I just noticed a huge influx of favs and watches lately and I couldn't
figureout why until somebody let on that my smut had made it onto
fchan.

Hi fchan furs! Thanks for all the love! :3

<3 <3 <3



(crap, this means I need to draw more!)

So, some bad news. During my recent move, my computer desk literally fell apart (Walmart particleboard piece of crap). I've acquired a new one, but unfortunately it's about two inches too high to use my tablet on without blowing out my wrist. I shouldn't even be typing on it as it is.

So, until I can afford a better chair or devise a way of raising the one I've got, art is at a standstill.
Sucks. Sorry guys.

Not really.

But I dreamt that I stumbled across a proto version of FA and stupidly modified the front page and news posts, not knowing that it was somehow still linked to the real FA database. It ended up not only breaking FA but plastering my name and website all over the index page.

 dragoneer was pissed.

Before I was able to explain myself and apologize, Comcrap decided to yank my internets and move them to the new apartment, resulting in a perma-ban from Dragoneer.

I woke up in a panic.
That's right. I dreamt about the internet and had a panic attack when denied my source of porn. My life is that exciting.

The title pretty much tells the whole story.

See you after the holidays!

-Silver

Now that I have your attention..

So, knots. I love 'em. You must love 'em, otherwise 99% of you wouldn't be watching me. Knots are awesome and I fully support fursonas with knots.

As long as they're canine.

Knots are on everyone now. WTF? In the past week I've counted knots on felines, gryphons, dragons, a bear, a raccoon, and even a horse. Okay, gryphons, dragons, and hybrids get a free pass.. but the others? A horse? No.

Stop taking our anatomy, man!

So I've had art-block for over a month now. Been totally uninspired. Now, while I could be doodling penises and trying to work through it.. I'm playing Batman: Arkham Asylum instead. That game is so much more fun than a comic franchise has any right to be. Short story shorter; I'm slacking.

On a positive note, I've spent some of this holiday season learning Flash. So there is a very good possibility you'll see some animated wangs in the near future. The bitch of it is, I know how to animate and do rudimentary scripting in Flash. It's the drawing tools that are hanging me up. Stupid Flash, why do your vector tools have to go against all standard conventions?

..until the Photo Meme craps out.

It's called Pounced.org. Look into it.

That is all.

1 | What is the name of your fursona?

SilverTail - Capital S, capital T, one word. Silver for short.


2 | Where did the name of your Fursona come from?

The first furry MUD I ever connected to (go ask your parents what a MUD is) had a character creation program for new users. I was at a loss for a name, so I looked around the 'room' at the disconnected players for some ideas. People who had come before me had names such as RedTalon, GoldenEyes, and JadeClaws. "So," I said to myself, "I see how this works!" From that point on, my go-to username for furry-related activities was SilverTail.

It's stupid, I know, but I've been using the name for 13 years now and have no intention of changing it.


3 | What species is your fursona and why did you choose that species?

A Grey Wolf / Cougar hybrid. For many years I played only a grey wolf, but a nickname and running gag among my friends eventually led to me creating a fictional species around SilverTail. He remained chiefly wolf, but with a dash of nonspecific feline. These days, I maintain that his bloodline is almost entirely wolf, except that his grandmother on his mother's side was a Mountain Lion. I don't claim to know a damn thing about genetics.


4 | What color is your fursona and why? Hair/fur/eyes/etc.

Silver's fur and markings are pretty much what you'd expect of any other grey wolf, with a few small exceptions. Cerulean eyes, dark brown hair. On either side of his muzzle he's got the 'parentheses' marks of a cougar. The end of his tail is a stark pigmentless white - which is a hearkening back to an atrocious roleplay I had back when Silver was first created, in which his entire coat was actually silver colored. I was 16, sue me.


5 | What is your fursona's personality and how does this compare to your RL personality?

Silver is more or less me, although I like to think he's less of a cynical hateful jaded bastard than I am.


6 | What is one item your fursona owns that is significant to you in RL?

He keeps a gold ring with an inscription. Long story. *awkward cough*


7 | What is one thing you think you would say to your fursona if you could meet?

"So.. your place or mine? Or is right here fine?"


8 | What is one thing your fursona would say to you if you could meet?

"RAPE!! Help! Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaape!!!!"


9 | How has your fursona changed over the years?

Initially, Silver was a quadrupedal talking grey wolf with silver fur. It was stupid. So, a few weeks after his creation, I upgraded him to bipedal through some roleplay shenanigans. He changed minutely over the years until, finally, I made the wolf/cougar hybrid thing 'official' sometime in 2007.


10 | How long have you had this fursona?

SilverTail's my one and only fursona, and I've been in the fandom for 13.5 years.


11 | Would you like to be more like your fursona?

He's my ideal self in mind and body, so yeah. Sign me up.

Just as I'd made up my mind to go to Rainfurrest - literally minutes away from my home - I come down with H1N1.

Swine Flu. Pig SARS. Hamthrax. Jimmy Dean's Disease. Mad Sow. Smallporx.

Crap. See you next year, perhaps.

*monotones* Happy birthday to meee..

I'm 29. Two-niner. Christ, I'm old.

September birthdays rule!

Would you folks like me to post Work In Progress sketches? My sketches are messy as hell, but they'd give you something more to look at. Also, I couldn't guarantee that they'd all make it to final inking or coloring.

I'm just curious if you guys would prefer quality or quantity in my gallery? That is, not to say posting sketches would sacrifice quality of my finished pieces. I'm of the opinion that a preview sketch sort of 'ruins the surprise' of a finished picture.

What do you guys think? Sketches, yea or nay?

I'm bored. Here's my '8 Truths' meme.

1. In reality, I'm a total prude. I know, right?
2. I'm WAY judgmental and a usually a hypocrite about it.
3. I've been in the fandom for 13 years. July 20, 1996 was when I fell into this mess.
4. I've been unemployed for two years. Go economy. Know anyone who needs graphics?
5. Originally, my fursona was a feral silver-furred talking wolf.
6. The first picture of my fursona was a traced(!) re-coloring of Balto. So very Fail.
7. I had the earring and glasses first. My fursona had the hair and chin-tuft first.
8. I really, really want to take commissions, but I fear I'll lose the creative spark or get in over my head.

Tagging is for pussies.

Stop this!

OMFG!
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.....;in_page_id=34

---

Others, mere months apart!
http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-furry.....,7659614.story

http://furryne.ws/story/ct/Media-Co.....sex-with-dogs/

http://wbztv.com/politics/furry.sex.....2.1024853.html

I have been in this fandom for 14 years and I DO NOT want to see these idiot furries drag it into its grave. I've watched the fandom go through many changes and take the occasional bad media hit, but we've always been able to roll with the punches and stay on the down-low. Well, unfortunately, the fandom is no longer a little underground in-the-know club. We're mainstream now - doubtless, no thanks to these same individuals - and the Sauron-like eye of the media is slowly turning in our direction. If the above shit continues as a trend, the media will ground our fey little fandom into the pavement.

With enough bad exposure, hotels will begin to pull convention contracts. It's already difficult enough for furry conventions to get venues - we have a reputation among hotel staff as being the dirty deviant self-righteous little emofags we truly are. What happens when the cons collapse? What happens when our online gathering places shut down because they become associated with real-life bestiality and pedophilia? Yeah, I KNOW those lines are blurry from our point of view, but to the media and the masses they feed, those lines are stark black and white. Care to guess which side we lie on?

Do not. DO NOT screw this up. The fandom, despite how downhill its gone in recent years, is still very, very special to me. Every aspect of my life is colored by it. I don't want to think about the changes I'll have to make to my life and myself if it were suddenly bad to be a furry.

Stop. Think.

..to be a "real" furry artist.

Blarg.

So I needed to reinstall Windows. I figured I'd give Windows 7 a go because I'd heard good things. I installed Windows 7 and it runs faster on my aging machine than either XP or Vista. Awesome. I install Photoshop CS3 and my mouse jitters. Not so awesome. So I obtain Photoshop CS4. Problem solved, awesome again. Then I install my Wacom tablet. Now Windows 7 wants to treat it as a TabletPC display. Not cool. I Finally figure out how to disable that only to find that my Wacom lags horribly in Photoshop CS4 and/or Windows 7. Fuuuuuuuck.

So that's why there's no new porn.

The end.

Like it or hate it, Twitter is here to stay. At least until they start interstitching ads later this year.

In the meantime, more folks use it than not. And, naturally, that means furries have invaded. Now you can indicate whether or not you're a Twitter whore on FA with this spiffy FA account thought up by chasevrocket!

@silvertail


Example:
:twittericon : [url =http ://www.twitter.com/silvertail/]@silvertail[/url](without the spaces, of course).


Enjoy, and thanks to  chasevrocket!

...inspiring furries everywhere to clean their rooms.

The jig is up, I won't fall for it!

I need ideas. My next picture will feature two male canines. What should they be doing? Make a suggestion here and I might draw it. I most likely won't do anything too bizarre, like vore or unbirthing, but it can't hurt to suggest!

I'll choose purely by the suggestion that most interests me, so no hard feelings if I overlook yours. This is an experiment - I might not choose any, depending on how it goes.

So.. what are you all into?

http://www.getwonder.com/upimages/12/2008/1.jpg

I'd love to see some tattoos done along these lines in the fandom.

The following is for all of you non-artists out there. Even some of the artists might want to take note. There is a little unspoken part of the process of commissioned or gift art. It is a minute detail, but a critical one. Attention paid to this step could mean the difference between you receiving a masterpiece or chickenscratch.

Here's the deal. Typically, when you've commissioned a piece of art, it is good practice for the artist to present a preliminary version for you to approve or suggest revisions to before they move into the permanent or final stages of the picture. Upon receiving this, the quality of your finished piece hinges upon your next move.

To receive a good picture, immediately express enthusiasm. This is key. If the first words from you after viewing the picture are positive, then the artist's mood might reflect that. Maybe you aren't really happy with this version of the picture - that's fine, but you should still pretend to be excited. It doesn't have to be genuine; this is social engineering. Your reaction reflects the artist's reaction.

Start out with a "Wow!" or "Very nice.", but wait a moment before launching into your list of changes. Perhaps you're a perfectionist and you'd like that your commission be ab-so-lute-ly perfect. Understandable. But presenting the artist with a laundry list of nitpicks will not win you masterpiece points. An irritated artist is an artist who'll half-ass your commission. Unless you paid three figures for this picture, you can probably let that sixth earring on your right ear or the misplaced spot on your left buttcheek slide.

When you do present your requested changes, do so in a friendly and suggestive manner. "I love it, but would you mind adding a pair of glasses?", "I really like the shirt you drew. Is there any way you could make it green instead of black?". If you treat the problems as if they are opportunities for change and not errors or oversights, the artist might be far more willing to accommodate you.

Finally, do not critique. There's another time and place for that. Unless the artist specifically asks for it, keep art suggestions relating to anything other than your commission to yourself. Many artists find unrequested critique impolite, and again, the artist's mood at this stage may very well reflect itself in your final product.

Follow the above and there's a good chance your requested art piece will turn out well. Make the wrong move at this stage, however, and don't be surprised if your commission doesn't turn out as well as it could have.

I feel like doing an experiment. I'll do a free sketch for the first person to reply to this.

If you get the spot, go ahead and send me Note with a character description and/or reference picture. Be as specific as you'd like, I'll do what I can.

Zeff and Scribbles, you two are exempt this time.. you know I'd draw you guys any day.