Hey guys! Long time to see (at least on FA). I know that when we left FA a little over a year ago, we stated that we would leave our gallery in tact via our scraps section. Unfortunately, due to further changes on FA and in what will by necessity become changes in FA's policies when upcoming IMVU integration takes place, we're not really cool with having our art around anymore.

Yes, I know, Dragoneer has promised you nothing will change, but the fact of the matter is, he doesn't know if what he promises is true and by the nature of user driven content sites and cross promotional moves, IMVU will need the rights to use your work as it sees fit. He is not an owner of FA anymore, he just overlooks the site for his bosses now. He has no real decision making power, not that he's used it for the betterment of the site in the past. The fact that he is so willing to tout these things deeply concerns us. The consequences of him being in way over his head and his inability to fully understand the legalities of what's going on and IMVU's business practices are real and tangible. We don't trust him to be able to protect us and the use and rights of our art, whether he wanted to or not.

It is easy to blow this off as paranoia by the inexperienced, but the fact of the matter is, this has happened before to creators of IMVU art. Not just once or twice, but a lot. Every IMVU ad contains significant amount of creator produced work and these creators where never informed and outright left by how these things have been dealt with. One of us has been a victim of this as well in advertising and promotional kerfuffles and we just don't really want to hop on or even acknowledge that particular ride again. Even if Dragoneer wasn't practicing ventriloquism with is ass on the matter and he had a very long record of being a trustworthy, well meaning and honest site owner; If any of you have been part of the IMVU community for any amount of time, you're probably also very familiar with how completely untrustworthy they are with even their own policies and how often they have changed them behind people's backs after suckering people in with the initial policy.

We're not really here to start any arguments or conversations about this and we're not advocating action from anyone. Honestly, if you don't care about any of this stuff, the likely firing of Dragoneer in a year's time can only be good for the site. There are already plenty of conversations happening here on FA that are very much worth a complete read (not just 1-3 pages): https://forums.furaffinity.net/thre.....MVU-Discussion as well as on IMVU themselves (if you can find one that hasn't been locked). We just wanted to provide a quick explanation as to why we don't want our art around anymore, especially while it isn't being monitored.

That said. We will be leaving our work up in it's current state for at least two days. After which we will begin the process of deleting or redirecting the work to where it can now be found (likely mostly weasyl links). This will probably be done over the course of a week. We won't be doing a mass dump onto either site, so a lot of this work is just going to be outright deleted. If you have a commission in our gallery or happen to like a piece that doesn't exist on weasyl or tumblr, save the work for yourself now. If you have a commission that hasn't already been reposted to our weasyl, you can contact us via weasyl and ask to have it re-uploaded there! We also have a journal dedicated to requesting to have things added to your collections linked on our front page.

Tumblr: http://twofancyowls.tumblr.com/
Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~twofancyowls

And of course, our non-furry stuff can be found where it's always been :P All this info is on our weasyl. Thanks for the reading and best of luck with wherever this is going if you're still around!

We will not be responding to people in our journal about this. If you wish to talk with us about it, you are welcome to do so here: https://www.weasyl.com/journal/8064.....rtwork-from-fa

FA's formatting is horrible, if you want an easier to read version you can get it here: https://www.weasyl.com/journal/2489.....move-to-weasyl

We've been getting a lot of questions from people who hate FA but are worried about leaving because money/starting over/etc. If moving is something that interests you, here are some tips we've used in moving to other sites in in the past:

1. Post your submissions to weasyl first. We would do so up to a week before posting to FA, but a few days is also good. In the comment of your FA submission, state that you upload art to weasyl before FA. If you post a lot of art (a post a week or so) you can always have something new in your weasyl gallery for people to come look at. It helps new people to see that you actually do have other content on here.

2. Post cropped thumbs to FA and leave a link in the description (or write right on the art) that you can view the full versions on weasyl. This is one of our faves and has worked super well for advertising our comics, which are all hosted outside of our gallery.

3. Mini Kiribans this one takes a little more effort, but kiribans can be fun to do, especially sketches exploring things you are interested in! You can see an example of how to make a kiriban that includes everyone (not just the watcher of that number) here: https://www.weasyl.com/journal/2219.....weasyl-kiriban

4. Give these tips to your friends Helping others to leave the abusive relationship that is FA can also help you. The more artists who come here, the more watchers will follow and the less reason people have to stay on FA. You don't need to link back or credit anywhere, just spread good advice you may have for people! If we all help each other out, we can make this a very real thing.

5. Open commissions and giveaways on weasyl first Giving users first dibs on art on weasyl first will create more incentive to be here. Eventually, the offers won't last long enough to even get to FA.

In doing things like these, we have been able to afford to leave our main base of operations for commissions behind for greener pastures without taking hits. Commissions also used to be our main source of income and it can be scarey, but do not fret! There is always a way out :)

More very good tips that I did not include here because they are already here: https://www.weasyl.com/journal/24818

Tools for moving your galleries: http://projects.weasyl.com/

Tools for moving your watch list: http://projects.weasyl.com/soft/

Some benefits to starting over: http://mommashaus.tumblr.com/post/7.....new-website-to

If this doesn't interest you, feel free to move along <3

In our last journal we wrote it was going to be a break, but after further discussion with people, we've decided to just leave. We where trying to do the "diplomatic" thing, but in retrospect, it feels like the "flake out" thing. This isn't the sort of situation that we should be worried about pleasantries over. We've been around since '08 and it's become quite clear that this sort of thing isn't going to change. We put up with it because we love you guys, but we don't love this. It doesn't just make us feel "uncomfortable", it makes us feel angry and it makes us feel threatened.

FA's been pretty ban-happy against people who speak out, mention or think about this issue, so it's a good thing that >> we have a tumblr that can't be censored if we wanted to talk about this issue. <<.

We will be here:

weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~twofancyowls
tumblr: http://twofancyowls.tumblr.com/

We will not be posting art on FA anymore
We will not be checking FA after our commissions are done

Please no drama in the comments. If you're genuinely cool with this, that's your prerogative, just as it's ours to not be. You guys have been really great and you've made our time here really awesome, it has expanded our minds artistically and socially in a very real way and we will look back on this experience with only fondness. It is our hope we will be able to continue it with you somewhere else, but we understand if that can't be the case.

If you've got a commission pending, you can still reach us by note and we will drop you a note when it's done and where you can get it.

Best,

Steph and Hunter

We're going to be posting some more IAs from the last batch soon so I just wanted to get this out of the way since we've gotten a few inquiries about it. You did not miss anything, we're just getting caught up. At this time we have no plans to re-open iron artist. This last batch we are completing will bring us to 100 and we're super stoked about completing such an insane challenge. Unfortunately, at the prices we've been charging vs the amount of work that goes into them, we can't afford to start another round.

That said,We've absolutely loved doing them and after Hunter has gotten caught up with her DA commissions, we do have plans to try the "bronze artist" challenge and step it up. These will be different from Iron Artists in a few ways:

1. They will be full lined and full shaded with spot colour and completed markings/tones, rather than spot shading and simplified
2. Themes will be optional
3. They will be quoted at a properly hourly rate
4. We will only be offering 1 at a time, once a week or two, not in large batches at the beginning of a month
5. Humans will be allowed

We don't have more information at this time, but we'll update you when we do. For now, we're just focusing on catching up :)

Just a quick note that we currently have a kiriban going on over on our weasyl account: https://www.weasyl.com/~fancyowls <3

EDIT: not taking any more requests :) Will be picking from the ones made in this journal.

Can't sleep, clown will eat me.

I've been having kind of a rough week, haven't been able to sleep properly for a while. Possibly because I'm sick, possibly because I'm insane, possibly both. All I know is that I want to draw cute, stylized girls and watch Colbert Report right this second :B

If the cute girl thing also interests you, please drop me a comment in this journal with the following info after you read the rest of the journal:

Image Reference(s) : (no more than 3)
Name of character :
Age of character : (or age character looks if it is different)
Species of Character :
Gender of Character:
Personality of character : (max of 5 words, can be key words)
Important Features/notes :
Paypal : (your paypal)

Sketches tonight are $15, drawings and style will be looser and more stylized and gestural than normal. Because I don't know how long I'll be going for tonight, I'm going to sketch first and bill either later tonight or tomorrow if I am able to do yours. Sketches won't be first come first serve and human characters are allowed. I'm only doing girls this time around tho, so please don't give me boys/cunt-boys. Female herms are fine tho.

If I enjoy it, I may do so again later. If you want your offer to draw your character to extend past tonight, please state so with your form. A simple "I would like this commission until the date of ____" is cool.

Spent the week on Weasyl this week, it was like a beautiful vacation I never want to return from and very much considering doing just that.

In any case, if you want and for future reference, our username on Weasyl is: FancyOwls https://www.weasyl.com/profile/fancyowls

We're still catching up on updating our gallery, about a pic a day so not to spam, though may up it to 2 to get the band-aid off quicker :> Don't worry, we are NOT uploading ALL our old art, just some of our fave stuff, it's just too much stuff to do it all x_x.

We'll be posting new art to Weasyl before we start posting it to FA from now on, with the exception of our current batch of IAs to get them to customers fastest. If it goes well, we might leave FA entirely. Before anyone whips out their dramu vuvuzelas, this isn't really about the outage in particular, but rather about wanting to be in a place that still has some promise and a willingness to change. We would really like to support something better than the mess we've become complacent in here and really loose nothing in trying.

Hope you'll give it a shot with us! It isn't this dump that makes FA special, it's you guys.

It's totally a thing. No it's not. Anyways, I'm taking a few free requests for non-anthro/furry/feral characters. Humans, gijinkas, nekos, centaurs, satyrs, demons, it's all good :> Not sure? As a general rule, if it has a muzzle, it's not a "human" type character. Requests are not first come first serve and will be done purely based on my own personal interest. Please do not request unless you grant me full artistic & creative license with the character. Please do not request unless you have read our ToS: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2935812/ , requesting means agreeing to these terms yo. Please pay extra special attention to the part that says that even if I change things on your character, I am NOT doing design work for you. Please do not use design updates/costumes I may make as your new design, I don't give permission for you to do this without speaking to me first as per my ToS.

If we're still good! Feel free to fill out this form and drop it into a comment in this journal:

Name:
Gender:
Age: (if look is different than actual age state the age they look instead.)
Race/Species:
Height:
Important Features/notes:

Personality: (max of 5 key words)
Image References: (max of 3 images, no dropbox/mass gallery links)

You can request up to 3 different characters, but please each one it's own comment.

Hey, no you didn't miss a commission opening, just wanted to make a journal to make it clear that commissions are closed, without exception. Please do not send us notes for commission requests at this time. If you have already gotten a commission, there is a bit of a delay on (see previous journal) it but it will be done and your commission is fine.

At this time we are not sure for how long so for now we are listing it as indefinitely. The only exception to this may be a small number of sketch commissions (still by journal only). Because of a change in scheduling with our jobs, we don't have the same time available to us to work on commissions anymore and would like to dedicate more of our free time to our own personal work and projects like our comics. While this is a down time for commissions, once our plate is more clear, it will open our plate up for some more community fun like art trades and contests and the like.

We'll keep you posted for sure, but for now, please do not make new requests of us. We hate writing rejection notes for commissions and trades and the like and it is starting to pile up a bit. Thank you for your understanding ❤

Hey, we've had a really crazy week and it's kind of culminated into a cluster fuck right around yesterday. We're pushing through best we can but it might make us a bit slow for a week or two. We're giving priority to getting commissions done and posted for you over checking our notes and messages right now, so we might be a bit hard to get a hold of for a little bit and there may be a small delay in commission ETAs (about a week or so). We realize that this is probably not a big deal but we wanted to keep you in the loop so there are no surprises. It may get itself worked out before we expect it to, so we might be worried about nothing.

We'll see!

On a vaguely related note, our first "we might be a bit late" journal since we joined up here 5 years ago (including our old account). Kind of feels like some sort of weird FA commissioner right of passage x_x

Have a great weekend <3

Hey guys! Getting to our second last round to 100! It's pretty exciting :) This round is open to everyone and will be first come first serve. We will be opening 15 iron artist and 3 platinum artist slots this round. Each list is limited to one per person.

Human characters are not allowed this round

Feral characters are allowed this round, however there will be 25$ additional for this since they take us longer. Themes picked for feral characters will be done with collars, accessories and jewelry, not by dressing them up like people in clothing so there will be no additional charge for themes that would normally cost extra.

---

Platinum Artist Slots ($130 per character, limit one character) : FULL!!
_{Samples: 1}
1. luckypan (done)
2. skimike (done)
3. ajna (done)
4. lilkittenalice (done)

---

Iron Artist Slots ($45 per character, limit one character) : FULL!!!
_{Samples: 1 2 3 4}
1. risika (done)
2. sweetseri (done)
3. kraven-gothly (done)
4. phloxebutt (done)
5. peritian (done)
6. nightmare (done)
7. caninelove (done)
8. tivadu (done)
** 9. falvie (paid) (waiting for reference clarification)
10. braggleman (paid)
** 11. patchworked (paid) (waiting for reference)
12. areddpanda (paid)
13. twilight-goddess (done)
14. tazara (done)
15. kijito (done)

---

Standard terms and conditions apply:http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2935812/ (including "extra costs" and "adult/NC17" themes)

Please note: We only take commissions through notes, not comments. Please do not comment to claim a slot. We generally will not check comments until we are done updating our notes so it is not a good way to reach us! Thanks.

If you're interested, please fill out the following form and send us a note with the subject "Iron Artist 6" (Or "Platinum Artist 6"):

---
Image Reference(s) : (max of 3 images)
Name of character :
Age of character : (if they look different than their real age, please tell us how old they look)
Species of character :
Gender of character:
Personality of character : (max of 3 sentences)
Important Features/notes :

Paypal : (your paypal)
Allow Tasteful Nudity? : (yes/doll nudity/no, this is not the same as "adult")
Pinup Theme : (If left blank, we will choose a theme ourselves.)
---

Theme List:

- *NEW!* cuffs and collars (accessories, not bondage)
- *NEW!* music star (add $45) (genre of costume will be determined by personality of character)
- *NEW!* only a prop (you choose the prop, complex props may be an extra charge, choosing this automatically allows artistic nudity, though you may decide between full or "barbie doll" nude if you like)

- cute/sexy lingerie
- cakes and other sweets
- strip tease
- full nude

there is no extra charge to the following themes if ordering a platinum artist
- showgirls/burlesque (add $25)
- arabian nights (add $25)
- Time to Fuck Shit Up (add $25)
- dapper as fuck (add $45)
- french maid (add $45)
- historical/period (add $55)
- fantasy armor (add $60)

Please also keep in mind that characters with really detailed markings, lots of feathers, extra limbs, tons of hair, and/or wings may cost extra due to detail, however you may opt to simplify them instead for no extra charge.

Hey guys! We're almost done our current batch and will be opening our next tomorrow, July 30 - 5pm EST. They will be one per person and the sheet for them will be the same as last time minus the question about previously receiving an IA. Our next batch of IAs will be first come first serve, open to everyone regardless of past commissions and we'll be taking about 15. We will also be opening 3 Platinum artist slots.

Iron Artist commissions will not interfere with regular commissions. We do not take reservations for IA slots.

If you have any questions about it you can ask it here and we'll try to answer :)

Taking 2 sketches today for $25, no real theme in mind, whatever inspires :) Limit of 1 per person. Slots are not first come first serve, priority will be given to those who have not yet got one. Please read our ToS: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2935812/ before ordering and keep in mind if you are ordering extras like characters with higher detail, additional limbs, wings, etc. Option to opt out of additional costs on wing spans in favor of chibi wings or no wings is available but please state so when posting if you would prefer this. Human type characters are allowed for an extra $10 if you want one.

See examples here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10795145/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11186547/

If you're interested, please leave a comment here in this journal with the following info:

Image Reference(s) : (no more than 3)
Name of character :
Age of character : (or age character looks if it is different)
Species of Character :
Gender of Character:
Personality of character : (max of 5 words, can be key words)
Important Features/notes :
Paypal : (your paypal)

Commissions this round are full! Thanks! if I find time to do more I will let comenters in this journal know <3

Taking 4 sketches today for $25, no real theme in mind, whatever inspires :) Limit of 1 per person. Slots are not first come first serve, priority will be given to those who have not yet got one. Please read our ToS: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2935812/ before ordering and keep in mind if you are ordering extras like characters with higher detail, additional limbs, wings, etc. Option to opt out of additional costs on wing spans in favor of chibi wings or no wings is available but please state so when posting if you would prefer this. Human type characters are allowed for an extra $10 if you want one.

See examples here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10795145/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10773523/

If you're interested, please leave a comment here in this journal with the following info:

Image Reference(s) : (no more than 3)
Name of character :
Age of character : (or age character looks if it is different)
Species of Character :
Personality of character : (max of 5 words, can be key words)
Important Features/notes :
Paypal : (your paypal)

Slots are full <3 Thanks!

Seriously, calm your tits. It's too fucking hot this week.

I really wanted to go for poutine...

Oh well.

So, we've recently been thinking about trying out some other stuff. We really love to make functional art, like the charms we've done in the past, but would like to make something that isn't necessarily exclusively seasonally available to us. We where thinking about two things, badges and buttons but we wanted your opinion on a few things about each if you have some time to spare or an opinion on the topic.

Badges
There are two things we noticed about badges right away. 1. They skew heavily traditional rather than digital and 2. People seem to wear them almost exclusively at conventions and not day to day life. So our questions on this are:

1. Do you prefer traditional badges over digital badges? At first we thought it was this way because traditional is the easiest way to do in person badge making at cons, however I've noticed more recently that people take "pre-orders" for badges to do at home and to pick up at cons, eliminating this "on the spot" convenience. Is this actually a preference thing? Do people dislike digital art for their badges? Do you dislike digital art for your badges? Would you refuse a non-traditional badge?

2. Do you wear them at all at cons? If not, why not?

3. If you do wear or collect badges, is it a deterrent for you if you have to print/laminate your badge yourself? Would you rather pay extra to have it printed, laminated and shipped to you? Would you rather pay $20 less to do that part yourself?

4. What size of badge do you like the best? What is too big and too small for you? Do you prefer them to be cut outs or squares with bgs and a character?

5. Is there anything you wish people would do more of or at all on badges or wish you could get? Do you have a fave badge that we could see?

Buttons (2.25 inches)
This is kind of a weird one because we've never actually seen anyone else selling these online or at cons in a badge sort of way. I really like buttons and I think I would personally prefer a badge of my character as a button so I could stick it on my cloths and backpack and things all the time rather than just at cons. I'm also a big fan of circular design. They would be cheaper to make and ship so we would be able to charge less for them. In any case,

1. For the reasons stated above (or your own reasons) would custom buttons interest you?

2. If given the option (and still with badges being much more expensive) would you prefer a badge over a button? Would you want both?

Would love to hear whatever thoughts you have on these things, we'd love to start making some gear but we're kind of lost in the dark ATM :B

CLOSED! Iron Artist round 5 is officially closed and we'll be open again in another month! Thanks so much to everyone who applied and grats to people who got in.

Hey guys! As stated in our last update, we're going to be doing something a bit different this time around. Slots will still be first come first serve, however people who have not yet been able to get an iron artist from us will be given first dibs on slots, after the first two hours, any slots that are left are free game. Don't worry about waiting the two hours to send yours in. Since we're trying to give more people a fair shake this round, we will also be limiting this round to one character per person.

Our platinum artist will also be picked from the list of iron artist slots to receive a free upgrade to colour. We'll be trying something a bit new out this round. You don't have to do anything special to enter, if you have an iron artist slot, you automatically have a chance to get it.

We have also switched up the themes for this round up a bit so if you pre-filled your sheet in based on last round's to get it in quickly, please make sure your theme still exists!

Human characters are allowed this round, however if you opt for a human, we will be charging our human commission price on them, which is double our iron artist price, making it $90 plus whatever extras you may want.

Feral characters are also allowed this round, however there will be 25$ additional for this since they take us longer. Themes picked for feral characters will be done with collars, accessories and jewelry, not by dressing them up like people in clothing so there will be no additional charge for themes that would normally cost extra.

Platinum Artist Slots: limit 1 character
1. (malaikawolfcat [done]

Iron Artist Slots ($45 per character) :
_{Samples: 1 2 3 4}
1. bringbackthedead [done]
2. neko-maya [done]
3. ahst [done]
4. aricat [done]
5. theme [done]
6. lalamika [done]
7. demblax [done]
8. meizakat [done]
9. svarta-perlan [done]
10. switchamaroo [done]
11. fetalini [done, private]
12. pmoss [done]
13. pink.gennec [done]
14. kraven-gothly [done]
15. yariks [done]
16. cyrixbandekrom [done]
17. korat [done]
18. malaikawolfcat [done]
19. ajna [done]
20. latiro [done]
21. coracroma [done]



Standard terms and conditions apply:http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2935812/ (including "extra costs" and "adult/NC17" themes)

Please note: We only take commissions through notes, not comments. Please do not comment to claim a slot. Thanks.

If you're interested, please fill out the following form and send us a note with the subject "Iron Artist 5" ad if you are a new commissioner or an old one (old being you have already gotten an iron artist. The subject would look like "Iron Artist 5, New" or "Iron Artist 5, Old". This is very important this round so we can prioritize them properly since notes do not give us folders. If the subject is not correct, we will slot you in as "old" automatically or not at all. If you state "new" and you are found to be lying, you will be banned from all future iron artists and sketch commissions.

---
Image Reference(s) : (max of 3 images)
Name of character :
Age of character : (if they look different than their real age, please tell us how old they look)
Species of Character :
Personality of character : (max of 3 sentences)
Important Features/notes :

Paypal : (your paypal)
Allow Tasteful Nudity? : (yes or no, this is not the same as "adult")
Pinup Theme : (If left blank, we will choose a theme ourselves.)
---

If you are getting a 2 character commission, please fill out one of these for each character as well as a short 3 sentence description of their relationship. If you would like multiple slots for separate characters please send them as individual notes and not all in 1 note.

Theme List:

- *NEW!* cuffs and collars (accessories, not bondage)
- *NEW!* music star (add $45) (genre of costume will be determined by personality of character)
- *NEW!* only a prop (you choose the prop, complex props may be an extra charge, recommended to allow artistic nudity for this theme)

- cute/sexy lingerie
- cakes and other sweets
- strip tease
- full nude

- showgirls/burlesque (add $25)
- arabian nights (add $25)
- Time to Fuck Shit Up (add $25)
- dapper as fuck (add $45)
- french maid (add $45)
- historical/period (add $55)
- fantasy armor (add $60)

Please also keep in mind that characters with really detailed markings, lots of feathers, extra limbs, tons of hair, and/or wings may cost extra due to detail, however you may opt to simplify them instead for no extra charge.

Hey guys! We've been getting a lot of questions about it, so I wanted to make a journal to let you know our general schedule for the next round as well as changes we'll be making. We'll be opening the next IA round on June 12, around 6pm EST (montreal time). For the next round, we are going to limit it to 1 slot per person and we will be giving priority to those who have not yet been able to get a commission from us yet. This does not necessarily mean we will be excluding everyone who has, but that for the first hour or two of being open, those who have not yet gotten slots will be given slots until full or the hour is up, whatever comes first.

We'll be doing some minor adjustments to the themes again for next round, if you have any suggestions or requests for themes feel free to drop a comment in this journal.

If you have any questions about it you can ask it here and we'll try to answer :)

Hey guys! Because FA doesn't let me update just my commission page and re-notify you, I'm making a quick post here about it. I have added a new rule to my ToS, and that is that I will no longer be taking "human" commissions on FA. This also includes heavily humanoid characters such as kemonomimi/gijinka etc. As a general rule, if it's a human with ears and a tail type thing, I'm not going to do it anymore.

Why? Because for some reason, whenever I open commissions, the vast majority of the commissions that come in are for human characters. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, as people who know me from DA and tumblr and such know that I am a human artist first and an anthro artist after, but when I come to FA, I come here because I don't want to draw human characters. If I did, I would take the commissions on DA. I am on FA so I can have a break and have some fun doing anthro characters. I don't charge the same for human and anthro commissions and generally do the anthro commissions for much MUCH cheaper than I offer my regular art elsewhere and I feel a bit taken advantage of when I offer less expensive commissions here so I can have fun and practice doing anthro stuff and end up getting the same stuff I always get for half the price. It's just not very fun and it's not why I came to FA to take the commissions over DA. If I am open to take human characters in a commission batch, I will state so specifically, if not, please assume that I am NOT taking human characters.

I know this isn't anyone's intention, but it is the reason I am not going to take them anymore. Sorry.

For most of my internet viewing, I use firefox because it has a very lovely ad-blocker that I am quite fond of, however, when I brows FA, I like to do so with the ad-block disabled. Normally ads drive me insane and I would probably give up on the internet if I had to constantly deal with them, but FA ads are different. Ads posted by the community for the community with relevance to the community. It's quite nice and I love seeing what people I might have never noticed otherwise are doing.

Unfortunately, there is something in these ads I see quite commonly that drive me just as nutter butters as the Lysol cleaning supply video ads and that is this statement: "Cheap Art".

Artists do not lead easy lives and for the most part, there is very little respect to be had for us out in the world. "You like doing it so why don't you do it for free?" "Why are you charging so much? you're doing it for fun" "artist Y's art is so not worth what they're charging" etc etc etc. I will never be able to quite figure out why this mentality seems to apply exclusively to artists. No one in their right mind would ask some stranger to make an 8-30 hour delivery and expect to pay them dick all because they "love driving". I could write an entire essay on why I want to slap people who value an artist's years of work and training and study on a rare and unique skill's at $2/h because "art is fun" but this argument has been made before by people much smarter than I and I am sure you are all familiar with it. This journal is not about that, but I bring it up because this mentality and expectation carries over to young and inexperienced artists. The idea that their art will only be desirable if it's "cheap".

Artists, particularly young and amateur artists who don't quite understand the value of their craft or who genuinely are doing this for some fun and attention make up a very large amount of people here on FA. And yes, I am willing to concede that while there are a few around, people taking commissions on this site are not professional artists, not making their living on their art and are not looking to do so. Fine, I get that, I was there once too and I was also once charging $10 for a full colour picture. But I never advertised myself as "Cheap".

Are you selling cheap art? Is your art cheap? Is your art "of little account; of small value; mean; shoddy: cheap conduct; cheap workmanship." [dictionary] because if it is, that's really disappointing that you would take so little pride in your craft and have so little respect for your customers to be comfortable giving them something "cheap". No. Stop. Before you reach for your comment box with the argument "oh but Red, they mean "inexpensive!" and "affordable!". I know that's what they mean, but that is not what they are saying. While cheap can also technically mean these things, the word "cheap" is not read without the connotation of what most of us understand "Cheap" things to be. It's bad enough that non-artists are already implying that our craft is without worth or value, do we really need to be doing it ourselves? Even the most amateur work has love and time and effort. These efforts are not "Cheap".

Here is a short list of words that could easily be used without the implication that your artwork is without value: Affordable, inexpensive, modestly priced, conservatively priced.

Here is a short list of words that demean and devalue your work and craft: Cheap, bargain, discount

You can be inexpensive and still be quality. When you're selling yourself, don't imply that your artwork belongs in some cheap bargain bin. It is up to every artist to decide what their time is worth to them, but it is demeaning to artists everywhere when an artist decides that their craft is "cheap".

Additional Charges
A brief list of things that will cost extra in your commission:

1. Wing sets
2. Additional limbs, including extra tails
3. Complicated or heavy details, marking, clothing or otherwise (full detailed tiger, leopard, full body feather, etc)
4. Very long hair
5. Designing new clothing/styling (with exception to iron artist)

We will let you know upon checking your character sheet if your commission will have extra charges and what they will be before billing.

Not Available for Commission
We will not take commissions for things listed here unless otherwise stated in commission opening journal

Mechs
Porn
Extreme Violence/Gore
Characters without reference image
Ferals

Terms of Service
Contact to commission us indicates all party agreement to the below terms.

1. We reserve the right to decline any commission request, without question.

2. reserve the right to adjust pricing on a requested piece accordingly before purchase.

3. We reserve the right to include any commission done in our portfolio.

4. We reserve the right to include any commission done in our public galleries.

5. All commissions under $100 (base price) are "wing-it" commissions, unless otherwise stated.

6. We will not edit an image for omitted information or confusing/incomplete references.

7. We will not begin the piece until we have received payment. Updates on the progress of non-sketch or "artist challenge" commission are available upon request. All pieces are begun and finished in the order that we receive payment, not necessarily the order listed.

• Payment plans are available for commissions over $300.

8. Prices listed in our commission journals and pages are for personal commission only.

9. We reserve the rights to all adaptations of characters within commissions, including redesigned/adapted outfits, hairstyles, etc (basically anything that you did not create or include in your original reference images). This means that you may not use it as a reference for your character as their design. We are not being paid to re-design or pimp your character for you, if you wish to purchase the rights to use the re-design or adaptation, feel free to speak to us!

10. We reserve the full rights and it's redistribution to the image, it's use and distribution unless otherwise agreed upon in writing. Rights for images may be purchased after the fact, feel free to contact us to discuss. You may not use our works, commissioned or otherwise, in or as part of external projects, commercial or non-commercial.

• Commissions are not to be used for things like book illustrations, covers or any other publishing without expressed written permission, whether you make or plan to make a profit or not. They cover personal use ONLY, including non-profit making projects. If you are looking for something to use for your game, represent your comic, use as an ad banner, sell or show at conventions or otherwise redistribute, feel free to speak to us.

This includes but is not limited to: Book illustrations, game illustrations/concepts, adoptables/petsite pets and so forth. If you wish to have us illustrate something like this, or use my art in a commercial project it will fall under professional commissions and must be discussed with us before the commission is started so that we may discuss rights transferance and work out proper professional rates.

If you are not sure whether your request counts as personal or otherwise, feel free to ask us about it's intended use when you submit your note. All commissions are presumed personal unless otherwise agreed upon in writing.

11. If you wish to limit distribution for things like posting to our galleries or convention showings/prints/art-books, please speak to us BEFORE commissioning us. We do create sketchbooks and convention prints based on artwork we have done that we like. We will never grant a third party rights to these images or work, all prints and books are done by us and sold by us. This is not an option for "artist challenge" type commissions like iron artist, bronze artist and platinum artist. We fully intend to make sketch books of these projects, if you do not want your character to appear in these books, do not order an artist challenge commission.


12. We do not ship commissions, traditional or otherwise.

13. All commissions are non refundable.

14. Payment must be received within 24 hours after accepting your commission request unless otherwise agreed upon by us before commission is accepted. Time exceptions are not granted for artist challenge or sketch commissions.


Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a question about something you see here and we have not answered it below, please leave a comment in this journal.

Q: If I play extra, can you ship me my commission?
A: No, sorry, it is very hard for us to get to a post office and we have had problems with shipping in the past in terms of damage and such and we are not prepared to deal with it.

Q: I don't want you to post my commission to your gallery, can it be secret? Will it cost extra?
A: If you don't want your commission to appear in our gallery, please let us know when you send your commission form. We do not charge a privacy fee for keeping regular commissions secret, however we do not allow this for artist challenge or sketch commissions.

Q: When will your commissions be open again?
A: No idea, sorry!

Q: I got a commission from you, can I upload it to my FA/Weasyl/tumblr/etc gallery? Can I upload it to my website?
A: You can upload it to your gallery if you like! We just ask for proper credit, with name or icon and working link to the pic or our gallery in the description. You may also upload it to your website/external gallery with proper linked credit to us and our gallery. If you wish to have it for your weasel collection, just let us know and we'll submit it for your collection :)

Q: Do you shade your iron artists/bronze artist/other pencil style stuff by hand or do you have a texture?
A: All of our linework and shading is done by hand.

Q: How can I get pencils as clean as yours? What pencils do you use?
A: We use Staedler Mars pencils (3mm, 5mm and 10mm) After the messy sketch phase, light-table it with only the clean lines and do your best not to have to erase the shading as the eraser will leave smear lines. We have a mini portable light table as well as an animation light desk (as steph is an animator), however if you're hard pressed to find one, we used to just tape our work to the window during the day. If you want to go digital or clean up your scanned work, we suggest stumpy pencil: http://stumpypencil.blogspot.ca/

Q: What programs do you use? Do you use pen tool or Sai to make your lines nice?
A: No, we do not use sai. All of our linework is done either traditionally with ink or pencil or done in photoshop with the brush tool by hand.

Q: What brush do you use? Can I get your brush set?
A: We use default brushes: http://sambees.deviantart.com/journ.....-Use-220338887 we also use stumpy pencil preset for sketching, however this is not a brush http://stumpypencil.blogspot.ca/ .