DTA#1: Do not shade in gray.

Shade with a color, preferably ambient color. If you can't identify what the ambient color should be, default it to the general color of the ground, or closest surrounding. Alternatively experiment with other colors that complement or contrast the colors of the character.



;D If you guys like this I'll throw more short tips once in a while. Also if anyone wants me to expand on "why" I'm suggesting to do or not do something, tell in the comments and I'll respond 0v0!

So a few months ago I realized I tilt my drawings to the upper left and can't notice it at all until I flip the image. And this persists even now that I noticed it and actively try to consider that it might be happening. I'm fighting it by getting into the habit of flipping the canvas very often.

But, I'm still really curious about why this happens to me, and I wonder if any other artists watching me have noticed something like this.

I have some hypothesis:

-It could be related to how I sit, making me tilt my head warping the vertical axis as I work, this has a good chance of being the problem because I don't have a decent seat or any professional gear in my setup, and I have a damaged lower back, so I'm pretty sure that when I'm focusing on drawing I just slump my body into a bad position that at least doesn't make my back hurt. I've caught myself slumping in my seat in really weird ways sometimes because it is an uncomfortable chair.

-It could be related to being right handed, because of how much easier movements that pivot on the elbow and wrist are, but I don't think it has anything to do with this really. I can't see a pattern in this related to the leaning to the left side in the drawings.

-It could be related to my right eye and ear being pretty damaged. I was about 19 when I was working on some electrical wiring in a factory, I had finished placing a wire through a tube and I was removing the guide, which was a plastic cable that you slide in first to use it to drag the actual electrical cable with after. When the end of this plastic wire exited the tube it flung off of it and right into my open right eye, causing some damage, and has been 50% blurrier than the left eye since then. The right ear is very damaged too, I'd say it works at a 70% of the left, the damage happened after having an ear infection as a kid and not being supervised I ended up poking into it to try to get out the shit that was hurting and clogging the canal, stupid me, and neglecting parenting... I almost died a couple of times for getting sick and my parents being too busy arguing with each other to notice I was not just refusing to eat for no reason and shit like that, so more often than not I was taken to the doctor a little too late, or not at all, and then left alone a lot without being explained what was happening. Anyway, so, since my left visual and audio input is better, it might be dragging my output in that way too.

-It could be related to my screens placement. I sit and work right in front of my main monitor and I try to stay centered on it, but I have my secondary shitty monitor on the left, so whenever I need to peek at reference, social media and stuff, I look left... so it's possible that subconsciously my workspace is taking that whole area and since I'm only working on the right corner of it all, my mind tilts the drawing to the center... to the left. A third monitor on the right would help with this unbalance, but I guess I should rearrange my desktop to have the secondary screen on the right for a while so see if the art tilt changes at all.

-Finally, it could be just a natural deviation of being human and not very skilled. I just can't keep a perfect symmetry and that's it.

I really would like to know if you have noticed something like this on your own drawings. I'm talking about a clear bias towards a specific direction instead of just weird perceptual distortions warping proportions and such.

Or is just me? This seems like a terrible change, now to see the real size of the image you have to right click and open it in a new tab.

I mean... this is great for uploaders that don't consider that their image is not detailed enough to be worth a huge size to see things up close... in those cases being able to see the whole image right away without having to zoom out is fantastic. But it sucks for detailed artwork... you won't see the detail up close until you open it in a new tab or have a really huge screen and you fullscreen the browser.

Dunno. I was really happy with being in control of how my image is displayed to the viewer, not that has been taken away from me.

But again, yeah, it's a plus to take away that control from the vast majority who was misusing it. I guess.

:/

36 years. I think from now on I can consider myself in the second half of my time on this rock soaring through space around a big ass fireball.

I'm feeling old and unaccomplished. What the fuck have I been doing with my life so far? I look back and it's mostly failures, lot of shit I could have done better, and even if I have learn some from all those mistakes, I still feel like I've gotten nowhere yet with it.

The present is not phenomenal either. Lot of shit going on that I'd rather not talk publicly. At least I got to sit down and talk with both my parents a few days ago, which I've not talked with for years now because of shitty events.

Dunno. I'm not super depressed or anything. But yeah, things could be a little better, I swear I've tried. That being said, I do acknowledge and value that even if I'm not popular still many of you appreciate my drawings, that's one of the few really positive things going on for me right now along with the handful of people who care about me at the personal level, love ya weirdos.

Anyways. I'm grampa Leo now for all you furry kiddos. Get the fuck off my lawn 😡... unless you brought me ice cream 🤔

I'm gonna stop posting to weasyl for now since the activity there is just way too low.

Maybe if sometime I start using postybirb then I'll resume content there, but yeah, for now it's just not worth the effort 🤔

That being said, FA is my main gallery, getting all I make, with Twitter as the main alternative where I also write down whatever stupidity is lurking on my opinionated brainage. Facebook is active but doesn't get many updates since most of what I make is adult content and I keep facebook as clean as possible.

That's it. Little update.

ovo

The system itself seems safe, it seems to redirect a payment to your paypal email, just as any other site where they don't gain anything from it directly other than maybe display you one more ad before you leave to pay. But FA has some history of shady handling and questionable choices, I just don't feel safe.

You guys as supporters would favor this system to tip artists at all instead of other options like the artist's paypal.me, ko-fi, or joining their patreon to get some rewards?

The main motivation to use this is to display your name automatically in artists pages as a donator, in a ladder, like you get in livestreams where you appear in the screen and the artist can get to thank you in front of everybody. Thus FA gets to keep you in the site, displaying more ads.

I wanna know your thoughts :)

...from commissions that asked for severe changes so the pose ended up being redrawn from scratch, and many personal projects I didn't progress past sketching for different reasons.

I have no clue what to do with them!

Offer them as discount YCH poses? This option could be interesting. I can update the proportions to my current skills on those sketches that are older from when I was a lot worse at this. And whoever takes them get's a little discount off from what would be my current price.

Sell them to another artist? Maybe other artists who are getting started would be interested in buying the bundle of poses for cheap to edit them into their own commissions or YCHs. But this one might be tricky.... I guess the artist would have to at least disclose that the initial sketch was acquired from me, to be fair with the clients.

Just get rid of them? I can just finally drop them into the recycle bin, so the fact of having that folder stops bothering me every other week xD

Collage and upload? I could just put them all together and show it off. But I don't think this would be really interesting. It would be mostly a mess of sketched poses in different qualities from different stages of my art adventure. Some friends, ex-friends and clients would be able to recognize their characters from discarded sketches, that could be potentially interesting for them, but also potentially upsetting.

I don't know what to do, lol. -flips table- :D

Congrats Sancuth! I'll send a note to you.

And thanks everybody for participating and supporting my art!

Keep an eye out for the next freebie, I'll keep doing these once in a while :)

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31091499/

:x

I did that cute Scorbunny voted from twitter, and now I did an NSFW Incineroar voted from patreon which will be public here next month. Also through the years I've done a few anthro and feral pokemon from commissions.

Dunno, there's something specially fun about working on these.

I might do something pokemon related again soon. Maybe as the second freebie raffle of the year here in FA, sometime next month. :D

What non-OC characters do you think are the most popular around here in the rule 34 way?

The most evident to me, based on my own browsing habits and artists I watch, would be Krystal (Starfox), Renamon (Digimon) and Lucario (Pokemon). But I'm sure there are just as popular as those three that I'm not remembering or I'm just not personally exposed to in a regular basis.

Throw me some names :D

I'm dumb.

So, 5-6 days ago (i'm a bit confussed about passing of days from staying a lot in bed and sleeping as much as I can) I ate that one hot dog sausage that had started getting a suspicious greenish color. I was like PFFF Imma tough boy and the sausages had "just" started changing color, they were all loking fine the previous day.

I like to think I'm not dumb, but if I make choices like these I definitely am dumb.

I've been fighting the food poisoning since. The first 3 days were pretty bad with the throwing up, dehidration, fever and pain, but the last two I've been a lot better, my stomach is still not fully back to normal, still feeling like shit, but at least it's more like an uncomfortable feeling and small headache instead of full on pain and fever.

So I'm taking it easy and trying to heal up.

Sorry specially to my patrons on Patreon who are throwing me dollahs for me to work on my comic and I'm here lying in bed instead xD

Yay \o/

First of all DON'T go bother them or any of the people managing that group, they still do a useful service and they work pretty hard on it.

The reason I don't support that group anymore is because they have taken a stance against humour once it poked at an artist they like. People are memeing about how ridiculously high some art is being sold for, and they disapprove of that type of humour, they started telling the artists to stop making fun of each other because that's not what the group represents, mixing the trustworthyness of their bussiness along with their personal opinions, jokes and criticisms of one another.

I'm happy for artists who make it that far and can earn a lot of money with little work, makes me hopeful that maybe one day I can make it too.

But that doesn't make the memes and jokes any less funny. We need the comedy, we need the jokes, even if they are at the expense of someone we know... or ourselves.

The line is when it becomes harrassment, which has not happened, and if it does then FA has rules for it and the offenders get punished. But until then it's just people having a little bit of fun, they just want a laugh, and we all need a laugh.

I suggested the group to keep their personal opinions personal, and share them in their personal galleries instead of making their TA group take a stance on people making fun of each other, they refused, they want the group to stand for a set of opinions now instead of just being a list of artists you can trust in that they will give you what you paid for.

So, yeah, their badge now represents a set of "values" that I can't associate with. I like comedy to be free and explore near the line, I like when nobody is exempt from criticism, I like when each of us can share our opinions and criticism in our personal corners of the internet specially when it's done as comedy, satire... when it's funny. It brightens my day.

I will keep drawing stick figures with a huge realistic dong, and Nick and Judy with huge dong and boobs, making fun of other artists and myself in the process. They don't like that now, and I don't like them for that.


The group was nice while it was just about listing artists you can trust in that they will give you what you paid for. But now they are taking stances about the personal opinions of their artists... now it's political, and I don't associate with their opinion, they don't represent my opinion.

Commissioning an artist to make something they don't normally draw is a gamble, we might end up disappointing you... or it can turn out awesome instead.

Some artists might refuse the challenge because of quality standards, personal discomfort with the content you're requesting, or simply because of the worry of end up disappointing you.

If you ask me, I'd say it's very professional to decline the job for any of those reasons. However, I'm supportive of the idea of taking the challenge as long as the client is well aware that they are putting their money on an experimental artwork and the result is not as guaranteed as a regular commission.

Personally, I love taking these challenges, but I have a threshold. It has to be only a little bit outside of my comfort zone, because I don't want to severely risk the quality of the outcome just based on how personally uncomfortable I feel with the topic I'll be drawing... so it has to be small risks, things I can work on without risk of ending up curled up in the bathtub crying while the water cleanses my degenerate artistry endeavours.

By taking these challenges over the years I've been able to work on kinks and topics I was pretty uncomfortable with, and even gained some proficency at them after getting used. Now I can draw humans, soft bondage, tentacle, dickgirls, cuntboys, pokemon, no problem, all which I was very insecure about at the time each of these were outside of my comfort zone. Right now I'm trying to get decent at painting style... I'm still not very comfy about it, I've been trying for years now, but I feel like I'm almost there now.

Now I even adopted some of these topics into my own interests. My comfort zone expanded.

I would love to get commissioned to draw more pokemon, for example, and get more experience on that. Non-anthro ones, cuz anthro pokemon is not much different to drawing any regular anthro furry to me at least.

One thought I was pondering is how valuable is the idea of having a private practice in the specific topic instead of accepting the commissions about it as the training.

Doing some training to bring the skill in a specific topic up to an acceptable level sounds like it would be the most professional step to take before start taking commissions in that area, but options like giving a discount or at least making sure the client is fully aware of the risks sounds perfectly respectable too.

The big problem with doing a private training is that most artists are already partially, if not fully, reliant on the income their art is producing, thus they can't afford taking a break to train and come back later with a new power level and hair color... so the best compromise would be, as I mentioned, to give a discount and/or make sure the client understands the risk, and just take the challenge.

Of course I'm sure there are less adventurous artists, who have refined a specific skill, and would rather profit as hard as they can from it instead of exploring more skills and lower their income while they gain experience on it, or risk failure. Other artists are in a really tight budget so they can't afford taking risks... and those who irresponsibly do it anyway end up with a ridiculously long list of paid commissions and clients waiting for months or years, or unacceptable quality outcomes.

Some artists simply can't be intrepid and professional at the same time, because of their personal living situation, or their personal values and respect for their clients... or lack thereof.

Hmm.

If my cost of living was higher I would be forced to maximize my income and exploring outside of the comfort zone would be very inconvenient. Maybe this is why I don't get artist blocks, I just allow myself to explore and have fun pushing myself a little outside of the comfort zone as much as I can... because I'm in a situation where I can.

Yeah... I have fun doing this furry thing. This is fun.

Whatchuthink?

I've authorized  Cynderfan35 to reupload his german translation of Beach Afternoon.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/30397943/

\o/ Cheers.

If you get this e-mail revealing your old password... that's all they have on you, your e-mail and old password. They got it from old internet leaks and you'll be fine if you've changed your password in the last year or so.

Just make sure the password shown is not in use anywhere relevant anymore and you'll be fine.

There's no malware on your device, they don't have video of you, they don't know your porn habits, they don't know your name or have any of your contacts.


https://twitter.com/LeongonArts/sta.....26914249887744

Congrats  Confede! I'll send you a note!

I updated the image with the list of participants and the random number if you wanna check it out: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29987963/

I'll do a few more of these free art give-aways through the year, so keep an eye out for more chances.

Thanks for participating everybody \o/

For me was a mix of highs and lows.

Personally I hit an all time low with my family. Mostly for being the only introvert they just don't have a way to understand how things work for someone different than them, so I keep being pushed around, misundertood, disrespected... and this year a big disconnect from every member of my family happened, since talking has proven pointless... even if a compromise has been agreed upon, they break it rather sooner than later because they just don't care.

Relationship-wise it's been better, but not completly satisfactory. It's mostly because of distance. All my friends I talk to often, and love interests, are physically far away, so I'm basically a frustrated lonely guy in many aspects at the moment, though I've learned to live with it and not get overly depressed or grumpy.

Health has been pretty good this year, I barely fell sick a couple of times. Been eating healthier with homegrown vegetables and lowering the amount of sugary drinks, and at same time I've been doing more excercise by working the garden growing these veggies, sweating my ass off under the sun digging and mantaining the soil. I still have some extra weight, but it's definitely getting better, there are some muscles showing up under the floof.

Art! This year I did that 15 page YCH full color comic, a lot of commissions, and a bunch of Patreon supported pieces, and even the beginning for an even bigger comic that should be ready to release a few months into 2019. I've gotten a lot of watchers lately, which makes me really happy and really thankful of every and each of you who find what I draw worth keeping an eye out for.

How about you? How was 2018?

Hola! Just wanted to tell you about what I'm doing on Patreon.

-Every month between the 15th and 18th I take input from $2+ supporters to draw a piece. It's usually a naughty fan art piece of a character that catches my attention between the ones suggested by patrons, but I vary it once in a while making something SFW, an ask me anything, etc.

-The main thing is having support while I work on sexy comics. I'm aready working on the next one now that Beach Afternoon is complete. There's already a couple little sneak peeks about what I'm making now. There's a report and sneak peek at the end of each month to tell what progress is being made in regard to the main project.

-When a main project is completed (like Beach Afternoon) the full download is immediatly available for $5+ supporters, while all patron tiers starting at just $1 have early access to pages as I upload them week by week.

-Starting at just $2 you can get multiple cameo spots in the upcoming projects. Your characters in the background and even a few interacting with the protagonists. These spots can be shared with your friends, since in some cases there will be more places to have people walking around in the background than each individual supporter has characters xD

Those are the main perks of my Patreon at the moment.

If you like the comics and illustrations I've made so far, maybe take a look at my Patreon and consider supporting me? Even that little $1 a month helps me in being able to dedicate more time to draw these sexy comics n_n

https://www.patreon.com/leongon

I'm more of a scientific type when I'm presented with a problem in front of me. I look at the cold facts of the situation so I can figure out the root of the problem to then think of ways to fix it.

Often I find that PC culture gets in the way of fixing things, because it encourages infinite layers of things people can get offended by... can't attack and fix the issue at hand if you gotta walk through an emotional minefield first. It's draining, takes a lot of energy.

But on the other side of the same coin you have the lack of care for other people's feelings, and that will also get in the way because we DO have emotions and if they get rattled we easily lose sight of the goal and can't work together anymore. If you disregard the emotions of the one in front of you, you'll turn them against you wheter you had a good point on your side or not.

I fall into this problem very often because of my direct approach to solve a problem, disregarding how the other person will take my point... this problem is exaggerated through text over the internet because to type a message that carefully accounts for the many ways the message can be received by other person it would take the same amount of work you would do while writting a book.

Ain't nobody got time for that -sassy hand move-

But I still find myself on the other side of that, getting offended for small things or just messages other people wrote without accounting for my feelings.

Emojis usually help the other person read the message in a happy playful tone, but this also often predisposes us to take messages without emojis more harshly than they were meant. It's a mess more often than not, too many eggshells to walk through.

Both extremes suck and gets us stuck in a place where we can't get problems fixed.

We gotta try to work towards the middle. Balance sympathy with pragmatism. We can have different opinions without every disagreement to mean an offence. We gotta be a little less ready to be offended, and a little more willing to avoid a couple of eggshells while getting away from the PC culture and detachment extremes. And mostly, we gotta learn that we can disagree... we can disagree on many things, and still work for the same goals side by side, and be friends.

It ain't easy though. Extremes are enticing and juicy... but they are bad... PC culture sucks, being a cold fact machine suck too.

I'm still uploading there though, if you wanna watch me there too just in case something implodes here one day, or I upset someone with power and get my ass kicked.

\o/

I've been considering to start one more gallery to have more backup, but I'm not sure which others are very active AND have no cub porn. Any suggestions? ovo?

I was thinking on taking a couple general commissions this month, but now I got a sexy YCH idea I could prepare in a few days. Aaaah, I can't do both, half of the month goes already for compromises like patreon stuff and work on next comic.

It would be cool to be a workaholic getting lot of shit done. But I don't have that amount of energy.

Or... wait... I could become a vampire and spread the work load over a few hundred years instead OvO! I already prefer being active a night!

For me it consistently takes one week to get over the withdrawal sympthoms from sugary beberages plus the sometimes weird taste that tap water gets in different areas, after which simple tap water starts feeling good and refreshing. Of course it's easier with bottled water because they take care of the bad flavor even if it's just overpriced tap water anyway.

Sadly since I don't live alone the fridge gets restoked with cocacola wheter I want it or not, because they want it, and it's easy to fall back into the sugar drink addiction. It sucks.

owo; Random journal is random, I know. How are you doing tonight?

Lick and fondle your turkeys real good :3

Please don't hate me, I need foods for my tummy.

xD

Take a look: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29458283/

When I open for commissions I usually post a journal. I'm closed right now, working on the first stages of my next comic, but I'll take a couple of commissions on december :)

Have a nice day \o/

Have fun :D