Well, it's the last day on my FurBuy auctions...

http://www.furbuy.com/seller/ksharra.html

These include the original lineart and inks for one picture that can ONLY be seen on a pay site, and the FIRST EVER drawing of my tiger-bunny character Keryn, with her original tail design (it has since been changed) that surprisingly has no bids on it... >.> Guess people didn't like the longer tail. Glad I changed it! XD

It's also nearing the last day for me here in Kansas! I'm almost done fixing up my house for sale, just need to get to feeling better (been sick), finish up all these projects, take some "after" pictures, and head up to WA in time to prepare for AC! Sorry I've been so long with no new artwork, I've been busy for all of two weeks now with this monster house.

*crosses fingers*

http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001966

Awesome idea. Wish I had thought of it. Wish I had time for something like it.

There's also some really great auctions by  blackteagan that are ending today, and a new auction up by an artist I hadn't ever heard of,  opalweasel, has a nice style almost reminiscent of Terrie Smith or someone else, can't put my finger on it. If you can't bid, go check out their FA pages.

(Gawd, I love the FA links http://www.furbuy.com uses! You can track right back to an artist and see their works!)

This seems to be a trendy thing to do. I've seen Dragoneer do it, and Likeshine, and it's a really great idea! So...

My own personal absolute favorite artists:

 zaush - Awesome anatomy, very sexy work.

 jeddibub - Beautiful works with a lot of soul, detail, and storyline.

 keihound - Great toony style and lovely fluffy fur.

 shinigamigirl - Beautiful linework and graceful figures.

 blotch - Dude, who DOESN'T love this guy??

 moonstalker - Another "awesome anatomy, very sexy work" artist.

 furball - Super sexy (just look at the icon!) stuff, best small-breasted fems I've seen.

 lizardbeth - Another somewhat toony artist, does awesome badges!

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And some noteworthily awesome mentions:

 pocketbatinc - Excellent stuff, shows a lot of promise in becoming one of the greats.

 meesh - Solid marker work, excellent pictures.

 miles-df - Unf, lovely stuff! Had a friend commission sketches of me from him before, all very awesome.

 starfinder - A little too human/realistic on the body hair to be a fave, but awesome work anyways.

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So now that I've shared my favorites, who have I not listed that you think *I* should be watching?

Note: FA only lets you put up to 12 Icons in any post, so I had to edit it down a wee teensy bit!

Went to go check my auctions today, and the number of auctions up on http://www.furbuy.com has almost tripled!!! There's some awesome stuff from Briona Campbell (Malachi) and BlackTeagan, as well as a lot of other cool stuff! (And of course my 6 auctions for the Spike Fund!)

FYI I'm out of state right now in Kansas working on fixing up my house for sale, so no art right now. I'm busy hefting big bags of stone and soil and rebuilding walls and replacing cabinetry... But I'll be done and headed back home just barely in time for AC!

NEW AUCTIONS:

I'm doing a massive auction run of combined original sketches and inks, along with a signed print, of the following pieces:

WARNING: Auctions contain adult images!

Chained Down
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001899

Easter Fun
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001900

Keryn
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001901

Keryn Valentine
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001902

Invitation - Not a publically available piece!
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001903

Perfect Angel - No print included
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001904

Half of the proceeds from these auctions are going to a special cause:

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My wonderful friend : spike2k5forever: lives in South Africa, and has been trying to get to Canada for a long time now. The situation down there is getting bad for him, and he wants to move out to a country with better job prospects and better living conditions. He is doing what he can to move to Vancouver, BC to get a job in design and/or architecture, make a better life for himself, and be closer to his friends.

The folks at The Reset Button ( http://www.theresetbutton.ca ), a small gaming magazine company run mostly by furries, have started a fund to help Spike move up to Vancouver, BC to be with his friends and start a new life up here. But they need help. They're only a small company, so they don't have the money to get him here, and a lot of Spike's closer friends (like myself) are too broke to contribute the amount of money it takes to get him into the country.

Due to lack of donations, the fund is in danger of never reaching its goal, so I am trying to help renew interest in getting Spike to Canada. I have a page dedicated to taking donations for Spike's fund (the donation links go to the Reset Button's official Paypal funds) here:

http://ksharra.furcen.org/spikefund

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Please, bid on the art, and if you can't afford to bid, please just donate what you can. I love Spike to pieces, and everyone who knows him or has had any contact with him knows just how much of a sweetheart he is, and he's in need of help. I just feel frustrated that I can't do more for him.

To the people who bring stuff with them to sell for cons (prints, art supplies, merchandise, etc.), how do you pack them for airline treatment? (I.E. being thrown around willy-nilly without a care for contents.) I don't have much art for the art show, and it's pretty small, so I think I can pack them in my laptop case and have it as a carryon. But the rest of it....?

I'm going to be bringing the prints I've had made, a box full of buttons and magnets and bumperstickers (the box is prepackaged so the contents will be at least somewhat safer), my Prismacolor markers and colored pencils (I may be able to fit the pencils in the laptop case too, as well as my regular pens and pencils), a small cash box, some display stuff (like signs and folders displaying my prints), and my art paper and sketchbooks. And probably more that I've forgotten.

Every other con I've ever been to, I drove. So I've never had to worry about the airlines and their haphazard treatment of things and how to prepare for it. ^^; I don't want my markers killed, or my prints scattered or ruined, or my clipboard broken (any more than it already is), or or or...?

Help? Tips, hints, etc?

YAY! I finally did something with my Cafepress store! The most recent 4 non-adult pieces (the otter, gryphon, snowmew, and squirrel) are now available on everything from T-shirts to mugs to postcards to yadda yadda yadda... As well as all the old stuff! (My personal faves are the pawprint mug in "Random Goodness" and the Mark Twain quote.)

Go check it out! And let me know if there's something else you'd like to see up in my store!

http://www.cafepress.com/ksharra

I finally killed my old Micron pens, ran them totally dry, so I went out and got some new ones. They're supposed to be waterproof and fadeproof. I've been using Microns for ages with my marker pictures. Never a problem.

WHY now are the new Microns smudging?!? I have these HUGE smears of ink all over my picture now, completely ruining it! The ink has had at LEAST an hour to dry before I laid marker to paper. What is up???

*sighs* So my pirate piece that I've been working my tail off on, I now have to try and salvage. This is severely FUBAR. Is there something wrong with the newer Microns, or am I the only one having these problems? Is there a better tech pen I can use?

To anyone who has ever sold prints at AC:

How many prints should one bring? I have lots of pictures, and I'm planning on selling prints, but I've never sold prints at a larger venue. How many of each pic is a good number to bring?

Also, which pics do you think would sell best as prints? Should I bring more of those? And I'm thinking about maybe doing some jumbo prints as a limited edition thing, any pics that people might be interested in getting a larger print of?

K'sharra
Con Noob
^..^

I went rummaging around thru my art stuff, and found a huge stack of sketches, lineart, and even a couple finished works that have just been collecting dust in a pile in my studio.

Well, I have a very small studio. And no room for piles of things. And no money. ^^; So I'm going to be, gradually over time, selling off all my old sketches and lineart works. This is a great opportunity for anyone if they like a particular piece of mine to have the original idea and work behind the finished picture! It's, like, a piece of history!

Right now I've got two of the finished pieces up for auction: the last two pics I just uploaded, "Dragon Ride" and "Bound". I may toss up some of the pics of myself and Fallen, too, since they have no more sentimental value. And the sketches will follow soon after! Expect constant auctions (except for those two weeks I'll be in KS) for a while.

Oh, I almost forgot! I might actually want to LINK to the place...

http://www.furbuy.com

Since the auctions I have up are adult, I'm not going to link directly to them here, but you should go check out FurBuy anyways. They'll be integrating with FurAffinity soon (*kicks the admins into gear* come on guys!) and plus they're TOTALLY free unlike some of the other pay-per-feature sites out there. There's a bunch of good auctions up already, and we're always looking to have more up!

I only have three weeks left until AC.

Yes, AC is five weeks away. But I have a two-week-long trip coming up to handle some legal affairs regarding my house in Kansas. :P So I've only got two weeks before that and one week afterwards to prepare and do artwork.

There's a few people who are waiting on artwork from me. I'll be doing as much as I can within these two weeks before my trip to clear out my queue, but just so you know, if I don't have it done by then I'll have to finish the work after AC. I'm sorry. ^^;

I'm also still waiting on payment for a few con badges, if you've ordered one and you haven't already gotten your prelim sketch, I haven't gotten the money.

Oy. Life is so hectic for me lately... I'll be doing my best to get what I can done!

ADULT CONTENT:
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001851

It seems there was an accidental bid placed in error on the auction that bumped the price up pretty high. I've already had a talk with the bidder, and the bidding has been corrected. Sorry if the price scared anyone off... Go ahead and check out the corrected auction above, I extended the bid time out a few more hours to compensate for the error so people who want to place valid bids have the chance to do so.

Also, I'm going to be out of town for two weeks in June, and I won't be able to get ANY artwork done during that time. So if you want to get a badge for Anthrocon, get 'em early so I'll have time to get them done before the con! For more info on badges, go here:

http://ksharra.furcen.org/badges.html

Idea stolen from  lizardbeth, because it's just an awesome idea.

I'm getting ready for Anthrocon and I'm needing to draw up pictures to put in the art show. But I don't know what to draw. So the question is: what would you buy? What do you look for to determine if you like a piece? Is there something in particular that you are looking for in an art piece that says "I must have this!"?

* Any particular species or characters you want to see at the AC art show?

* What do you look for in:
- Pose
- Layout
- Species
- Anatomy
- Gender
- Color scheme
- Anything else?

* Is there anything in particular that makes you NOT want to buy a piece or sways you against buying it?

Not being a buyer, I don't know what people want to buy. I've requested panels in the adult AND non-adult sections, so there'll be some of both, but it falls on me to fill them.

Lemme know!

Yay, I've finally got the A-OK on my final sketch for my big commission, so I can get to the easier part: inking and coloring! *whew* The concept work is the hardest part, I swear!

In celebration (since it won't be long now until the pic is done) I've posted a new auction for a custom-colored version of the "Blindfolded" pic, with my character K'sharra bound up by an as-of-yet unidentified canine!

http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001835

Go check it out! Auction ends May 22. And check out all the other cool auctions there! (I bid on one myself, it was too cute to resist. ^^)

EDIT:

Oh and I just got my new badge protectors in! ^^ I couldn't find ANYONE who sells 3x4" badge holders around here, so I've been doing them all in 2.5x3.5". But I found a place to order them online, and now I have have 3x4" badge holders! Now's a GREAT time to order badges, since now you can get a bigger badge for the same price! ^^

http://ksharra.furcen.org/badges.html

I've been watching FurBuy lately, and there's been some more people putting up auctions on there, and there's some good art! I know  flinters has been putting art up there, and there's a cute auction for a cat with sushi (oh if I only had money!), and a few commissions... I'm glad. I'd be putting more up there if I only had the time, but I'm busy on my current projects.

I highly suggest everyone check out http://www.furbuy.com - it's a good auction site, and it's actually going to be linking with FA soon. ^^ It's my auction site of choice, especially since the issues I've had with Furbid. If nothing else, go check out the auctions there occasionally, and if you're thinking of selling, maybe toss an auction or two up. ;)

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I know I haven't been putting much art up, I've been stuck on this one commission, but I'm just about done with the sketch phase and about to move onto inking soon, and then color, and then finish up all my other art projects. Because I really need to get some pics together for Anthrocon! >.< I want to have my otter and "Lick It" pics done and ready for sale by then, and I'm hoping, HOPING, I can get around to painting that raccoon pirate piece I did what seems like so long ago. It'll be my first furry painting ever. ^^; I'm kinda nervous to try acrylics. New things = scary.

I think the studying I've been doing has helped out a lot. With my commission, for one, I've been able to put a lot more emotion into it than I originally had. I'd like to study more, but I feel like my time is running low. I need to get to busting my tail and get to DOING some stuff.

I changed my avatar! Nyaw! (Just refresh if you're still seeing the old my-face-in-a-circle avvie.)

I figured it was appropriate, what with this whole "relearning how to draw" thing I'm going thru. I've been feeling like my art has gotten stale and emotionless, so I'm going back to basics and trying to remember how to capture emotion and evoke feelings thru art. Doing real basic things, drawing life studies, sketching for the sake of sketching and not for the sake of making a finished piece...

You'll probably see a bunch of stuff cropping up in my "Scraps" folder. I usually find it useful to see other artists' unfinished rough work, so of course I'm happy to share my own as I go back to teaching myself how to draw again. Bleh.

I'm starting to get tired of JUST doing furry art. It doesn't make nearly enough money to even be considered a part-time job. It's more a paying hobby. I'd like to branch out into something more, like fantasy illustration. But I don't know how. I don't even know where to begin.

I was wondering if there were any artists out there that have been or are in the biz who could offer advice for a poor starving furry porn artist looking for something more outta life?

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BTW: http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001816 is still up until April 26. Yeah, it's clean art... But it's a cute squirrel! And if you're not signed up for FurBuy, sign up and try it out. It's free, it's worthwhile, and it'll be coming to FurAffinity and partnering up soon.

Hey there everyone, sorry about the brief absence. I've been dealing with quite a bit of drama lately, and it's had me too tied up to be doing any artwork. :( But hopefully things are getting back to normal, and I can get back to drawing!

The most recent pic, "Brighteyes", is now up for auction here:

http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001816

Yes, it's on FurBuy. As a little side note, apologies to those people who prefer to use Furbid-SF. I will not be posting any auctions there anymore because I no longer feel safe using their system. It's all a part of the aforementioned drama, but suffice to say that when the admins choose to reinterpret their rules any way they please and start taking serious actions for things that aren't stated clearly on the site, it makes for a very unsafe environment. Feel free to send me a note if you need details. I won't go into it any further here.

Look for new art up soon, I still have that otter pic to finish, and the "Lick It" picture needs ink and color. Mmm.

Well, all my auctions have gone thru, back to real life again.

I still need art for the RainFurrest conbook, and we still need submissions for the T-Shirt art! So far I've gotten a LOT of people offering to do stuff, but so far no actual art. ^^; This makes a kitty sad. Give art to the emo kitty.

(Just kidding.)

We DO actually want art, it gives you the great opportunity to get your art out there, get some more hits to your website, get some more exposure, put your art on a t-shirt that people will be wearing proudly for years, etc.

Details are here in case anyone needs it again:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/101395/

We're looking for a lot of different things: T-shirt designs, full page (8.5" x 11" 300dpi) artwork, or even little doodles to toss in here and there to spice things up! If you contribute, your name and website go into the conbook too, so people can follow it back to your gallery!

Please contribute!

I'm starting to die down on the excessive workload that's been plaguing me, so I can finally get around to just doing art, that's not owed to this person or has to be done by this time, or... *whew*

So question is, what species/gender/position/etc. do you want to see? I already have a short list of species I want to draw, but I'd love to know what everyone else wants to see!

(And there's a good bet the pics I draw will be going up for sale, so you might be able to have it up on your wall later. ;) )

No specific characters, please. ^^ Unless it's, like, Max giving me permission to draw ZigZag or something like that. LOL

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Don't forget, too, I'm auctioning off the Ready To Ride and Buckshot pieces on Furbuy:

- http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001814
- http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001815

Also there's still a couple days left on the commission slot on Furbid here:

- http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auctio......pl?item=29264

And I'm still looking for submissions for the RainFurrest conbook and T-shirt contest!

- http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/101395

I had a great time at AllFurFun, but because there were so few people there, there weren't many bids placed, so I came home with some of my pieces left over. So I'm auctioning off the Ready To Ride and Buckshot pieces on Furbuy:

http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001814
http://www.furbuy.com/cgi/showaucti.....cgi?id=1001815

Also there's still a couple days left on the commission slot on Furbid here:

http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auctio......pl?item=29264

http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auctio......pl?item=29264

Only one slot for now, on auction for 5 days.

I'm REALLY in a crunch for cash right now, only barely broke even at AllFurFun, and I have a lot of big expenses coming up, like, YESTERDAY. ^^;

Hi there! I need free art! :D

...WAIT! Don't go!

I'm the Conbook Lead for the upcoming Pacific Northwest con, RainFurrest, here in Washington. http://www.rainfurrest.com And here's what I'm asking:

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I'm looking for good, talented artists to help illustrate RainFurrest's first con book! Our theme this year is... *cue dramatic music* The Rainforest!!!

Yeah, we're keeping it simple this first time around. What we're looking for are pictures of furries in the DECIDUOUS rainforest! Don't know what a deciduous rainforest (aka temperate rainforest) is, versus the tropical kind? Here's some pics:

* http://ksharra.furcen.org/xtraimages/RF1.jpg
* http://ksharra.furcen.org/xtraimages/RF2.jpg
* http://ksharra.furcen.org/xtraimages/RF3.jpg (The guy in the pic is 5'6", for size reference.)

Our mascot this year is the cougar, but you're also encouraged to draw ANY of the other animals native to the Pacific Northwest (specifically temperate rainforest) area: black bears, elk, raccoons, river otters, beavers, squirrels, rabbits, marmots, etc... All submissions must be PG-rated (no nudity!) and must be received by May 15th.

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We are also looking for submissions for our con's T-shirt design! Submissions for T-shirt design need to be in black and white only format, at least 300dpi. Send all submissions to us through conbook-at-rainfurrest-dot-com before May 1st! If your picture is chosen, you will get credit in the conbook, as well as have your art printed on our lovely T-shirts! Submissions that are not chosen may be considered for use in the conbook.

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I won't pretend to promise fame and fortune and shiny new cars, but I CAN promise that if we choose your art to be published, your name and website will be listed in the con book, so you get free publicity and promote traffic to your gallery! I can also promise you a great big hug if I see you at RainFurrest, whether your work makes it into the con book or not! (Though I can also give hugs at AllFurFun or AnthroCon, too, if you're there.)

If you have a pic you want to submit, contact me through this website http://www.rainfurrest.com/contact......act=Con%20Book or via email to conbook-at-rainfurrest-dot-com. I won't share the pics with anyone besides the con staff that will be working with it, but you can share them wherever and however you like. If you send me a color pic, I will greyscale it for printing, but feel free to display the color version (or offer prints)!

Please, if you send artwork, make sure to include your name as you would like it to be displayed, and a URL to your website, so we can put this information on the conbook if your art is chosen!

I'm really looking forward to having a lot of great art in this year's con book, and ANY submissions are greatly appreciated! Hope to see you all at RainFurrest!

Wow, it was a HUGE tie. Thanks to everyone who was stalking my page hitting the Refresh button like crazy! (Yeah I was watching you...)

Just as an FYI, most systems don't count your visit as a "new visitor" more than once every 30 mins. So with so many people watching, once that 10k trigger went off, everyone who refreshed that had already been counted in the past 30 mins saw the 10,000 mark. That's WHY there were so many.

Sorry about the sudden change of journals for posting to, I made sure to post in enough time to give the refreshers a chance to read it, and it was kinda a safety measure against the people crafty enough to try Photoshopping it and have it pre-loaded and ready for posting. :D

....Okay, enough delays. The winner of the contest (according to my now overfull Comments page lol) is...

 maelstrom !!!

Congratulations, PM me for your commission! :D

And thanks again to everyone who was watching! I wish I could draw a pic for each and every one of you, but OMG that would kill me! XD

Comment here AS SOON AS YOU SEE THAT 10K!

I know you're out there Refreshing, I see you.... o.<