Still in the planning phase BUT after a "why haven't you..." conversation with a friend I've started to work on a YCH featuring my characters~

Rough idea is I'd be a 1-2 page comic featuring the OC of the buyers choosing. Something SFW and with all the wholesome interaction vibes I'm about <3

Do have an artist on board, but still working out logistics.

What I'm thinking is OC's baby shower and the buyers character having some 1v1 interaction time with them.
Buyer would choose:
- Any OC of mine (including AU Nina in a modern setting, not her canon tribal)
- OC's outfit, though realistic (ie not sling bikini or French maid outfit ;p )
- The usual minor tweaks like expressions, reactions, text/conversation, etc etc

Now my questions for ya'll...
1) Should it only feature the two characters? Or should there be a single whole room establishing shot with a bunch of (cheap) OC cameos and then the rest be 1v1?
2) What sort of actions/interactives appeal to you? (Conversation, belly reveal (shirt lift), having hand guided around, feeling movement, listening (stethoscope or doppler?), etc etc).
3) What sort of conversation would you want? Is there something you'd like to hear her say? Any questions you'd want to ask?

The generic "work has been hectic" reason @..@

- The owner of the company wants to keep hiring his friends and family to be overpaid paperweights with comfy do-nothing office jobs
- Keeps adding apps to our workflow in an attempt to increase efficiency. We have.... a timecard app, mileage reimbursement app (in the rare cases we're allowed to file it), the tool/consumables debit card app, the receipt scanning app, the scheduling app, the OLD scheduling app that 75% of the database still uses, the app residents can use to file work requests and our internal office management app. As one carpenter put it, "give me one app to punch in/out, shove the rest up your ass and let me do my godamn work!"

Headed to BLFC in a few weeks and invited a non-fur coworker as he's also fond of casinos, gonna be fun!

Forgive I'm brushing over alot of detail on the ethics of surrogacy.

There's the "buying a woman's body" argument, financial exploitation argument in using women from country's of low income, legal situations if one party wants to keep/reject the baby and the broad "buying a baby" argument.

Given all these I'm scratching my head how to incorporate an 'ethical' surrogacy into a characters backstory.

So ladies, what situation/s would make you consider surrogacy? No shame if it's a purely financial thing, just seeing what's "real", but if that's the case would it be though an agency? Or would you want some connection to the parents? Family, coworker, friend, etc

Headed across the pond in about a month to attend Eurofurence with  leavixen

Quite excited as I've never been outside the US except for day trips to Mexico and Canada.

Any followers who will be there? I really should bring some buttons to hand out.

This year was... taxing, fun, but taxing.

Volunteered in safety again (first year as staff OwO), had an absolute blast. Only had a few scheduled shifts so floated around between departments for most of the con. I had looked at the schedule and didn't really see anything that jumped out to me. I didn't visit the game room at all and I think that was for the better. Thought I had a stash of 'I ♥ pregfur' buttons to hand out but didn't and didn't have enough time to make more :/ Maybe stickers next year???

I mainly attend conventions for three things;
1) Participating in the parade
2) Browsing a few hours in the artist alley
3) Being social with the community that I love ❤️

The first two things can be accomplished in half a day and then I would pretty much spend the rest of my time cooped up in the game room playing MTG and chatting with people. But all this volunteering that I did this year I feel like was a SOOOOO much better use of my free time because I got so many more interactions with furs rather than cooped up in the game room with a limited people flow. I *think* on Saturday alone I must have done at least 12 hrs (plus meals and fursuit parade). While exhausted I have not one regret for any of the time I put in. Mainly in safety dept but a little in registration, con ops and dealers den. If you were in the Westin on Fri/Sat and in a fullsuit you likely took an elevator ride with me when we had the breakdowns, at one point 2.5 of 6 were working @..@

Within elevator
Attention fursuiters, a moment of your time! You are currently in a service elevator. This elevator is for. Escorted. Uppies. ONLY. PLEASE do not use these elevators to travel amongst the hotel however tempting it may be. This is at the polite, but firm, request of the hotel. They have allowed us temporary access to these staff elevators while their technicians furiously work to resume elevator service as quickly and safely as they can. Like any privilege these elevators can be revoked if they are abused. Yes the hotel manager has seen people ignoring this request. Yes I have caught people. Yes they were mad at me for some reason for enforcing this rule. In the words of our beloved Uncle Kage, "We want to keep the hotel people happy!" Thank you! Have a wonderful night and stay hydrated.

To people in line
Attention attendees! We are currently working with (number) of 6 elevators at this time! There are technicians working the shafts as quickly and safely as they can to keep things moving! Thank you for your patience and there is a water tower around the corner here if you need water.

Few highlights!
Got recognized by what I consider a surprising amount of people
Mostly positive interactions with people who really liked my badge and username (except for that one babyfur who reached out and rubbed my badge 🤮)
Got a cool Loona sticker for my PC case
Had a nice chat with one of the normie hotel staff*
... and some other stuff I can't talk about >:/

*She saw my badge and was like "So uh... what's with the whole *motions with finger* Pregfur name?"
Me: Well! As the saying goes "dress for the job you want, not the job you have" so with me it's the desire to have a family someday. That's my character there *points to Logan* and the unspecified other *points to Jennifer* is ment to represent the partner I hope to have someday 💕 Her face lit up and was something like "oh I get it Hun, I'm a mom of 3 and grandma of 5. I hope you get that dream someday!" That really made my heart flutter even normies find it sweet~

Any followers hear my elevator speech? Line speech?
Did anyone say hi? I saw a alot of people, you all blended together and are a blur after the 10th hour XD

Shout out to " theguynooneremembers and  el3m3nt115 as well, was nice to meet you both!


=== Big news! ===
Started a new job right before the con, 50% pay bump which is epic.

Now that I have a bit more sewing experience I've decided I'm ready to attempt a full suit. Also encouraged by how many ppl at the con asked why I didn't have a preg fursuit. Honestly a bit of a mix between lack of crafting experience and lack of confidence having a physical Bridgette suit given I am a straight guy and she's a fun 'what if'. I don't just want it because of what it is, but I also the challenge of making it you know? As the former Chemic suiter shared "I mean, any time you suit as a pregnant lady, it's going to get you weird attention, especially if you're a dude inside the suit." But hey if things get too freaky I can always swap back to a male partial. Want to get a few paychecks under my belt before starting but stay tuned~

One thing I love/hate about the preg fandom is its one of the few interests that has IRL ties. Many kinks are all fiction and 'what-ifs', but pregnancy is something physical and real. That connection to the heart is a double edged sword, capable of causing great joy or great pain.

In the hands of a single obsessive bad actor it can so easily open old wounds of those who have experienced trauma and loss. Seeing burnout of artists who used to be passionate/specialize in preg related art is always a shame to see.

Unfortunately I have no advice on how to avoid such situations as certain prevalent bad apples within the preg community are serial at this point. A long history littered with discarded identities and a technique refined through the torment and trauma of their many victims.

While just a bystander, my heart goes out to those who have come to see this niche as a dark cloud to be avoided.

P.S Not me, I'm still going strong and passionate 🥰 Just feeling a bit of disappointment seeing another artist (whom I shall not name) quit offering preg due to harassment and torment from a known serial abuser.

P.S.S. Xander/Alex/Kai/Whatever-throwaway-you-go-by-now, please stop. You need help. Stop buying p*rn of other peoples characters and use that money to see a therapist. Be a better man and recognize that if multiple people, both friends and victims, are telling you that you have a problem then you have a problem.

Birthday was in May, got a small cake from the market but otherwise I didn't do any big celebration. Getting older is fun when you're young XD

Been keeping up pretty good on my drive to post old/forgotten images from the archives. Finding stuff I totally forgot about!

Job hunt going slow. Feels less like "where do I want to work" and more "what place is going to f**k me the least?". Be it low wages that are about keeping you alive, but not thriving. Poor/no benefits. Or HR doctoring up sh*t jobs with high turnover to try to trick ppl into interviewing.

Goodness, ya'll like Sierra! Shortstack twin momma it is~

1st
12 votes
Sierra

2nd
6 votes
Bridgette

3rd
4 votes
Chelsea

I'll keep it short :p

Job
Quit my job not too long ago. It was a low/no skill physical job supposed to be a hold me over while I look for a 'real' job. But it took over and left me too mentally and/or physically drained to meaningfully job hunt. With my roomates blessings I quit and have been hunting full time.

Kicking the habit!
Still going strong on my 'no more video games' pledge. Deleted both of my 10+ yr old flash game accounts not too long ago to lessen the relapse potential. One downside is both my roomates are both passionate gamers and while many of their titles didn't suit my tastes it's a bummer I can't participate anymore on the few we did share :/ I do miss minecraft. The movie was delightfully bad, I highly recommend watching the leaked early dev version as the missing effects, choppy greenscreen and other odditys make it even more enjoyable.

Art/Comm status
Not having an income atm means all comms are on hold, minus one patron slot from derrysome. Big thank you to everyone who Voted last week, Sierra + Interaction with belly/pup was the Winner and I'm quite excited to see that image completed (no eta yet). I think I'm going to start using that monthly slot as a means of follower interaction with votes and idea suggestions in the future. Certainly not stopping doing coloring, it'll resume once I'm employed as it was a very nice stress reliever.

Crafting >:3
Part of my video game kick was replacing that habit with something more physically productive, so I've been focusing more on 3D printer projects! Those following on my Twitter and Bluesky have seen little jigs and doohickeys I've been making. I DO have an exciting fursuit related craft I'm nearing completion on although intentionally keeping under wraps as I don't want to show off the inner workings of the prototype ;p

https://bsky.app/profile/pregfur.bs...../3llpvlfk34c24
https://bsky.app/profile/pregfur.bs...../3lmzzvhisu22t

I think that's it?

Oh! Fuck taxes. And people on FB marketplace who ask "Hi, is this still available?" and then ghost your reply.

Thanks everyone for voting! Not the one I expected to win, but certainly not mad~
Also ya'll really like birth it seems ;p

1st
8 votes
Sierra + Interaction with belly/pup

2nd
5 votes
Jennifer + Interaction with belly/pup
Bridgette + Birth
Sierra + Birth
Chelsea + Birth

3rd
4 votes
Chelsea + Interaction with viewer

Was swapping around some of the art on my walls and going through my art binder give me an unexpected feeling of regret. Not for the images I've bought over the years, but regret over how few conventions I actually attended in the past decade.

I have three planned for this year; BLFC, AC and EF. And while the latter is certainly probably going to be a one-off due to its cost, I feel like 2-3 is the 'correct' amount for me.

All the years I spent limiting myself to 0-1 either due to being scared about cost or feeling like I was asking for too much time off from work. Absolute stupidity. I gained absolutely nothing by missing out on these conventions except regret years down the line. Why did I limit myself from interacting with the community I love so much? Stupid insignificant reasons.

While not to say I feel like I'm coming out of my shell too late, I feel disappointed that it took me this long. Denying myself those mental health vacations was so short-sighted and silly.

TLDR; Attend a furry convention if you can, it's a blast. If your work doesn't give you the time off then it's not a place worth working.

Got sent back early so some bean counters could stay in my hotel room and have their faces seen when the project is completed. After all no one wants to shake the hand of the actual builders, our hands only get shaken in PR photos (if they don't hire models).

Had a reality altering flu last weekend I'm still on the tail end of. Being sick in a hotel room SUCKS. Just lying in the bed with no concept of time, feeling like my consciousness is floating 3 ft above my own body and drifting between realities as my brain boarders on cooking itself. Played ALOT of pokemonGO in my downtime as I'm not one to couch potato in a hotel, there was a nearby boardwalk that was quite populated with pokestops <3

Lets see art stuff... as usual a few various progressions/sequences in the works. Large comic I'm buying pages for every month. A few comms to post once they stop being Patron exclusives... yeah that's about it!

Not that I post with much regularity to begin with XD

Out of state job for 3-6 weeks
Don't have a tablet + sharing a room

On the plus side though lots of overtime available! Sold a large card collection recently and that essentially paid for AC and BLFC, so all this overtime is for my first time to EF!

So I'm a dude and that means there's certain aspects of life I'll never know. This particular one pertains to something only a mother could answer...

Moms! What reason, if any, do you see to have an elected unmedicated birth? Do you know anyone who did and why she did it?

From my perspective, it'd be like electing for no anesthesia during a root canal. Granted, epidural is no cakewalk and has its downsides I've heard, but compared to the alternative I'm not sure why unmedicated would be chosen if the pain-free option is available.

But I understand that as a guy, there's no doubt a... how to say... a feminine aspect I just don't "get". The feeling of power, tuning and connection with ones body during pregnancy, labor and birth that is forever beyond my grasp. I'll never know the feeling of "my body says X is how I want to do it" and I'd appreciate a glimpse into your thoughts on the matter.

I feel that 'unmedicated natural birth' is a cliché within the fandom which is why I want to explore if it's actually something realistic or if it's simply a fantasy/kink thing.

On a final note, lets say a character does have some degree of birth complications...

Is there a "right" way to incorporate traumatic elements? Say an emergency C-section; is it disrespectful for me, a guy, to have that be a parts of a character backstory? Is it disrespectful to women who have experienced such an event?

I seek such elements for variety as all my characters thus far have had uncomplicated births, BUT I worry if I'd be crossing a line adding a traumatic element that I havn't the right to use.


Thank you for your time :)

Im not even sure how to properly research such a question!

Lets say I have 3 colors from a characters reference sheet A, B and C.

I take 3 samples of each color shaded As, Bs and Cs

Is there a program to determine the shading? As in "If you use (color) set to (layer blending option) you can get A, B and C to equal their respective colors As, Bs and Cs."

I feel like it's both a math question and art question.

Art stuff uh... nothing pending at the moment. Been working offline alot on fursuit stuff and other crafts. I have a B I G comic project featuring Logan and Bridgette being sketched that's likely a few months out at least, although once pages get a bit more refined I'll see about posting WIPs. Big thanks to https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lucalyesend/ for taking on such a big project and being willing to give pregnancy a shot. Her expression game is especially on point and I can't wait to show them off!

The TLDR is a few years ago I had an interaction with a good friend (SFW you pervs) when she expecting. It was after a 'game day' with our friend group and she asked if I wanted to stick around after. Paraphrasing, she knew of my "appreciation" account on dA and wanted to sit down, chat and just kinda 'indulge' my curiosity so to speak. I swear I think we were chatting back and forth for like 3 hours, it was so much fun. Forgive if sounds a bit corny, but it was so.... touching? Like I view pregnancy as a very intimate and personal time in a womans life, and to have a friend open up to me like that really touched me. Not just Q&A for me, but having her share her experience was really insightful. There are some other aspects I'll save for the comic, but ever since then I wanted to capture the emotions in art form since then. Granted some elements had to be altered to make the comic flow and I did add in Jennifer and Rocket, but Logan and Bridgette felt like the perfect fit because canonically they are good friends.

Talking aside, I swear it was so magical to actually feel a baby kick with my own hands even though they weren't mine. Feeling that 'tap' and actually feeling something physical to confirm "holy sh*t there's a little person in there?!" "If you had a tail it would have flown off from wagging", her words not mine, she told me the day after apparently my bottom half was jittery when I was kneeling on the floor to feel her belly, though I didn't notice. There's more to share, but I'll save them for the comic~ <3


ALSO, my socials that I post both art and non art stuff to
https://x.com/Pregfur
https://bsky.app/profile/pregfur.bsky.social

If anyone wants to add me on pokémon GO, I gift almost daily. Central USA if that's relevant to any postcard collectors.
076414069562

Rediscovered a character I haven't touched since 2020. Could use a bit of money for other projects. Never sold a character before, any advice how to price?
My otter Ayasha: https://www.deviantart.com/preg-fur.....yoga-760319863

- 11 frame growth progression
- 24pg backstory (surrogacy via magic) with growth, labor and birth
- 2 uncolored traditional scans
- 1 Full color & shaded image
- Flats ref sheet

Is it better to ask for offers or via auction you think?

I'll say this upfront, I'm against any public use of AI generated assets. Using scraped data, while legally grey for the moment, is morally art theft. This journal is only regarding using AI privately as a tool. I do not support any public posting of AI gens such as the dumpster fire deviantArt has become.

So lets say someone had a commission idea, but a rather specific pose/execution they want. After all when you think "character sitting cross-legged" it might be entirely different than mine. So how would you show a potential artist your interpretation of that pose?

What if someone were to use an AI generator to make batches of "character sitting cross-legged" until they found one they liked? Ofc there'd be anatomy flaws, but it would get the general idea across. Well what if you wanted a specific angle of that pose? Hair a certain way? Sure stock photo sites are good to a point, but finding complex combinations can be very hard if not impossible.

Anyone who I've bought from can attest that my refs a very customized, I can't show any examples as they involves repurposed images from multiple artists that I can't post publicly, but for private refs is fine. Between photoshop doodling, stock photo clippings and modified 'other-belly-kink images', I put alot of work into my refs.

Now lets say you had limited program access or skill to make these commission collages, what then?

Same for first time character design. Sure free linearts exist, but what if you wanted one with a unique hair style, multiple limbs, muscle build or other such complex assets that aren't common? Would it be fair to say, "this, but a bit more muscular", because we'd run into the same problem of what you're thinking of would be different than mine.

Questions:
1) Do you think it's ok to use AI privately as a tool in the commission process? Such as for rough pose generation or rough initial character design?
2) Are you an artist who offers commissions? If so, if someone came to you with an AI pose or AI character to have you draw them, what would your stance be?
3) Much like kink "yes and no" lists, do you think it should be the norm for artists to specify if they're ok having someone use Ai assets in the commission process for the purposes listed above?

Shaking my head now chuckling as I'm only now discovering it.

TLDR; Brought trading cards to the game room and left "a bit lighter". Lent out a deck to someone who didn't have one and now missing $374 worth of cards

Brought a bunch of MTG commander decks to AC earlier in the month. Played a few commander games. I don't remember the faces or names but I remember the specific game. Sat down at a table at night, asked the guy there if he was looking to play (commander is a 4 person format), he said yes but that he didn't have any decks and was hoping people had spares. I had 5 so why not? I named off the decks and he lit up at Slivers, saying he had one at home he was building and really liked them. Flipped through the deck to "familiarize himself" with it, makes sense. It's one of my saltier deck but why not? Quickly got a game going, everyone bringing their A-game (I had Edgar Markov). Much fun was had, but he was beaten pretty early as any sliver player should be XD Cool so wrap up for the night and everyone parted...

WELL about ~20 days later one of my projects is swapping out some paper proxies (placeholders) and different card sleeves. My sliver deck comes up a bit light by 10?! (decks are strictly 100) Pull up my deck list and I'm missing... First Sliver (the commander), 4 of 5 shock lands, rhystic study, smothering tithe, mana drain, cyclonic rift and Teferi's protection! I'm baffled at first, check the entire box and think back to when the deck was last played... AnthroCon. That was the only play that deck saw and I KNOW he played the First Sliver so it was for sure present at the time. The deck was never dropped so unlikely any fell and it's telling that only the 'money cards' are missing. I'm wondering if the pocketing occurred after he was beaten, since no one pays attention to the knocked out player. Perhaps he made a neat little pile while observing the rest of us play then when we got distracted by stack shenanigans pocketed it?

But holy hell am I salty as f**k over this. Here I am trying to help someone enjoy the game I love and they slight-of-hand card jack me :c

Twitter thread with photos: https://x.com/Pregfur/status/1808512160085029269

- Overall great con again! Did a f**k ton of volunteering this year to fill in my free time rather than loitering in the game room and really enjoyed it. I think for the whole con it was maybe 22 hrs total?

- IDK your name, but the german guy who did bank work I did badge running for on Thur and Fri you kicked ass man! By far you were the most efficient badge caller I ran for!

- Also the couple from the elevator... Saturday? who got "I support pregfur buttons", I wish you both the best on your future family endeavors <3

- Did 9am-10pm in reg on Thursday (minus bathroom and lunch) and loved every minute of it. One us volunteers got into the swing of things I think we safely averaged <30 sec per badge? It was really cool seeing (almost literally) everyone at the con even if it was for such a small window.

- I especially enjoyed seeing parent/s who were chaperoning their kid/s. Tried to make it a point to thank them for their support because not all of us have supportive parents and it's really great to see them participating in their ^.^

- Same thing with the officers too, thanked them for their time and being a presence to discourage the rare bad apple.

- Tried a few other departments too, did a little in con ops and dealers den once reg slowed down, kinda like a tornado chaser bouncing between where the action was (and where they needed ppl).

- Handed out all my "I support pregfur" buttons, about a dozen or so https://x.com/Pregfur/status/180858.....063205/photo/1 It was really cool to give them to people who liked the subject. Even saw one 'in the wild' on a dealer from a previous year <3

- Didn't do as much fursuiting as prior year, BUT hope to change that next time. I want to invest in an EZ cool vest and neck wrap eventually https://www.ezcooldown.com/ They had a booth at AC but I wanted to not impulse buy.

- Also got to finally meet my longtime collaborator  20thx5150! Cool to put a face and voice to a username, keep rocking man!

Future projects;
Redesign badge to be sturdier
Jay's Boingy Tail https://x.com/Jay_Enfield (bought a core and haven't made sleeve yet)
Fursuit baseball cap
Fursuit cooling fan prop (my own take on those 3D popsicle ones; different food, bigger fan, etc)

Future item investments;
EZ cool vest and neck wrap

Super excited for AC next week <3 Who's gonna be there?

Also reg'd and hotel'd for BLFC! Who's gonna be there?
*Do have hotel space to fill, but that's a thing for later

Full time, part time or hobby, doesn't matter, just a moment of your time thank you!

Drafting a proper ref sheet for Logan and Jennifer and have some questions...

When a client sends you a character reference, what do you like to see?

Lets take Bridgette and Rockets sheet: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46186783/

Purely from a business standpoint (not subject/looks, cuteness, etc) what, as an artist, do you like/dislike about it?
Is there anything that I should add that, as an artist doing the commission, would make your job easier?
ie; "Add head and tail profile to show markings"

Things I do want to add
- Hexadecimal color codes

Feel free to link examples! I appreciate the feedback ^.^

May didn't quite go as intended :/
Wanted to upload more but really wasn't feeling it.
Been spending alot of time AFK, doing improvement projects around the apartment.
Passively working all month on a pretty lengthy Twokinds edit (like 10+ alts) that I'm excited to release soon.
Birthday was in May, didn't feel all that different. Went out for steak with my roomates.
Still getting used to having furry roomates, being able to do art stuff with my door open and have Loona and Jennifer desktops X3
Headed to AC in July, very excited <3
Who's going to AC?