Figured with the recent migration to another social media site, I should post my own page:

https://bsky.app/profile/cardinalfsr.bsky.social

In other news, I'm working on a fursuit of Shred! I'll probably be posting some WIPs of the process as I go along. I don't have a strict completion date since I want to take the time to remember how to do everything, but I'm aiming for around March at the latest.

I'm finally going to a con! Hopefully everything goes okay...

I'll be out for the rest of the month btw, but when I return, expect more art! I'm hoping to get some new ideas while I'm there.

I've recently made a Twitter for my NSFW Art: https://twitter.com/SanguineHare

It's pretty bare right now, but I'll be uploading stuff from my gallery there as well, as well as future NSFW submissions.
My regular Twitter will be for SFW art and the like.

If you don't care for Twitter, I will of course be uploading everything I do here still.

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these.

This last year’s been pretty rough and I’ve been dealing with a lot of stuff lately. That said, I would like to start focusing more on my artwork, namely because I’ve realized a fundamental issue with how I end up creating things. I’ve been suspecting I have OCD for some time since I’m more obsessed with creating art the “correct” way rather than at all, and this has led to a good deal of inner turmoil and plenty of days, weeks, and months of just agonizing over finding the “right time” to do things. Well, I’m starting to get really fed up with this part of myself, and I feel like not only for my own sake but also the sake of my friends I need to actually start doing the things I want to do instead of just saying I’m going to do them.

This has been both helped and hindered by a recent endeavor to collect references of where exactly I want my art to go. I still feel amateurish after all this time of being on this site, and I want to improve, but I have to know what I want to go for. I feel like I’ve made at least some progress through just observing how other artists depict things, but of course, I’d like to implement them as well.

There has been a bit of a complicating factor in that there are a lot of different types of content I’d like to do, from serious pieces, abstract designs, and incredibly self-indulgent works. I don’t really want to make a bunch of FA accounts that I have to manage, so for the time being I’ll just be uploading stuff here. There’s a possibility I might also make an 18+ Twitter for my more explicit things, since at the moment my Twitter is SFW only.

(And don’t worry, I have no intentions of only using Twitter as my art hub – I have a lot to say on that matter, but that will be for another time.)

Ultimately, I’m going to get to surpass this mental hurdle of having to do a bunch of ridiculous shit just to accomplish things I want to do. But goddamn, is it hard to do when your brain tells you that you have to clean your entire room just to draw a picture of a hare.

Hey so a few things have happened in my life since last journal.

I've moved to Tennessee (my sort-of home state) to a city considerably smaller than Tucson, but still has a fair amount of stuff to do. This is mostly due to a bunch of bullshit that happened over the course of the past few years and a reminder that I really need to figure out what I want to do with my life.

Otherwise I've been thinking about how I want to improve my art and other creative endeavors.

I don't know where things are gonna go from here, but I hope they get better.

Hey, been going through a few things. A rather prevalent family issue that's been going on for a few years has reached a boiling point and there's a chance things are gonna suck for a while, but I'm going to try to roll with it and use it as a force to inspire myself to do better. Granted, I am someone who does not like sudden, life-changing events, and I'm still trying to work myself out of the worldview of "this is hopeless so why should I try", when trying just a little bit has made a lot of things much more tolerable.

At the same time I've recognized something of a deep-seated fear I've had since I graduated uni, in that I'm horrified of the prospect of things in my life being lost or forgotten. I've been rigorously keeping a journal for a bit more than a year now and it's been nice actually being able to recall my past excursions from it. But sometimes it feels like the more stuff I introduce into my life, the more I worry about losing. That may be a very human thing to deal with or maybe I'm just incredibly stubborn in some regards. I do think this is probably my biggest hurdle to overcome. It's kinda strange to have to worry about something very abstract instead of something more grounded like, a relationship, a career, a family member, a tragedy of untold breadth, etc. But I kinda feel like I have to take care of that big question before I can make that jump.

In another topic, I've been drawing a lot more explicit artwork lately, which is something of an evolution on an earlier perspective I had where I was very standoffish about opening up about things. I've read a few articles on the matter and I'm trying to draw more self-indulgent stuff, but I've also connected with more people lately that have similar perspectives and listening to them made me think of art in a different way, in that in can be a window for others to not only look into your psyche, but allow them to see what's inside them as well. And I think that's pretty inspiring! And it's just nice to get it out there that there's things that interest me and I don't have to worry about some dorko mouthbreather including me in a cringe compilation somewhere.

So you'll probably be expecting more from me soon, although the topics might change a bit. I think one goal I want to achieve is sort of a consolidation of the Ego, Superego, and Id, in like a "Grand scope reason meets base desires meets personal flair" kinda way? I'll work it out.

Anime.

Hey, haven't posted a journal in like years. I'm still doing stuff, just haven't really gotten around to posting much, but I'll try to keep things updated.

I set up a Twitter here: https://twitter.com/CardinalFsr if you want to follow it.

This is a weird thing for me to write about, but I’ve been thinking about what character of mine I’d call my fursona. Originally I conceived Rigel to be it, but I’ve come to really enjoy Pastel. He’s a very simple character to draw, I think he has a lot of expression to him, and I’m kind of warming up the idea of “yes, this is the character that I want to represent me”. I’ve had trouble sticking with a character I think to due fickleness, but there’s something about that bunny that I just can’t turn away from.

At first, I wasn’t sure why that was. I mean, I like simplistic characters, the concept was something I wanted to try for a while, and it’s a fun design, but I’ve tried things like that out before and they didn’t exactly click. I don’t think it has anything to do with me finding out that I’m probably not entirely straight either, although that might’ve pushed me to actually think about it more. I’m thinking Pastel is more like an expression of liberation, or courage, or something. Like he’s sort of a representation of me overcoming a lot of the fears I had when I started liking furry stuff and making fursuits more openly. For example, when I was a kid, I was really scared of being weird or gay, and I tried to hide some of the things that suggested that to fit in (didn’t really work because I still liked anime and video games and people still called me a faggot). In retrospect, middle school sucked dick. Fuck that shit; I’ve never done worse academically or emotionally in my whole life.

Uh, but anyway, another thing is that I’ve genuinely felt happiness whenever I get art done of Pastel, and I don’t think I’ve felt that for other characters. I mean, I enjoy the work no matter what, but there’s just something about getting artwork done of a flamboyant pink rabbit that tugs my heartstrings. And I know that sounds silly, but it’s probably related to the reason I begin crying tears of joy whenever I see beautiful landscapes.

Thinking about it more, I’d say Rigel is more of a furry version of me, whereas Pastel is a representation of things I’d like to be…in a way. Pastel has to do more with confidence, keeping a positive attitude, finding joy in the little things, but also building upon my own interests as well and not being afraid to try new things. I think that’s why I get a lot of commissions of him wearing dresses and stuff too, although that’s probably both a matter of cuteness and an expression of not being afraid. I might draw out some small art pieces as well to express it better.

In any case, I think I’m sticking with the bun.

Sorry if this comes off as somewhat disjointed, but I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts about this for a while.

So I finally ended up graduating and now have two degrees technically (a Bachelor's and Associate's in related fields), and my birthday's coming up in a few days. After waiting to get my degree and get a nice suit for an interview, I've been looking for a job somewhere. Problem is, I have no idea if what I'm doing is right and if I'm supposed to just be waiting forever to hear back from places. This seems needlessly convoluted and I'm wondering how society has made it this far using this method, the job/experience paradox notwithstanding. I'm a little worried this is going to take a long time, and I've been feeling kind of worthless as a result, even though I did really well in school. Any advice?

Hey, wanted to give some updates.

So, this year has been pretty busy so far. I’m almost done with school – one more class to go before I get my Bachelor’s, and then I’ll be hunting for a job. I’m hoping my lack of formal experience is kind of offset by the two degrees I’ll have by that point. I was kind of hoping to do some volunteer work but I couldn’t find anywhere close to home to participate in.

I do think it’s a little weird for someone as old as me (25) to still be living at my parent’s house, but I’ll have to stay a while longer so I can save up for a down payment. I’m very stringent about getting a house; an apartment is completely out of the question for me. It’s kind of a weird complex I have, basically when I was young our family moved and we had to stay at an apartment complex for a few months as we waited for the house to be ready, and I just despised it there. Some of my friends have had alright experiences with living in duplexes but they’ve talked about having home inspectors come in and the thought of that happening to me is very upsetting. Really, I think at this point I just want a place I can call my own.

This also extends to fursuit making, since I’m waiting for this place so I can finally have control over the space I live in. I’m tired of making suits in my room, which ain’t all that big, and I have to allocate space for fabric in my closet. It’s been somewhat beneficial in a way, I’ve learned a lot of space-saving techniques and to cut down on junk I don’t need. At times I’ve had issues with “reverse hoarding” where I’ll just leave stuff I don’t want around the house or put it in a pile to take to Goodwill or something. My plan is basically have a place to sleep and a place to work; maybe work in kind of a game room or study. I’m planning on living the bachelor life for a few years, so I’ll see if the life of solitude is for me or not, but I might end up testing the waters once I’ve spent a few years establishing my career.

Speaking of that, earlier this year I think I learned I might be bisexual. I’ll spare you the details, but I was with a guy for a little bit, and it was okay. I mean, I spent most of the time thinking about other things, but it was alright. I don’t know if I’d do it again for a while, since it felt like I did something bad. I don’t know how to explain it, but I was pretty confused about myself both leading up to our meet-up and afterwards. So, I don’t really know what to do about that just yet. Although it might explain why I’ve made an effeminate pink bunny character (by the way, this is probably my next suit project so look out for that).
Also I’ve been itching to draw some lately, so I might start uploading some stuff soon. I’m planning on doing like a furry comic in the future but that’s a ways ahead.

Well, I’ve finally completed a long-standing commission. Along with that sense of relief (for both parties involved), it’s nearing the end of the year and this is more of a reflection journal in regards to a number of things I've had on my mind.

First of all, I did a bit of reflection on my organizational skills and being able benchmark both how long it takes me to complete something and my skills relative to other makers. It’s a little irritating because with more artistic mediums there’s a less solid or rigid way of comparing yourself to other people. I mean, can I really expect some kind of consensus on “this is what’s expected of you from this pay threshold and skill level”, like “well, if you’re pricing this at over $1000, you need to be using X material or not use Y”. Then again this is an extremely niche market and maybe the obscurity helps paint fursuits as a luxury item, and then it becomes subjective. But back in my halcyon days some people who commissioned me years ago would wonder why I didn’t use a certain method and I’d have no idea what they were talking about, and over the years I’ve just picked up things from going to conventions and seeing other suits. So maybe it would be nice to at least give up-and-comers a guide to standard production methods.

Another issue I ran into is that I really need some kind of contingency plan because I’d keep getting shaken up by stuff, whether it be death, school stuff, harrowing loneliness, or just general dissatisfaction. One thing you should know is that I have NO designated work area in my house. My room is about 15’ by 20’, and nearly half that’s taken up by my computer area and bed. So all of my materials are stored in my closet, my sewing machines are in the bookcase, and I have a mess of shelves. So every time I want to work on something, I have to pretty much tear my room apart or put my furniture out in the living room. So, I’ve decided to not really take on too complex projects until I can get a bigger place to work, or if I can find a better way to incorporate it into my available space. That might take a while, though. So either it’s finding out what to do with all of my stuff, or just waiting to get a place of my own (with a rumpus room or something where I can work in piece without having to worry about getting fur all over my keyboard).

Onto the topic of my artwork. While my suit skills are pretty good, my actual drawing ability could be better. Now, I actually do have a 13” Wacom Cintiq which I use for website drafting or Photoshop, and I’ve drawn a few things on it. So while it’s a powerful tool, I’m going to need to figure out how to have it help me foster my abilities (and I still do plenty of pencil and paper stuff). The size is nice too because I can take it with me while on conventions or vacations. If you’re thinking of getting one, they’re very well made products... just watch out for the cord getting frayed. But the on-device display is stunning and everything feels solid.

Also during this year I’ve came up with a few new characters. One of my big projects for this year was to hopefully complete the second version of my Jones character – but after numerous setbacks and just not being happy with the end product, I kept putting it on hold. So, that led me to come up with Project Simplicity: a character that had an extremely simple to build design that still looked good. The purpose behind this is to have a well-made suit to “fallback” on if more ambitious projects go sour. This was how I came up with Rigel’s design, and that same principle led me to the designs of the other two. Following is a bit of breakdown behind them and their significance.

Rigel: This guy is going to be my “main” fursona – like the one that describes me. I feel a little silly having a fox fursona given their prominence, but usually how I’ll design characters is I’ll be shopping for fur and see something I really like that I can use, and I’ll find a way to incorporate that into a costume. In his case, I found this really nice gray fur at SAS Fabrics (a local fabric store that has a changing stock). And you might be thinking “well, why do you have to make a suit out of your characters?” To which I respond that it seems “pointless” if I don’t at least consider that. If the character doesn’t have the potential to “live”, what’s the point in having it then? Like I’ll see designs that have all these patterns, and while it looks cool, I gotta imagine how much of a pain it would be for an artist to replicate that, or a fursuit maker struggling to find three shades of gray. Personally, keeping your design to main 2-3 colors is the best (black and white go with pretty much everything though).

Theta: This character is a bit ambitious because I want to experiment with body shape and make a kind of chubby character. I’m pretty thin, so it’ll be fun trying to come up with a way to manipulate my size. The character herself is actually a furry version of a character I’ve had thought up for a few years now named Teresa – who is a young woman with a hot head and the power to “instantaneously sublimate”, and she travels with a ragtag group of friends to defeat the evil National Welfare Foundry. But that is for another day. One thing I’ve had happen with making femsuits is that sometimes I’ll feel really uncomfortable with wearing something that has a feminine figure. No idea why, you think being fine with looking like a big dang animal would be enough.

Pastel: This guy came about when I wanted to use some spare fur and to create an even simpler design for Project Simplicity. I’ve actually always wanted a pink rabbit suit, so this worked for me. Now Pastel is a bit of a strange thing because as you can see from my favorites I tend to commission more “risqué” things featuring him. I’ll get to why that is in a bit. As for why he’s a rabbit, my friend Chim draws a lot of good rabbits so I was inspired in part by his characters.

So regarding Pastel, it’s worth noting earlier this year I had a bit of an intimate experience with another guy. It wasn’t anything serious (like, I never left Home) and I still don’t know how I feel about it, although when we started cuddling I was more interested in watching what was happening on TV (the Steven Universe episode where Sugilite first appears). For a while I’ve struggled with not knowing what I’m into. I actually desire having a traditional family for stability reasons, but I’ve noticed that I’m a bit more into gay stuff. It’s weird, like I might like both girls and boys but for different reasons, and I do find different parts about them attractive. So maybe Pastel’s a way for me to get more comfortable with my sexuality, in a way, since he was designed to be very effeminate.

The last thing I’d like to get out there is if any of you got questions about what I know about fursuiting, let me know and I’ll try to help. I don’t want anyone else going through the stupid blind guessing I had to do, or at least more than you end up having to.

There's a new website made by a few friends (and me by a little bit) that's recently launched. The site currently sells T-shirts with cool designs, but we might be expanding later on. Anyway, we could use a signal boost if you're interested!

Here's some links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChimConspiracy
FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/chi.....eraconspiracy/
Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~chimaeraconspiracy

So on this "Holy Day" I would like to give an update.

Been thinking about integrating myself within more communities / networking, but I still feel that I don't really have a solid "artistic foundation" I can get behind. I'm going to try practicing more in the coming months. I've also come up with some character concepts I'd like to play around with or make into costumes. I have this personal philosophy that an idea becomes more substantial if there's an actual physical representation of it. Maybe I'm just a materialistic person? In any case, I'd like to design some interesting characters once I feel more confident.

I haven't been able to get a lot of work done lately as school's been getting in the way (although I've gotten most of my work done and from now on the class load will be less severe). Also as I mentioned before my grandmother passed away on April 7th which caused a big stir in my family. I was hoping I would have Jones done by today but I guess the fates did not will it. In any case, I'll probably have him done in time for Furlandia, with my other projects being completed around May-June.I'm still kind of bummed out since I saw her slowly get worse with my dad mentioning how she would overreact to small changes when she was in assisted living.

I'm also working with a few of my friends on a merchanting website that'll hopefully be successful. We all have kind of a mesh of skills (although I'm not too confident in mine) to develop the website, and we'll be offering not only my fursuit services but also art designs and maybe even other things as well. The concept is still pretty fluid at the moment but I think we'll be able to figure everything out, even if some of the technology we'll be using seems a little intimidating.

Anyway, have a happy Dank Week!

So I got back from RF 2014 and here's what happened.

* Went with  chimaera and  ragscoon for the trip. None of us could get a room for the convention since we kind of underestimated how big RF was, so they ended up rooming with another group (although they eventually got a room at a different motel since their circumstances were a bit too noisy) and I got a room at an inn not too far from the convention. We had to think about things a little differently this time.
* Since none of us had a room, it prompted us to go to more panels than we normally would have, and we had a more eventful time as a result.
* However, we didn't suit as much as we wanted too.
* Discussed an upcoming comic the three of us are working on.
* The parade AKA Daft Punk Daft Punk Daft Punk.
* Denny's is a really mediocre restaurant.

Here's a little pro-con list:

+ Really big and lots of stuff to do.
+ Panels were pretty interesting and the dance competition and variety show were entertaining.
+ Convention center was pretty big.
+ Lots of vendors.
+ No babyshow panels! A first for me, good on you RF.

- So big that the hotel easily filled up, making travel and suiting difficult.
- Too many "babies”.
- Convention center was somewhat inaccessible so you either had to walk up a bunch of stairs or take an elevator.

(-) Pretty unrelated, but on the way back home some TSA agent made fun of my bendy legs* when I went into the 1984 privacy eliminator at the airport. Shithead, my body ain't there to please you and your stupid machine, and it certainly isn't "messed up". Mom was pretty pissed about that too, but we had a flight to catch.

Thinking about it, this was a weird mix of good and bad situations, but overall I had a good time...don't know if I would really go AGAIN to the same hotel, though.

* I have a slight physical condition where my knees stick out a bit so it looks like I'm slouching. I can straighten them out a bit to where they're kind of normal but it's somewhat uncomfortable (you might notice this in some of my fursuit pictures; I'm not actually slightly kneeling down in them.) I got shit for it back in middle school a lot so it wasn't that fun to have old wounds reopened, even if they did get me out of many semesters of PE.

---

So anyway, during the convention I did a lot of thinking about various things that I'm going to try to be working on.

One of them was after I got some sweet badges of my character Davide, I thought about having a "main" character like a lot of other people in this fandom. I mean, I really like Davide but I don't want to neglect other characters like Alga and Jones. So I think I'll have each of my characters represent a part of me, like Davide is symbolic of me liking to explore new things, Jones is sort of representative of my ideals, and Alga is like my collective tendencies. Sounds a little weird and pedantic, I know, but I don't think I can narrow myself down to a single thing, so why should I do the same with my characters (even if I do have like 20 of them)? Plus it's fun to try to emulate or exaggerate a part of myself and portray a number of different characters. It's probably easier to do this than have to have a "species change" or whatever. I also think that my capability to actually create the characters influences that, too.

Another big thing that gave me a lot of inspiration was going to an "Advanced Fursuiting" panel, by Razzy-Lee, I think. While most of it was just review for me, I've been thinking about the "industry standard" of suit making. While there are a lot of resources online, there's no singular list concerning guidelines to follow, and it's made me think about the quality of materials and tools I use. Like, for example, for a long time I used a DTD of my head (protip: don't do this, it is a very dumb idea) as a headbase, and I only just recently got an actual head armature for my birthday. And that's not counting the long time I've done without a serger / sewing machine (both of which I've acquired and use regularly), although those are obviously very nice things to have when working with fabric.

The experience at being at a big convention has really given me a lot of ideas that I want to implement in future costumes (and probably the ones I am working on right now). I've learned a few new tricks but I'll need to test out them to make sure they hold up and don't look cheap. The big issue that I'm facing is that I do not get a lot of exposure to new costumes and styles, so it's hard to get new sources of inspiration from them and learn what exactly the “standard” of the community is. Unfortunately, I doubt there will be a concise set of guidelines for things like standards of quality, materials, production techniques, materials needed, etc. Something like that might be intimidating for those entering the scene, but having something like that would be a boon to anyone looking to go pro.

Honestly, at this point, I really want to finish what I'm working on so I can focus on perfecting my building techniques and figuring out a simple but effective way to make fursuits and fursuit accessories, that reason being one of many why it’s taken me a considerably longer amount of time to get my current projects turned over. Another big issue I'm facing is that my entire production assembly is located within my room. My closet is entirely dedicated to storing materials (and my personal suits) and it really limits the amount of things I can keep in here. So maybe I have to face up and say that I'm not going to be able to significantly expand my creative abilities until I get a place of my own, which won't be for a while (No formal job, and I have a weird phobia of apartment buildings). And there's also other things I gotta worry about like finishing school, raising my puppies, dealing with family happenings, and furthermore. I hate the feeling of being limited a lot, but for right now I might just need to be patient and wait for my time to shine. Until then, I'll take things slowly. Not much one man can accomplish out of a ~200 square foot room...well, there IS, but I like a more "open floor" environment.

In addition to that I'm also going to focus more on my art. I usually don't draw much since I think my drawings just look really flat and uninteresting, but I want to have a style that focuses on dynamic poses and defined features, like having everything stand out and be sharp and colorful. Might have to give Illustrator a go sometime since it's a good vector-based software, which could work better for some illustrating styles.

So, right now I'm going to be focusing on refining my skills and bringing them up to a professional level, while looking for a way to be up-to-date on what is considered "standard" in the community. I'll try to be drawing more often, since I want to give more exposure and personality to my characters.

Apparently I was featured on a video and that explains why I've gotten a few new watches lately. Weird, I didn't think my fursuits were all that good (although I am getting better, I think).

Anyway I'll be uploading a few new project ideas soon for 2015, namely Jones 2.0 and some new characters.

In personal news, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my personal values and where I want to go with my life. It's taking a while to do so I might have to accept that it's not something one can just decide on overnight, but it's important to me that I try to get a concrete idea down.

God all 4 of my wisdom teeth out today. I feel woozy and like shit but it could've been a lot worse. God that anesthesia stuff knocks ya the fuck out into la-la-land.

Got some painkillers but I'm surprisingly coherent right now. At least I get to eat my favorite foods for a bit. Once I'm not bleeding everywhere I'll get cracking on the things that need to be done.

Met up with  chimaera  ragscoon  homelesstaco

What went down:

- Met with Taco / Grube for the first time. He was pretty cool.

- Played Cards Against Humanity with some other guys. But there was a whole lot of guy huggin' and kissin' and it kind of slowed the game down.

- Got kind of drunk for the first time. I think I like rum a lot but it's some potent stuff.

- Debuted my new personal suit, Davide. A lot of people seemed to like him, which makes me happy. I'll be using what I learned on the remainder of what I need to do on commissions and on Jones 2-point-'dro.

- Saw some sarcastic panel with this dude called Sephy or something and he had this really weird voice.

- Went to the fursuit dance for the first time ever. It was pretty silly, and that Sephy guy was dancing in his underwear with Grube. Gee.

- Saw this variety show which was alright up until this weird dude started enacting this really awkward rendition of Don Quixote for some strange reason. I really didn't like that part. But that one guy who danced to Michael Jackson was fun to watch.

- Oh man, there are some old dudes in those suits, wow.

- Did the fursuit games for the first time as well and I got to pretend to be George Bush for a bit.

- Visited Portland itself. Really nice city with a ton of cool places, but SO many bums. And things changed a whole lot but for the most part everyone was pretty nice, even if on every third street there seemed to be people of African descent yelling at each other or panhandling us, or guys rapping to themselves. It was certainly a weird experience in which I was both amazed and intimidated.

- Held back my urge to make fun of people who like My Tiny Donkey. It's hard, but I know that one day they will break free of dark influences, and I must remain vigilant until then. It seems that the really obnoxious ones never leave home anyway.

- Got a couple of pieces from  jirris in the Dealer's Den. Really good artist and he helped take a few pictures of my suit.

In any case, Furlandia was a surprisingly fun, tiny convention. I'll try to go next year if I can afford it.

Hope the spirit of Jesus and King Selassie give you good tidings for the remainder of the year. Would've done a Jones picture but I am currently working on making an updated version of the suit, which will hopefully be done by next 4-20.

I've decided to make a plan to get all of my things in order. I've fallen behind on a few things so I hope to get them done soon.

This year I am going to try to work on my apprehensiveness in regards to doing new things. I feel I could be better if I took the time to try new things and not worry if I mess up or not. Even after all this time I still feel my artistic skills are sub-par and I really want to get better at making something that really stands out.

A big issue with me is that I don't take action if I don't have a plan or written decree of whatever I'm going to do, and that's led me to try out numerous methods for making to-do lists and project ideas, with none of them really taking off. Hopefully I'll work something out in the near future.

Got back from Arizona Fur Con, here's what I have to think about it.

The overall presentation was good and I thought it was nicely run. It had all the basic facilities most furry conventions have but on a smaller scale. There were about 300-400 people, I'd guess, and about 120 suiters. Since it was its first time, it was pretty small so there wasn't a whole lot to do (I left early since there wasn't anything that interested me Sunday). The hotel was also kind of cramped.

So, in short:

Good:
Ran pretty well for a first convention.
Everyone seemed to be having a good time.
I would probably go next year.
Decent amount of stuff going on, although not much that actually interested me personally.
Not as many creeps as I expected (still a few people wearing the fedora/trenchcoat/may-may t-shirt combo, but what can a good weedlad do?)
Personal note: Still suited a little despite not having anyone I knew around, although it was a little lonely.

Bad:
Hotel was a little small, might want to go bigger next year, although it was enough for the amount of people that showed up.

Ugly:
Too much babyshow. (Surprisingly the babyshow rave did not feature any babyshow propaganda music) Stop watching anime donkeys and get a real job like parading around in an animal costume.
Too many drunk old dudes (i.e. More than 0)

So if AFC still goes on in 2014, I'll definitely try to make it that year as well.

Next convention I'll probably be going to is Furlandia in May 2014.

I've been thinking about turning Jones into a coyote, reasons being:

- I don't really like huskies that much, originally the point of his character was to make fun of the myriad wacky designs a few people make for their husky characters.

- Huskies don't really attribute to the whole "weed" thing he's got going for him; a coyote would make a little more sense given that they're mythological trickster heroes which fits his character a bit more.

- Already working on another character with a curly tail that is a dog.

- Fuck diabetes.

- Given that I live in the desert I'm more familiar with coyotes to begin with.

Other than a few aesthetic changes he'll still have the rasta color scheme and the pot leaf on his chest, of course.

Kidney disease...what a rotten way to die. Well, we had to put him to sleep because he was suffering too much, like not eating anything and it got to the point he couldn't even walk around.

I cried for a while (like "Breaking Bad where Gus cried when Hector shot Max in the head" crying) but I'm feeling a little better now. Still, it's a real bummer. I probably won't be able to work on anything for a while, because on top of that, I have my grandma coming over and we have to sell my other grandma's vermin-attracting house. So, just a heads-up.

I met up with  chimaera  ragscoon  swattbox  smokeemntokeemjones  qwertydragon  halprancen

Things that happened:

- We went to this comedy show by a man that is named after a number. It wasn't very funny, but only to us and a few guys in front of us. Everyone else thought it was hilarious, especially the beanie baby across the aisle that was slapping his knee.

- Smoked some dank weed. We got this kind called "Champagne" I think, and it was pretty pungent. Some of us got too toked and passed out. I didn't take too much in since I didn't take it from the pipe, but it made me feel pretty good. On Saturday we watched Shrek while high and somehow it was really boring. After experiencing it, I gotta say all this hub-bub about a little plant is way overblown. All it did was make us lazy and hungry.

- We got some squeakers and had some fun with them. But then this one girl got critical mad and nearly hit one of us because we squeaked them too much, apparently.

- Went to Cheba Hut, and it was a nice sandwich place. I'll probably try out the one in town later.

- Happy that there was not as much babyshow. Don't know if that was due to the convention being smaller or what, but certainly a boon.

- There were a lot of dogs for some reason. Like if the stink of eau de nerd wasn't bad enough. I think one of them pooped in the building.

- There was a lot of cuddling...that I wasn't involved with. Unless you count while I was dressed up like a dang animal.

- Watched more Groundedverse, which was a little more entertaining while high.

- Tried to Let's Play Common Grounds but the fucking game kept crashing or locking up. Good job, game developers, you blew it.

- Saw a few panels on fursuiting which hopefully I'll be able to implement in the future.

I recently graduated and got an Associate's Degree in Digital Arts. I'll be taking online classes from the University in the fall, and I'll hopefully be out of school by 2015.

Regarding suit projects, I'll most likely have them done by July, so look out for those. I'm also going to be practicing more with 2D art since I've been putting it off for way too long.

I now have a Tumblr page, which is http://jonesdank.tumblr.com/ . I don't plan on posting much on it at the moment, although that might change. I will probably not reblog anything not directly concerning me either. But, it's there.

Also, I'll be working on trying some new styles so that my art doesn't look so stale. I might be open for requests/commissions of that nature when I feel comfortable in my abilities.

almost three bodysuits in three days

i feel like a fucking wizard