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Posted 6 years agoHello everyone ~
I'm doing some testing to see if a Trello account would be good for me and my commissioners to keep track of what's currently in progress on my end. I'm hoping this will make things easier to keep track of. I guess we'll have to wait and see if this is going to work out long term!
---Link---
https://trello.com/b/nKKRY4qt/sunvaars-commissions
I'm doing some testing to see if a Trello account would be good for me and my commissioners to keep track of what's currently in progress on my end. I'm hoping this will make things easier to keep track of. I guess we'll have to wait and see if this is going to work out long term!
---Link---
https://trello.com/b/nKKRY4qt/sunvaars-commissions
owo
Posted 7 years agoThat is all.
Gumdrops Emotes Decommissioned
Posted 7 years ago***EDIT*** Commissions have resumed for these icons. Read below for the reason as to why these were decommissioned in the first place.
Hello to anyone reading this,
As the title states, I will be decommissioning my gumdrop emote line for the time being. Although my gumdrops have been developed solely by me based off of Google's now obsolete "blob" emotes, it has come to my attention that because I was not the first to attempt this customization of a widely available graphic style, some believe I should not be allowed to make them despite my own independent development and the hours of work I've put into creating my own work. Specifically, another artist (apparently much more well-known than myself) has also done a similar concept, turning furries into custom blobs. Although neither they nor I hold the rights to the blob format (rights held solely by Google) and have been developing these emotes independently of one another, I have been pressured by this other artist, been called rude and a tracer, and told not to produce these anymore for fear that people may associate my works with theirs. I've decided to no longer entertain the drama that is bound to follow should I not heed the intimidation of a popular artist. As much as I believe monopolization of what is essentially a public-use medium is something that should not be entertained, I refuse to deal with the level of stress that attempting to enter an unwelcome market brings.
---- Background ----
I was exposed to the blob emoji format when I switched to Android a few years ago. I was disappointed when Google removed the blobs from their operating system and decided to move to a more traditional appearance in their emojis. I've since looked for ways to restore the blobs to my phone, but with no easy way of doing so, I decided to just adapt to the new style.
Since then, I've been engaging more and more with the furry community; opening commissions, joining communities, and looking for outlets through which I can "give back" to the community and offer my talents to make its members happy. During my early time in these communities, I noticed a trend that involved altering popular graphics formats into furry alternatives. One day I stumbled upon the familiar shape of a blob emoji with ears and a different color scheme. I was so excited to see that other people enjoyed the format as much as I had and were recreating their own fursonas to match.
---- Development of my own Body of Work ---
Seeing that I had the tools and experience to do something similar for other people who did not have the same tools and experience combined with my pre-established love for the format, I decided to sit down and see what I could do with my own characters. With this blob as a visual reference, I began blob-ifying my own fursona in Illustrator. The result of that project was this emote, which I continued to develop into a series of emoticons with original expressions created without any kind of visual reference. Charmed with how fun the process was for creating these, I set to work creating a generalized base file that would contain every expression I had done thus far, with each part being toggleable so that I could make what I referred to as "gumdrop emotes" based off of any character design I wanted. Around this time, I began offering commissions for the first time ever, including gumdrops on the list of things people could request.
During this time, I developed more expressions and began looking to other blobs for ideas. I saw that some people added stubby arms to their blobs, so I created multiple types of arm stumps. I knew people would need upright ears instead of horns, so four arches later I had some simple furry ears. At this point, I was convinced that all of the custom blobs I had seen online were people independently re-creating their own blobs. To this day, I have only seen three other people with specifically furry emote blobs, each one with either a basic OwO face (I assume inspired by this mod) or holding a giant heart. Still under the assumption that people were making these blobs for themselves, I decided to draw up a quick heart that looked basically like the others, added that to the template and moved on.
In time, I started to receive commissions for both my normal artwork and gumdrop emotes (the results of which can be seen in my gallery). Everything was fine; I was bringing a style that I had come to love back into the spotlight, making custom, original work for people, and generally offering something of value to the one Discord community I really feel at home in. Things might have continued on this way for a long time, were it not for a set of gifts I decided to make for both of the admins on the server. Last week, as a way of saying thank you for creating and maintaining such a wonderful community, I decided to make a gift for both admins: a set of most of the emotes I had already developed customized for each of them. One of the admins had a single blob emote already (I did not know at that point if they had created it themselves or if another person had done it for them), so in an effort to keep the gift consistent with the already present blob, I would occasionally compare my own version to the one they already had to make sure the two looked similar enough to be consistent. During the course of recreating each expression on this character, another blob of theirs was posted. A blob holding a large, pink heart. However, this time the name of the original creator (I should note that this is the first time I had ever heard of them) was included. Once again attempting to stay consistent with the original work, I changed the red heart I had already created to a light pink heart, assuming that that would be preferred.
I finished both sets of admin gumdrops after hours of work (24 emotes per person), aggregated them into archive files, and sent them to their respective recipients with a note of thanks for their hard work and dedication to our Discord community. Both seemed happy with the gifts and I assumed that I could go into vacation with my family in good spirits. That would not be the case.
---- Confrontation ----
This is where things get hairy. Keep in mind, this is paraphrased from the chat log and I only have access to the intent I put into my own messages.
I received a direct message from one of the admins a few days later. The original artist was not at all happy that I made gumdrops of a character they had already done. Moments later, I received another message directly from this other blob creator. I'm immediately met with an accusation of tracing their work and told that my gift disrespects them as an artist. A bit miffed, I try my best to communicate that I did my work not to offend anyone and not to steal anyone's artwork. I also communicated that I independently create gumdrop emotes from my own bases developed off of Google's official blob emojis and that I was not aware of their presence, else I would have contacted them to let them know of my intentions for making free gifts of characters they had already done before. This did not go over well. I was called rude again, and told that people will assume I copied their work. I attempted to respond by saying that both of us are part of a larger group of people that modify a pre-existing base that none of us solely own the rights to. I get called a copier once more and shamed because people pay them to create their blobs and my work unjustly capitalizes on that effort "for my own gain". I point out that neither of us can lay claim to the rights to this format and that no single person can determine they are the sole owner of the style.
---- The Core Issue ----
Their final response takes a bit of picking apart and I want to make sure that anyone still reading this understands how much of a grey area this gets into. It should be noted that I was also blocked shortly after while I was still attempting to explain the situation, so a conclusion could never be reached.
"You've recreated my blob though, have you not?
Which is copying, last I checked"
Now, on the surface our blobs do appear very similar and without understanding the details, one could assume that one was directly copied from the other. However, here is where things are a lot more complicated than they may seem. In order for this statement to hold true, the other artist would need to 1) have some sort of claim that this style is their original work and protected by copyright laws. 2) Have sole creative rights over the character in question and be able to dictate the terms of its use or 3) have evidence that I created my blob as a direct copy of theirs (tracing).
1) Cannot be true, as the blob format was not developed by them in the slightest. It is a direct reference to the aforementioned widely used emoji format developed by Google for use in their Android devices.
2) Is not true, as only the owner of the character has rights to it's usage unless specifically given away to another party. Since this character does not belong to the artist in question, they do not have a say in its use outside of their own work, which must have the explicit consent from the owner of the character.
3) Is not true, as I did not trace any part of their design (there is evidence of this in the proportions of our two designs). However, this calls into question the ethics of using references when creating original content. As I said earlier, I did have the pre-existing emote on hand to check for consistency. However, because the extent I used this reference is the occasional glance to make sure the two were not meaningfully dissimilar (less than 30 seconds of visual contact, total), their design played less into the actual production of my final product than it appears at a single glance. In fact, there is more meaningful connection between my gumdrop of this character and the gumdrops I have made of my own character (completely different colors and features) than there is to the blob emote made by the other artist of the same character.
The fact of the matter is, no matter if I had never even glanced at their design, the two would look visually similar as a consequence of the style being the exact same origin and the subject being the exact same character. It isn't a matter of one person copying another, it's a matter of similarity being unavoidable in such a simple context. I did not copy the style: it belongs to neither of us. I did not copy the character: it belongs to neither of us. I did not copy their design of the character: I didn't even have much exposure (again, less than 30 seconds) to their design when creating my own.
---- Conclusion ----
All in all, I really don't believe there is a case for me needing to decommission my own work, as mine bears nothing other than an unavoidable similarity to their own work due to the nature of our starting points. However, I know that no amount of explaining myself will change the minds of people intent on the idea that I'm just an unoriginal sop who stole the work of a more popular artist. Although I'm not happy with having to basically throw away days of work regardless of my innocence, I will not let people's preconceptions of my work form a ball of drama around me and be the target of accusations with little to no grounding. Not today, not while I'm on vacation. I'll leave that stress for some other time. Until further notice I will not be accepting commissions for gumdrop emotes nor will I be producing them as gifts or trades. I just can't deal with that right now.
---- Note to the Other Artist ----
To this other artist if they ever read this: know that I still never meant to disrespect you or your work. I'm glad that other people share the same interests I do and want to spread blobs/gumdrops, whatever you want to call them. I'm not all that happy with being slighted and verbally abused, but I understand how from your perspective it would seem that my work is simply a tracing of your own. Know that that is not the case and we have both been the unfortunate victims of circumstance and misunderstanding. Please also understand that my gumdrops mean a lot to me and took a long time to develop, just as I'm sure yours have as well. I don't care if you didn't ask for it: I've forgiven you for our altercation and ask that you forgive me in kind for any hurt feelings I may have caused you as well as any bull headedness you may have seen from me. I don't hate you and I ask that you don't hate me. I don't want to see division in this fandom, and I definitely don't want any enemies here.
Hello to anyone reading this,
As the title states, I will be decommissioning my gumdrop emote line for the time being. Although my gumdrops have been developed solely by me based off of Google's now obsolete "blob" emotes, it has come to my attention that because I was not the first to attempt this customization of a widely available graphic style, some believe I should not be allowed to make them despite my own independent development and the hours of work I've put into creating my own work. Specifically, another artist (apparently much more well-known than myself) has also done a similar concept, turning furries into custom blobs. Although neither they nor I hold the rights to the blob format (rights held solely by Google) and have been developing these emotes independently of one another, I have been pressured by this other artist, been called rude and a tracer, and told not to produce these anymore for fear that people may associate my works with theirs. I've decided to no longer entertain the drama that is bound to follow should I not heed the intimidation of a popular artist. As much as I believe monopolization of what is essentially a public-use medium is something that should not be entertained, I refuse to deal with the level of stress that attempting to enter an unwelcome market brings.
---- Background ----
I was exposed to the blob emoji format when I switched to Android a few years ago. I was disappointed when Google removed the blobs from their operating system and decided to move to a more traditional appearance in their emojis. I've since looked for ways to restore the blobs to my phone, but with no easy way of doing so, I decided to just adapt to the new style.
Since then, I've been engaging more and more with the furry community; opening commissions, joining communities, and looking for outlets through which I can "give back" to the community and offer my talents to make its members happy. During my early time in these communities, I noticed a trend that involved altering popular graphics formats into furry alternatives. One day I stumbled upon the familiar shape of a blob emoji with ears and a different color scheme. I was so excited to see that other people enjoyed the format as much as I had and were recreating their own fursonas to match.
---- Development of my own Body of Work ---
Seeing that I had the tools and experience to do something similar for other people who did not have the same tools and experience combined with my pre-established love for the format, I decided to sit down and see what I could do with my own characters. With this blob as a visual reference, I began blob-ifying my own fursona in Illustrator. The result of that project was this emote, which I continued to develop into a series of emoticons with original expressions created without any kind of visual reference. Charmed with how fun the process was for creating these, I set to work creating a generalized base file that would contain every expression I had done thus far, with each part being toggleable so that I could make what I referred to as "gumdrop emotes" based off of any character design I wanted. Around this time, I began offering commissions for the first time ever, including gumdrops on the list of things people could request.
During this time, I developed more expressions and began looking to other blobs for ideas. I saw that some people added stubby arms to their blobs, so I created multiple types of arm stumps. I knew people would need upright ears instead of horns, so four arches later I had some simple furry ears. At this point, I was convinced that all of the custom blobs I had seen online were people independently re-creating their own blobs. To this day, I have only seen three other people with specifically furry emote blobs, each one with either a basic OwO face (I assume inspired by this mod) or holding a giant heart. Still under the assumption that people were making these blobs for themselves, I decided to draw up a quick heart that looked basically like the others, added that to the template and moved on.
In time, I started to receive commissions for both my normal artwork and gumdrop emotes (the results of which can be seen in my gallery). Everything was fine; I was bringing a style that I had come to love back into the spotlight, making custom, original work for people, and generally offering something of value to the one Discord community I really feel at home in. Things might have continued on this way for a long time, were it not for a set of gifts I decided to make for both of the admins on the server. Last week, as a way of saying thank you for creating and maintaining such a wonderful community, I decided to make a gift for both admins: a set of most of the emotes I had already developed customized for each of them. One of the admins had a single blob emote already (I did not know at that point if they had created it themselves or if another person had done it for them), so in an effort to keep the gift consistent with the already present blob, I would occasionally compare my own version to the one they already had to make sure the two looked similar enough to be consistent. During the course of recreating each expression on this character, another blob of theirs was posted. A blob holding a large, pink heart. However, this time the name of the original creator (I should note that this is the first time I had ever heard of them) was included. Once again attempting to stay consistent with the original work, I changed the red heart I had already created to a light pink heart, assuming that that would be preferred.
I finished both sets of admin gumdrops after hours of work (24 emotes per person), aggregated them into archive files, and sent them to their respective recipients with a note of thanks for their hard work and dedication to our Discord community. Both seemed happy with the gifts and I assumed that I could go into vacation with my family in good spirits. That would not be the case.
---- Confrontation ----
This is where things get hairy. Keep in mind, this is paraphrased from the chat log and I only have access to the intent I put into my own messages.
I received a direct message from one of the admins a few days later. The original artist was not at all happy that I made gumdrops of a character they had already done. Moments later, I received another message directly from this other blob creator. I'm immediately met with an accusation of tracing their work and told that my gift disrespects them as an artist. A bit miffed, I try my best to communicate that I did my work not to offend anyone and not to steal anyone's artwork. I also communicated that I independently create gumdrop emotes from my own bases developed off of Google's official blob emojis and that I was not aware of their presence, else I would have contacted them to let them know of my intentions for making free gifts of characters they had already done before. This did not go over well. I was called rude again, and told that people will assume I copied their work. I attempted to respond by saying that both of us are part of a larger group of people that modify a pre-existing base that none of us solely own the rights to. I get called a copier once more and shamed because people pay them to create their blobs and my work unjustly capitalizes on that effort "for my own gain". I point out that neither of us can lay claim to the rights to this format and that no single person can determine they are the sole owner of the style.
---- The Core Issue ----
Their final response takes a bit of picking apart and I want to make sure that anyone still reading this understands how much of a grey area this gets into. It should be noted that I was also blocked shortly after while I was still attempting to explain the situation, so a conclusion could never be reached.
"You've recreated my blob though, have you not?
Which is copying, last I checked"
Now, on the surface our blobs do appear very similar and without understanding the details, one could assume that one was directly copied from the other. However, here is where things are a lot more complicated than they may seem. In order for this statement to hold true, the other artist would need to 1) have some sort of claim that this style is their original work and protected by copyright laws. 2) Have sole creative rights over the character in question and be able to dictate the terms of its use or 3) have evidence that I created my blob as a direct copy of theirs (tracing).
1) Cannot be true, as the blob format was not developed by them in the slightest. It is a direct reference to the aforementioned widely used emoji format developed by Google for use in their Android devices.
2) Is not true, as only the owner of the character has rights to it's usage unless specifically given away to another party. Since this character does not belong to the artist in question, they do not have a say in its use outside of their own work, which must have the explicit consent from the owner of the character.
3) Is not true, as I did not trace any part of their design (there is evidence of this in the proportions of our two designs). However, this calls into question the ethics of using references when creating original content. As I said earlier, I did have the pre-existing emote on hand to check for consistency. However, because the extent I used this reference is the occasional glance to make sure the two were not meaningfully dissimilar (less than 30 seconds of visual contact, total), their design played less into the actual production of my final product than it appears at a single glance. In fact, there is more meaningful connection between my gumdrop of this character and the gumdrops I have made of my own character (completely different colors and features) than there is to the blob emote made by the other artist of the same character.
The fact of the matter is, no matter if I had never even glanced at their design, the two would look visually similar as a consequence of the style being the exact same origin and the subject being the exact same character. It isn't a matter of one person copying another, it's a matter of similarity being unavoidable in such a simple context. I did not copy the style: it belongs to neither of us. I did not copy the character: it belongs to neither of us. I did not copy their design of the character: I didn't even have much exposure (again, less than 30 seconds) to their design when creating my own.
---- Conclusion ----
All in all, I really don't believe there is a case for me needing to decommission my own work, as mine bears nothing other than an unavoidable similarity to their own work due to the nature of our starting points. However, I know that no amount of explaining myself will change the minds of people intent on the idea that I'm just an unoriginal sop who stole the work of a more popular artist. Although I'm not happy with having to basically throw away days of work regardless of my innocence, I will not let people's preconceptions of my work form a ball of drama around me and be the target of accusations with little to no grounding. Not today, not while I'm on vacation. I'll leave that stress for some other time. Until further notice I will not be accepting commissions for gumdrop emotes nor will I be producing them as gifts or trades. I just can't deal with that right now.
---- Note to the Other Artist ----
To this other artist if they ever read this: know that I still never meant to disrespect you or your work. I'm glad that other people share the same interests I do and want to spread blobs/gumdrops, whatever you want to call them. I'm not all that happy with being slighted and verbally abused, but I understand how from your perspective it would seem that my work is simply a tracing of your own. Know that that is not the case and we have both been the unfortunate victims of circumstance and misunderstanding. Please also understand that my gumdrops mean a lot to me and took a long time to develop, just as I'm sure yours have as well. I don't care if you didn't ask for it: I've forgiven you for our altercation and ask that you forgive me in kind for any hurt feelings I may have caused you as well as any bull headedness you may have seen from me. I don't hate you and I ask that you don't hate me. I don't want to see division in this fandom, and I definitely don't want any enemies here.
So I discovered digital painting...
Posted 7 years agoSo I've tried to do digital painting in the past, but I've always scrapped the work because I just didn't "get" painting. I don't have a past in real painting, so there was almost zero experience for me to draw from. I've always been discouraged by this, as I see so many good digital painters and their works are inspiring while mine has always been very lackluster.
I guess that all changed recently.
This past weekend I decided to give digital painting another try, seeing as I've finally given up on trying to use Painttool SAI in favor of Photoshop (with Lazy Nezumi). I played around with different brushes for a bitand decided to dive into it. That experience produced this piece. I don't know what happened, but while I was working on this I felt like I knew what I was doing and what I still had to do to produce the result I wanted. I've never felt this comfortable with painting in any form and I don't know why all of a sudden I "get" it, but I'm hopeful that I can continue to improve at it.
I guess the moral of the story is to not give up on something altogether even if you've tried and failed (many times) before. Your mind is always developing and making you more and more capable with every experience. Chase your dreams; and if you persevere and learn from your mistakes, you're bound to come out of any experience with more knowledge and wisdom than you have ever had.
Keep at what you aspire to!
I guess that all changed recently.
This past weekend I decided to give digital painting another try, seeing as I've finally given up on trying to use Painttool SAI in favor of Photoshop (with Lazy Nezumi). I played around with different brushes for a bitand decided to dive into it. That experience produced this piece. I don't know what happened, but while I was working on this I felt like I knew what I was doing and what I still had to do to produce the result I wanted. I've never felt this comfortable with painting in any form and I don't know why all of a sudden I "get" it, but I'm hopeful that I can continue to improve at it.
I guess the moral of the story is to not give up on something altogether even if you've tried and failed (many times) before. Your mind is always developing and making you more and more capable with every experience. Chase your dreams; and if you persevere and learn from your mistakes, you're bound to come out of any experience with more knowledge and wisdom than you have ever had.
Keep at what you aspire to!
New to FA
Posted 7 years agoHello everyone!
I've had an account here for half a year, but haven't uploaded content since I created this account. I hope to change that. At of the time of this journal entry, I've done my best to upload my poor excuses for artwork. It is my hope that I can be a contribution not only to this specific community, but to the furry community as a whole.
I'll share a little bit about myself if you would like to stick around to hear it.
I am currently 21 years old and entering my final year of university. I'm very introverted (sorry, I drain fast) and like dabbling in all sorts of different activities. I enjoy the quiet and relaxing nature of solitary interests and as such have become somewhat of a removed, but pleasant person for my age. I've never kissed anyone and I've never really had the urge to. The only time I've ever had alcohol was to treat a sore throat when I was sick (I know, lame). My favorite colors are purple and green and I can't stand loud noises. I hardly ever use my social media accounts, but I do enjoy browsing content online, furry or otherwise.
I have had a negative view of furries since I first learned about them in high school. Back then I believed every negative stereotype about this entire fandom. At the time, I only knew one furry; a shy, difficult to talk to young man who had a reputation of being a bit strange. This was my first exposure and didn't do much to help my image of the furry demographic. I've never had very mainstream interests myself, but I still held myself to some false higher standard. It wasn't until I entered college that I really began to loosen up. As I became more intrigued with the visual arts, I spent more and more time on sites like deviantArt and the like. Consequently, I was subjected to quite a bit of furry content that challenged my preconceived notions of what furrydom was.
Over time, my view of furries changed from strange, socially inept sexual deviants to a collection of genuinely talented, happy, and welcoming individuals. In the past year and a half, I have slowly transitioned into the furry fandom myself, joining scores of others that share my interests in character design, self-expression, and yes, anthropomorphic characters. Since then, I have joined multiple communities, made a fursona, spent time developing my artistic skills, and enjoyed exploring a side of myself that I never would have guessed existed three years ago. I may not mention it irl, but I'm proud to be a part of this community and I hope my presence is a blessing to others here ^w^
I try to be approachable online, so feel free to message me with any questions or if you'd just like to talk.
I've had an account here for half a year, but haven't uploaded content since I created this account. I hope to change that. At of the time of this journal entry, I've done my best to upload my poor excuses for artwork. It is my hope that I can be a contribution not only to this specific community, but to the furry community as a whole.
I'll share a little bit about myself if you would like to stick around to hear it.
I am currently 21 years old and entering my final year of university. I'm very introverted (sorry, I drain fast) and like dabbling in all sorts of different activities. I enjoy the quiet and relaxing nature of solitary interests and as such have become somewhat of a removed, but pleasant person for my age. I've never kissed anyone and I've never really had the urge to. The only time I've ever had alcohol was to treat a sore throat when I was sick (I know, lame). My favorite colors are purple and green and I can't stand loud noises. I hardly ever use my social media accounts, but I do enjoy browsing content online, furry or otherwise.
I have had a negative view of furries since I first learned about them in high school. Back then I believed every negative stereotype about this entire fandom. At the time, I only knew one furry; a shy, difficult to talk to young man who had a reputation of being a bit strange. This was my first exposure and didn't do much to help my image of the furry demographic. I've never had very mainstream interests myself, but I still held myself to some false higher standard. It wasn't until I entered college that I really began to loosen up. As I became more intrigued with the visual arts, I spent more and more time on sites like deviantArt and the like. Consequently, I was subjected to quite a bit of furry content that challenged my preconceived notions of what furrydom was.
Over time, my view of furries changed from strange, socially inept sexual deviants to a collection of genuinely talented, happy, and welcoming individuals. In the past year and a half, I have slowly transitioned into the furry fandom myself, joining scores of others that share my interests in character design, self-expression, and yes, anthropomorphic characters. Since then, I have joined multiple communities, made a fursona, spent time developing my artistic skills, and enjoyed exploring a side of myself that I never would have guessed existed three years ago. I may not mention it irl, but I'm proud to be a part of this community and I hope my presence is a blessing to others here ^w^
I try to be approachable online, so feel free to message me with any questions or if you'd just like to talk.
