It's been 84 years... /meme

It's actually been 3, switched to carpentry so I haven't had much time for erhm.. Anything?
Back to doodling a bit, but uploading them to thaily.bsky.social
I have 2 codes if anyone wants them.

Update: Codes gone for now, might offer new ones later.
Update 2: RCRuskin has kindly offered their codes, as they still have some.

Instead it's becoming more and more of a dumping ground for random content.

Perhaps predictably, there's a lot of kids out of school and bored out of their minds, which means there's an uptick in people uploading memes, stolen art and other random images these people have found on-line and would be better suited to a site such as imgur.com
I've reported them as it's contrary to the AUP, to which I was told "Fur Affinity does not accept third-party reports concerning this type of issue", even though the gallery was an amalgam of random images and the uploaders admitted it wasn't their work, nor was it done for them. Which is the criteria uploads were supposed to meet.

It strikes me as odd that FA would ask users to pay for a premium account when they don't do the minimum of enforcing their own rules. I guess they favor a quantity of traffic over a quality of content (as in, art made by and/or for the users, not going into the subject of skill level, subject matter etc.)

It's a shame and frustrating for artists and commissioners when their uploads get pushed off the new uploads pages by junk.

(Also the guy who keeps uploading nude photos is really fucking tedious.)

Reminder that my commissions are going to close for at least 6 months THIS SATURDAY.
If you want to slip in under the deadline, you can send a DM.

A lot has been going on lately, and I've not been talking about it much, even when people asked. I decided to just write up a public statement in a central location.

Trigger warning for discussion of mental health; depression and suicidal ideation.

http://bridgeofmagpies.com/a-statement/

Excerpt for customers who may not want to read the rest of it: I have a bunch of commissions I’m working on, they will be finished as time and energy levels permit. I expect the lion’s share will be finished by spring. Customers can contact me anytime with questions. After I get my contract begin March, I’ll close commissions for the foreseeable future, at least 6 months, likely more.

I can still accept a few before then, to help us tide us over, financially, if people are content to wait for them to be finished.

I'm taking a few different kinds for the time being.

Watercolour portraits: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/33755861/
I'm spending some time with my mother post-surgery, so I can't do digital work on the short term. But I -can- do some water colour portraits which also make for excellent holiday gifts! €30,- plus shipping.

Ink commission sale: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/33717321/
Marked down 12,5%, high quality inked illustrations with a quick turn around! €35,- per character.

Dragon beach pose YCH: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/32056074/
Knocked the price down to €50,- which is very good for a high quality character illustration!

I know it's obnoxious that shops start blasting you with christmas stuff earlier and earlier in the year, each year, but in regard to custom made art that takes time to make...

Just a friendly reminder, if you celebrate the holidays and want to give custom made artwork as a gift, you may want to start commissioning artists (not necessarily me) for your holiday prezzies in the next week or two. Giving the artists more time and a softer deadline will result in better work without rush fees.

Also, you'll be giving artists some opportunity to save up for their own gift giving. Or just so they can get bills squared away and they can have a les stressful holiday period even if they don't celebrate it much.

On a semi-related note, I still have the ink commission sale going and yes, I can refrain from posting the work until the end of December.

There's less of it now, but artists appreciate the engagement.
Commenting make artists feel appreciated and more likely to stick around.
So, thanks!

It's their birthday soon and normally they use their Patreon money to pay for their medication, but it's dropped below what they need. Consider supporting them and watch them perform miracles with ballpoint pens, among other things!

https://patreon.com/sparkyopteryx

Good thing I'm nuttier than squirrel shit.

I don't have time for large projects now, or normal commissions. But I'd very much appreciate it if people could take a look at my new YCH. I'm personally quite proud of it, and look forward to customizing it into other people's fun designs.

Thanks for reading!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/32056074/

I previously mentioned delays due to the gentrification.

The pile-driving was horrible, and then after they parked a huge, heavy crane in front of my window, right where my desk was. They'd start at 7 AM and I'd walk into my livingroom to the smell of diesel and an engine like that of an 18 wheeler revving all day long.

Earlier I already mentioned I have ADHD and I'm an introvert who NEEDS at least SOME peace and quiet in order to do, well, anything. The sheer amount of noise and stress paralyzed me into inaction, so I spent a good time away from home. Now I feel overwhelmed because I should have been further along with digital commissions, which I couldn't do due to the construction.

Additionally, the host for my domain has been AWOL for months now, and our domain is having issues. So if you're mailing me at Myriad, I am currently unable to receive any mail there.
If you NEED to e-mail me, please send a note with the title "e-mail plox" and I'll send you my other address.

Aside from that, while I am responding to my current clients (as in, people who have already paid) I may take a while to respond to anyone else. I'm just trying to power through my work as much as I can without compromising my health.

I appreciate everyone's patience and hope you guys are having a more productive start of the year than I x_x

- Shit won't get better if you don't work on it.
- Don't explain yourself to people who don't matter.
- Use your new year's resolutions to occasionally refocus on what you want, not to punish yourself.
- Prioritize yourself; you can't pour from an empty cup.

When I see them talking shit to other artists. So do many other artists.
I know this because we literally share links where people act shitty and say "Here's a good thread to block people."

If you think it's cool to say shit like "I could literally get this anywhere else for way cheaper...get over yourself." or "I'd commission 100 better artists for the same image for that much." don't be surprised when the artists you DO like and might want to commission want nothing to do with you.

Also, please have your tantrum at finding out you've been blocked in public, because that shit gets back to us and it's funny as hell.

Happy holidays! :P

My Twitter is temporarily limited because I said "fuck TERFs".
Just wanted to let people know I will never change my opinion that TERFs are garbage.
FUCK TERFS! (But not really, they don't deserve human affection.)

Due to gentrification, because fuck the poor, the city is pile-driving a few meters from my front door.
Besides already existing damage to my house (and it's only been a few days) I'm also worried about the effects it might have on my harddisks; I hope I can mitigate the damage by turning off my PC while they work, but that means I'm losing several hours worth of working time every day.

I hope people will understand, because the constant noise, vibrations and the damage is making my anxiety spike something fierce, every day. And I know that getting the city/construction company to cover ANY damage is going to be like pulling teeth, so I'm worried about ending up with a condemned house AND a mortgage. Super fun.

It's like that scene from Jurassic Park, but scarier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seKMZzoBdmA

Please no "OMG LAWSUITE" comments, it's reductive and dismissive because I'm not in the US and non-local legal information doesn't help.

Help a dude out. He cared for his terminally ill father, and now they're going to evict him.

Even if you just pitch in 5 bucks, those few dollars can make a difference in someone's life.
And if you can't spare anything, consider sharing it, maybe a friend of a friend can help out a little.

https://www.gofundme.com/to-live-to-survive

Thank you for reading!

Sometimes people nervously ask me if they need a ref sheet to commission me.
Back in ye olde MUCK days I used to work from written descriptions almost exclusively.
As long as people are willing to write at least a bullet point of what the character looks like, it's fine!

For example..

Description:
- Male
- Tiger
- Black with orange stripes
- Plantigrade legs
- Shoulderblade length hair, orange
- Blue eyes
- Gold nosering

And so on and so forth.

Reminder: I made a separate account for my smut art; includes adult/fetish work that's not here on FA.
https://twitter.com/Thaily_AD

I made a separate account for my smut art; includes adult/fetish work that's not here on FA.
https://twitter.com/Thaily_AD

Maybe one which would like to feature 1 or 2 of my pieces?

Being an artist is tough enough without people sabotaging our social media efforts for their own entertainment.

I recently ran into a "bot" on Reddit, "furrymirrorbot", that automatically reposts furry artwork when posted to Reddit, without asking the artist or anything, making the link to the repost available to everyone in the very same post the artwork was shared in.

Some people don't think it's a big deal, the owner in question played the old "it's on the internet and I'm not making money off it so there" card, clearly more concerned with themselves as looking at a Tumblr is apparently hard to do on mobile. However, artists need to generate traffic to their sites; FA, DA, Tumblr, etc. Only a small fraction of that traffic will end up supporting that artist by, for example, commissioning the artist. Everyone else still gets to enjoy the posted artwork for free. Artists know this and work hard to make it work.

Now if you redirect that traffic, even if the image is exposed to a large audience, few people make the effort to seek out the artist and support them. What's the alternative? Watermarks? Paywalls? Contrary to what some people think, being able to draw is not like having a license to print your own money. And redirecting traffic can affect artists in a very real way.

Honestly I don't understand the mindset; if I enjoy an artist's work, I do everything I can to support them. If I don't enjoy a person's work, I leave them be.

Please let artists curate their own work.

P.S. For the people who might ask "What if I share an artist's work? Is that bad?"
I can't answer that for every artist. Personally, I'd never stop people from saving my work to their harddisk for their own personal enjoyment, even if I could. If I see people repost 1-2 works of mine, unedited and with a link back (not claiming the characters for RP twitters or whatever) I actually appreciate that. But that's a far cry from scrapers and bots who repost everything you upload because they can and feel entitled to do so.

I've updated all my designs with new options! From dresses to clocks, large size shirts and scarves!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/Thaily?asc=u

If you enjoy my "Prey Approved" vore design or you're looking for a sticker to put on your tipjar at work, go and have a look! You might see something you'd like! Exclamation mark!

Last few hours of 2017 here, and the place has sounded like a warzone for days; wonder how the recently arrived Syrian refugees are handling it, poor sods. It's not as bad as previous years, by virtue of half my neighborhood being demolished, but some of my trashy neighbors are still setting off borderline if not outright illegal explosives, sorry, "fireworks" "for the kids" so I'm still going to have to struggle through hours of anxiety.

Whoo!

It's been a bad year for a lot of people, myself included. And while I'm usually more optimistic, I don't have much hope the next year will be better. I'm still going to try of course, I have some plans set in place to structure my time better, to split my time between commissions and personal work more, I have my personal projects planned out; you'll have to follow me elsenet for that as I'm only using FA for commissions and the like.

◊ Illustration portfolio | Fine Art by Thaily | DeviantArt | Instagram | Twitter | 500px | gear and prints at RedBubble | originals at Etsy | Furry Network | Tumblr ◊

I want to say the best place for regular updates is my Twitter, but there's also general life stuff there. I'll probably go ahead and have a free art raffle there though, once I finish a few commissions; I have a few that are a hair's width away from being finished, unfortunately the end of the year stress and some obnoxious colds have conspired to murder my productivity. More reasons to stick to my resolutions I suppose.

Anyway, whether you've had a rough year or not, I hope your next year will be better.

May be hard to reach for a while.

Inktober is here and I'm so excited!
Not an artist but do you also want to join in the fun? Buy me a drink and make a suggestion! Let's have fun together! :D

https://ko-fi.com/thaily

A prompt should be 1-3 words, and I will draw something inspired by your words.
This is not for character commissions.