Aqua Comic Update: I have three more finished pages to upload. I had three pages sketched, but I decided to redo those. What I don't want is my story to drag on or be filled with too much fluff.

Hello all!

In light of the COVID-19 era which is basically keeping me homebound, I thought about what I wanted to do from the comfort at home.

One of these things is to learn to create videos! Yay! I'm always amazed at the various channels I watch and how fellow furs create some great stuff, and I'd like to attempt this. This will take time as I need to learn how to create a video and gather the necessary equipment and software.

So this is where you guys can help!
1. What webcam and microphone do you use?
2. What video editing software do you use?
3. Any advice for a total video newbie?

I'll be happy for any and all advice you can give!

So progress update time: What do you think of my art? I can see major improvements since starting in 2012, but are there some really glaring anatomy mistakes that I'm not seeing? Always looking to improve what I do and make it the best possible!

~Art

Here's to 2020! My this year be healthy, happy, and productive!

And OwO! What's this? A new FA layout?

Actually...I like it. This reminds me of DeviantArt's Eclipse layout or Furrific's design. Yes, all layout changes will take time to master, but I'll roll with it.

Wishing you all a Safe and Happy Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!
And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for Favoriting my art and/ or Watching me! I love drawing, and I love seeing others interested in my passion, too!

I hope 2020 will be just as happy and productive as this year.

Hello all!

I'll be at Furpocalypse October 24th through the 28th having fun attending panels, fursuiting, checking out the Dealer's dungeon, and meeting any of you who are planning to attend.

For this reason, I won't be uploading anything until November 3rd at the earliest. But rest assured, more art ideas will be arriving soon!

So ends a wonderful series, one I enjoyed over these 9 seasons, inspired me to draw, and taught me more about friendship than any show did. This series had an amazing animation, fantastic diverse characters, a plot line that ran throughout the entire series, and awesome music!

Farewell My Little Pony Frienship is Magic! Thanks to all the writers, animators, and voice actors who put their heart, soul, mind and creativity into the show. And thanks to all the members of the brony fandom who also shared their love of the series!

I don't usually follow horoscopes like they're an omen of things to come, but this one found in the local newspaper really hit home.

"Take pride in what you do. Don't feel you have to appease others when doing your own thing will bring the highest return."

Well my Wacom tablet bit the dust! I had it for over 9 years, so I'm not surprised. I ordered a new Wacom, but it will take a week or so to ship. Then it's back to more art!

Had a great time at Furrydelphia! From the panels and shows to the dealers and the wonderful furs I met,it was a blast. This marked a milestone for me as it was my first ever time in a fursuit! Yay! If you're reading this and went to the convention, give me a shout!

1. Where am I going? - Furrydelphia
2. Where is the con? - Valley Force Casino and Convention Center, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
3. When will be there? - August 16th through 18th.
4. What will I be doing? - Meeting furs, doing some sketches, attending panels, getting commissions, and debuting my two new fursuits!
5. Will I be fursuiting? - Yes!
6. Hellos? - Yes!
7. Hugs? - Sure!
8. Draw my characters? Sure! Just give me credit.

Back from Vacation!

Future Projects:
1. Continuing the Art in Avalice series.
2. A series explaining Aquamarine's origins.
3. A series of Art Vulpine's origins.
4. More Lysa Skye in Zootopia art.
5. More Freedom Planet art!
6. Possibly a new furry character?

More ideas might appear if the Muse strikes or my mind is active.

Hello all!
I'll be on a week-long hiatus from July 28th until August 3rd. Fear not, I have lots of art to draw after that!

~Art Vulpine

Hello all!

It's convention time! Yay! So, here's a little guide to the future events I'll be attending!

Furrydelphia 2019 (August 16 through 18)

Where will you be?
Here, there, and everywhere!

What day are you getting there?
Thursday evening

Who will you be with?
Myself, but hopefully i'll see some familiar faces along the way!

Do you do trades?
I'm generally willing to work on art trades at the Zoo.

Do you do commissions?
Not right now, but this might change.

What are your limits to drawing?
I don't draw explicit adult/fetish art. Anything else is fair game.

Can I give you lots of money?
Hey, Furrydelphia is at a casino this year soooo.....

Gender/Pronouns?
He (Male)

Can I talk to you?
Yes. I am generally quite chatty.

Will I be fursuiting?
Yes. This year I'll be debuting two suits. First, my fursona, Art and second, VEX!

Other cons I will be going to in 2019
Furpocalypse Cromwell CT - October 24th through 26th.

See you there!

Sometimes I wonder about Fur Affinity, especially what fellow furs are looking for here.

Now, as I said before, I'm not a professional artist in that drawing is my livelihood and I don't go from con to con selling my art or doing commissions for others (although maybe one day I'd like to try commissions). Still, I try to do my best and put quality over quantity.

When I get others favoriting my art, it means that I am on the right track in improving my art (because after all art is a continuous improvement). I also look at how my art is doing in terms of favorites here when compared to my other site I'm on: Deviant Art.

Now Deviant Art has a much larger user base due to the site featuring more that furry art. The downside is that art on Deviant Art can get lost in the crowd more easily due to the tons of content pouring in. Interestingly enough, for a non-furry specific site, I get three times more favorites there than here!

So why is that? After all, one would think that they would get more response from a furry site if they are posting furry art, right? But I think it comes down to something else: content, specifically adult content. Now we can dance around or try to deny the issue, but FA is clearly marketed as an adult furry site. One has to simple log in to see this as true. But being an adult art site, is there a place for clean art here? Or is it's reputation as an adult site put tame art in the background?

Now please don't think this is me complaining about not being famous or that I am saying the cringe worthy credo, "Draw Furry Porn = Get Famous." This is merely an insight into this site and what furs expect to see and favorite when they log in here. I will still be posting art here no matter what, and no amount or lack of amount of favorites or watches is going to change that.

Watched How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. This movie was the perfect finale to the HTTYD trilogy. The characters were still amazing, the animation top notch, and the new characters pretty good. My only issue is the villain, Grimmel. Ok, so the give him a little backstory as to why he wants to harass Hiccup and the dragons, but mostly he's another "I'm evil because why not?" cliches. I really wish that writers for children's movies would stop this. Kids understand far more than some give them credit, and they can understand reasoning behind actions. I'm not saying try to sympathize with every bad guy, just make more plot to explain! Still The Hidden World is a great story and definitely worth a watch!

Hello all!

I recently treated myself by ordering two furry-related books off Amazon. So, here is my review!

#1- Furries Among Us 2 by Thurston Howl - I read earlier last year the first book by Thurston Howl and found it very interesting. Basically, both books are broken up into ten or so short stories about the fandom. These range from artists, writers, fursuiters, con goers, and the fandom as a whole. This book in particular covers topics like Transformation, Furries in a Science Fiction setting, a history of furry publishing companies, and a survey on whether furry should be classified as a genre or a fandom. This book and the first incarnation should have something to please any furry!

#2 Furry Nation: The True Story of America's Most Understood Culture by Joe Strike - This is a very good book to read, not only for furs just discovering the fandom but also long time veterans. It outlines the origins of the fandom both online and at science fiction conventions, goes through the creation of furry conventions, and even covers some of the darker moments of the fandom. As someone who was not there in the beginning of the fandom having joined in 2008, it was a very eye-opening experience. Definitely worth a read!

So there you have it! If you have any furry-related books you think are interesting, let me know in the comments below!

Hello all!

Looking back on my 14 years in this fandom, I think about how characters evolve over time, just as we grow and change over time. This could definitely be said for my fursona, Art Vulpine. So, let's take a look at his evolution.

At first in 2011 when I just started drawing Art really didn't have a back story. He was simply just me. Then came Art 1.5, in 2012 which was the same concept but with the added feature of Art possessing a giant magic paint brush that with it he could create anything. This form lasted until recently. In 2018, I gave Art a big update by making him a kitsune and actually thinking of a story for him. You saw some of the new art featuring his new form, culminating in the new logo design for Art!

So now we're at Art 2.0, which I will reveal more of his story in 2019.

Wishing all you Furs a safe and happy Holidays and a happy New Year@!

Wishing all you furs from the USA a Happy Thanksgiving!

Rest in Peace, Stan Lee. I just saw the news that he passed away at 95. He inspired many with his comic book creations from the Avengers to the X-Men to Spiderman. His absence will be felt for a while. Excelsior, sir.

Hello all! Well, we made it to the end of the artistic journey.

We sketched our art, scanned and uploaded it, brought up our art program and inked over it, colored the base tone, and shaded. Now comes the final touches. This means adding text if your art is accompanied by a story or even is like a comic or manga. This also can be adding action lines, wrinkles in clothing, or cleaning up any stray lines. Basically this is your last time to polish your work. Don't be afraid to zoom into your work to see it on another level.

Once you are done, Save one last time (you should be saving as you go by the way just in case there is a glitch/ power outage). Now for art programs like Medibang, their mpg file does not work with art sites such as this one. So you need to select Save as and choose a new extension. Typically art files come in three extensions: Jpg, Gif, or Png. Gif is used mostly for animations. Jpg while viable at least to me often seems grainy and less clear that the one I always choose which is Png.

So now that you finished your art, it's time to upload it if you want. Be sure to give it a title, age rating, a description and tags. Some places will ask to classify it by art type as well.

Now for some final notes:

Save often! Nothing is more annoying as an artist than working on a project only to have your computer glitch or your power go out erasing all your work. So save often and even in multiple places like a portable hard drive.
If you run into an artist's block, look at references online or just try sketching.
Look for room to improve but don't beat yourself up with your art.
Accept positive criticism, but don't listen to those who harshly judge you or are there to troll you.
And above all, Practice!
Thanks for reading this insight into my art. I hope to post more about my inspirations and art journey!

Hello all!

This is Part 4 of my series of how I draw. For this part, I'm going to focus on coloring and shading.

Firstly, I often bring up another file when I need to get the coloring just right. This is especially true for my characters or fan art. For human characters, I have a handy skin tone chart that allows me to get the tones correct.

I start with the base coloring, using the Dropper tool to extract a certain color for the skin or from one of my characters. Then I apply the base coat using the Fill tool or the Pen tool, starting with the character's skin or fur color and then moving on to the hair, eye color, and clothes.

Then I create the shading by first adjusting the base colors a few shades darker. Then I do some blocking where I use the pencil tool to create the spaces where the shading will go before filling in the spaces with either the Fill tool of pen tool.

After the character has been finished, I do the same thing above for the background, starting with the base coloring and then doing the shading.

And there you have it! Next I will explain the final steps to creating art and some notes. Stay tuned!

Hello all! Art Vulpine here with the third installment of my tutorial into how I draw.

Today we made it the digital phase of drawing, starting now with inking. Now, because I scanned the sketch over to my computer, I now need to clean it up.
To do so, I first bring up my art program I use, which currently is MediBan Paint Pro, a free Japanese based art program. This program works fairly easy with what I'm drawing. As for my art tablet, I currently use a Wacom Bamboo Create.
Then I load the sketch I'm about to finish and immediately create a Layer above the sketch Layer and Save it as an MDP file.
So the structure of Layers looks like this:

Ink Layer
Base (Sketch) Layer

I then select the Brush to a 5 as this is as thing as a 0.7 mechanical pencil and begin to trace over the sketch. If I felt comfortable just drawing on my art program, I could honestly skip this phase, but right now I need this extra step in the process. I doesn't take too long and it acts as a second opportunity to check for any glaring errors.

Once the tracing of the character and background has been completed, I Save and delete the Sketch Layer, giving me just one Layer, the Ink one. Here I add any details to the character before heading to the next phase.

Now, if I need to add more to the background, or I haven't yet created one, I create a Layer for the Background and draw the background. The Layer layout now looks like this:

Ink Layer
Background Layer

Next time, I will show you the next part: Coloring and Shading. Stay tuned!