Weird stuff going on with my life lately has meant that my drawing habits have changed a bit: I'm drawing a lot more, but finishing very little- you'll see what I mean with the stuff I'm going to post. The gist of things is that everything I produce lately has been very sketchy and loose compared to what I normally post, which is why I don't post it. But that means I'm also feeling kinda bad that I'm not posting. So after a bit of discussion with folks, I'm going to start posting things despite them not being "up to my usual quality"hopefully folks will at least find them interesting.

But that's about it recently. Not sure what's up; creatively inspired, doing lots of sketching, emotionally exhausted and unmotivated, so the sketches never get finished and I don't have the oomph to scan and post them.
Everything just seems to be on hold, waiting for something else to happen so that the rest of it can move along, and me without the moxy or whatever is needed to push it over the top of the hill.

-Wolf

This year seems to be a rough year for artists...or at least us old artists; everyone of the "greymuzzles" I know, myself included, seems to really be having a struggle with producing or posting art of any kind.

Some of them are having trouble with producing art at all, a lot seem to be having issues with completing the art they do produce. "Why" seems to be a mish-mash of depression and life/health-issues, and as a creator there is always a sort of frustration feedback loop where not producing irritates and depresses you and you produce even less.

I'm playing with the idea of making sketches available for artists to "play with" inking and coloring and such, or maybe offer to do collaborations.

Which reminds me I need to contact people who've already said they want to do collaborations.

Random blathering.
Anyone got any questions for me or my characters?

So yesterday I was one year older!
Officially made it past the half-century mark, yay me!

So BLFC was fun, I highly recommend it, and I'm super looking forward to next year.
I *may* get myself a table at the dealers-room, assuming there are no shenanigans with lotteries and bribes like seems to be the common thing with all the other cons these days.
I will hopefully be getting my drink on next time - not being able to drink due to all the meds was an enormous drag.
A convention in a casino is *weird* but works really well somehow, and kinda functions like a small city: a number of restaurants, a miniature "mall", there's a WalMart across the street. The room *we* had was pretty nice, but I can't speak for others.
The convention-space itself is *enormous*, which is good, I'm told the con is growing fast.

I keep forgetting to post this, but for the first time in a buncha years, I will be going to a convention *other* than TFF (Texas Furry Fiesta) - I used to go to RMFC, but it was determined that going camping in the mountains and running around Denver eating and drinking was much more fun (and then the convention burned down). So this year, instead of my annual pilgrimage to San Jose for my birthday, it was proposed that I instead journey west and then head back east again from the valley over to Reno for BLFC.

It's my first trip to this con, which has gotten a lot of good reviews, so hopefully this will be a new tradition, and if you're going, I hope to see you there!

Okay, all of the commissions are completed, so it's back to the usual until such time as I get enough gumption to do another set of them - these ones went by quite speedily and painlessly.
In the mean time, I'm going to throw this out there: what would people like to see me draw? Let me immediately qualify that that asking for specific characters is disqualified, I'm talking themes and subjects here. And let's try to avoid really specific fetishes like "Paws" and "Muscles" etc, I'm talking subjects likely to appeal to a broader audience.

The list of folks looking to get a commission is as follows below. Also please note that some of folks have requested a slot but not mentioned what they wanted.
STrRedWolf
Griffinwolf
Draylen
Pathia
Molly-McAlister
D_Leonidae
Fishbothegreat
q-had-to-re-register-because-o
UnityPressDigitalAfterDark
NotJustOne
Blu_Anubiz
Linnaeus
McClaw
Bomba
Sashi138
JenoraFeuer
Jabberdragon
Lunden
Tygon
TheMiddleCat
The List is now closed, barring individuals dropping out

I'm going to start taking stream commissions again: put it in the header on my front page, but for those of you playing the home version of the game ...

Commissions
Read the section below completely, if you do not, and you fail to comply with the rules, you will not receive a commission.

I have decided to take commissions again for a while: once again, this will be stream-commissions only, that is to say that to get your commission done you must attend one of my streams to watch it being created and have input on the creation process. Commissions will be $30/character (price may increase for heavy detail), and they are 8.5"x11" in pencil only. Shipping will be available for the originals upon request (shipping will depend on the ship-to).
I will begin accepting commissions in blocks of 20, so that I don't overextend myself, I will begin accepting requests starting on 2/24/18 at 12:00 Noon CST ( 16:00 GMT/Zulu).
There's not a lot of things I won't draw, waste-play is one of them. If you're concerned your idea might not be acceptable, I suggest having an alternate concept.

To forestall issues, please keep in mind that you're hiring me to do art my way, in my style; if you have super-specific details, have reference available, so we're not playing the "Bigger. No! BIGGER!" game.


All requests should be noted to me here on FA. I'll post a journal of the 20 slots once they're in.

If you haven't already, check out this and give this guy a Watch!
No-no, not the art, the story *under* the art!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26382082/
It's even a *short* story for those of us with "modern" attention spans!
G'wan, reading is fundamental and stuff!

For anyone curious as to where I kind of disappeared to over the last little bit: the last six months have been kind of hellish, as most folks know, then I went home for the holidays, and then the weather here turned nasty.

I moved to Texas partially because I was thoroughly sick of winter and winter weather: I grew up in Canada and lived most of my life in the north-east, I've *never* been terribly fond of cold and snow.

Unfortunately, as most of you are all too aware, this winter has been unusually cold even down here in the south, and Dallas it was particularly bad: Dallas is part of the southwest that's relatively flat, so when the winds come from the north/north-west they are particularly cold. And my apartment faces north.

Add to that, the fact that here in the south, builders tend to skimp on things like insulation, doors and windows that seal particularly well, and my flat has been an icebox lately. It's not helped by the platelet-thinners I'm on, as far as I can tell (makes my hands and feet extra prone to the cold, it appears).

As a result it's been hard getting myself to sit around and finish much art, I'd much rather be bundled up in bed or on the couch.

Happily that cold-snap seems to have broken now. It's not hot out by any means, but it's tolerable and the apartment is somewhat comfortable again, so the flow of art should resume, at least somewhat!

Wanted to get the depressing journal off the front page again so I decided to do something silly and amusing; don't ask *me* the questions, ask my characters the questions (whatever character you want, whatever question you want).

So shortly after my ten-day stint in the hospital with massive infection, I decided to try something different: after a rousing evening of playing Destiny with Cougr and UnixSkunk on the 9th, I flopped out in bed to get a good nights rest .. and promptly had a heart attack.
No, I am not shitting you.
In a moment of panic and utter stupid I *drove myself* to the hospital (trust me, I have been severely chastised multiple times at this point) where they shot me full of drugs and put a stent in the artery on the front of my heart, and dropped me into ICU.
What followed were the longest hours I have ever experienced - I went in on 3:00 AM Saturday, they actually discharged me 9:00 PM Sunday. It felt like *days*.
My dad and brother-in-law flew down from Canada overnight and stayed several days to make sure I was stable, then headed back to take care of my mom, who has pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in her lungs). Cougr and Lisa Lynx were already scheduled to come out and stay with me for my kidney surgery (now postponed) so they're here for a few days to watch over me now.
I'm recovering well, the biggest issues are that I tire very easily and any sort of strenuous effort like going up stairs exhausts me. But, I'm getting better. Scheduled to go see my cardiologist today to see what things are going to be like moving forward.
So I say again to you all: take care of yourselves and take care of each other - it's far to easy for nasty things to go down.

About two weeks ago, I started getting sick, very, very sick, and I didn't realize. By the time I started "realizing" it, I was so far gone as to not be able to recognize that I should do something about it.
Due to an issue with a kidney stone, I developed an infection in my kidneys, the infection became sepsis (commonly known as "blood poisoning"), rapidly approaching complete renal failure.
I was delirious to the point of incoherence, unable to even explain what I was experiencing, or even enunciate simple issues or tasks.
At that point I am utterly utterly blessed and fortunate to have good friends that care about me: Cougr was worried about me, and called me, and when I wasn't making sense, he called MrHappy1987 and ask him to come take me to the hospital.
This began a day of getting moved rapidly between medical institutions: when the local urgent-care realized I was in need of more help than they could give, they transferred me to a hospital. The hospital ran myriad tests and determined that I needed specialized care they could not give, and transferred me to a different hospital.
I have spent the last nine days having my kidneys flushed with intravenous fluids, at the same time receiving massive regular doses of intravenous antibiotics. A stent was placed in my right kidney to aid in the clearing of kidney stones and infection. In a couple of weeks I'll need another operation to remove it. I will be on strong oral antibiotics for at least two more weeks.
I'm very fortunate in that apparently I managed *not* to lose an awful lot of kidney function.
I am, however, really worn-out: that kind of treatment regimen does not leave a ton of time for sleep: huge volumes of IV fluids mean you have to get up and piss every couple hours. Then every few hours someone comes to check your vitals. Change the IV bags. Give you other medicine. Take blood samples for testing. So for the next while I'm here but not gonna be very active, and gonna be slow to respond.
Take care of yourselves, folks, and watch out for each other: if it weren't for Cougr and Happy I might not be here today.

"Amusing" serendipitous moments in this whole mess: the first hospital didn't have a urologist, so they sent me to a hospital that did have one ...who already happened to be *my* urologist. Later on there was concern that the infection might have affected my heart, so they sent me to a cardiologist at the same hospital ....who already happened to be my cardiologist.

It should be pointed out that I frequently draw characters that aren't mine, and aren't played by me (in fact online I only play three characters at all, and lately I haven't played them much as is). If you see an art piece posted prefaced with "Personalities" in the title, that means it's not my character, or at least one of them is not. It's literally my way of indicating "characters I know", usually being played by or representing the people who created them. Some characters though, I draw often enough that either I don't add in the Personalities part in the titles, or they're alternative characters or just characters designed/created by other folks.
Jenna Kutu, her sisters Safari, Lexus and Maybach, their brother Murphy all belong to Cougr
Sahri, and the rest of her family, also belong to Cougr
Molly MacAlister and her offspring (Lucy, Vicky, Josey, Bobby, Kristy and Ricky) all belong to Molly
Wynne and Minna Patton belong to Wynne.
Haley Maruti belongs to herself (even if Cougr wants to steal her)

If you're not sure who owns one of the characters that I draw, feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to give credit where credit is due, since these are the folks who inspire me pretty much every day.

Bumping off the old journal. Ask me questions, go ahead.

TFF being this weekend, the wind-up to the con starts tomorrow, Cougr and LisaLynx arrive, they'll be hanging at my place for the duration. As I mentioned in a previous post I don't have a table again this year, so I'll be out and about, probably in the upper mezzanine area socializing, so anyone who wants to say hi, please feel free to do so.
Socially speaking, if you haven't met me before, I don't like being hugged at random (unless you;re a cute girl or really cute fursuit), but I'm otherwise a pretty sociable guy.

Just the usual occasional note to let folks know that I am still alive and kicking.
Long-time watchers will know I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, which means my art production and socialization tend to taper off in the winter; even living in Texas where the winters are generally mild only helps *some*, and this winter has been notably cold and grey in Texas (we recently had a couple days that were the coldest it's been here in over 40 years).
So lately I tend to just work, and sleep a lot. I try and make myself be social by streaming when I can but it's not always easy.
The job hasn't been helping lately either, I got promoted to Director of Support and Implementation, and despite the COO's swearing up and down that it was so I would have *less* to do, it's all been more work and stress (and as I'm sure everyone is already guessing, *not* more money).
The house-hunt continues and I swear to all the gods that *some* day soon I will move out of this manifold-cursed apartment.
But in the mean-time expect me to be quiet for a while longer. There's no longer the drive to get stuff ready for Texas Furry Fiesta because the price-increase on tables and the difficulty of getting a table at all mean that I've stopped dealing at the con (or any cons at all for that matter). I'll attend because it's a local con and a lot of great folks are there, but I'll just be there as a fan like everyone else. :)
The good news is that Spring isn't *too* far away, and as the weather gets milder I'll get back into my old arting ways. I'll try and continue to throw the occasionally thing in here since getting stuff accomplished *does* improve my mood.

-Wolf

While for myself it's Christmas, and I will be celebrating it with my family, I'd like to take the time to wish all of you a happy holiday season of whatever denomination or faith as may be appropriate, and wishes for a better and more peaceful coming year than the last. Enjoy time with your families and/or friends and share and spread what goodwill and love as you can!

-Wolf

As I mentioned in my Journal about my books being up on LuLu, I have a few things in mind for future publications. However, I was wondering if there was specific stuff people would like to see a book from me about? Keep in mind there has to be enough stuff in my existing art to make a book of it, so it has to be something I've drawn, and drawn a fair bit of, or won't mind drawing a fair bit of to make a book of it (I generally will only consider a book if it's 100+ pages). Things that are already on the "most likely/almost certain" list:
Giants/giantesses (that one's been on my mind for a *long* time)
hyenas
sheep
gazelles/hoofers

Things on the "maybe" list
leather/bondage/fetish-wear
mice
bukkake/sticky
booty
rats

Is there anything that I'm missing that people might like a book of?

And I'm still balefully eyeing my writer friends in regards to doing books of illustrated adult stories and erotica - you know who you are!

Folks may have noted that I've been kinda quiet here lately and been erratic about streaming. Unfortunately it's time once again for the old wolf to go through one of his "low" periods, where I'm just not feeling well, over-all. This usually doesn't happen to me in the summer, so it's kind of odd, but it has all the hallmarks of my seasonal disorder, which usually kicks in in winter.
I *have* been drawing. Just not *finishing* much at all, which sucks because the sketches are really good, I just lose energy and interest before I can finish them, and move on to other more "inspiring" ideas, where I repeat the cycle.
Hopefully it'll go away as it usually does, because the current situation and mood aren't conducive at all to being productive in any way, which just reinforces it because I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything.
I'm not sure if it helps or sucks knowing that it's just brain chemistry and that while it's not your "fault" it's also not something you can really "fix".

At long last I got around to setting things up so that folks can order my art-books online, without having to wait for me to do print-runs or having to try and get to one of the few and rare conventions that I attend!
Right now I only have the two most recent books up available, but I will be adding the others shortly. And if people buy them, I will be producing *more* books! Where can you get them? Why right here:
Sketchbuk #1
Sketchbook #3

I'm considering themes for future publications such as giants/giantesses, species I specialize in, subjects I specialize in, and collaborations with writers to produce illustrated stories! As I put them together I'll add them to the site!

Remember: books are awesome! They're off-the-grid! They're portable! They're retro! They're stylish yet subversive! They don't require batteries or chargers!

I know a major part of it is people doing new accounts after last week's password fiasco, but does it seem like we've also gotten a sudden influx of new members as well? I recognize a lot of the names I'm seeing in the new watchers list but I'm also seeing a lot of new ones, and people are faving stuff like mad (makes it a little tough that the mass-delete functions for notifications are still not working).

In the previous Journal, OtakuWolf asked, and rather wisely, whether I could be found at a particular other site (Weasyl). I should have thought of that myself. So here's where else I can be found. Keep in mind that these sites currently are very seldomly updated - I'm old and lazy and cranky and can't be bothered to mirror everything across multiple sites (although if someone came up with an app that did that, it would be amazing).
https://beta.furrynetwork.com/wolfkidd/
https://www.weasyl.com/~wolfkidd
https://wolfkidd.sofurry.com/