This is important. This is very important. Hold on to your ass.

I'm going to start faving things I like on FA, not just fan art of my characters.

Whew. All right. That wasn't so hard.

Either tonight or tomorrow I'll be doing another video as I complete the image I started and have been posting to youtube. Since I'd like things to chat about, if anyone has any questions on any particular subject that they'd like me to address, feel free to ask them here. I may get to them in the vid.

The third workflow video. No music, but you can see how I put on the shade layers prior to adding color to an image. I didn't split the vid, so it's an hour and twenty minutes, roughly, and I talk through all of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57joc93iI-c

Some people expressed an interesting in workflow videos, so I decided to screen record my digital sketching and inking after work, tonight. I'm not super fast, so the sketching and the inking portions are divided into two videos that are roughly 40 minutes each. But I'm chatting like a hen during most of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scUDmf0St-M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT178DiwZVM

I suppose if people dig them enough, I'll record the shading and coloring, too.

EDIT: Apparently, the washed-out faint classical music I was listening to has triggered some third party content warnings and blocked at least one video from being accessible in parts of Europe. I guess if I continue doing these, it'll be in silence. Sorry about that.

I've been trying to draw and ink digitally, more often, now. But I'm still torn. It's not quite down to a science for me, yet. It seems to work really well in some images, but in other images seem to succumb to the "coloring book" effect. Some people compliment my neat lines (as is my instinct to make them as neat as possible prior to coloring) but sometimes I can't help but imagine it might be worth dirtying them up a little bit, giving a piece a softer, more organic feel to it. These are some of the same issues I've run into ages ago, when everyone in comics was inking by hand. Since I want to start drawing digitally, more, and divorce myself from the need of so much paper, it's one of those issues I can't back away from.

I do know what the answer is. It's what I tell everyone who asks for advice. Just keep working and experimenting with it and see what kind of tolerable style develops from it. In the meantime, I'm still working with paper a lot, and my comic projects are still finished color over pencils while I get this sorted.

To those waiting on commissions and such, this weekend I'll be unable to work heavily on anything as I'll be away from home. Next week I hope to be back in the full throes of production, again, and the list will begin moving. I'm actually down to the last six people on my commission reserve list (which you can find here: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/jaydraws/) but a lot of them are asking for comics, which tends to slow down the list quite a lot. I'm thinking the next time around, I'm going to have to up the price per page on those, or just not offer as many.

On top of that, I still have to do my scheduled projects for the catalog and all the little things I have simmering in the background. It's really eating into my "draw for fun" time and I need to scale things back a little. I have too many pans in the fire.

This point was made sort of as a vent on my art-only Twitter account some time ago, but it's worth coalescing into a journal, here. It's about something I've noticed, and grown weary of, and it's this: Every time I draw Audrey, someone has a problem.

When I first drew her, I was verbally berated on Tumblr for using terms some people didn't like. I acquiesced. I don't mind calling people whatever they want. I'll note that the people on Fur Affinity left very polite corrective comments about it. Ever since then, whenever I draw her, someone has an issue. Someone gets confused, and someone starts a fight with someone else for being confused, and not knowing every corrective detail of gender identity terminology. They don't correct people, they berate them, belittle them, and ridicule them. Just when I thought I had everything down, another very serious person got on my case in a very serious way, because I once used the term "transgendered" instead of "transgender". I let their attempt to turn it into an endless forever "discussion" sit there unanswered, which is as polite as I felt like being. More pictures, more comments, more fights I have to tell people to stop. And the latest was someone on Weasyl informing me of their dislike for Audrey's design, because as a trans who has trans friends, they tell me that it's unrealistic for Audrey, a young early-20s MtF trans, to have small breasts. They proceeded to express their "disapproval of the design" to everyone who left a comment on the sketch. Now...

There is a point where one begins to wonder if there isn't some secret cabal conspiring to come up with new ways to annoy me into abandoning Audrey as a character. Seriously, I never will. But as a creative person, you do begin to wonder if it's even worth exploring different character types which seem to draw the most overzealous identity sensitivities to you, and beat you down with the force of a thousand verbal hen-pecks, if not outright hostile, condescending remarks. Bear in mind, I've seen these comments directed at people who obviously mean no offense.

Or who just want their character to have small tits.

So, now I'll just call it Audrey Derangement Syndrome, and assume that the vision of Audrey has shorted out the rational, calm, civilizing thought-nodes of their brain, and thrown off their sense of proportion and etiquette.

I used to do these a lot and then kinda stopped. But I noticed someone who is really talented coming back after a hiatus, with a sinfully low number of watchers, as well as the desire to gather up commissions. So I get to turn you on to an artist who you should be watching anyway, as well as help them in business.

 bradydalton does really awesome work. Great angles, great rendering all around. Everything they do seems really solid, and the latest sketch sheet they posted is full of perfection. Go watch them and follow them and tell them they're talented and get a commission if you are so inclined. :3

So far, I've answered "yes" to "will you draw an Audrey-Aron adult comic" a couple dozen individual times to people who ask. If you asked me and I didn't answer you, I'm sorry, but sometimes I get busy and things slip past me.

Thank you all!

I'm starting to put the SFW images that I really enjoy here: jrn-arts.tumblr.com/ I really want to do more like them and I'm finding them more satisfying at the moment. And I want a place where nice people can see it and reblog it and not have to worry about backtracking face-first into my latest commission of a badly colored dragoness being sodomized or something.

Somehow, the family tree submission got posted twice. When I originally filed the submission, it came up as a submission with a missing image. So I edited the same submission to upload a new file, and it somehow ended up as a new submission, with the old submission also eventually having its image appear, or something. The result was two duplicate posts which sat for a day, because I didn't notice it until now. I'm deleting the latest one, so if your favs or comments are gone, that's why.

Sorry! But you know.

People who assume that the latest page of a plot arc represents its conclusion really peeve me. It's like walking out of a movie at the Major Setback stage of the screenplay, and telling everyone the movie had a sad ending. I understand how it is when you only see two new pages a week (which is all I can do for free with my schedule), and the latest update just hangs out for a number of days. There've been times when I've toyed with the idea of building up eight pages in a month and releasing them at once, or releasing four pages a month, twice a month, but since many people catch up on the comic that way, anyway, I think it's best to leave it to the reader's individual preference.

Anyway, it's just a little current vent of mine. Go about your business. :3

Because some people like to jump to conclusions and read things that aren't there:

1.) I'm not "leaving" FA. I'm simply promoting and encouraging my Weasyl account, because I want to reward a site I feel has been run more professionally and been more responsive up to this point. My FA galleries will continue to update. I'll continue to answer comments, notes, and flirt shamelessly.

2.) I'm not encouraging anyone to stop using FA. That's up to you. I'm not trying to "kill" FA. I frankly don't think that's possible.

3.) I'm not taking a side in the latest goings on.

4.) If FA significantly improves, both interface AND responsiveness to issues, I will consider reinvesting the bulk of my active participation, here (commissions, YCH auctions, sketches, etc).

I suppose it's worth saying that my intentions here aren't to alienate people from using Fur Affinity if they want. Websites don't necessarily compete like manufacturers of toaster ovens, where if you buy one, you're not likely to purchase a competing product. People can maintain accounts on several sites. This reality has kept FA's momentum as it is, since it can feel superfluous to watch the same artist post the same galleries on two different websites, so why not just watch them on the most trafficked site, where you'll see more participation and comments?

Do I have opinions about the latest kerfuffle? Yeah. But I'm not going to share them, other than to say that I don't know enough to form a definitive conclusion. I don't consider what I read on journals and Tumblr blogs to be "definitive", as I've read a lot of misrepresentations and outright made-up stuff about myself in the past.

The fact is, I've wanted to marginalize the importance of FA for a long time, mainly due to how the site is managed, professionally. But I don't really think that's going to get much traction until the site's heavy hitters, artists with big followings, like, over 20k, 30k, and 40k watchers, begin to do things on other sites that they aren't doing on Fur Affinity. I don't necessarily mean posting things on Weasyl that you won't post on FA. Go ahead and mirror your main galleries if you want. It's still exposure. But imagine someone posting their sketches and WIPs there, instead of their FA scraps gallery. Imagine one of them saying they will begin to take commissions again, but when they do, they will handle them exclusively through Weasyl. You can still post journals and images to FA which advertise your economic activity (commissions, YCH auctions, etc) on Weasyl. Give people a real reason to create an account on an alternative website. Talk about things on the alternative site, post project updates and WIPs that you don't post on FA, hold polls about what people would like to see next - advertise the things you're doing on Weasyl with your heavily-watched FA account. You aren't telling people to leave Fur Affinity. You're giving them a fine reason to also check you out where you'd prefer to do business. Since FA is intent on not being run like a business (therefor the attentiveness and responsiveness of a government office), they can't justifiably be upset over you encouraging parallel traffic.

I'm nearing the end of my commission reserve list of the past two years. There are currently only 9 names on it with commissions I haven't started, yet. I can't say for sure how long it will take me to get through the rest of this list, because a lot of people are asking for two and three page comics, which take me a bit more time to do. But when I do finish them up, I'm going to start taking commission reservations, again. I'll probably only do a certain number of reservations at a time. When I do, I'm going to manage them exclusively through Weasyl. You'll need a Weasyl account to message me and ask for a reservation. I'm also going to require that you send me a valid email address to talk to you through, in the event that websites go down, or you get banned, or you stop logging in to your account to check your messages for weeks at a time. If you do not give me a valid email address, I will not take your commission reservation. I will make announcements on every website I have a gallery on when I begin to take commission reservations, again.

To reiterate from a prior journal, places you can find my work:
http://jaynaylor.com - My free ongoing webcomic "Original Life", and the "Better Days" webcomic archive, as well as the adult catalog for those who wish to support what I do. Soon to come, donation buttons for those who wish to support me without purchasing adult material.

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fisk/ - Gallery of original work on Fur Affinity. It won't be the most complete gallery of my stuff moving forward. I will continue to post finished images here, not unlike how I treat DeviantArt. http://www.furaffinity.net/user/jaydraws/ is my commission account on FA. When the current commission list runs out, this account will be replaced by the commissions folder of my Weasyl gallery.

https://www.weasyl.com/profile/jaynaylor - Soon to be my main and most extensive gallery of material moving forward, with the exception of my Tumblr feed. This account will manage my commissions, as well as showcase sketches and WIPs, in the future. It will also be where I write journals about future projects and other details about what I'm working on.

http://jaynaylor.deviantart.com - A gallery primarily for more exposure. Due to their content restrictions, this will never be a complete showcase of my work, but I do check messages regularly and respond to comments.

http://jayrnaylor.tumblr.com - A moment-by-moment blog feed of my work, and probably the most complete gallery of my finished work from the date I started it. I will continue to post finished work here, as well as sketches, though I tend to be light on the words on Tumblr.

Twitter account jaydrawins - My new art-only twitter account, where I show completed work as well as WIPs and sketches, and make comments about what I'm working on, as well as other general art-related comments. jayrnaylor is my older, more personal twitter account, which has sort of just become a place for general in-life observations, keeping in touch with friends, and things I just feel like saying.

I guess regular reminders aren't bad thing. The recent deluge of journals about alternative galleries and exodus movements are a good reminder that there are other forums. It's always good to have eggs in more than one basket.

Tumblr: http://jayrnaylor.tumblr.com - I really like tumblr as a site for having a web feed about anything you want and I'm always looking to follow original content creators. My Tumblr is of my own work only. I don't reblog memes. It's probably the best archive of all my stuff, finished works and sketches, going forward. The /archive function makes it real easy to devour people's galleries quickly, as well.

Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~jaynaylor - I dig Weasyl and am pleased to know that the admins are attentive and responsive to things. We'll see how well this holds up as the site grows, though. It's funny now the site grows in bursts, depending on what's happening on FA, but it'd be nice for it to get its own momentum.

Deviantart: http://jaynaylor.deviantart.com - A lot of people have a stone to throw at DA but I don't. It's not a bad place for more exposure, just be mindful that their content restrictions will always prevent it from being a complete gallery of my work.

Twitter: jaydrawins is my art-only twitter account. Sometimes I talk about work in progress. Sometimes I post pencils and previews that aren't available anywhere else. I usually post finished work here as well, as I complete it.

A user was somehow disturbed enough about my latest YCH auction to send me a note declaring he would never bid such a high price, going as far as to declare to be speaking on behalf of "everyone" who wouldn't bid as well. This is useless information to me, given the nature of auctions, which is:

An auction is designed to take a product with a quantity of 1, and link it up with the *one* customer who values it the most. Standing up and declaring that you aren't that customer, to the seller, is pointless. It's like raising your placard in a live auction and declaring you aren't bidding. Nobody cares. The only thing that matters is the fact that the people who do value it, are bidding. I'm reminded of the people who've told me that my commission prices are too high, while I was struggling through a commission reserve list that was over 80 names long.

Unfortunately, before I could explain this, civily, and meticulously, in a reply to this user they pre-emptively blocked me from replying, perhaps in anticipating of feeling embarrassed, I don't know. But this is why I'm explaining it, here.

In the future, I'll be doing more auctions in conjunction with commissions. You can find my commission account at  jaydraws if you aren't following it already. I'm getting close to the end of my old reserve list (finally!) and will start taking new reserve slots sometime early this year. YCH auctions will stand apart as something different. For people who don't want to wait for space on the commission reserve list, and are willing to compete with other buyers, they have a chance to snag a YCH commission instead and likely get the piece faster than they would if they were on a long reserve list for a commission. The main trade-off is that the bidding process tends to increase the price a bit over what a normal commission would cost. That's how I'm going to work from now on.

Thank you all. You're the best fans. :3

I've created an art-only Twitter account, realizing that a lot of people follow my every activity may not be interested in my own personal musings and retweetings. Plus, it's good to have a place to share tidbits of what I'm working on, and comment here and there, on a running scroll that isn't as "final" as an online gallery on Tumblr.

It's JayDrawins

I've decided to start keeping my Weasyl page up to date. There's also part of me that wants to start to manage commissions there, too, instead of relying on FA. In any event, it'll be a good place to find a lot of my stuff when FA goes down: https://www.weasyl.com/profile/jaynaylor

My Tumblr account is still the best place to get everything in one place, including rough sketches, which Weasyl doesn't seem to have a good system for if you don't want sketches in your main feed on your front page. You can find my Tumblr here: http://jayrnaylor.tumblr.com

Because of FA's perfect timing, I'm extending the YCH auction to the 8pm on the 18th (Wednesday). A reminder that when you place bids, they must be in reply to the last highest bid in the main bidding thread, please. Otherwise, they will be ignored.

Auction can be found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12253199/

Also, the website's catalog was down last week, but it's back up now after a few minor tweaks. there'll be more updates to come going into next year, but I don't anticipate long outages like that again. Thanks for your support, guys. :3

Jay

We're in the process of making changes and updates to the catalog system, which are really long overdue. In the meantime, the checkout page has been disabled. We're looking to have things back up and new and fresh by the end of this upcoming weekend.

I want to thank my new and regular customers for their support!

Jay

We're in the process of making changes and updates to the catalog system, which are really long overdue. In the meantime, the checkout page has been disabled. We're looking to have things back up and new and fresh by the end of this upcoming weekend.

I want to thank my new and regular customers for their support!

Jay

 kincademk made an edit to my profile ID photo. http://jaynaylor.com/images4/VegoJay.jpeg

I'm looking for feedback on which of my projects have been the most enjoyed and why. I have a feeling my readers have a pretty diverse range of preferences, and I'm trying to get some feedback on which ones are prevalent. I'm also interested in why you may have a favorite. I'm a big fan of articulated reasons, whether it's a story, a set of kinks, or the way a project was presented.

This probably won't affect what I'll be doing for the rest of this year, but it may help steer which of the projects I dive into more vigorously in 2014. As it is, I've got the next chapter of the Rise of the Wolf Queen squared away and will be doing that as my last project for 2013 (finally).

Lastly, criticizing someone else's preferences and reasons isn't appreciated, so refrain from that.

Thank you! :3

-Jay

I was out of town and neglected to get OL set up for Monday's scheduled update. Nonetheless, the new page is up, now, and the comic will proceed as scheduled. Thank you!