOfTheNight Goldenrod, gul-munthos, HealingBlight, HexicDash, iPoke, Jazz, Karakina, Kasedries, kemonolove, Korrok, Kurosa, Lightbulby, Lizkay, M-Fox, Malachi, Malti, OliverFOX, opalweasel, orena, Pax_Dragonfire, Pipkin, purpleweeble, Ravewolf, RevanKitty, Rhari, Robat, Ruki, Runhurd, Ryzer, sanate, Scappo, Sherbniz, Skia, SpiritCreations, suzidragonlady, Syah, The GM, Vilani, was1, zenmigawa

[let me know if I accidentally forgot you ;)]

A list of people I'm currently doing trades with or who still wanna do a trade with me ;) Please keep in mind that it might take some time before I'm actually able to start with the trade as I'm quite busy in my RL with finding a job...

1. Pipkin - Working on sketch (see WIPs)
2. Karakina
3. Kurosa
4. Dago
5. Purpleweeble
6. Scappo

send me a message in case you think I forgot somebody... And as I mentioned before, I won't leave before I'm not done with all trades and WIPs...

---

For some reason I have a heck of a lot of WIPs in my gallery which I still intend to finish at some point.

1. "Kitty Eyes" - Sketch is still too rough
2. "Kitty Eyes 2" - Sketch is even too sketchy to be called a sketch :3
3. "Touch Me" - Still needs a lot of work
4. "Ripped Apart" - I don't know...
5. Trade with Pipkin
6. "Girls Posing" - I wanna color this one at some point...