While science, mathematics and other similar fields are
always in demand, the arts are seen as offering less direct benefits,
particularly for employment. Education in something as seemingly ethereal and
frivolous as the arts is often deemed to be financial deadweight in curriculum,
and thus is seen as open game for cuts. I’ve often heard lamentations from the older members
of the craft community about the state of art education in the
United States. I myself, from secondhand information, am aware of the deficit.
However, from firsthand interaction, I am not nearly as demoralized as my good
friends in the established craft community about art’s place in the
consciousness of our generation. One reason for this is my participation in the
furry community.
Furries are a subculture that most people who are young and
fairly involved in the online community are aware of, at least superficially.
To those who didn’t grow up in the nineties and the first decade of the
twenty-first century, they may be near invisible. At its most elemental,
furries are people who are fans of anthropomorphized animals. The subculture
has actually been extant for decades, its roots originating in the “funny
animal” cartoons of Disney and the Looney Tunes. However, it took the advent of
the internet for the culture to really become a connected community. As gallery websites allowed more and more people to become aware of the fandom, it gained a very eclectic following from all walks of life. As one artist says, to many furry is a lifestyle, to others it is exclusively about love of art, or comes of a passion for the natural world. Furry is as mixed a melting pot as there ever was.
Art has always been an integral part of the furry community.
Most if not all furries have fursonas, a play on the word furry and persona.
These can be avatars of themselves, or just characters of fictional people
they’ve invented, but what’s fairly inevitable is that most furries will
eventually draw or commission a drawing of their fursonas.
A high percentage of the furry community are artists, and with a supportive membership for the arts, even the beginners will often find encouragement and tips that will help them grow to become capable illustrators. Those who don’t draw themselves can easily find hundreds of artists who will help their fursonas come to life. The main mechanism for this is
Furaffinity.net, an online gallery/social media website where anyone can register, somewhat akin to Facebook, or, for those familiar with it, Deviantart.
Furaffinity, or FA, has several basic features: a profile
page with a comment section (known as shouts); journals, where one can make
blog-like posts; a gallery where one can upload drawings, photographs, written
stories, or even music; and a private message system called notes.
While not extensive in resources, users have made FA a nexus
for commissions. Many of the artists participating on FA have as part of their
profile page or journals commission information, including samples of their
work; prices for various levels of commissions; rules and guidelines for
subject matter; and information on submitting a commission request.
Moreover, the most important facet of FA is that its
audience are also its customers. Because FA doubles as Facebook for the furry
community, all the people who would want to purchase the services of its
members are already there. From personal experience, this is most notable in
the ads which the site runs. These four ads, two placed each on the top and
bottom of every page, are almost all furry related. FA itself has its own ad
program, which anyone can purchase. Most of these are site members who are
selling commissions. As such, the customers and the artists always reach their
target audience. And because most ads simply redirect to the artist’s profile
page, it’s seamless to navigate from an ad to an advertiser. This makes for a
very natural system for selling art.
The work of the artists spans a vast range of styles. In
general, one could say there are a number of general artistic styles, like
branches of a family tree, which means for many artists one can see
similarities between their work. This doesn’t include beginner artists, who
might be drawing for the first time. Although these are often like the drawings
of a child, I’ve personally seen friends whose work has progressed by leaps and
bounds in the year or two they’ve maintained their artwork. With a generous
amount of support from the community, many artists are encouraged enough to
stick with their artmaking until they’ve achieved genuine skill.
Besides the beginners and those who fit under stylistic
branches, there are those whose work is genuinely unique. Whether by
experimentation with methods, or their own artistic vision, these artists who
create outstanding work, while somewhat rarer, can be found in droves; when the
pool is hundreds to thousands of people, diamonds in the rough show up in their
dozens.
Prices can range from $10 to $20 for a colored line art or
sketch from some artists, averaging around $50 to $60 for the more established
ones. Art in that range usually includes backgrounds, shading, and other
details. Popular artists can often claim higher, around $80 to $100 for a more
complex piece. Those who are in high demand can charge even higher; some of
these creators can sell their work for $500 to $600 or even more. Sometimes
auctions are held for a particular commission bid, and I’ve seen these reach
$1,000. However, from those artists I’ve spoken with, one has stated that even these can be on the low end of the spectrum with some auctions going from $2,500 to in one case $10,000. They also comment on how equivalent work is often more expensive through other venues, like comic conventions, where a simple pencil headshot could go for $60.
What about the artwork itself? One feature of FA is a watch
list, which is like a combination of friends on Facebook and bookmarking. I’ve
made my own watch list from a combination of browsing through random work,
finding people through ads, and seeing somebody’s work favorited by another
artist I like. Very few of these artists I’ve met in person, or even spoken to.
That’s no barrier to admiring their work, though!
Chris Goodwin’s work not only spans a wide range of styles,
but his vignettes from life, featuring furry stand-ins, are wonderful snapshots
of the unusual in the everyday. Krat is also an experimenter, with his
psychedelic piece “I blame this on the 60’s” a vibrant neon Day of the
Dead-like tribute. He has a running comic series that has a wonderful
grittiness to it.
On the other end of the spectrum, artist Mitti is the queen
of cute. She is highly capable of creating miniature characters that are both
adorable and raucous. Not to be typecast, she is also capable of romantic
Parisian scenes and painting as well. Wolf-Nymph’s style is colorful and full
of motion. Her Mosaic Tiger is a piece-de-resistance, featuring a stone golem
tiger composed of magic gemstones, resting on a Greco-Roman veranda in front of
an evening sun.
I should say that many “Anthro Artists” don’t necessarily
have fursonas; indeed, many of those I’ve mentioned don’t have a personal
fursona, or even identify themselves as furries. Cardinal is not one of these;
his personal identification is a Pug. With brilliant coloring and a bold
cartoonish style, his pieces certainly stand out from the page. As with many of
the artists I’ve mentioned, he is capable of more realistic figures, as his
large series of “ferals” attests. Some furries have feral forms, which are
essentially like a non-human animal, rather than an anthropomorphic one.
However, human emotions are still often seen on a feral’s face, bridging the
gap between supposedly non-sentient “beast” and the homo sapiens.
So, it's not only artists who identify themselves as furries who show and sell their work on FA. A lot of artists are professionals who use their furry work on the side to supplement their income. Some are older artists who come from a science fiction or fantasy art background, now also visiting furry conventions to sell their work. These artists often appreciate the enthusiasm for art within the FA community, which provides a rare environment where one is inundated in an interested audience.
Vallhund’s work is testament to her interest in tackling a
variety of subjects and characters. She will often do themed commission series
on sale, for instance where someone can ask for their fursona to be portrayed
as a video game character. She’s also capable of pieces with strong emotion;
Cyrus and the Other Side presents a snow leopard fursona confronting his
demonic other half in a mirror, a true portrait of resolve. Vallhund is very appreciative of the economic ecology of FA. “There is a guaranteed target market with a consistent flow of work to be had by artists through commissions, a decent system for advertisement that encourages in-community work, and overall the site is geared to provide a fandom based on artwork with the artwork it needs in an accessible way,” she explains. Vallhund joined the website in 2009, but at that time didn’t make a living from selling her work. She’d been drawing anthropomorphic figures for most of her life, but it wasn’t until joining FA that she became aware of the large community based around it. “I didn’t start doing commissions either,” Vallhund recalls, “most of my work I’d posted to FA were personal works the first few years. My local furries were purchasing basic pieces from me around the time I quit my job working in a restaurant as a cook (a job I’d had between companies since I was 17), and I suddenly had a lot more time to draw. So I took commissions for the first time ever and worked as hard as I could to get faster and more practiced at using a Tablet/digital medium.” Before this, Vallhund was most comfortable with traditional media.
Racoonwolf, whose
fursona switches between a timber wolf and a raccoon, is another artist whose
style is both emotional and representative of the bold strokes of oil painting.
In this Taiwanese artist’s work, one can see similarities to the art of Chris
Goodwin, as both artists are some of those who utilize painting rather than
solely digital art. Horsefeather is another artist with a fursona, a quite
unique one at that! She is a hybrid of a horse, a kudu and a lunar moth, a
quite graceful and diaphanous figure. Her piece featured here,
In Pari Materia,
presents her fursona in the Art Nouveau style.
SpottyJaguar’s work is in the darker realm. With many representations of demons or sexuality, this artist’s work is very well-rendered, with strong lines and excellent shading. It should be noted that the furry community has an erotic component. While a guest without an account on the website cannot access any mature pieces, a registered user will find a high proportion of erotica. One should be forewarned, however avoiding the community based on this alone will blind you to the beautiful artwork present here. Try to avoid coming in with prejudice, and one will be rewarded. Many of the artists I’ve described previously have multiple erotic pieces, but as many or more that have no sexual content.
Kacey's work is characterized by pastel coloring and her detailed and gently drawn fur portrayal. Rounded edges in general give her art a soft and playful feel. Her picture here is a reference sheet, which is a visual reference for a character or fursona. Generally one character is depicted from two or three different angles, such as front, back and side. Basic or more extensive descriptions of the character are also included, as well as a color palette of the colors the fursona has. Kacey's depiction of Artistic Fox is an example of a basic reference sheet with creative poses.
The work of Veramundis is fairly distinctive, because of his
use of cel-shading and painting. The pastel coloring of many of his pieces
produces a particular look which almost makes it look like computer animation.
KrayTSAO is one of my favorites; with elements of Veramundis, Chris Goodwin
and Racoonwolf, his dioramas are surreal and magnificent, and his characters
have the haunting quality of old portraits.
Thornwolf and Balaa are two California artists who I’ve met
at conventions. Both are superlative creators. Balaa’s sketchwork of one of my
favorite subjects, tigers, are masterful representations of these regal and
ferocious animals. Bedecked in flowers or sea creatures, they are some of her
trademark pieces which she sells at dealer’s rooms. Her colored work is equally
remarkable, with many cosmic presentations that mimic sacred art. Like most of
the skilled artists I’ve mentioned, she is capable of a diversity of styles.
Her partner, Bagheera, is an equally powerful illustrator, Taiwanese with a
fursona of a black leopard.
Thornwolf’s art possesses a grand sense of humor, as seen in
her pin-up of a female bear holding the California flag. Her work for the
Werewolf calendars has produced many fierce canines, brightly colored. Her fur
depictions are very textural, by representing each hair with a stroke. Some of
her pieces are also very cartoonish; fans of Anime will recognize her ability
to produce chibis, miniature exaggerated figures. Both her and Balaa’s
characters tend to have more realistic, animal-like faces than some of the
artists I’ve mentioned.
I’ve only had two commissions myself, with another currently
in progress. My first commission was from French artist Shalinka, whose fursona
is a panda bear. The results from her outstanding work are visible on this
website's background.
The commission process began by sending a note to the
artist, Shalinka. I had previously researched her price list, as well as her
guidelines, so I made sure to send her a description of my fursona, which is an
Asian dragon combination of an Emerald Tree Boa and a Siberian Tiger. I
included pictures of both animals, as well as several photos of
myself for reference. Since I wanted my fursona wearing two of my favorite
jackets, I included photos of those as well. Contact information and an
overview of what I wanted in the picture concluded my first message.
Shalinka is an excellent example of a professional artist.
Standard practice for most artists is for the customer to pay up front, with
organized and reliable artists possessing refund policies. She ironed out the
details with me in a series of messages, then kept me informed on the progress
of the picture with step-by-step updates of sketches, line art and then
colored versions. At each point in the process, my feedback was sought, and I
was able to make several changes that made sure I was satisfied with the
picture. Finally, I was given the finished product in several sizes, at high
resolution, as well as an icon for forums.
By exploring the furry community, and
Furaffinity, there is a wealth of creativity residing within. What
makes FA inspiring is its existence as a community of artists who have created
their own marketplace. A number of the artists who have accounts make
their livelihood via the art they sell, by no means a small achievement. At the
very least, for my older readers, even with a dearth
of art education in American schools, art in the younger generation is still
very much alive and the desire to express oneself strong and vibrant.
Prices can range from $10 to $20 for a colored line art or
sketch from some artists, averaging around $50 to $60 for the more established
ones. Art in that range usually includes backgrounds, shading, and other
details. Popular artists can often claim higher, around $80 to $100 for a more
complex piece. Those who are in high demand can charge even higher; some of
these creators can sell their work for $500 to $600 or even more. Sometimes
auctions are held for a particular commission bid, and I’ve seen these reach
$1,000. However, from those artists I’ve spoken with, one has stated that even these can be on the low end of the spectrum with some auctions going from $2,500 to in one case $10,000. They also comment on how equivalent work is often more expensive through other venues, like comic conventions, where a simple pencil headshot could go for $60.
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