I'm sorry I still haven't been active and getting back to working and communicating with everyone regularly.
The issue is I'm basically homeless right now. I thought I would have a place to go back to once I got back to my hometown, but there was an emergency there they had been dealing with so I couldn't go there right away. So I tried to stay with one of my brothers for a couple weeks while waiting for that to be ready, and any of you who have followed me for a while probably know that my family and I really don't get along, that I in fact wanted to entirely cut them out of my life for the way they mistreated and betrayed me in the past. But after several recent deaths in the family this particular brother had reached out to reconnect with me and I had been making an effort to be receptive to that. That's why when I had to bail after the massive emergency situation I just got out of but was caught in between not having a place to go or enough money to rent a room or anything for that long, I decided to take a chance on getting help from my brother.

It was a huge mistake.
Not only was it not an ideal situation as far as me getting work done since he has no internet installed, we were fighting with each other from day one. It only got worse, and it ended with him kicking me out the night I was preparing the Patreon posts, literally in the middle of me working on them. Since then I've been scrambling, and I got extremely lucky that some old friends were willing to let me crash with them to wait out the rest of the time until I can go back to where I actually stay, and that's why I'm able to post this update now.

Because of all this I haven't been able to be active, or get much drawing done, and I missed my Patreon upload schedule. FYI I made a similar post on Patreon that is free for all followers/subs to view, which goes into more detail about how I'm thinking of handling this over there.

I'm just incredibly sorry everything ended up like this. The emergency that sprung up at the end of October was a disaster but I could have recovered from it relatively well if only there had been a safe and stable place for me to go right after, which I initially thought was the case. I really didn't expect the fallout from it to be this cascade of mounting catastrophes. Right now I'm doing the best I can to get back to some semblance of stability to be able to get things back on track here and with fixing the other aspects of my life. I'll do my best to keep you all updated as I go on with that.

Hey FA! My last journal was a while ago but it was actually for a positive reason, I had finally been focusing on catching up with and revamping all the things that had been put on hold because of the recent deaths in my family as well as the family and living arrangement related issues I'd had before that. It took a year but I got myself into a great position to launch my fresh start, and some of you may have noticed that if you saw that I had finally been able to open for commissions again not long ago.

And then a very serious situation came out of nowhere, involving a person I'd been friends with a long time who had apparently been doing some truly terrible things and manipulating people for potentially quite a while without myself or anyone knowing. It all blew up in a huge crisis that impacted me and a lot of other people they were connected to, and it totally upturned my life overnight. Since this involves so many other people, many of whom I haven't even met but only learned of as I got more information about how it all came to this, I have to be careful with what details I include in consideration of them, so I'm sorry for not being more descriptive and specific while talking about this, but I hope you'll all be understanding about that, and I'll do my best to relay the seriousness of what happened despite that limitation. I had been visiting the person at the time, to break away from my hectic hometown and its demands & distractions and focus on straightening out my life and revitalizing my art operations, so I was there when this happened. That person had driven me there for my visit, so I ended up stranded hundreds of miles from home, without anyone else I was familiar with to ask for help. I had to spend everything I had just gotten from commissions just to be able to make it back home, and I had to leave some of my belongings behind. This basically summarizes the situation but you can read an extended post about it pinned to my Twitter bio.

As I'm sure you can imagine, this has put me in a pretty bad situation in the immediate sense, and caused some upcoming problems I'll have to deal with too, like making arrangements to get the rest of my stuff back. That's why even though I've usually never needed to ask for donations, this is going to be pretty hard to recover from, so I've set up for donations on ko-fi and patreon which I'll link here or you can also find linked in my pinned tweet, for anyone who would like to help me out that way, which I appreciate immensely. Even if you don't donate though, I could also really use help spreading the word simply because Twitter has gotten worse and worse about showing tweets to my followers and many of them haven't seen any info about this, so if you can share the tweets too even that would be a huge help and I also really really appreciate that.

On top of the donations though, I also am rolling out an idea I had a while ago that I thought could help me make more TF comics. It's a system where people can make a one-time purchase of the comic to help fund it while I'm drawing it. I noticed a lot of people would subscribe to the patreon for one month at a time so they could see the comics as they came out, but this would allow people to buy just the comic they want without having to worry they'll forget to cancel a subscription, and it'll help me ensure I can actually have time to produce the work. I wanted to do a better rollout for it than this but it's sort of a critical situation and I think this could help me bounce back faster so I'm going for it.

I'm sorry to come back with bad news again like this, but the good thing is I'm still in a better position overall than I was a year ago so I can recover and move forward from this. Thank you all so much for reading this and supporting me, and here's hoping with the help that comes from this I can get back on my feet and get back to making more art for you all very soon!

Links:
Info tweet - https://x.com/mad_onyx/status/1858011802732474699
Patreon donations & comic orders - https://www.patreon.com/onyxaries/shop
Ko-fi donations - https://ko-fi.com/onyxaries

Hey all, just letting you know why I still haven't been posting. I was sick for pretty much the entire month of June.
I'm pretty sure I had COVID when I was sick in the beginning of the month (I didn't test but I've had it before confirmed and it felt the same), and right after I was finally recovering from that I got a massive ear infection. It caused me not to be able to sit or stand up without losing my balance and without getting super nauseous, and it gave me eye spasms called Nystagmus so I couldn't see well because my eyes were constantly jerking back and forth, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I had to just take antibiotics and lay in bed.
The COVID had lasted 2 weeks and the ear infection lasted another two weeks so I basically couldn't do anything the entire month. Once I was feeling better, I had to take care of a lot of other things that I had to put off during that time and catch up on doctor appointments I had missed as well as go in for some follow up visits to check on my ear.
I still haven't fully caught up on everything so things are still hectic right now but at least I've had a *little* time for art stuff, so I've been working on that and mostly on setting things up to be able to take commissions, which thankfully is one thing I've made a lot of progress on. I may have to wait a little time before I can make a nice new price sign, but I should at least be able to start taking comms publicly again soon!
Anyway I just wanted to post about it to let people who might not have seen me mention it on Twitter, and let people know that I will be posting art again soon.

Also, I want to thank everyone who leaves comments on my journals giving me support and feedback! I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to replying to all of you yet, but I want you to know I've been reading them and I appreciate hearing from you guys! Things have been rough for me so seeing that support helps me remember I'm not just totally alone out here and that I have a good reason to keep doing this. So once again, thank you!

Well, last week I finally went on my trip to bring closure to the terrible thing that happened the previous month. I'm back now, but I've been sick since getting back, so I haven't been able to jump back into art stuff just yet. I'm working on it, though. I just wanted to let everyone know I haven't posted in a while because I was away and have been sick, and that I'll be active again soon.
Things will be likely moving in a pretty fast pace for me from here on out. I have a very small window of time to stabilize my situation, and I'm not sure how things will play out. I have to move again, and I'm not sure exactly when, or where I'll be headed when that happens. All I can do right now is keep working on stuff, get back to being able to take commissions on a regular basis, and overall just keep laying a foundation I can hopefully rely on eventually, and hope it works out.

As far as specific things I'll be working on, there are a few more wait-list commissions I need to finish before I finalize my new prices and open comms to the general public again, and I'll post more updates on that sort of thing later so be sure to check my journals here and there for that. I'm aiming to be able to start taking general comms again in June.
I also want to keep moving forward with more comic style work, which I'll be making available on Patreon first and then openly for everyone. Since it's been a few months, I'll likely start making some of the Patreon stuff public soon.

Basically there's a lot in the works, and I'm hoping I'll finally be able to get all the things I've been working on out for everyone to see. I really want this to be the year I'm finally able to produce things without any more interruptions or upsets or having my life turned upside down, although unfortunately things are still going to be turbulent for at least a little bit longer until after deal with moving again. Like I already said before though, all I can do is stay the course for now and see how things go, but I am looking forward to finally getting to do art again and show everyone what I've been making!

I haven't really posted about this because it's been incredibly hard for me but a few weeks ago, something very awful happened. I don't really want to talk about it, but I wanted to at least let people know that there's something I have to deal with now because it means I again had to take time away from working on art and I'm still going to have to take more time away soon because of it. That means some things will be delayed and some will take longer for me to finish, and those delays are why I felt obligated to at least let everyone know that something happened and that it caused those delays.
Some stuff regarding this is still uncertain so I don't have exact dates to work with unfortunately. I can only estimate that sometime in the next couple of weeks is when I'll have to explicitly take time away again.
After that though, I'll be back and continuing to work on the things I've planned, to the best of my ability. My situation has unfortunately become unstable again so that's going to make my efforts to move forward harder but I'm going to keep trying anyway, since that's all I can really do. Despite how this may sound though, I still believe this is the right thing for me to do and that it can work out. I just want to be able to produce art regularly and do commissions and comics and I still think that's possible, even if it's just going to take some time.
While it's true that the going has been rough for me, there have been positive developments too, things that make me more hopeful than I've been in a long time. Every week I see more and more improvement in the art I'm producing, I've gotten faster, and I'm finally figuring out a lot of things I struggled with for years. I do truly think me building this into a working system really is just a matter of time, specifically of me having the chance to produce and post consistently for even a short time, and I think with the work I've been making that time is not far off.
So I'm still hopeful about the future and still looking forward to showing the art I've been working on and creating even more.

I've long wanted to do a sequel to my Easter TF comic and with Easter coming up, I had an idea.
I may try a pre-order system for my first few comics.
I eventually want them all funded through Patreon, but I have to move again very soon so I need to raise some funds pretty fast & this could do that while securing me time to actually draw them. I've been hesitant to start drawing any comics because of this time conflict but I think this solves it. Funding them while making them instead of after would ensure I can actually make them, then I'd have finished comics to post to help me get noticed more, which hopefully gets me closer to fully funding it through the P. But if people really like directly buying the comics they want this way, I could keep doing that too. And I was thinking Patrons can get a discount, early views, & maybe even some extra content. I'd also post public previews, but not the full thing until a while after pre-orders get it.
Idk why I never thought of this, I really think it's a good solution that'll let me finally do comics regularly.
But let me know if you guys are interested in this!

That title is probably more suggestive than I mean for it to be...
Anyway...
You know how they say in horse-riding that if you get thrown off, you have to get back in the saddle soon or you'll be terrified of it forever? (At least, that's what someone told me once.) I don't horse ride but that's how I feel lately. I got thrown off course from art so many
times, and it hit harder each time, because each time my life got worse and worse. Even now that I have everything set up, and I finally have the freedom, I've been terrified to start trying again. I'm so scared that if I do, something terrible will happen again. I'm also scared because I have nothing left to fall back on if I can't make it work this time, and since it took so long to get everything ready, the financial buffer I had has run out, so I'm already up against the wall.
All this gave me so much anxiety I've even been too scared to message the people I've had waiting for commissions. It probably sounds dumb, to be so paralyzed by fear like this- it probably IS dumb. But I've been really, really struggling with it anyway, and I just felt like I had to say it. I've been seeking help to get over it, and talking to people about it. I've been talking to my brother about it, and I did again yesterday, and he really helped me realize some things. So I decided, no more of that. I'm going to keep doing this. I don't know if it will work out but it's all I have and it's what I want to dedicate myself to doing. So there's no point in being afraid of it. I just have to keep going. That's all I can do.
I'm just posting this to make it real. Now it's not just a thought in my head I can debate over.
So anyway, if you've been waiting for a commission be looking for a message from me in the next couple days, or you can send me a message too, either way. And if you're a Patron, be looking for new stuff soon too.
Sorry for such a long and sappy journal, like I said it just felt like a good way for me to get started moving again.

Hey all! I'm sorry I didn't post more throughout the month, I was still focusing on prepping everything I needed to qualify for the new payment platform, which still took so much more time and effort than I thought it was going to since my last update. The good news though is that I was FINALLY able to register! After I test it out independently, I'm planning to take the few commissions that I've had on the wait-list to fully make sure the system works and to clear the wait-list, and then I'll be able to resume taking commissions on a normal basis. So hopefully normal commissions will be open again by March/end of February.
Now that the worst part is over, I'll be able to post more regularly. I will mostly be focusing on posting to Patreon but I will periodically post anthro/furry content here . It will be mostly sketches and wips for the moment most likely, but the aim is still to generate some actual comics, so a lot of wips will be from the comics in progress. Over on Patreon today, I posted some recent sketches I did to both help plan for a comic I'm starting and to help me figure out some simpler and faster ways of getting things done without losing too much quality, so if you're interested you can go over there and check them out! Anyway, it's just a quick update today but a huge one, because things are finally moving forward again!
One more thing, I'm considering making an Instagram page just so people will have a more immediate way to reach me. Obviously I'd be restricted in what art I could post there, but at least it would be a hub where people could find out when I've posted new art, be able to DM me, see stream announcements, and I could keep track of it via the app. It would let me do all that kind of stuff I've been using Twitter for, without me having to deal with Twitter and its BS. So if/when I set that up, I will make another post announcing it!

The plan was to start posting more, gain an audience, take commissions, build up Patreon, the usual freelance artist playbook. My Twitter is dead in the water now though thanks to its changes in recent years, with the gutting of moderation and algorithm throttling implemented in the last couple months being the nail in the coffin. I have no outreach for my NSFW art now, and I don't draw enough anthro stuff for FA to make up for that.

Another door's been been closed, so I have to change up again. In a way I'm glad, because I'm tired of chasing views and likes and all of that noise. I just want to draw and I'm trying to find a way for that to be possible.

For now, everything I draw will go up on Patreon only, except most of the anthro stuff, which I will still post here from time to time. Eventually I'll set up a new gallery where I can release everything, once I find a good option. I made a $2 tier and $5 tier to try and give the most accessibility and benefits I can to people who still want to see what I'm making and offer support to help me keep making it.
I'm also doing this is because I want to make comics and I'm just finally going to switch to doing that. It's long form content that will take a lot of work and time on my part and I don't want to post into the void anymore. I want to know that the people who came to see the final product will be *guaranteed* to see it when I post it, and Patreon will guarantee that, plus I'm giving something directly to the people who are making it possible for me to create it. The last reason I'm doing this is to help me balance my workload. I'm also switching the focus of my SFW art to comics too, and I'll be prioritizing that since I still have some potential outreach there, but drawing so much comics means I can't really produce enough on both sides to post very often. I know that the pool of people who sub to the Patreon to see my hentai comics and a few pinups will be much, much smaller, and I think that will be better in terms of trading quantity of content for quality of content, especially since the people who do sub there would be going out of their way to support the creation of that content. I think it'll be easier for me to keep up with and have a more direct relation with the followers there, so it feels more fair to me. All I can do is give it a try and see how it goes.

Important to reiterate here is that the goal of this is not to make the art exclusive to Patreon forever. I will be continuously looking for good options to set up a free to view gallery somewhere. The caveat is that it just has to have good outreach for nsfw art in order to make up for the time and effort of making content for it and posting there, because that's the only way to start getting enough commissions and supporters to continue doing this. I have some ideas in mind, and I'll keep everyone updated on those efforts.

I'm finally on the last step of setting up new a payment system, and I'm still planning to open commissions once it's set up. However I will be doing a small trial run of commissions with a few people who've been on a waitlist for a while to make sure it works before I start taking commissions from the general public again.

Lastly, not that this is necessarily relevant to FA users, but I will not be posting art on Twitter anymore. I'm not deleting the account though, I will still use it to post updates about things and maybe announcements about commission openings or new posts on Patreon. It's a good idea to still follow me there if you want to stay updated on a more real-time basis because it's easier for me to post there than here, honestly. There's also a lot of art, including TF sequences, that I've posted there that you may not have seen if you only follow me here, so if you're interested it's twitter.com/mad_onyx (@ mad_onyx if the link doesn't work.)

Also, I'm gonna be doing a lot of work for these comics, so on both Twitter and FA I'm limiting DMs/Notes to communication about commissions and Patreon only.

As always, I'm incredibly thankful to all of you who are still supporting me, and still looking forward to seeing my art, even after all this time, and even after all these setbacks. I'm doing everything I can to make this work, and I still think there's hope that I will. }:)

Anyone who's been following me has to be tired of seeing these by now.
My life's been a total shit-show for the past decade.
So many issues with my family, my health, all the while I've been trying my hardest just to keep my head above water.
The pandemic sure as hell didn't help.
Last year I got overwhelmed again. I had a job but it was really unstable in terms of hours and it was getting pretty dangerous because of how tense everyone was about the pandemic. I had taken these two illustrations jobs so I could quit and work safely from home, and I ended up having to quit one of those too, because my mom got extremely sick. She ended up passing away before I could make the trip to see her. I was able to go to her funeral at least... But then right after I got back, my dad had a stroke. He didn't recover and also ultimately passed away too. I made another trip to be at his funeral as well. So not only did I lose both of my parents within months of each other I had to make 2 trips all the way up the coast back to back. All of this happened pretty recently, I only got back from saying goodbye to my dad in January. I was sick when I got back too so all around I had to take some time to rest.
Things have not been easy, but they're getting better.
I miss my parents, but in their absence, I'm much, much less involved with my family. Not to say this is good or bad but truthfully it means my time is a lot more free, now. I no longer have anyone I have to stop everything for at a moment's notice. So, with that time, I've slowly been picking myself up and getting back to things I had to leave behind before.
I'm not exactly sure where I go from here and I'm honestly really hesitant to even make plans anymore since it seems like every time I do something comes at me from out of the blue and screws everything up.
All I know is I'm going to draw and keep trying to make it work.
Thank you so much to everyone who has enjoyed and supported my art all these years. I'm looking forward to finally having a chance to create more again. I'm still aiming to finish all my previously taken commissions before considering reopening commissions, but I have been working on a potential order form for taking commissions once I do reopen. I'm hoping that won't be much longer, I only have 4 more to finish. Also I'm going to reduce Patreon to just one general support tier until I get back into the swing and can handle more. Those are pretty much the only things I have set in stone for now. I'm just hoping once I start working on things again it'll all start to grow and flourish organically.
Sorry for such a long message but thank you for reading it!

There are $1 Commission Slots on Patreon (currently full). They hold your place in line and give me a place to interact with & update you. Every $1 paid to wait is discounted from the final payment. Delivery & full payment are still handled outside Patreon, this just puts everything in one easy to navigate place for me & gives people an actual queue to use. I've limited it to 4 slots so ideally nobody waits longer than 1-2 months for me to get to them. Right now only 3 are active while I phase into this. Each slot is individual so WIPs & discussions are only visible to me and the commissioner.
I know this might seem kind of odd but I hope you all will like it. I think it's going to help me keep everything organized and flowing as I start doing commissions again.
Thanks, and tell me if you have questions!

Stream at https://picarto.tv/OnyxAries

Stream is live at https://picarto.tv/OnyxAries

Hey all, just letting you know my Patreon is revamped and relaunched!
There are rewards for voting on monthly illustrations, taking part in request streams, and getting to see some new TF and other kink-related comics!
I'm hoping with Patreon I can gain a bit of support in exchange for things that won't add to my commission backlog (like the request streams, voting, & early access) so I'll have the breathing room I need to finish those last 5 commissions and actually be able to start taking new ones again. And most importantly, I'm hoping it'll give me the time I need to draw more comics and TF sequences, haha.
So please consider pledging to my Patreon if you can! It'll really help me be able to produce more art. Thanks everyone ]:)
The link is www.patreon.com/onyxaries
P.S. I'll also be starting to stream again, so keep an eye out for journal posts/tweets announcing when I go live!

I'm sorry for the long absence again, I had a few things to finish up and other life stuff to deal with. I have a little bit of time now so I'm here trying to make the most of it. I'll be taking new commissions this month after finishing the 2 old ones closest to being done. I'll still have 4 old ones so I'll only take 2-3 new ones for now. I'd like anyone who's interested in commissioning me or didn't get a chance to before to email or dm me by 6/20. I'll have to choose which to accept based on how fast I can do them rather than 1st come-1st served, for now, so being able to see what everyone wants will let me decide and plan. The goal's to take ones I can get done fast while leaving time for the old ones & my job, then take a few more after finishing a group. I'm only planning to do this limited commission thing no more than twice. By then I should be done with the backlog, have setup the order form, & be able to open commissions normally in July. This is meant specifically to help me reach that goal, so if you want to help out, please speak up!
A full description isn't needed but please include this info:
Type: stream sketch, full illustration, sequence
Character Count: Stream sketches 2 figure max.
Finish: black & white, cell shaded color, rendered color. Stream sketches can only be lineart or flat color.
Thanks for reading this guys and I hope to hear from some people who're interested. Things have been moving forward, slowly but surely, and hopefully this'll help me keep the momentum going and growing.
Reminder, my email is onyxhorn_aries@yahoo.com.

Okay, I discovered some huge issues with the way I set up the Patreon so I pulled it down.
I'm looking into another way to create an online storefront for commissions and I think I've found one but it'll take some time to set up. If it works, I'll open commissions with that and relaunch the Patreon, using the Patreon only for recurring benefits instead of commissions. Until then, I won't be accepting any new commissions, including stream sketches. Unlaunching is supposed to pause the billing cycle but if you signed up please take note of whether you still end up getting charged later on. If you do please message or email me to let me know and I'll refund you.
For now I'm just going to focus on finishing old commissions, making some new art for the gallery, and coming up with a streamlined, organized, and user friendly way to handle commissions.
I'm sorry for still being such a mess, everyone. I'll keep trying to get my shit together.

Back to streaming sketch commissions!
https://picarto.tv/LayLines

Streaming commission/sketch commission stuff!
https://picarto.tv/LayLines

Streaming on Picarto! https://picarto.tv/LayLines

Hey everyone, I'm streaming a mix of commissions and sketch commissions at picarto.tv/LayLines
Hope to see you there!

I've been through so much guys...
but I'm back now. My life is COMPLETELY different than it was when I stopped being able to post regularly, in a good way though. Maybe I'll elaborate more later, but for now I just thought I'd drop a journal for followers to know I'm still here and that I'll be posting new stuff soon!

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry I've been gone. I've been really sick and it's kept me from being around. However, I finally started getting treatment last month and I'm feeling way better now so I'm going to start updating again. Thank you to everyone who stuck around, I really appreciate it!

Could anyone tell me how to make a submission into a featured submission please? I've been trying forever to figure it out and I haven't been able to lol

Yup, we're going live! Check out the price sign in my gallery, and email me at onyxhorn_aries[at]yahoo.com if you're interested! ]:)

Unfortunately I will not be able to receive new commissions this Monday, June 8th, due to continuing problems with my pay service. I will update on when they will be available.