Can you faithfully and realistically render a photograph in colored pencil? Congratulations, your work is fucking worthless on all but a technical level, but most people will eat it up!

I'm going to keep reiterating the fact that my words hold no intrinsic value as I have neither demonstrated a clear knack for technical or conceptual prowess on a consistent basis. Rather than whine about and blame the lack of guidance in my artistic education (which, by god am I utterly bitter about), I have to admit to myself that I've been working on autopilot for all these years without studying the things that would actually help me define and improve my own work, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel on EVERYTHING, or worse, trying to appeal to the generally bland tastes of what I call the "furry effect."

This has happened in my own work, and time and time again, I've seen other artists bend their styles in a way that makes it more "furry" - usually an emphasis on more human proportions and just generally boring character design, and this always, ALWAYS makes me sad. Something great, unique and refreshing was lost because the artists didn't stick to their approach and improve it in those confines. Let's look at two example from my gallery that I think illustrate this well.

The Old (NSFW): http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19325/
While I still think this is an okay image, I have zero interest creating anything like it ever, ever again. Not that it's a naked fox chick, necessarily, I've just been studying cartoon character design a lot more in the last few years and this simply wouldn't be fun for me to draw. To be honest, it never really WAS fun, I just felt like I had to change my approach to something more like this to be "relevant" in this fandom, and it kind of worked for a while. It's easy to find photo references of naked women to draw from and slap a cartoony fox head on top, but it makes FUCKING BORING artwork.

Flash forward to exactly one year ago: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10125424/
I hated almost everything I created in the last two years, and practically completely forgot how to draw, but this is much closer to how I always wanted my stuff to look. I still hate it though. However, everything I've been sketching lately has had a back-to-basics approach of how I used to draw before the furry fandom damaged me, combined with my observation on effective character design, and it's actually coming out how I feel like it should! I just haven't posted much yet because I'm busy with other projects at the moment, and don't like posting sketches much.

This is not to say I'm knocking technical ability in general, or the ability to draw the human figure because it's important. Technical skill in one form or another is INCREDIBLY important, whether you're rendering something to create a believable environment, or relying on the precision to make simple, efficient lineart effective. I am also in no way claiming to be an expert in technical proficiency - it's obviously something I'm still working on, and will be working on until I can no longer hold a stylus. I have only gotten to this point due to sheer stubbornness, and I have a long way to go until I'm happy with my work (which will probably never happen, honestly). This is where stubbornness comes in - because I don't have the good sense to give up and have been out of the spotlight for a while, I am free to do whatever I want, however I want.

I don't care if you use the "I just draw for fun, why should I care?" excuse. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing adequately. I don't make art for this account to support myself financially (not that I would mind if I could!), so technically, yes, I am doing this for the personal enjoyment of creating the work, and the rare instances where submissions spark discussion. Interesting art can still be created while the technical side is being improved - every artist has thousands of awful pictures in them, and you HAVE TO slog through that shit until you have little moments of clarity where you understand why your approach isn't working, and your work improves incrementally until the next moment of clarity. It's like a series of hallway light switches get turned on gradually, and each light makes you a little less stupid.

But here's the thing - that hallway is endless. Some artists seem content with turning on 2-3 lights, some turn on a couple hundred and feel it's more than enough, while others run down that hallway like a kid who just got tall enough to reach the switches, and they never, ever stop. I want to be the last one, but sometimes the next switch is a block away and you have to grope blindly at the wall in the dark before you find it. Having a helpful mentor is like having someone with night vision goggles there to say, "Getting colder, colder.... colder, oh wait! You're getting warmer!" when you get into this situation.

This applies to all areas of artistic work, not just the improvement of technique and skill, but on developing effective concepts and communication as well. If your art doesn't include some kind of narrative or basic interaction with the audience, then what the fuck are you doing it for? I will admit that a lot of the fan favorites here have a great deal of technical skill under their belts, but almost all of their work is lacking everything else that makes art interesting. Interesting porn is even harder to find, again, because there's rarely ever a narrative other than standard-faire, impersonal porn, or it just comes off as rapey.

But let's get back to the idea of concept. How does the character feel? Where are they? Who are they with, and is the viewer part of the scene, or an invisible camera? Are they actively posing for the cameraman, or just doing their thing? GIVE ME A REASON TO CARE AS A VIEWER, GODDAMIT. Good rendering on fur and grasp of color theory isn't really enough. I mean, a lot of people seem to be fine with that, but we should be expecting and creating MORE.

I've been active in the fandom for nearly 15 years now and have followed the work of a BUNCH of artists - I've stopped watching a good bit of them, but there are still a ton of artists creating rad stuff, and it's one of the only reasons I've stuck around as long as I have. If I came into this fandom with my current tastes, I'm not sure I'd stick around for long - I can't remember the last time I actually browsed through new, general submissions on this site or FA (if ever), and let's face it, there's not as big of a furry presence on Tumblr, or anywhere else, really.

The main point I'm trying to make is that I want better things for this community and the artists in it, because there's nowhere else to post cartoon animals where people give a shit, and that seems to be all I'm good for as an artist.