Thank you very much! In all honesty I'm actually quite a prude it seems, I'm actually sort of put off by NSFW stuff. Guess that means I'll have to keep it safe for most audiences, then!

As for that pillow, I just realized, they both have pink pillows! That was totally unintentional. Maybe there was a sale at Walmart or something.

Her and Angelo would actually make a kinda cute couple since she's like a foot taller than he is, but I have actually been considering that she's in a relationship with either fat army officer wolf Nikolai, or scrawny little Rollo. On the one hand, two fat wolves that almost look made for each other. On the other hand, interesting contrast between the large and in charge Rhona, and timid and twiggy Rollo. Decisions, decisions...

As it turns out, I was correct in my suspicions that I am actually asexual, after talking it over with some people it turns out what I experience isn't all that uncommon--I find certain shapes and proportions and such attractive (there are things I find attractive in both sexes, so for a while I thought I was bisexual), but once The Bits come out, or it would be time to act on that attraction, my mojo level drops to zero or even into negative values! I think this explains a lot of why I draw what I draw, and why I keep it at the level I do, so long as the undies stay on those chunky dog butts, I'm fine.

Oversharing? Maybe. If so, I apologize.

Anyways, I had to look up that word, "schediaphilia". It's kind of odd to me because it seems like a lot of the sort of cartoon characters I see people being attracted to are depictions of traditionally attractive characters anyways. I guess I fail to see it as any different than looking at some Renaissance painting of some thicc lady and finding that attractive--it's a stylized artistic depiction that probably meets one's personal aesthetic tastes, and perhaps in the media the character's personality also matches what one finds appealing in that regard, and the fact that it's a drawing or painting isn't the primary appeal.

Thanks for introducing me to that term, though, as it's given me something interesting to do some light research into.

My thoughts on the prevalence of LGBT content in art in general is that art is all about self-expression, and for a myriad of reasons it's not always possible to express that aspect of oneself in real life. I think it's even more common in furry art since the community as a whole seems more accepting of sexuality in all its forms, for better and for worse.
Your hypothesis about the investment of time and energy does certainly hold merit as well--one of my art friends elsewhere has expressed to me that with a family to take care of, he has very little time for art. Meanwhile, I'm not trying to pursue any sort of family or relationships of any sort, giving me even more time.

As for your assumptions... I'm not offended in the least. I think it's down to me simply loving to design characters and their worlds, and some of those characters just happen to be openly gay or bi. I guess it's harder to depict a character as "openly straight" since that's still the biological "norm" so to speak, but I'd say the majority of my characters are heterosexual, or perhaps asexual--I have a few characters that are canonically married, a few that have even had children, single parents with children, and characters that I see hooking up as their stories progress. I think my preference to just draw single-character art just makes who is with who a bit unclear at times. A guy with a single earring and rainbow undies thrusting his butt in the air is clearly saying something about his sexuality, but a gal just hanging out at the beach in a swimsuit probably isn't.

If I try to give it some thought, I think your interest in Dominicus might be the same reason I like drawing him--beyond finding his shape and visual appearance aesthetically appealing and some of his features "exotic", he has a certain energy to him--he's confident, and dominant, and has a sort of "primal" or "animalistic" quality to him as well. I can certainly see where one might find that sort of personality and "swagger" appealing in its own right, regardless of the body that personality is housed in--but if that body also matches your tastes, it's just double the fun.

I kinda think it's different for every artist, for me at least it's very inconsistent--a lot of the work I think turns out the best often features a one-off design or idea that I just want to draw without any additional context. Sometimes a story evolves as I draw, since parts of my brain are free to think about the character and their stories as I draw them. Meanwhile, a lot of my art of established characters just feels boring and repetitive at times. However, a more developed character with an established (or at the very least, developing) story gives me some sort of direction to go with art of them and that sort of focus or direction can really help. If you're at all familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons way of defining moral alignment, I'd say my creative approach is "Chaotic Neutral", and very frustrating to truly pin down and define.
This question frustrated me a bit, if I'm being honest, but it made me think.

If you have any other artists you chat with regularly, I'd suggest you ask them the same question as well, since I'm pretty sure they'd answer differently.

Also, honestly? I draw "cartoon animals", or at least that's how I describe what I do. I don't really know what the distinction between "anthro" and "furry" really is, to be able to make such a distinction myself. I think "anthro" is more the general style/genre of "people that look like animals" while "furry" has more to do with the fandom? The two seem to be used interchangeably, yet also have distinct definitions, and I've seen some pretty heated debates between various schools of thought.

Overall, I think it's hard to really define any of these things, since it's all subjective, and every artist (and every viewer) has different thoughts and opinions and views.

(Oh, by the way, it's possible to reply to my replies, you don't need to post a new comment every time.)