I started work on the next adult comic today, revolving around Red. What does that mean, exactly? Well, one thing it means is that I'm finally caught up on all the work I missed while I was moving, and I'm back to my regular day-to-day work loads. The Original Life buffer is up to speed again, and commissions are being worked on at a better pace, all that. This also means I have a touch more free time.

Now, the last time i lived down in these realms, I was almost a hermit. I wasn't all the motivated to go out and hang with folks. But this time around, it's going to be different. I have friends down in the Florida Atlantic coastal portions, a bro here, a broette there, but it's always worthwhile to make more and shake this sense I have of being withdrawn. I'm not saying I'll fly through your house with a lampshade on my head, but I'm interested in meeting more folks and finding new places to chill once in a while. If you're cool, drop me a note if you do regular social jazz. It may be cool to spend some spare time. :3

Things for 2013 are a little more loose than my usual collection of ideas. This is in the hopes that by the time I have time for some of the little germs in my mind, they'll still seem new and exciting and I won't feel like bypassing them. Many projects in the past have never seen the light of day because of that.

Another thing worth noting is how I plan to be much quicker in producing work. One of the things that really slows me down is overthinking which lines I'll put where and what I'll put in this frame or that in a comic, when a more stream-of-consciousness approach yields equally effective results. That's more or less what I did with the Samantha comic and it came out great. I would have finished the comic much sooner, but my move to Florida put a huge speed bump in my production schedule. But in 2013, I'm hoping 10 and 15+ page comics become normal, instead of an impressive exception. I'm also getting more work done per day in my new place. I feel much less dreary.

The next comic I'll be working on will be about Red the otter. It's something I've been thinking on for a while and it's time. I'm working on this as a comic that I'll work on as 2012 ends and 2013 ramps up. This is what I will work on while the ideas for The Rise of the Wolf Queen begin to come together in a more solid form. Right now the story is still just loose notes due to not being able to think on much else. But I am eager to get started on the next series from the Cottonwine universe. There are also plenty of ideas swirling around about Priscilla's little retinue of household help, mainly revolving around Mai and Minh. Their relationship and behavior has become a subject of a few drawings of mine and I'd love to expand on it further in project form. Right now I'm keeping that idea for later in the year, possibly after the first Wolf Queen comic.

That's all for now. Thanks to everyone who supports my work. You're the best. :3

A little post about my impending move and the impact on my production schedule, including the Samantha project and commissions. With pictures!

http://fiskblack.livejournal.com/103118.html

Been watching  trezhurisland for a bit now. Really clean characters, nice and tightly built. Most of the work is of the colored lineart variety, but hidden in his gallery are a few other pieces that show some nice range. His ordinary style has a very fully-evolved look to it and it has an emphasis on the cute, which I can always appreciate.

His main character appears to be a sneak assassin type which is probably why not enough people have noticed his talent. Go over to his page and point at him and tell him you see him skulking.

 ziggie13 contacted me the other evening over how much guff she gets whenever she posts an image that has some derived elements from my own style, so much so that she gets accused of tracing by some pretty persistent detractors. On multiple occasions over the course of this year, people have come to me to "alert" me to her work. She asked me to make a public statement, and I sent her an email reply with the permission to quote the email, and so I figured I'd also make the contents of my message available here, as well. I can't really blame either party. One is referencing heavily enough that it appears to be blatantly copied, and people tend to get indignant about that. I get it. But it's not worth getting a persecution complex over. If the referencing is that obvious, that's all I really need.

My reply to her contains my reaction to the whole thing, and how I feel about it:

The nature of the net is what it is. Your gallery has been brought to my attention a few times in the past. From what I can tell, none of your images seem to be direct traces of anything I can think of from my galleries off the top of my head. However, people are noticing how the style and construction of some images and characters seem heavily referenced and derived from my work. I can see it just at a glance.

The Internet being what it is, people will take that glimpse and presume "tracing". Even if I make some grand public announcement, it will not stop. I'm not upset or concerned about the similarities of construction and style in the stuff in your gallery that appears to be heavily referenced from some of my own style. The fact that it's recognizable by people who see it is all I need.

The only way to stop these kinds of queries and accusations may be to gradually evolve your style so that it is sufficiently unique so as not to look as derived as it does. Otherwise, this will never end.

So there you go. That's my deal. There it is. Unless an overlay shows a blatant "lifting" I really don't need to be alerted much more. I appreciate all the folks who look out for me, though.

Thanks!

As is wont to sometimes happen in a long term relationship, Marhkale and I became emotionally estranged for much of this year. Not wanting to characterize things as "stale", which is a negative, the lack of an emotional investment at all, not a negative or a positive feeling of any sort, seems more accurate for me. One of those situations where you lay awake, realizing you're not in love anymore, and how it doesn't feel bitter or resentful, just... how it is. Last Friday, I officially ended the relationship after spending the day making the proper physical arrangements to move on. It was as smooth and drama-free as independent adults should be. While I'd been tempted to do it earlier, sharing a lease with someone does restrict one's range of options. But with only a few months left (and her mother moving in) things are much more flexible for the person who wishes to depart. My original intent was to wait until after MFF, but I realized it would be best not to go through the convention with that cloud in my mind. It's also good to make the physical arrangements necessary as early as possible. This allowed me to secure a fantastic apartment at the beach in the same complex where I used to live in Florida. They even remembered me, my rent is even cheaper as they're having a sale, and the balcony has an even better view than last time!

I'll be moving over the course of November, and yet somehow producing comics and doing commissions at the same time.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to be independent, setting my own hours, and being "casually available". It's not easy feeling kind of "stuck" in a situation and knowing that you need patience, holding back exploring options for fear of how it may come off given your official relationship status. I doubt I'll be looking for anything "serious" for a bit. Casual is the name of my game for now. I do sometimes wonder if I, or even people in general, are cut out for these kinds of long term things, or if we're designed to float. For the first time, though, after experiencing both the long-term and the casual, I'm comfortable with the latter. No more cutesy drawings, shared icons, and mushy things. :3

This also means, that, while I won't be at MFF, I will very likely jaunt up to FWA to relax with pals. I won't be working there, however. I haven't worked at a convention in a long time and I like it.

Also, I know some furry folks love to gossip, but this departure really is as clean and mutual as it gets. So do refrain from wild, schadenfreude-esque speculation about either party. Resist the temptation to imagine people taking sides and lining up to hate each other's camp, because that's not the case. Your maturity is appreciated, and thank you!

Thanks to everyone who's given me a warm welcome on Weasyl. My gallery there is less complete than the one on FA, but I'm sort of uploading my favorites to populate my gallery. In time, if Weasyl demonstrates awesomeness and professionalism, I may upload exclusives there to help encourage others to create profiles.

There is a separate follow function as well as a "friend" indicator. This is both neat and fraught with the possibility of high drama. As a policy, I won't return a friend request unless I know and/or have met the person, worked closely with them, like them, or they have flirted with me rapaciously.

Thanks again!

Managing commissions using only Fur Affinity names makes keeping up with commissions during FA's downtimes impossible. If you're on my commission reserve list (from so long ago, I know), please send me an email (jay at jaynaylor.com) telling me who you are on FA, so I can correlate your FA name with an email address. This way, no matter what FA does, we can still keep in touch and the commission machine can continue, regardless.

Thanks!

When I was commissioned for "Not A Chance" by  gothicskunk it was under the understanding that after some months, he'd be allowed to post it for public viewing in his gallery. That day has come, and you can view the comic in its entirety in his gallery, starting with the cover, here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8706188/

As neat as it was to do, it took a lot more time out of my ordinary schedule than I thought, and I was only able to justify it by making it a catalog item when it was finished. Due to the time it took out of the schedule, I probably won't be taking more comics as commissions in the future, unless they're just a couple of pages or something. I should apologize to people on my reserve list who might have been anticipating asking for one!

I wanted to mention  nekomonaka's work for a while, but held off mainly because he hasn't been very active. But the stuff is too good not to include in this list of journals for much longer. His work combines the perfect blend of simply cute characters in high detail settings that I really like, and it stands out quite well. It's some seriously good stuff. Detail-cute is a good skill combination.

There's plenty of good things in the scraps gallery over there, so be sure to check that out, too. The last image he posted was a scraps image five months ago, but if you're not familiar with his gallery already, it's good to go through and check what's already there.

I'm going to slack off on commissions a little this week as I push forward toward finishing the next adult project. For those expecting progress on their pieces, I'll be picking them up again later this week, hopefully, and if not, than I'll work to start on them this weekend.

The next project after this will be something short, cute, and sweet. I'm keeping much of it under wraps because I want much of it to be a surprise. It involves a little twist people have asked about in the past before, but I hadn't quite found a suitable story to make it happen, until now. About this time is when a bunch of people begin to comment about what it might be, and I'm faced with either spoiling things by responding to guesses, or ignoring their questions like a jerk. I guess being a jerk will have to do.

Oh, and the next project doesn't involve lesbian sex. Yet.

Finally got around to writing some thoughts about The Dark Knight Rises, after having a few days to digest the film.

http://fiskblack.livejournal.com/102769.html

Moderately lengthy.

A while ago, I heard someone describing what they liked in art on FA. "This picture is good. It has no lines, it has indirect lighting..." going on in a funny way to describe digital painting. It amused me enough to remember it. Anyway, such images always impress me because it's something I don't have the ability to pull off with a satisfactory level of confidence or ability.

Check out the work of  nazerine for someone with this skill, who also produces cute characters. They're fairly new to FA so their main gallery is a little small, but their scraps gallery has many more submissions, so be sure to browse that for more samples of this person's impressive abilities.

I've been watching and enjoying the tightly constructed, cute, and concise character focused work of  dirt-chomp - as oddly named as much as oddly iconned. As I run out of ways to put into words "really well done stuff that doesn't have many watchers", suffice to say it's a pleasure to run through their gallery and looking at all the interesting character ideas expressed from one image to the next. They show a really nice range, from really simply finished chibi pieces, to more traditional digital painting-ish pieces. Lots of well rendered furries and humans all mixed together in one sugary mash.

Ages ago, I saw a comic piece drawn by  marudi and liked the style. He popped up on FA very recently and as a result, probably doesn't have as many watchers as his skill level would indicate he deserves. He specializes in very intricate brush finished work in black and white, with a very unique visual style that easily overcomes the lack of color. Since he's new to FA, his gallery isn't very large, but he's well worth watching for new pieces.

1.) Begin uploading the latest image of Zoe and realize I forgot a step.
2.) Stop the uploading on the page.
3.) Zoe image is not in the gallery.
4.) Finish Zoe image by doing the final step.
5.) Upload new, correct, Zoe image.
6.) Find the incorrect Zoe image popped into gallery existence while I was editing and uploading the correct image.
7.) Delete prior incorrect Zoe image, leaving only correct Zoe image.

In case you were wondering what happened to your favs and comments.

The last image I uploaded was taken down because when I looked at it this morning with fresh eyes I didn't like it in black and white. I was like "eh" and may upload it when I have time to colorn it properly (laughing voices in my head at the phrase "when I have time"). I'm still learning that I don't have to finish images at the end of the work day. I can come back to them later.

This week will be filled with regular work and commissions.

Back again! Part 4.

The work of  nim-nim reminds me of some of the work of a friend of mine who went professional many years ago. Very cute and most of all, original character designs that are tight, concise, and cartoony, but not so much that they're so loose and everything flies apart. The person's range really comes out when you go through their badges and commissions, and suddenly it's almost like a different (but equally talented) artist. The pigmy goat character is the cutest thing I've seen in ages. Rarely can I sift through what amounts of character portraits in someone's gallery, and find the designs pleasing, cute, and enviable.

Someone else on FA who should have more watchers than they do.

Those who know me the least are those who are free to think the worst about me. Those who know me the best tend to laugh at those who think the worst. This kind of thing has persisted through my recent life and it makes the misrepresentations, slander, and blind lies leveled at me over the internet, much more tolerable. A series of recent exchanges on Twitter have some thoughtless goons (I can't think of a better name for them - just meat-headed goons without thought) leveling the charge that I'm a "rape enabler" and inferring that I shame "victims". This is so odious that I felt the need to make a definitive clarification.

Sex is an expression of esteem as long as choice is involved. We can talk about the level of that esteem based on someone's sexual choices (something I wished I'd learned earlier in life) but that's beside the point of this discussion. The point is, your sex life reflects your choice in who and how many people are involved, as well as your ability to create the sex life you desire (why we desire it is, again, another discussion for another time). Sex is the sharing of mutual esteem, a combination of an affirmation of your esteem by your partner, and in turn giving them the same feeling by your choosing them. Rape strips the victim of this default right. It's an attack on the self esteem of a person, the ultimate form of de-personalization inflicted on someone who has no choice in who takes pleasure from their body for that moment. Worse than an act of theft, it cuts straight to the heart of what theft implies: You don't own your body, its efforts, and its decisions. By an act of force I've not only seized the time of your life that it takes to rape you, but I've seized ownership not just of your property, but of the body by which you exist. I've just described sex and rape on a philosophical level, something I doubt most of my accusers could muster the mental effort to even attempt.

To the relavent events:
A female artist friend of mine posted a link to a journal to raise awareness of what could be viewed as sexual harassment at a convention. The journal had no details, but the words "being creepy" did appear, over and over, in place of precise information. Not having information about the topic, I replied with a self-deprecating joke to my friend, indicating the words used by the journal. I said: "Being creepy is sexual harassment, now? I'm in big trouble... :3" It is a running joke to my girlfriend and some other friends of ours about how good I am at putting on a creepy act to get a reaction from them. She even calls me "creeper in the dark" if I'm playing video games or writing on the computer without any room lights on in the evening. Taken as it was intended by friends who know me, it could have died there. Then someone decided to roll a hand grenade into the room with me and my friend.

Another artist gentleman decided to use my joke between a friend to launch into a comment which implied we should be immediately skeptical toward any situation where someone claims to feel threatened or victimized, because people love being victims, and people love rallying around victims. Despite my telling him that this was not the best policy to pursue in matters where we don't have any details, the responses from the meat-headed goons, predictably, began to pop up. My name was attached to a twitter thread and dragged into a flurry of accusations of being a "rape enabler" and "shaming victims". My measured responses to the offending artist gentleman were ignored by the accusers, because, and this is important to know about the internet:

1.) They don't think much beyond their next piss, so they just accept what they read from someone else, screenshots showing incomplete exchanges etc.. or
2.) They want to believe the worst because it makes them feel righteously indignant, or they derive a general sense of pleasure when they get to thrash someone verbally for being whatever they accuse them of being. Therefor, no amount of explanation or further looking into the matter can disuade their convictions, because their convictions are predestined by choice.

If you have any questions or concerns about the sort of person I actually am, feel free to ask my girlfriend or any one of my close friends who know me best. If you're unwilling to do that, kindly stow your accusations, presumptions, baseless notions, and obscenely biased inferences.

Good day.

P.S. This is not an invitation to share "this one time..." stories, or any references to them. If you perpetuate slander against me, or foster accusations against other named people, and invite argument trees to grow here, I will axe the comments and ban you from leaving further comments. I don't have a tolerance for this childish bullshit.

I'm resuming my commissions from where I left them off a long time ago. I still have the commission information and the reserve list intact. I've contacted most of the people on the short list on the front page. If you're on it and you haven't responded, you should have a message in your notes box right now. If you don't want to be on the list any longer, for whatever reason (short list or reserve list), send me a note and I'll take you off and put the next person in your space.

The reserve list is somewhat absurdly enormous, so I'm going to not take new requests for slots on it until I whittle it down quite a bit. Please don't send me requests for a space on the list or queries about new commissions. I'll make an announcement when I want to let the reserve list grow again.

Thank you all! Best fans ever.

Jay Naylor

Big ass LJ post about my two week experiment in excising wheat from my diet. http://bit.ly/JBiYCp

TLDR version: removing wheat from the diet = looking and feeling better.

I'm keeping the main comic feed for Original Life PG-13 by adding mosaic censoring to the open nudity. It's hard to cover a clothing optional community without doing that. I thought of trying to cleverly hide everything with sprigs of foliage and wisps of hair, but felt I should just go natural with it. I want people to be able to read the stories as they please, anywhere they like, without worry, which is why I'm keeping the main comic site censored.

You can find the uncensored comics on my Tumblr account ( http://jayrnaylor.tumblr.com/ ). I'll try to post them up the mornings they update on the main site, when I wake up. They're not really sexual or crazy or anything, really, but I thought I'd give the option to people who like to save the files.

I really like the drawings of  quadra

Quadra is one of those people whose work I look at and wonder why they only have as many watchers as they do. It may have to do with the fact that his scraps gallery is more populated than his main gallery, though his scraps are really good looking. The concise tightness of his line work grabs my attention first, followed by the body shapes he tends to depict (it's possible he enjoys the female bottom almost as much as me). Seriously, some of his cutest stuff is in his scraps folder, so if you check him out, don't forget to look in there.

A journal post about a piece of fan mail I received from someone who found my comic through a ridicule site. http://fiskblack.livejournal.com/101912.html

I've been liking the work of  kiwie

She has a splashy color style that's very different and sometimes comes off as chaotic, but it strikes me as eye catching. The furries and humans in her gallery are very cute and well put together. Definitely one of those artists you can recognize right away by looking at their stuff, which is something that I always like: a style that doesn't "blend" with any kind of popular standard. I have a feeling she could do some really awesome badges and portraits.

It's rare when a style, alone, catches my attention, beyond whatever the subject matter may be.