Hey guys! I'm back from my vacation, armed with tons of rest and special kinesiology tape to help keep my wrists extra happy, and I am READY for commissions!
If you have anything you'd like from me, please leave a note with it, and I'll get to crunching numbers on what your next ideal drawn project will cost you. I'm also very hyped to draw in general, so expect tons of YCHs, some raunchy, others not that raunchy!

Also, hello new followers, I've recently seen an influx of you guys and I'm happy you all decided to follow me!

Hey guys, just so all of you know, I'm off on holiday until the 24th, so Usurped will not be updated during that time, so please keep an eye on the Tapastic page for the comic where the posts have been scheduled!

https://tapas.io/series/Usurped

Thanks everyone for your patience and understanding!

Just a reminder that I have two adoptable auctions up!

Ashy coloured Fennec Girl: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29982368/

Black Dragon Alchemist Girl: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29982386/

Both auctions end on the 11th!

As a Certified Art Goblin, I am unable to sit still, and not drawing has made me go nuts a bit.
So I decided to try my hand at painting digitally with my left hand! (I am right handed)

Now... I know how this sounds. "That's silly, you can't draw with your left hand if you're right handed, it'll look a mess!" Yeah, well, that's only partially true.

While most people easily get frustrated with drawing or writing with their non-dominant arm, I tried to look at it in a different way.

I have the mentality that my art can't look like that of a 5 year old, why? Because I'm a god-dang 23 year old who has gone to UNIVERSITY FOR ART. I HAVE DEDICATED ALMOST EVERY DAY OF THE LAST 6 YEARS OF MY LIFE TO MY CRAFT.
And as such, I already have the knowledge of colour, and anatomy, and posing, and composition. These are things that I don't have to learn any more, so my starting point is not so bad!


The ONLY thing I need to learn is how to control my left hand. It's mobile, and fully functional, it's just not very good at holding a pencil for more than 30 minutes, but that's ok! I understand that it will maybe take months for my left hand to get the level of control that my right hand has, but at this point, ya gotta work baby steps, and any improvement is good! And uhhhm yeah I started the journey yesterday, and so far?? It's actually been decent! Now... most of you will know me for my illustrated work, but I've been trying my hand at digital painting this year and there are several distinctions between these styles, and that is that... Illustration is usually super tight, and painting is much more relaxed and messy. Knowing this, I knew that I would only get frustrated at the lack of control of my left hand for any illustrated work, and I've decided instead to pursue painting!

And here are some things I've cranked out!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DvhDZ1MXgAEOLI4.jpg A portrait of my friend's D&D tiefling fighter. Not the most impressive thing, but the planes of his face are really nice.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DvgzBWoWkAAJ9Id.jpg A landscape thing?? idk, organic backgrounds are so nice to work on with this method!

I'm also currently working on a portrait of my half-elf bard and it's still in a very ugly stage.

What I want to say to y'all is that if my hand needs some extensive recuperation, then I might open.... kinda shitty left-handed digital painting commissions?? I'll need to draw my fursona as an example but yEAH THIS IS A THING.

TL;DR
I'm trying to become ambidextrous for drawing and so far my paintings don;t suck ass and I'm legit considering making them a commission option while my actual drawing hand recovers.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year to all you people out there!
It's Mid-Winter, usually kinda dark and bleary but it's the time of gift giving and eating good food, so enjoy the festivities whether you're spending it with friends, family, your cat/dog/parrot/mice or alone! And here's a well wish from me for a great 2019 for everyone!

Now.. onto some actual announcements.

My wrist is hurting badly, which is actually quite fortunate that this is happening at this time of the year, since this is a slow time for commissions. I will be taking January off for Commissions, I need to figure out how to make my hand recover and also I'm going on holiday to see my dad and family back in my home country. So uhhh, yeah! I'll be unable to take any new commission orders until february (and I desperately hope I get my wrist back to 100% or else I think there's something very wrong with it...)

I will not be changing up my commission prices, I'm quite happy with there they are, though I will be offering some more expensive YCHs from here on out, and I'll be testing some cool animation-y things too. That might take a while before I offer anything like that for commissions, but it's a work in progress!

I uhhh.. also got RPG maker MV so in my self imposed drawing ban I can keep myself entertained with something, and let me tell you, I've only been messing around with the software for 3 hours but it's a whole lot of fun! If you'd ever want games being made for like.. idk an anniversary gift for your friend/spouse/parent then I guess I'd be open to making y'all some custom game sprites/backgrounds/drawings and then put all the dialogue in. If you ever have $3000 lying around and want a small rpg then like... maybe?? hire me??

I can also try figure out how to make dating sims. I guess. Idk I'm still new I need to figure things out before I consider this seriously.

Hello everyone!
I'm just letting you know that you have until the end of the year to let me know if you have any intention of doing edits to artworks from before 2018, because I will be deleting working files (so Clip Studio, SAI and Photoshop files, not the PNGS) from before 2018 to free up space on my PC.

Bear in mind I might not already have some of the files from really far back. Also, the files are only for small edits, if you want a piece updated and changed to fit my current style, that will have to be considered a new commission.

So yeah, if you have artwork you want me to keep files of for potential edits you want me to make, please let me know.
THIS EXCLUDES LARGE PROJECTS LIKE COMICS. This only affects illustrations and ref sheets, and other images like that.

Hey guys! Some of you may have noticed that I put nice lil buttons under my comic pages for navigation, but also to go support me on Patreon or to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Art is now my full-time job, and it's a bit unfortuanate that 34% of all my earnings need to go into taxes, but such is life in some countries in Europe.
The problem is, most housing agencies want you to make around 3 times what the rent is, so a house that costs 650 euros to rent requires you to make... around 1900 to rent. And ho boy they're strict about your paperwork.
So... any support is great. Super appreciated. You don't have to, but just know that every little bit adds up, and the comfier I am... the better I'm able to work!

So here's some support links:

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/Moonlore
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/moonlore
PayPal donation link: https://paypal.me/MoonloreDraws

SO that's that. Commissions are still open, though I now only send invoices when I know your image will be complete within 20 days. I know you guys are really nice, but there are people out there who demand their money back from paypal even if the image is finished and I need to keep myself safe, so your money doesn't sit in my accounts too long.

I guess that's all for now? Possibly? I'll still update you guys on happenings, but I'll see you all later!

That's right! I'll be launching my Patreon tomorrow!

I only have 2 tiers, a tip jar, which is just a support tier, and a $3 tier where you can see all the behind the scenes work of my comics, as well as get access to any pages for my comics!

More tiers will be added as I get more familiar with Patreon and as I get more support there, currently I'm trying to juggle many things so focusing fully on Patreon is not an option, but when it becomes a more substantial source of income, you'll have access to polls, raffles, PDFS, things sent to your door (zines, stickers, prints, post cards, small originals, maybe even enamel pins when I get good at it!)

So... watch this space! If you've ever wanted to support your local Pixie Cat with her fantasy comics, that'll be an option for y'all!

Following how popular "The Kittendom of Purria" was on my social media sites, I've been asked to draw someone's pet in the style of the Kittendom for a traditional commission.

So I'd just like to know, do you guys want any traditional commissions in that style?
Package and Post from the Netherlands can vary from $10 for A6/A5 regular shipping worldwide, to $30 shipping for A4 tracked shipping worldwide.

Kittendom of Purria style:
A4 (8.27 × 11.69 inches) - $100 for coloured, $60 for inked
A5 (8.27 x 5.38 inches) - $50 coloured, $30 for inked.
A6 (5.38 x 4.13 inches) -$30, $25 for inked

Simple Traditional painting: https://twitter.com/MoonloreDraws/s.....00855093592064 , https://twitter.com/MoonloreDraws/s.....61355075170307 , https://twitter.com/MoonloreDraws/s.....61871046119424 (Can be full bodies, and a bit more detailed, but this is the general quality.)
A4 (8.27 × 11.69 inches) - $80
A5 (8.27 x 5.38 inches) - $50
A6 (5.38 x 4.13 inches) -$30

Complex Traditional Painting: https://twitter.com/MoonloreDraws/s.....68427512926208 (This isn't finished but it gives an idea of the level of detail)
A4 (8.27 × 11.69 inches) - $200
A5 (8.27 x 5.38 inches) - $120

If I get my hands onto some black ink again I think I'd offer black, white and gold paintings as well but currently that's not an option.
Please let me know if you guys are interested in these traditional kinds of artworks or not, because I LOVE doing traditional artwork. If you're interested I'll post more examples of paintings here.

So commissions are now open once again, in case you missed yesterday's announcements!

I will do my best to become a lot more active on here with plenty of YCHs and Adoptables!

I currently have 2 up:
Dragon Alchemist: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29161812/
Grey Fox Gal: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29161792/


I also have some YCHs up, both of which are SFW so far!

Tyrant of Light/ Epic monster Battle: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29138949/
Harvest Dance/ Party at the Bonfire: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29138932/


I have 3 slots open out of 5 for Digital Commissions so if you find something you're interested in, be sure to let me know!

1. TAKEN (User on Tumblr)
2. TAKEN (User on Tumblr)
3. open
4. open
5. open


!!!
If you like cute lil cats in outfits, be sure to check out MoonloreDraws on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. I have been drawing a series of little cat people in outfits as part of inktober!

Hello everyone! I finally have a PayPal, and my bank will be sending my final bits and pieces to me in the next 2 days so I AM OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

I will be opening 5 slots here to ease myself into commissions. 1 slot has already been accounted for, so I have 4 slots available for any type of commission from my list!

Commission List: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26052079/

PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE COMMISSIONING. Invoices will also include a Terms of Service.

TERMS OF SERVICE: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8598094/

If you want to commission a reference sheet, make sure you read through this journal post: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8617339/

Good news everyone, Moonlore is OFFICIALLY a company now! As in.. I have a company number, VAT number (albeit a temporary one, I'll get my real one in about a week??) and I'm registered with the Dutch chamber of commerce!


For those of you who do not know, Moonlore is the official art name I operate under. If you've commissioned me, you will notice that I signed my invoices with Moonlore.
So uhh, yeah! I'm a company owner now! It's a teeny tiny company with just me, but it's official nonetheless.

For many of you this change affects nothing. My invoices will look a bit fancier and filled out, you'll see some numbers, I have an actual tax amount etc etc.

I WILL have to adjust my current prices a bit to allow for tax inclusion (no, not PayPal taxes, actual VAT taxes that I have to pay) but that will be a minor adjustment, and since there is a planned national tax increase in January 2019 I need to increase my prices more then too (That jump might be bigger since this is my main job now!)


BIG POINT OF MENTION.

The commission prices I have here are SOLELY for private commissions, or incredibly small scale endeavors taken on by one or two man teams.
If you are commissioning me in terms of producing artwork for a professional reason, such as a game, a large scale comic book project, advertising, basically anything where there's an art director or some kind of management involved, you will NOT have these same prices. Fandom prices are incredibly low to allow for a private individual's budget. If an actual publisher is contacting me, expect professional prices.


For those of you who have no idea what's going on, an A4 poster commission of you and your friend's sonas will likely cost you around... $200 ish? but an A4 sized poster or book cover of the same quality for a professional publishing team will START at $1200 and it can run to anything as high as $5000 depending on the size of the publisher, and then we have to discuss legal fees such as what other products my art will feature on, how heavily it will be used in advertising, and then of course artist royalties.

I'm DESPERATELY trying to make cheaper YCHs (I'm talking like... $40-$80) but instead my dumbass brain is just like

"YOU HAVE NOW GOT MORE SAI BRUSHES AND TEXTURES!! YOU ARE INVINCIBLE!! JUST MAKE MAGIC: THE GATHERING STYLE YCHS FOR PAINTING!! DO IIIITTT"

So uhm. Yeah.

I'm going to be doing a LOT more paintings and comics, so unfortunately stuff will be kind of pricey until my idea riddled brain stops with the Giant Monster Fights and epic scenery. (These will range anywhere from $200 upwards. Cuz yanno, detailed paintings. If you decide to take the same image but do it as an illustration it will be cheaper, probably, unless there are trees involved)

Also expect some hella porny comic YCH. 1 page things, but like... It'll be cheaper than my crazy giant painting YCHs so expect stuff anywhere from $120 to $200 on those!

There will be plenty to choose from as soon as I'm done.

If all goes according to plan, I will probably be able to work 2 weeks from now!!

So, I have a few bigger projects waiting to be commissioned on the side (you know who you are, comic people!) but I will be opening slots when I have confirmation of a bank account and new paypal.
As soon as I have the green light I'll be taking 5 slots of commissions (1 is already accounted for, Hi Risky!!) so 4 of you will be able to get custom commissions. I will also be posting new and older adopts that never sold, as well as a few YCHs.
This is now my full time Job. Prices WILL be going up as of December, I'll be needing to pay taxes, sales taxes, and insurances, all that fun stuff, and I will be charging at 25 Euros per hour, the standard rate that specialist artist straight out of college charge.

SO the more you spend now the cheaper it'll be.
Watch this space because the gears are finally turning.

Hey guys!

So I've finally gotten around to getting my residency number, which should be arriving early next week! This means I will finally be able to open up bank accounts and register as a freelancer! Which is great news for you guys since it means I can finally start taking commissions again, even if it's gonna take a couple more weeks.

My partner and I have decided to make the best out of not-the-best situation, so while it may take us a while longer to get a home, we've decided to not scramble for it, because that's only going to make us more anxious. I've also definitely decided to stay here, despite the wishes of my mom and dad, since Estonia will be too far away from literally anything, and there are VERY few people who would even remotely care about the stuff I do, which sucks, because having big peer groups is important. (Plus 1 convention per year?? yeah no fuck that)

So guys, let me know what kind of stuff you'll be looking for when I relaunch! Do you want adoptables? Do you want YCHs, and if that's the case, what kind? Stuff you don't mind sharing with other people or do you want a one of a kind artwork? Do you want NSFW of SFW stuff? Would you want YCH comics, illustrations, paintings, or simple icons? Let me know what you're after and you'll have plenty to choose from when I launch! Also giving price ranges could help!

So uhh.. yeah house hunting is painful as heck and unless I find something, I'm moving to Estonia in 2 months time. At least I know I can get cheap apartments there.

HOWEVER! I should be able to register as a freelancer soon? And I've got a few... interesting and saucy YCHs for you all lined up when I can finally take on work! (might take another month, but hey! It's progress of some kind!)

So uhhh

Turns out renting houses in the Netherlands is MUCH more difficult than first expected! It kind of sucks actually!

Because estate agencies need you to have at least 4x the income of the actual rent, and private sector rental properties (2 bedrooms, 60+ sq metres) are HELLA EXPENSIVE.

And guess who doesn't currently have a job! ME!!

Luckily my partner has SOME income and we're eligible for social housing but gosh that can take FOREVER and a handful of years on top of that. So we're currently still bouncing between my in-laws places as we wait for a good chance at a house (on one house we're on 9th place thanks to a lottery so I'M KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED!)

Now... unfortunately I have learned that to register with the chamber of commerce, I need to have an address, so I literally need to wait for myself to have a proper house before I can register to work, so for the foreseeable future I am not able to take on jobs (unless they're tiny and kinda sneaky, but I don't really wanna risk it...)

So uhh yeah.

Finding a house will take ages since I don't make a joint 4K per month that would allow us to actually get a private sector home, and social housing is literally a game of time and chance. I hope you all understand that, and are patient! As soon as I can work again, you can bet that you'll be the first ones to find out!

Hey guys!

Just checking in with you all and letting you know that my graduation, and packing went fine! My partner and I are currently staying with his mother while we look for an apartment to move into. As of next week we will begin the process of registering me with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce that will enable me to start taking commissions.

The paypal that I have been using up until now will be shut down, so please make sure you do not send any ko-fis or tips there, I'll be updating as soon as my life has some semblance of order again!

Again, as I have no idea when this will all be sorted, commissions are still closed until further notice, but in the meanwhile I'll be preparing more YCHs! If you have any ideas for some I'd love to hear what you'd be interested in seeing.

So far I want to do more landscape pieces, some more outfit breakdown ideas, and plenty of fantasy themed ones, as well as general moody sceneries which are character focused!

Hello hello!

I'm here to announce a big change into my comic commission prices.

***This does NOT influence the people I already have deals with. Your prices are final, unless of course you insist on paying me my new prices.***

So yeah, comic prices are going up and those will remain my "fandom prices" for a very long time, they'll be higher than my current prices but not quite at Marvel or DC or other such "professional comic artist" levels, so they will remain relatively affordable.

Comic making involves a lot more than meets the eyes, especially when you're a one man army like I am. A full comic page requires the following:

- Re-forming the script (if there even is one!) into something that I can use for comics.

- Decide character outfits, environment designs, building designs. Set and Costume design is important.

- Decide the posing and "camera" angles. Also something that needs a lot of consideration, different angles give off different moods. Body language is very important, a small shift in the angle of the head or arms can change a lot.

- Actually working the pages. Usually even a "sketch comic" requires thumbnails, so you need at LEAST 2 or 3 passes for a page. This stage can involve a lot of edits that will eat up your time and you want to be compensated for it properly.

- Inks are pretty straight forward but require a lot of accuracy, as well as ease for a future colourist to work on.

- Colours... are SO important. Shifts in colour tone can totally change a mood. Also something that falls under here: Lighting. Lighting can highlight certain areas of prominence or maybe point out an object, guide the eye, or even further set the mood. Even in screen toned comics, the shading can affect a lot!

- Lettering is some of the trickiest stuff I've come across, mainly because it's quite difficult to find advanced tutorials for lettering, but honestly, lettering can really make or break a page. My starting lettering was... bad, and while I'm nowhere near as good as to be a separate letterist, it will do.


SO YEAH remember, when commissioning artists for comics, bear in mind that there's a whole bunch of work that goes on behind the scenes.

Source: I've drawn over 200 full colour comic pages in the last 2 years, also, I went on a comic course. This is a really tough job. Most comics have about 10-15 people working on it, tiny webcomic artists like me basically do all the work themselves.

And I'm graduating with a first class honours!!

I have no idea what you guys in different countries have, but basically this is the highest possible grade at university!
And now... I'm done with academics. I'm free!

And... now I need to start doing freelance work for realsies. Once I've moved over to the Netherlands, and I have my internet set up, and also registered as a tax-payer, I will be taking on FurAffinity commissions full time. Unless of course some company snags me to work for them off site, but I think that's not TOO realistic given that my reach is not that great. But hey! If you know someone who needs a comic artist/character designer/ illustrator for freelance work, then give me a shout, or yanno, send them my portfolio site!

https://moonloreillustration.wixsite.com/portfolio


I will also be launching a patreon after I've settled down, and not only that, I'll be launching a SECOND patreon that deals entirely with The Contract comic that I've posted the first 4 pages of in my gallery! But yeah... full time freelance mode starts now, with a short break in a few weeks for moving and setting up in a new country (oh boy has that been so stressful)

Commissions are open.

I require sustenance and funds for occasional recreational activities.

So some of you may know I have a webcomic over at tapas, but that's like... long running, and I'm not gonna upload about 150 pages to here, but I WILL start uploading an old comic of mine there, and I was wondering if guys would want to see the 36 page comic here as well?

It's a Fantasy/Adventure/Romance comic and it would basically keep me active while I'm still taking a bit of an art down-time, and it'll give you guys something to read!

Hey guys! i hecked up spectacularly and I now have 50 books that are misprints. So I'm selling them for their printing price plus shipping just to get rid of them because they will be awful to sell at conventions.

So... if you LOVE mythology and folklore of other countries, and love beautiful digitally painted artwork and don't mind that some pages are out of order (and if you love really smooth paper that feels VERY NICE TO TOUCH) then maybe consider helping a local cat out of a big predicament and buy a copy at http://moonlore.storenvy.com/produc.....-sun-misprints

I admit, it was a really dumb error that my overworked and stressed little brain made, that could have absolutely been avoided, but I am legitimately very upset at this turn of events. The books cost £119 which is a lot of money for not a whole lot of books so now I need to make that back and REPRINT them, since this is for my final project at uni.

If you don't want to buy, that's fine. Signal boost are greatly appreciated, and if you're feeling incredibly generous, you can leave a tip at paypal.me/moonlore to help me get some new books.

thanks for reading, and I'm terribly sorry for the radio silence from my part.

A good friend of mine hasn't been paid for over 5 months and she doesn't make a liveable wage anyway, so please consider giving her a Ko-fi!

https://ko-fi.com/rainbowash
She makes incredible cosplays and if she's ever open for wig styling commissions, I'll let you all know.

I'd appreciate if you can spare a few dollars to help her out.

Hey all, you're probably here because you want to commission a reference sheet off me!

Or this appeared in your inbox and you're here hunting for The Salty CatsDesire Rants™ in which case, you might be in luck! Sorry if I sound passive aggressive here, by the way. The reason this exists in the first place is because I have a hard time getting the correct information out of people who want ref sheets.

So let's begin!

You want a reference sheet: There are several things that can happen here and they all depend on what you have in terms of information.

1. You want to get an updated reference sheet, you either already have a fully updated character look or you want minor changes to the character.
- This is the type that I have the least amount of trouble with. You already have your character, or you have a base form and want to add stuff, pretty straightforward, I usually don't need extra info for these types of reference sheet commissions.

2. You have drawings of your character, or several, and they're pretty accurate.
- depending on the angles we have I may need information on certain sides of the character, or you might want to update the look a bit. These are also pretty straightforward, usually there's enough visual information that I can work from it without the need of too much extra info.

3. You have no artwork at all of your character. Sometimes you don't even have a concept.
- This is where I encounter the most amount of problems. Most people don't know what artists need in order to create characters. I've had this happen a few times, and honestly? Vagueness will do you no favours, and telling me to "use my creative freedom" is a dangerous thing to say when making a character. I have a very specific aesthetic so if I use that I may create characters you guys don't like.


WHAT I NEED FROM YOU IF YOU HAVE NO VISUAL IMAGERY FOR YOUR CHARACTER.



I need some visual imagery. You can't escape this. I have to have visual imagery if I'm to get your character right. I need imagery for the following things, or a very good written description for the following things. Luckily, you don't need a picture of your character! I just need a bunch of pictures off google, yahoo, imgur, whatever.

A. The Species of your character and it's colour schemes. I want to know what animal you want your character to be, or what humanoid/monstruous/demonic/whatever race they are, as well as a chosen colour scheme. Please note, if your colours clash, or they're retina burning neons, I WILL CHANGE THEM. I want characters to have an aesthetically pleasing look even if they're an Eldritch Tentacle Monster from The Rainbow Realm of Unicornia. As a designer, I have a good understanding of colour, how it works, and how it clashes, If you give me the most saturated green and blue to put together on a character, trust me, that doesn't look great on a screen and it will blind you if you see it, and I want to avoid those casualties. You'd be amazed how a small shift on the colour wheel can make a character look 15x better, still sort of have the same colours, but not blind you.

B. The Body Type. I need an accurate image of the character's body type. Just telling me the height and weight doesn't mean squat. Someone can be the same height as me but be buff as heck whereas I'm a vaguely blobby entity. Some reference images of the chosen body type are ideal.

C. Leg Type. Most Anthros/Furries have either DIGITIGRADE (standing on the toes, like a cat or dog) or PLANTIGRADE (walks with the entire foot touching the floor, like a human) feet. This is an important distinction to make, as it affects the entire construction of the character sketch. You don't need to send me the images, but let me know what leg type you need.

D. Hairstyle. For the love of god get me a ref image for the hairstyle. Please. The amount of times people have said "oh I want X to have long hair" without specifying what they want is too dang high. And considering my skewed perception of hair length, if you say "long hair" I immediately think of butt length hair whereas in actual reality long hair is... to your shoulders and past that?? Either way, I need a hair reference. You can tell me a character who has the same hairstyle, or send me a few pictures that kind of have a specific feel (so for example if you want a character to have dreads and braids but you can't find it exactly, send me the closest examples and tell me what you want to change.

E. Tell me your character's personality. This helps immensely with designing them. A character's personality should shine through their design, and a sneaky villainous thief will not have the same feel as a nerdy acolyte, even if the species, body type, hairstyle, whatever else, is the same. You don't have to tell me their life story but a general outline of who they are, what they do, what their personality is like will greatly help me.

F. Accessories. If your character has accessories, get me references. If they wear clothes, get me some refs. Again, if doesn't need to be exact, but get me images that give me the feel of what you want. Also, if you ever don't have a reference, don't tell me to give a "cool" accessory of some kind. This isn't meant in a mean way but simply because certain terms are very subjective. If I think Sophisticated, I think elven jewelry, or medieval dressed that nobility would wear, whereas someone might think sophisticated is modern day "rich people" styles. Point is, everyone has different ideas of what cool, cute, awesome is, so to avoid me just going ham on your character and making something you might not like, just get me references.

G. Give me a sense of setting. This is optional, most people just want a fursona or character to use in multiple settings, so this isn't viable, but if you have a specific D&D type setting or whatever, let me know the setting your character will be in! It helps the design process.


So this is the gist of it. If you want a character, and you have no visual references, please get me things of each category, where applicable. This will literally get your character as close to your vision as possible. Creative freedom is fun, but the more information I have to work on, the better! If you give me something vague to work with, it can be very lackluster, since I won;t have any good ideas to work from.

Also, lets take a very vague description, and you'll understand why I need all of these references:
"black and white female cat anthro, with long white hair, and green eyes. Muscular"

Ok, we have a very vague description, here are some character designs I cam make from this, and this is without references, or context, or personality.

1. A sleek and toned looking cat lady, with a suspicious looking face that you wouldn't trust, her deep green emerald eyes glint like the gems she has in her sights. She carries herself in a way that would suggest grace, but also silence. Probably a thief or assassin, either way, capable of getting herself into and out of trouble. Her white hair is slicked back into a tight braid to keep it out of her eyes. Her black fur only has a small medallion of white on her chest.

2. Very muscular, almost top heavy. This cat lady has almost a pure white coat, where it not for the "socks" on her hands and feet. She has a very casual and friendly manner, but something about her has this heroism. She has a very square jaw, one could almost mistake her for a lion. She can lift heavy things all on her own and enjoys showing off. Her white hair is kept in a messy bun, and when you find out that she's a firefighter, it doesn't surprise you. She has bright yellow-green eyes that look honest.

3. She walks hunched over, and through the matted masses of black and white fur, you can't tell how strong she is, but if her sheer size and wild forest-green eyes were to be any clue, you'd suspect you wouldn't want to pick a fight with this feral goliath of a cat beast. Her manners are entirely barbaric, and were it not for the tone of her growls, you wouldn't have even been able to tell that she was female.


These 3 are absolutely not the same character, but the extra information really brings flare to that initial description, doesn't it? This is why adding to that initial description and giving me references is so important. Instead of having a really boring character you might get tired of, why don't you add to it, and make a much more memorable character?


Just an FYI, I don't hate the phrase "I give you creative freedom in this design", but as stated above, it doesn't make me particularly excited to make a character out of nothing, when I have no context, or personality. HOWEVER. If you give me a character prompt with a basic description, but a very fleshed out context, that will give me a better idea and I might be able to design something truly memorable.

For example. "Elven Rogue, for a D&D setting that takes place in a very fae-heavy realm, where trickery and subterfuge are a necessary skill to learn in a world that appears flamboyant, but in reality is deadly to those who can't keep up to the whims of those who rule. The character has a noble background, but is very comfortable in dealing with unsavoury customers that they may encounter. An important Quest Giver NPC that will later be seen in an underground Thieves Guild and confronted for their treachery towards the group."
This is a very vague description of the character itself, but the purpose of the character is clear, and the setting is made clear. I can go as wild as I want so long as the character fits the context. Also, this makes me excited to design a character with a purpose!