Things have changed a lot in the last six months. In August and early September I got really mentally and physically sick from the stress of my full-time job. It didn't need to happen, but it did, and without the faith that things would improve on the management side, quitting was the right decision. It gave me the opportunity to focus on art, which was great and fulfilling, but I couldn't make ends meet, and being extremely online and working alone at home started to take its toll on me. I had just taken the most recent batch of commissions when I got an opportunity for a part-time job. Between the job, the commute, chores, and other projects, it's been a struggle to find the time to work on the commissions I've taken. The part-time job wasn't making ends meet either, and by coincidence a way better opportunity has opened up to me, but it's full time. Now I've got a full-time job, and I definitely won't have time to do all the commissions. I don't want to tell people "hey I'll get it done eventually" so I am going to unfortunately have to cancel the last round. If I had known that everything would change so quickly after I opened, I never would have offered it, and I apologize. I just want to be realistic about my timelines, I just won't be able to give it the attention it deserves.

I'm really excited about my new opportunity, right now it feels like the new chapter I've been looking for.

Things have changed a lot in the last six months. In August and early September I got really mentally and physically sick from the stress of my full-time job. It didn't need to happen, but it did, and without the faith that things would improve, quitting was the right decision. It gave me the opportunity to focus on art, which was great and fulfilling, but I couldn't make ends meet, and being extremely online and working alone at home started to take its toll on me. I had just taken the most recent batch of commissions when I got an opportunity for a part-time job. Between the job, the commute, chores, and other projects, it's been a struggle to find the time to work on the commissions I've taken. The part-time job wasn't making ends meet either, and by coincidence a way better opportunity has opened up to me, but it's full time. Now I've got a full-time job, and I definitely won't have time to do all the commissions. I don't want to tell people "hey I'll get it done eventually" so I am going to unfortunately have to cancel the last round. If I had known that everything would change so quickly after I opened, I never would have offered it, and I apologize. I just want to be realistic about my timelines, I just won't be able to give it the attention it deserves.

I'm really excited about my new opportunity, right now it feels like the new chapter I've been looking for.

I'm back at it again! Looking to paint more characters!

I'm offering two tiers this time:

Character Portraits

Acrylic and mixed media, 8x10" on acid-free paper.

For $250 USD you will get the original painting! If you'd rather not have the original, I will send you a high resolution scan for $150. I will invoice you upon completion, plus shipping w/ tracking (shipping has been ~$15 to the US and ~$30 overseas).

Recent examples to give you an idea of what I'm offering:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58954929/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58961052/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58965545/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58973411/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58977548/

Available slots:
1. Labiodental
2. Rubberfeathers
3. Zeydaan
4.

Icons

Acrylic and mixed media, 4x4" on acid-free paper.

$30, digital scan only. Similar to the portrait paintings, just smaller. Intended for use as PFPs on social media.

Available slots:
1. Alberto
2. Goatboy9
3. Sockfox
4. Solaster
5. RolfTheWhatever
6. Kehei
7. Esher
8. Zeydaan
9. Zeydaan
10. UncrownedJules

These will be done over the month of February.

Please contact me via note, with references, only if you are interested. If you have any questions, please leave them as a reply to this post.

I'm still on the job hunt, looking to take on a few commissions so I can keep looking for the right place.

I'm offering character portraits, acrylic and mixed media, 8x10" on acid-free paper.

For $250 USD you will get the original painting!* If you'd rather not have the original, I will send you a high resolution scan for $150. I will invoice you upon completion, and may include shipping (see note below).

Recent examples to give you an idea of what I'm offering:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58954929/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58961052/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58965545/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58973411/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58977548/

I'm only opening for three slots right now, which will be fulfilled in the order they're received.

1. Esher
2. Dogzone
3. BSB

Please contact me via note, with references, only if you are interested. If you have any questions, please leave them as a reply to this post.

* NOTE: There is currently a mail strike happening in Canada, paintings will be mailed out once that is resolved. I don't have a crystal ball but the strike is unlikely to be resolved before some time in the new year. If you would like it mailed through another carrier (like UPS) we can arrange that, but shipping will be extra.

This site has spent 18 years following certain policies that have made it the success it is. Changing them now is driving off some of furry's most established artists, I'm seeing it in the journals of the people I'm following. Is the idea here to do reputation management for prospective buyers? I wish they would be honest about this.

Babyfur/ABDL is not my kink, but I understand it enough to draw the line between age regression and child abuse!!! It's insulting and outrageous that these things are being conflated and demonstrates a naive lack of perspective. The purpose of drawing an animal with a poopy diaper is not to manipulate youth into trust-violating relationships. This should go without saying but babyfur content's target audience is not babies! Seriously.

EDIT: Just for clarity and because I haven't figured out a new journal to post, this issue seems to have been more resolved since I wrote this, so take this as old news.

I had a full time job for a long time, I had to recently put in my notice because the demands of the job were destroying my physical and mental health and I couldn't get alternative employment lined up in time. I had a series of increasingly terrifying breakdowns and that was that. So now I'm unemployed. I built up some savings in that time that I'm going to be living off of for the next little while. I left on good terms so I could always go back, but I'm going to be trying some other things that I wouldn't have time for otherwise. I don't want to go back, but I also don't love being unemployed. We'll see how things go.

I haven't been posting much because all of my energy was going to work and recovering from work. Feels like my life has been in suspended animation for half a decade.

Anyway that's what's been going on with me. I'm still alive, I'm about to become middle-aged. Hopefully I can start something new somewhere else, something a bit less at odds with my temperament. I have projects I'm working on that I won't be able to share here, as well as some other life-improvement tasks. In the meantime I'm going to try to have more stuff to share here, stuff I want to make for me. I hope you'll like it too.

You can go die in a pit. Immediately. Make room on this planet for someone who actually values life.

I haven't really posted a journal since the start of the pandemic, and my art posts have been sporadic too.

My day job has turned into a bit of a nightmare of responsibilities over the course of the last few years. It's the same story as everywhere, insufficient staffing leading to overwhelming workloads with no expectation of being paid more to compensate, in addition to all of the usual pandemic nonsense like ineffective safety standards and people getting into fights with me for asking them to slip their mask up over their nose. It's been very frustrating to see peoples' contempt for public health. I hope I've been making a difference to the spread, in a small way, but my employers are constantly undermining us and failing us. It's left me feeling very jaded and cynical and generally spiritually run down. So art has to be sporadic.

I'm working on transitioning to a career that will give me the mental space and financial income I need to move ahead in life, but I'm not particularly well connected socially, a bit of a hermit really. But I believe in myself and I know I can do it if I persist. I can't really say what the industry is yet but it's unionized and those are the only jobs that pay enough nowadays.

Furry has been an extremely stable influence and I'm so grateful to all of my friends that I've become closer to during these past couple of years, and for all the cool art and good times y'all have been sharing. In a world that seems increasingly unreliable it's nice to know I can always slide into fuzzyworld when I've had enough.

Gonna post some art here again, I'll see how it goes. Hello everyone!

Hey everyone! Especially all my new watchers!

A while ago I decided to not post to FA anymore. I'm not a big fan of how the site is run, but I won't delete any art or whatnot, I've just started posting in other places.

Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/profile/swatcher

This is my main gallery site where I post mostly finished works. I also post scraps there but not as often!

Tumblr: http://swatcher.tumblr.com/

Old art with commentary, new art, doodles, random stuff, reblogs/promos for friends' stuff and work I like. My ask box is always open.

I'm not as prolific as I used to be, I'm back in school for the second time and it's eating up a lot of my energy. I'm also experimenting a lot with work that takes a lot of setup, like photomanips and whatnot, so I'm not making as much stuff as I used to, but I'm really happy with where it's going.

So yeah, periodic reminder! If you wanna see new art from me, don't bother watching me here! Check out my Weasyl and my Tumblr for the latest updates.

When it came out that the website admin was telling animal abusers to hide their abuse better instead of reporting it, you know, really not that important, legally speaking.

When a famous furry artist was accused of rape by multiple women, the administration hired him on as design and programming staff. That's just drama though. It has no effect on the website's climate anyway.

Then they hired someone with a history of ruining websites and fucking over their user bases. But that was a while ago, he says he's nice now! Let's give him another chance.

But a SIDEBAR?? Goddamn, a little bit of markup language is something to REALLY get angry about. And look, you got it changed! Good job furries. It's nice to see activism is still alive and well.

I haven't posted much in a while, I'm still alive though, I'm trying to keep my Weasyl and Tumblr updated with Swatchery goodness. If you miss me, seek me out there!

I've gone to community college for renewable energy engineering to improve my job prospects. I'm learning a lot, and I hope to have a good job by the end of it all, but it's been incredibly draining in some ways. The climate on campus in the engineering wing can be truly awful. There are very few women in the program, and I can see why. I'm the only queer person that I know of in the entire department and having to be the only person who speaks out against the kind of casual homophobia/misogyny of bro culture (there are a lot of bros) is causing loneliness feelings. I have to spend a lot of time there and it's hard.

A lot of straight people like to co-opt the word "fag" and "gay", but those are words that mean very different things coming out of a straight person's mouth than a gay person's. Sorry South Park.

I'm turning 30 in a few months, that's cool.

I miss the community here a lot, without the heavy weight of the masses, people don't interact with Weasyl when they could interact here, which I understand. I mean, despite not posting, I think I still use FA about as much as I use Weasyl simply because the people here, some staff excepted, are fantastic. I feel conflicted about leaving, still, I'm going to wait until certain people are officially no longer on staff.

Transformation is still a big thing for me. I've been working on photomanipulations and I've been cribbing a bit on Weremoose, who's been one of my favourite photomanip artists for a while. It's really fun to turn into things!

Still unemployed, but making it. I've been taking occasional circuit design gigs to make ends meet, and I'm on a student loan, which will have me in the hole a little over ten grand by the end of things. I hope I can make that back quickly.

Since I've been so grumpy the past few months, I've become a grinch until January.

That's all I can think of right now!

I don't really understand the pejorative nature of the "SJW" term. Can someone explain to me why it's bad to argue for social justice?

 kazjester just launched a patreon for his excellent fantasy comic Work Sucks! It's about a world full of strange creatures and wind, lots of wind.

Here's the journal about it:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5824773/

And here's the link to the Patreon!

http://www.patreon.com/kazjester

A little goes a long way!

Oh hey yo, I have a Tumblr if you all wanna check out that kind of thing! It's very NSFW, so be warned.

http://swatcher.tumblr.com/

Hey everyone, in light of recent restaffing decisions on FA, as announced here, I no longer feel like I want to be posting to this website or supporting it in any way. I can't even begin to put into words how grossed out I am by this website's staff and their general attitude toward harassment.

I'll leave my old art up, but if you'd like to continue getting your Swatcher fix, follow me on Weasyl!

https://www.weasyl.com/profile/swatcher

EDIT: Trigger warning for the comments.

Hey everyone!

I've got a spot in RRUFFURR #2 along with a lot of fantastic artists! The book is now available for pre-order, or you can pick yours up at Anthrocon 2013.

http://rruffurr.com/post/5317654142.....pre-order-this

Spread the word if you can. :)

G.P.O.Y.

Hey, not leaving FA or anything, but I have a Weasyl account and hey won't you watch me there too? I'll be cross-posting stuff there.

https://www.weasyl.com/profile/swatcher

I can't believe this site's policy w/r/t harassment is shutting up the whistleblowers in order to avoid creating drama, but there you go.

it's the last day to pre-reg, who all's going to FE? :)

 scurrow found this, and yeah, this is pretty much us.

Also I find myself unemployed again after the startup I was working for folded and laid us all off. I'm okay for now but I'll need to get a job in the next couple of weeks. Now to battle all of the other unemployed 20-somethings looking for transit-accessible employment in the city!

We're at the Hilton, come find us. I'll be wearing my human disguise!

We're at the Hilton, come find us. I'll be wearing my human disguise!

I'll be hitting up the West Coast this month and going to Further Confusion with  rubberskunktoo!

I hope to see you there! Come give us fursuit hugs.