#furries are my people community and main audience

[canisalbus]

I saw your posts from the dogs tag. I'm not a furry but I started following you cause there's something special about your art and your characters, they drew me right in. Don't feel bad about accurate tags, people are responsible for curating their own dashboards :)

That's very kind of you to say, thank you!

[godbirdart]

You don’t have to answer this question as it’s probably dumb to ask…but do you know what platform(s) would be a good starting point? Particularly for original content rather then fanart? I heard deviantart is a good place where alot of ppl got there start on but there’s lots of art thrives and such.

don't even worry, it's not dumb at all! it's hard to gauge where to Begin in the vast hellscape that is the online world. i do get this question [and some adjacent questions] often so please allow me to use your ask as an excuse to post a few of my site rankings for various art things!!

for reference, these are the sites I'll be addressing because i have used them at some point within the last year. please note: my information on Cohost and Itaku specifically may be out of date as I haven't used them in a long while. naturally, this is all solely my perspective. i run both a furry/original content account and an anime/fanart account on most of these sites and run them reasonably independently from one another. these rankings are based on how well each account fares on each site.

I will be talking about Patreon and Ko-Fi as if people will only be posting paywalled content there. you Can publicly post on both sites, but for the sake of this post i'm only going to treat them as paywalled sites since well, that's kind of their purpose.

POSTING ART IN GENERAL

the A-tier list sites here are the ones that are most practical, with a decent member presence and little to no algorithms impairing your reach. the only sites here with any sort of algorithm are tumblr and deviantart, but i feel they don't ruin your reach that much.

B-tier list is mostly centered around popularity. there are massive audiences on both masto and twitter. twitter can be really good if you're posting certain content. mastodon has countless instances [read: servers / subdomains, however you want to call them] that can help narrow down an audience and like-minded people. for example, i use mastodon.art whereas many furries may use meow.social. you Can be discovered by people on other servers than yours.

C-tier has been sorted in accordance to audience. this is solely in my experience, but not a lot of new people are flocking to cohost and itaku. we also just hate facebook in this house and i will never give a facebook products a high rating.

F-tier: if you are a new or growing artist, putting your art behind a paywall or making it a chat platform exclusive thing can really hinder your growth. you can still do this of course, but you won't get as many eyes on your work as you would on a public gallery. threads is there solely due to privacy issues that Cannot be overlooked. i will not recommend it.

POSTING ORIGINAL CONTENT / CHARACTERS / NON-FANWORKS

here's how i'd grade these sites for posting Original content, characters, stories, etc. your best sites will likely be furaffinity, deviantart, and tumblr. i've put these three here for their tag use, discoverability, and audience presence. tumblr can be a little glitchy with its tags, but they DO function.

A-tier is entirely centered around audience presence. these sites are great for showing off your work, but they don't have the same population as the S-tier. mastodon can be good as the quieter instances give you more discoverability. bluesky has been THRIVING when it comes to the furry community as of late [i'm personally on there daily] - the only reason i don't put it as S-tier is because it's invite-only AND you need to rely on your work being found through the Feeds feature if you aren't an already established artist.

B-tier: useful, but population may hinder your growth. toyhouse is GREAT for posting your original characters and stories, but it is invite-only and not necessarily gallery-focused [it can be USED for a gallery, but it's not the main purpose]. you can also post stories and lore to toyhouse. discord and telegram are Good, but again it can be hard to gain an audience through sites that require invites.

C-tier: it is DIFFICULT to grow on paywalled sites with original content. cohost [to my knowledge] has been stagnating with the release of bluesky.

F-tier: threads sucks, the end.

POSTING FANWORK, FANFIC, FANDOM CONTENT IN GENERAL

S-tier here is sorted because of audience presence. while twitter does suck, i'm finding a LOT of success there with fanart. tumblr is The fandom site of course. furaffinity is great for a surprising range of fanart that isn't exclusive to furry, and deviantart's Groups feature is still going strong which can give you that extra exposure.

A-tier is: fans Go here, but the population or algorithm can make things tricky. instagram is good for fanwork but the algorithm and the speed that things are posted there can make discoverability an uphill battle. patreon; if you make comics or art with fan characters [especially 18+ content lmao] you can grow pretty rapidly there. patreon, like any other paywalled site, should be a secondary site and not your Primary posting location. artfol and pillowfort are still growing. pillowfort has a Communities feature - sort of like deviantart groups - that you can submit your art to which gives you that extra exposure. artfol is just a nice gallery site and the tagging system is,, decent enough. a little confusing because the tag system looks up keywords in posts and titles First, you have to tab over to hashtag searching specifically.

B-tier: invite only and audience reach. again, bluesky relies on your art to be picked up in Feeds, as there's currently no tag search. inkblot is growing but has a decent audience. ko-fi isn't as known as patreon for exclusive content but it's still a good site. mastodon has tagging that makes discoverability easier, but mastodon and its many servers can make things confusing for some people. itaku's not as commonly used so it may be harder to gain new eyes there once you establish yourself.

C-tier: posting fanart to these sites Can Work. toyhouse focuses on posting and sorting original characters, so treating it as a gallery site won't get your far fast. it isn't impossible to grow as an artist there, but the site isn't intended for fanart posting. i cannot say much on cohost here. telegram and discord, again, it's harder for people to discover you out of the blue unless you mention your server / channel on another site.

F-tier: fuck threads.

lastly, to address thieves,

thieves are gonna be everywhere. i'm sorry to say, but there will always be shitty people. i recommend the following:

watermark your art. not in the corner, don't just sign in one spot, place a Huge translucent watermark over the WHOLE art. i recommend making it a colour gradient too instead of one solid colour or greyscale.

also: sign your goddamned art! put your username on there!

post a low resolution when sharing online. less than 1200px wide or tall. 72dpi. JPEG format. keep the high res privately for yourself.

add a subtle noise filter over your art. it doesn't have to be high opacity, and it'll make your art a little grainy, but it's good for fucking with AI bots and ruining any print quality potential.

i hope this offers some insight! if you have a different experience on these sites, please feel free to add your testimonial in the replies or reblogs! not every artist is going to have the same experience and growth rate.

[plural-on-paws]

Hey therian tumblr!

I posted about this on my main blog, @interstellar-cluster and I’m gonna post it here too! So, I want to make a Discord server for a bunch of sort of niche communities that I’m part of! I like to think a lot of them overlap so I want to make one big community!

Therianthropy and alterhumanity in general will be included, and it’s open to every kind of alterhumanity, including fxctionkin, physical alterhumans and more!

There will also be spaces for furries, plural folks, age and pet regressors, witches, pagans and other spiritual things, shifters, and neurodivergent and lgbt people!

I already posted a poll on my first post about this, and I want to spread my audience more by posting here as well.

So, the poll:

This poll will run for a week and my goal is 75 votes for Yes to open the server! At the time of posting this, the first poll has 65 votes total, so make sure to reblog this so as many people as possible see it!

[matoitech]

I had no idea wolfertinger was like An Internet Person I thought he was just some rando who got recced on my dash 💀 wuh oh

i dont think a lot of people know bcuz theres not a lot of crossover between tumblr and twitter users, so while he was apparently super infamous on twitter and other sites as 'puppychan' before he rebranded on here under a dif name, a lot of tumblr users didnt recognize the name puppychan at all in the first place when he admitted he was the same person (like me b4 i asked my friends who use twitter to explain who he was to me lol, and oh boy!) like im not someone who is involved in 'artist communities' (or fandoms) online rly so i dont tend to know when someone sucks or something until ppl let me know unfortunately. but when i found out the laundry list of bullshit.. good lord

if he just sucked silently on here and i could be annoyed by him as just another shitty furry artist i block and move on with thatd be one thing- like, he'd suck ass and id want him to fuck off, but i could ignore him easier- but its the whole marketing his art and his Brand as 'the only person drawing fat gnc trans representation' (as if lol, most of the guys i know r fat gnc trans artists doing it way better) to his audience of a lot of trans children, accusing anyone who points out that a lot of his stuff (drawn by someone who categorically Really Fucking Sucks as a person already) looks more 'pussyboy fetbait' than 'rep' as them just Hating Fat Gnc Trans People and himself as always being victimized by bigots, thats when i start getting a lot more like. my eyes twitching having to see him around knowing what a piece of shit this guy is and i still have to see him pretend like other adult trans men having Eyes and more discernment than a kid does is is the REAL transphobe just so he can keep his brand going. i can see why he does well on the site occupied by a high concentration of transphobes and probably the least amnt of trans adults out of the 'main' social medias lol.

anyway theres a lot of reasons im tired of seeing him but yeah it sucks how many people dont know. he rly has done like every possible awful bad internet thing u could do and him constantly finding a new excuse in the form of like. mental illnesses or identity labels should probably be a sign to people that maybe hes kind of a wad

[ask-the-troublemaking-duo]

Welcome to a blog full of TOMFOOLERY!

Step right up and come watch these two oafs fuck around for your entertainment!

You can ask them anything and mess around with them and be part of the show!

This blog is dedicated to Liana and Darrius. My main blog is @shadowwolfmemes if you want to check it out.

We just ask you to follow these simple rules from down below.

Hell to the nah:

-NEVER ask for NSFW! Does this look like Rule 34 to you?! Suggestiveness is fine, though, but please be mindful of my audience (they're full of teenagers aka minors).

-If you're a zoophile, pedophile, radqueer, proshipper, anti-furry, anti-therian, incest supporter, objectum, against the LGBTQ community, a necrophile, or a trans-autistic (pretending to have autism), I'm going to tell you to exit stage left. I won't be asking. If you're either of these and you interact, you're getting booted to the curb (blocked). People like these will never ever EVER be welcomed in this show!

-If you're a hater of Skibidi Toilet and you're reading this, then why the hell are you here? You know it's unnecessary to interact if you hate this fandom so much, right? Go on. Shoo! Or I'll swat you away with the broom.

-If I catch you reposting my art and not crediting me, you're instantly blocked. I'd apologize, but I HATE art thieves. If you're going to post my artwork on a different platform, at least credit me. It's not that hard to do!

Hell yeah:

-Ask for fluff/angst. There's nothing wrong with that.

-Submit fanart. We LOVE fanart! (Remember, I still have the right to throw it away if it's not appropriate for this blog.)

-Gore is only fine to a certain extent, just try to keep the ask mild. Extreme gore will shown off-screen.

Other than that, welcome to The Amazing Adventures of Liana and Darrius!

[wilhelt]

Lamenting how homogenous the average group at a commander night is. Tends to be a lot of very sexist/homophobic white guys in their 20s-50s and it makes for a really uncomfortable atmosphere for people like myself who are neurodivergent and queer. Luckily, at the one local shop, I have friends who accept me for me and are very nice, but I also have to contend with guys who say shit like "stop begging you look homeless no one wants to trade with you, just admit you're too poor to buy cards" in regards to one of my friends bringing his trade binder and asking if I had mine along. Last time I checked bud, the acronym "tcg" stood for trading card game, but what do I know. 🙄

I guess I just wish there was a local place where a larger and more diverse group of people could play together irl without dealing with assholes that storm out after screaming at a teenager that beat their $2000 deck with a precon. And I definitely think a lot of that falls back on the shop owners for not making bad apples leave and giving them consequences, but I think there's also a bad stigma around the game which acts as a disincentive for more groups to join in. When there's a common assumption that mostly only nerds and neckbeards play the game, whether it is a fair assumption or not, it tends to be dismissed as worth playing for anyone falling on the outside of that group.

I know it can also be a financial barrier, so I'd also like if more people embraced just helping others build decks instead of having mentalities along the lines of "Well yeah I have 4 of those, and they're worth $25 if you buy them from TCG Player, so I'll give you a discount at just $24.50 a card if you need one." Obviously it's okay to want to make your money back, but I think there comes a point of pure greed where there's no point in hoarding cards you probably have no intentions on selling at a local shop or online in favor of trying to capitalize on scamming other people. And it sucks when people gatekeep the game with this financial obstacle. I wouldn't have gotten into it originally had my dad not been kind enough to take the time to show me the mechanics, let me test his decks, and then sit down and build one together with me. And it's a pricey one, I know, but it's cool because he got me some staples I can use across multiple decks by just proxying cards if need be. His main play group have even given me cards (like Scarab God or Farewell or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite) for free just to help my decks be on par with theirs! Which is awesome! His main MTG buddy even built me a deck for my birthday last year with a dinosaur tribal theme, and it's AWESOME! In turn, I got him the Warhammer Necron deck later in the year when he couldn't find it at any of the card shops he frequented. This is the sort of community we need, I feel.

Back to proxies for a second; don't even get me started on proxies in the game. You have 2 main groups of bad actors with them. Group A is the group that feels even if it's just a casual match, you can't have any proxies and you're a piece of shit for doing so and therefore not worthy of playing with them. And Group B LOVES proxying all their cards with really weird furry and/or anime porn which like. Okay that's your choice, but it definitely doesn't belong in a public all-ages commander night when it just makes the already tense atmosphere more uncomfortable. I'm bisexual, I use custom tokens with some really hot women on them because yeah I love how they look, but they're horny at best and nowhere near pornographic or misogynistic, and if someone asked I not use them, I'd oblige. (And because I'm fair I also use tokens with hot men 😌)

Sorry for all of this ranting. I love MTG, but it's definitely a game with a specific audience and I wish there was more of an effort from Wizards to appeal to more people rather than shove new sets at us every 60 seconds. (Yes I know there are queer characters in canon, but MTG is a game where you don't even need to know canonical events to play it, so that feels more like an effort to placate than an effort to incorporate more diverse identities into the game. And no racial stereotypes don't count as being culturally diverse, but that is a whole other can of worms.)

If you read all this thank you! Be nice in the comments section or be blocked. Reblogs are okay :3

[saritawolff]

Hi I guess I should make a pinned post explaining my whole deal

I have like 5 different instagram accounts to separate the different flavors of my art but I refuse to do that here cause I don’t really have a Tumblr audience as is.

First off! Furry art! I am a furry, in that I have cartoon animal characters and I draw them, write about them, and rotate them in my head. They are my blorbos and I have been drawing some of them since the mid-2000s and I’m not about to stop yet. I’d like to make a webcomic about them someday.

On the left is Ozzy, he is my favorite son and he is a bearded vulture griffin. The skinny guy with the big ears is Snitley. This is basically the poster child of what my furry art is like. It’s mostly clean, good fun.

The only nsfw stuff tends to be violence centered around my vampire fly character, The Master:

(blood warning below the cut)

That’s as nasty as it gets around here. (and it will always be tagged accordingly)

My main art account on Instagram, SaritaWolff, has a lot more and I usually post there long before I post on Tumblr. Tumblr’s just kinda my dumping ground.

The other type of art you’ll see around here is paleoart! I started hosting “Archovember” (my take on “Draw Dinovember”) a few years ago so every November tends to be dedicated to drawing dinosaurs (and other archosaurs).

I’ll draw paleoart periodically throughout the year too, but November is when it kinda explodes. I also sell my paleo designs as stickers and other products on Redbubble!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/SaritaWolff/shop

If you like my paleoart but don’t want the furry nonsense, I recommend following SaritaPaleo on Instagram, as that’s all I post there.

Lastly, I’ve recently forayed into drawing educational zoology art for my new Instagram account SaritaZoo. These tend to be what explode on Tumblr. I really love how open and willing to be educated about animals the Tumblr community is!

So if you just want to learn about real animals and don’t want fantasy animal people on your feed, I recommend following SaritaZoo on Instagram.

(As for my credentials, I have a degree in Wildlife Conservation and over 14 years of experience working with animals, and put a lot of research into my educational art. The educational stuff is sincerely meant to be educational.)

(Also on IG I have a photography account and a personal account but I gave up on posting photos to Tumblr long ago as no one interacts with them. So they’re just on Instagram for now.)

So yeah! TLDR: Those are the three major criteria of art I post here (along with various psas and other things I reblog) and they are a bit different so I don’t want people following my account for one thing and then being shocked when they see the other.

I am a person, I have multiple interests. I love throwing all those interests in one place. If you want to see them seperated, that’s what I use Instagram for! If you want to see them in better resolution, that’s what I use Tumblr for!

Thanks for stopping by!

[izzywhisker]

"Even My Tears Are Crying" Awards 2023

;_;

Yes, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and doing a huge contest/competition/tournament to find out what The People think are the best tears.

Huge thanks to @lutzlig @nonbiney-swag-competition @autismswagsummit @weirdgirlshowdown @worstcharacterpoll @homestuck-best-girl-tournament @dissociationswagcompetition @novafire-is-thinking @ultimatefnaf-favoritecompetition @nicejewishcharactershowdown @ultimaterobotblorbo and anyone else who paved the way.

Rules

CRYING The emotional impact on YOU doesn't matter. At least one character or person must be shown crying.

FALLING At least one tear must have fallen from the eye and rolled down the cheek (or left the eye and entered the air anime-style). Blobs of fluid sitting in the tear duct does not count: If the character held it together long enough to wipe away tears, then a tear didn't fall.

MEDIA Shows / Cartoons / Anime / Movies / Comics / Manga / Music videos / Album covers / Illustrations from books / School textbooks / Memes … etc.

VISUAL DEPICTIONS ONLY. In the song Kindness Of Strangers by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, the track contains a depiction of someone sobbing. But there is no official music video release, so this doesn't count. In the video for Ich Tuh Dir Weh by Rammstein, the singer is shown sheedding tears because of the physical stress of having punctured his cheek for the video. This counts.

Books are not allowed. …unless they have a movie/show/comic book adaption. I don't care if "the book did it better", the only text walls I want to see is everyone's love for their entries.

Tears can be for any reason. As mentioned above, if someone is odd enough to puncture a hole in his cheek for a music video, it counts. Sadness, happiness, relief, anger, jealousy, rage… Even if the character got hit and is reeling in tears from the shock.

Non-humans are included. If a character has a TV head and displays an image of crying, within the context, that is allowed. Anthro/Furry characters shedding tears is allowed. Normal animals whimpering is NOT allowed. Sorry, but there will be no entry from Koko the gorilla signing "sad, cry" when she was told her cat died. Sign language and AAC is of course allowed, but remember there must be tears. This is a tears contest, not a sadness contest.

No Runny Noses Tears of blood are allowed. Any fluid coming from the person's eye(s), whether a natural part of the bodily makeup or not.

Please only nominate each scene once. Five entries gets the scene into the contest. If you want it in, ask your friends or fandom community for help.

In the event of multiple entries per show or character "Usagi Tsukino / Izuku Midoriya / etc is a crybaby!!" "There is so, so much crying in Steven Universe!!" If there are many scenes from one show or character, I will hold preliminary polls to find out which scene will be included in the main poll.

Series of movies or huge franchises? Things like Ghibli movies can have an entry each, but huge continuities like Transformers or Pokemon will be narrowed down to one entry in preliminaries.

"Official release" only. Basically anything called "official", so behind the scenes releases from DVDs, deleted scenes, A person sobbing and thanking their fans is only valid if it's released officially. Those Markiplier videos count.

Official DVD release of the live music show where the singer cries on stage, is not the same as someone's viral video recorded from the audience. I hope that clears up the difference.

Submission Entries will be submitted to izzywhisker ask box. Write as much or as little as you wish. Pictures or videos are welcome, especially if the media is obscure. Anon is on, but I will not publish the asks unless I have permission from you (anonymous asks cannot include pictures/video as part of the post.)

Deadline is Monday 20th Feb.

Updates every few days or so until the actual voting begins. I'm totally winging it and expect to be overwhelmed with responses, but of course I can handle it. *sheds a single manly tear*

[beach-illustrations]

Hi, I'm here to ask about ArtFol again, since it's been a few months and, well, you know how tumblr is doing right now

Have you been using the site since? What's your opinion of it now? Would you recommend it as a place to jump ship to from having an art blog on here?

I have been! Artfol is nice all things considered, they have a strict anti-AI policy which is a breath of fresh air right now. That being said I'm not entirely sure what precautions they have set up to deter AI scraping in the first place.

Ultimately, yes I would consider Artfol a good art blog alternative as long as you don't mind having a smaller audience than what you'd normally get on Tumblr. This especially goes both for posting original content, or fan art (which usually gets a lot more eyes on your stuff on Tumblr fast but for Artfol, it doesn't really do much to draw attention.)

There's still some discrepancies between the web version and phone app version- specifically features like the featured gallery tab and commissions sheet for your profile are still app exclusive. A little bit ago they finally integrated the groups feature to the app and opened up group creation to all users, not just premium subscribers. Best user experience you can get if you want access to all the free features is to have the app downloaded on a phone if you can and switch between using that and the web version on a laptop. It's deeply annoying to have features split like that but Artfol hasn't been around for too long, so I'm willing to give it a free pass for now.

I will admit, Artfol hasn't really been keeping my attention recently. Part of that is due to my new job, the other part of that is that I don't have any of my old mutuals on it. A huge reason why I've stayed on Tumblr for so long is because of the other people and especially the other artists I follow and everyone is more or less scattering to the four winds, rather than all jumping to the same exact platform.

With that being said, Artfol still has a relatively active and thriving art focused community! I haven't interacted with other users too much but the few times I have, everyone has been friendly and polite. If you're worried about missing the community aspect Tumblr provides (which I personally very much was!), Artfol is pretty great in picking up that slack. Community groups have been a personal favorite! Just pick a group you feel like you fit into, join it and now you're able to shoot the shit with others in that group, as well as make posts exclusive to that group! I'm in a furry group and a clip studio paint group right now.

And, of course, Artfol's main feature of serving as a gallery for folks to post and show off their art is pretty damn good. I really like the gallery set up, the featured artwork section is fun (you can put up to three pieces you've posted in a separate section above your main gallery! so everyone sees those pieces first, regardless of when you posted them!) and the collections feature in general is a HUGE favorite of mine. Beyond using tags, you can organize your art in separate folders for both yourself and for people visiting your page to peruse!

Artfol is still relatively small, especially in comparison to Tumblr and hasn't really gotten the same level of immediate traction such as BlueSky. It seems to be doing well right now, so if you're looking for a stable platform as well to host your art, Artfol could be a good choice.

[ft-rj]

YOU KNOW HOW IT IS WITH THE PINNED POSTS

HELLO. it's RJ again. I just keep making blogs but I think I'm sticking with it now on account of liking it this time

Uhhh um uhm. yeah. 24!. discord: ft.rj .

he him. Gay As Hell. musician? furry (HYEENER but also other things. find out later) Certified London Resident.

rp blogs:

HOMESTUCK RP BLOG PEOPLE: I switched Tekras to @tekr4s and @tekras-iszovh read him for more information. If you're a RP blog you don't have to follow me just because I followed you that one time !!. This is my personal / ooc. thanks

I'm mostly in the hs roleplay community with Tekras, but I also dabbled in others in the past. If you think it's me, it's me, ask? Yep?

No interaction rules. Go hard post hard. Whatever. We just posting out here. Anyhow, uh, vibes. I don't run a dni or block because it's tiring and it saps all of the positivity from my body to even care about it for a second.

other accounts: ft-rj on bandcamp, Buy My Albums. the money goes towards character commissions and such. or furry merch. or like, other things. so it's like circular and all that. i also have a spotify if you like playing stuff there.

I am also, duh, a furry, but those accounts post wilder stuff also, and as such, has a different target audience. you can go there, though. 18+. i post my furries and stuff, but also irl pics and other rambles that wouldn't go here, it is my Other Main Social.

PREVIOUS URLS: ask. a few fantroll community ones

[fencesandfrogs]

@cmorgana replied to your post “Do y’all know I’m super controversial in the war...”:

@fencesandfrogs ok... And they come from what? I'm seriously scared to Google warrior cats

​okay making a new post because literally warrior cats is my big special interest. before all else i am a warrior cats fan. they call me "guy who processes all of his emotions thru war cats fic" for a reason. etc.

warriors (often called warrior cats, to prevent confusion) is a book series (well, series of series) by erin hunter. (erin hunter is a pseudonym for a writing team, often referred to as "the erins".)

the first book came out in...i want to say 2003? sometime around then, and there's like. 100 books now or something. i haven't read all of them (see: i'm mentally ill), but i've read quite a few and have pretty strong opinions.

the books features a feral cat colony (or colonies, depending on how you want to analyze it), and the first six books are a fairly classic "mundane person enters a magical world" fantasy story, if you replace "mundane person" with "normal kitten" and "magical world" with "feral cat society."

because of the series' longevity, the age range of fans is very wide. it sweeps from people who grew up with the books and are now adults, living adult lives and having adult thoughts, and people who just found the books and probably are too young to be on tumblr anyway.

i think the target audience of the books is probably like, 10 years old or so? but they're extremely gritty children's novels. a lot fans report liking them because of the grit: they feel like books that "take you seriously."

(also, a lot of furries.)

the books also have a wide roleplaying community, and community that's very open to original works set in the world of the books, or even just loosely inspired by it.

i've been reading them since i was six years old and they represent a huge amount of passion for me. they're my main special interest, i write a lot of fic about it, and many characters hold a lot of personal significance to me.

so yeah, that's warriors (in a nutshell)

[godbirdart]

first off, i just want to say that i love your art, you are a huge inspiration to me and i love how expressive your characters are! would you have any tips for someone trying to grow a following from their art? specifically within the furry community ideally. im just not sure where to start

i hope youre having a great day!

thank you so much!!

okay i gotta preface this with: i have been doing commissions for over a decade. everything i say here i've been doing since roughly 2014, but my career as an artist didn't really Take Off and become reliable until 2019. success isn't immediate. some artists will grow faster or slower than others, not every tactic is going to apply / work for every artist; and that's okay. just keep pushing yourself and adapting and figuring out what works for You!

i’m putting this under a readmore as it got a bit long. every time someone asks me for advice on professional Anything i always write up a five page essay despite trying to bulletpoint it oof

post on multiple platforms and keep them all updated. i’m putting this one in bold because it is possibly the Most Important thing. we’re all watching twitter sinking over there, and many of my mutuals there were floundering because they hadn’t established themselves on any other social media site. i strongly recommend three or four socials minimum. my main four sites are tumblr, deviantart, twitter and toyhouse. furaffinity is also good. inkblot and artfol are new and i use them frequently as well. if you don’t like posting manually to every site each and every time you post art, Postybirb exists and is what i use to crosspost all my art to most of my socials at once.

avoid venting a lot on main. we all have frustrating days where our art isn’t getting the recognition we hoped, or we’re feeling petty about a controversial topic or the latest drama. it happens! it’s okay! however, many people just don’t like seeing dozens of negative posts on their feed. most people will sympathize, but if your negative vents are constantly clogging their dashboard they’re not gonna stick around.

shamelessly self promote yourself. reblog your own art. retweet it again. repost it. mention your other socials. we live in a world of timezones! when you post art, only a fraction of your audience is going to see it. i recommend reblogging / retweeting one to four individual pieces periodically over the course of a day and change it up each day. you can also repost your own work into photosets and title it “recent commissions” or the something like that.

don’t hide your linktrees and carrds. seriously! the amount of times on twitter i went to try and follow someone on another platform only to find they had no carrd or linktree link,, it is infuriating. put your socials link in your bio or pinned or SOMEWHERE readily at the top of your profile that’s easy to spot.

if you’re offering commissions, make a telegram channel or discord server for your announcements / openings.

post regularly. this one is a lot harder for artists that don’t make a lot of content, but posting even a status update once or twice a day can go a long way - especially if you’re on twitter with that platform’s hideous algorithm. alternatively as i said earlier, just retweet/reblog your work a few times a day and you should be good.

art trends are cool and fun and an easy way to get your work seen by others. see a “draw your sona in this outfit” meme? go, have fun with it. this one’s a bit tricky as timing is everything when it comes to ~trending~ content, so try and draw quick. that said, it’s never outdated to drawover reaction memes with your fursona.

try not to clog your socials with memes and shitposty images. this one is directed at twitter specifically. with twitter moments now gone, your media tab is the last way for people to hope to find your work organically on your profile without having to use the twitter search. they can’t get invested in your work if they can’t find it!

it’s okay to change course if you’re not vibing with where you’re headed. if you want to move onto a new aesthetic - that’s fine! you may lose some followers if they don’t click with your new vibe, but you’ll inevitably gain some new ones.

avoid frequent name changes. so many of the artists i follow have changed their brands / urls over the years that i don’t recognize them anymore.

tag your work properly. on tumblr, the first five tags on the original post are the tags your work will pop up in in the search feature. make those first five tags the Most important ones; example: #furry, #anthro, #art #fursona etc. twitter’s algo seems flip-flop if it likes tags or hates them. if you see a tag trending, repost your art in a photoset with the hashtag in the post [example: if #pokemon is trending, repost some of your pokemon fanart with the hashtag in the post body]. if the tag isn’t trending,,, i’ll be honest it’s a gamble if twitter likes your post or not at that point. i have no advice for that hell algorithm.

hosting raffles or doing a mini art request event [example: “leave a ref and i might draw your oc”] is good for traction while simultaneously giving back to the community + your audience a little!

try and reply to / like comments on your work. it’s not required per se, but it’s good to express gratitude.

engage with other members of the community. comment on other peoples work. like it. retweet it. follow other people. obviously don’t be disingenuous about it, but this is what the professionals call ~networking~

don’t compare yourself to others. this one is one you have got to keep in mind constantly. you’re going to find 17 year olds with huge followings and 30 year olds that are doing professional industry work whose level feels alien and almost out of reach. if you’re not doing as well, don’t let yourself get discouraged. we all gotta start somewhere!

related to the above point: be nice to your followers. venting on main about not having the same audience volume as others can come off as a huge middle finger to the audience you already have.

gaining a following takes time. unless you get a really lucky break, it’s going to take a lot of work and self promotion to build up your brand.

slap your name on everything. i mean it. any art you do - sign it. watermark it. people can and will share art in telegram channels and discord servers, and if the art interests someone they can easily source it back to you if your name is on it.

you can buy adspace. if you’re catering to a furry audience specifically, you can buy adspace on furaffinity pretty easily. inkblot i believe also offers adspace for artists though i haven’t looked too deep into it. this is really a “if you’re okay burning money” situation, as the huge chunkk of internet users have adblockers now and it’s a gamble if people will see or even click on your ad.

just have fun and do your own thing. you can hop on trends and draw art that caters to your audience’s tastes, but don’t forget to draw what YOU want and what YOU’RE about. Draw what makes YOU happy.

hope these help!! ;w;

[thechekhov]

Hi Chekhov! Really enjoying your white diamond au! I had a quick art question: How do you start comissions? I've been improving my drawing skills and thinking about drawing for others after having fun in artfight, but I don't know where to start? How much to charge, how to get paid, etc. Do you have any tips? Hope you're doing well! :)

Alright, since a few people have asked, I’ve decided to put together a few things about how to get started on commissions - what you need, what you should make, and how to keep things organized. 

This will get a little long, so I’ll divide it into 4 main sections:

1) Draw Art - Getting started

2) Get Commissioned - Making a commission sheet, Advertising

3) ??? - Communicating, Setting Limits, Running the Business

4) Profit - Pricing Yourself and Getting Paid

* Disclaimer: I’m an artist, so this How-To will be illustration-focused. I’m sure many of these tips can apply to ANY types of commissions, but I will be focusing on the type I know best. If you are proficient in other types of commissions for other types of art - music commissions, photography, etc - feel free to chime in and leave a comment or make your own tutorial!

1) Draw Art

I think this is probably the most obvious part, but it needs to be said:

Before you start making art for other people, you must first be comfortable making art in general.

I’m not saying your art has to be Disney-quality, or industry-level! Not at all. 

BUT! You must be comfortable creating what you sell. If you try to sell something you have little confidence in, you will stress yourself out and possibly end up losing time AND money.

Don’t shoot for the moon if you haven’t landed on it even once. Sell what you know you’re good at. Your commissions don’t HAVE to include full-body illustrations if you don’t know how to draw feet/solid stances. Limit yourself to what you can do.

Things you need to should probably have before starting commissions:

1. Access to art materials or a fully downloaded art program

DO NOT - Use a free tutorial version that will expire in a month and leave you without a way to draw! If you are having trouble finding a program, try free ones like MediBang Paint Pro. 

2. Free time to complete the amount of commissions you want to take.

DO NOT - Take on or offer commissions if you KNOW you’re going to be overwhelmed with school or personal life for the next 2+ months. Pace yourself, otherwise you’ll burn out, get stressed, and get discouraged.

3. A reliable way to communicate with your customers like a commissions-only email 

DO NOT - Use your friend/family/college email. It’s hard to keep track of things as it is, and creating new emails is easy and free. And keep it professional if you can! Not many people will reach out to dong-wiggles20434 to ask for a design. Ideally, your email should be close to your brand - however you want to brand yourself. Usernames are fine!)

DO NOT - Use Instagram/Twitter/Tumblr to collect commission info unless you are ready to do the organizing yourself. Some people make it work, but in my experience, if you use these SNS sites to communicate with friends and network... you’re going to be losing commission inquiries right and left and accidentally ignoring people. Email is much easier to organize and sort into folders.

4. A portfolio or at least 2-3 pieces of each type of art you’re planning to sell. 

DO NOT - Advertise commissions without having any examples of the art you plan to sell. People will find it difficult to trust you if you can’t even give them a vague idea of what sort of drawing they’ll be getting. 

Disclaimer: These are not hard ‘do not’s. If you have had a different experience, I respect that. I’m simplifying for the sake of streamlining this advice. 

.

2) Get Commissioned

So - you have your art, you have your art program, and you’ve got all the time in the world. That means.... that’s right! It’s time to let the world know you’re taking commissions.

One of the most common ways artists signal to their audience that they can do commissions is by creating a commissions sheet. There are MANY ways to make this - and they range from simple and doodly ones to VERY complex designs. For example, here’s mine! 

There are many ways to organize a commission sheet. At its core, a commission sheet should display the types of art you WANT to be commissioned to make. Let’s go over a few ways they can be done!

#1.... Body Portion Dividers!

This sheet is most common with those who want to capitalize on drawing people and characters. If you want to draw lots of characters, this is a great way to offer several tiers of pricing based on how much of their character your customers want to see. 

#2... Complexity Scale

If you’re open to drawing many things but want to base your pricing off of how complex something is, you can split your tiers into done-ness. This type of commission is popular with those that draw characters AND animals, furries, etc.

#3....  Style and Type

If you’re more on the design side of things, or if you have various niche art styles that you can’t quite lump together, display a variety of your skills alongside each other! It helps if all the ones you have can be organized under a common customer - like those looking to advance their own business and get logos, websites, or mascots made for them!

.

3) ???

You got your first commission... what happens now???

Well, ideally you have the time, tools and motivation to make things happen! Now all you have to do is... sit down and... draw.......

I’m going to say something that may be a little controversial: 

Commissions aren’t fun. 

No, no, hear me out: I have fun doing commissions! I genuinely enjoy drawing characters and coming up with designs. But even with all that said, commissions are, first and foremost: WORK

I’m not saying this to discourage you, I’m saying this to keep things realistic. When I first began commissions, I thought it would be just like any other type of drawing. I would sit down, imagine a thing, draw it... it would be fun! 

But then I realized that I couldn’t just draw what I wanted - another person had an idea in mind and had asked me to do it. I stressed over getting the design correct from descriptions. I stressed over not having the right reference for the pose the commissioner wanted. I stressed over not being able to draw the leg right in the way I had promised I would do. I stressed about billing. I stressed about digital money transfers. It was difficult, and time-consuming, and I did not enjoy it. At all. 

And a part of that is definitely on the commissioner - we, as artists, NEED to demand proper references or descriptions. We, as artists, NEED to limit the amount of changes we’re going to make at the flick of a finger. We NEED to demand clear instructions and set boundaries. That’s also super important. 

But also - don’t be discouraged if you find yourself exhausted drawing your first commission. MANY artists go through this. Adjust your rules, fix up your limits, practice putting your foot down on finicky commissioners who expect you to read their mind! It does get easier, but you have to communicate and put in the effort and act as your own manager AND your own customer service AND your own accountant. That’s what you’re looking at. 

Good limits and boundaries to set: 

Limit the amount of changes a person can ask to make. “I want blue hair.” Next email: “No wait, yeah, make it red.” Next email: “Actually I changed my mind, can I get the blue but like, lighter?” Next email: “No, not that light.” ... At some point, we have to stop. I personally allow 2-3 changes on the final stages of a commission before I start refusing or start asking for extra money.

Demand clear instructions and/or references. If something isn’t described, you have to take artistic liberty and design it, but that’s difficult! And if the customer is not happy with it but can’t tell you more? That’s not your problem - the burden of reference is on THEM. You cannot read their mind, and that’s not your fault.

Get at least half the payment up front! This is a good balance between the ‘pay before art’ and the ‘pay after art’ conundrum that will limit the amount of woes between artist and customer. (I’ll touch upon this a little more in the Profit section.)

Organization:

Where possible, create good habits! Tag your emails and organize your folders. I have a tag on my emails for active and finished commissions. I also keep my emails on Unread until I have time to sit down and properly look at/reply to them.

My Commissions in the folder are also organized chronologically and I mark down which ones are paid and which ones are not.

(I understand not everyone can do this, but if you want to give it a try, it does make things easier in the long run. Again, this advice is just what I have found personally helps.)

One last thing - I do not want to shame ANYONE for taking their time with commissions! Commissions are complex, and they take time and work. You can draw in 8 hours, but some things take research, materials, etc. Some illustrations realistically take up to half a year, or, depending on what’s involved, several years!!

THAT BEING SAID - it’s good manners to be upfront with your customers about how long you expect the commission to take. If you think you’re busy, just say that! Explain that you have a lot going on, and you will probably take (insert time period here).

And if your commissioners are worried, work out a system to keep them updated! I send my commissioners updates when I finish the lineart/flat colors/etc and I try to be clear about how long everything will take. I try to estimate with a +3-5 days buffer to give myself extra time... and recently I’ve been using it. Always say a bigger number than you think you’ll need. 

If someone wants a rushed commission... make them pay more. If ANYONE wants a commission done ‘by the end of the week’ - that’s an automatic rush-job for me because I’m juggling an irl job and several commissions at once. I WILL charge a rush fee and I won’t feel bad about it. 

If someone wants a commission within 24 hours...... Well, they better be paying you 3x your normal amount, or more. And remember - you CAN refuse! It’s perfectly reasonable to say ‘No, sorry, that sort of turnaround time is not realistic for me.’

Food For Thought - Invoicing

Many artists I’ve commissioned in the past have not used Invoicing, but I’ve recently begun to fill out invoices and file them in my Commissions folder just to keep track of things. It’s not necessary until you start getting into the Small Business side of Freelancing, but it’s not a bad idea to get into the habit early in case you might need to do it later for tax purposes. 

Here’s what my Invoice looks like, for example. 

I’ve optimized it to help me remember who, what, and how much is involved! It also contains important info for my customers like where to send the money.

Which brings us to...

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4) Profit

One of the hardest things for artists is pricing themselves. I’m not going to tell you which way is BEST - there is no BEST way, only the best way for YOU. 

One of the options available to you is pricing by the hour. It includes averaging out how long it takes you to draw a specific type of art (whatever you’re offering as a commission) and multiplying that by an hourly wage you’ve decided on.

When you do this, I stress - do NOT price yourself below minimum wage if you can help it. When you first start out, aim for the $15/hour mark and adjust accordingly. 

Other ways to price your art:

- Per complexity: Portraits vs full body should be scaled based on how difficult you find one vs. the other. You can also easily decide on a price for a sketch and double it for lineart, triple it for full color, etc.

- Per type: Look up for industry prices for website design and logo design. They may surprise you! You don’t have to charge that much, but it helps to keep things in perspective. 

It’s okay to change your prices! Keep your commission sheet image handy so you can update the amounts as you grow. :)

Payment up front or after completion?

Some artist take full payment up front. Some only demand payment after they’ve finished and sent out the piece. I personally think these are both risky for everyone involved. 

I recommend doing at least HALF of the payment BEFORE you start the commission. Calculate your full price and ask for half before you start working on it in earnest, to make sure the person can actually pay you. Then, when they receive the full piece and are satisfied, they can complete the payment. 

I personally work in this structure:

> Someone emails me with their idea/reference

> I send back a rough draft sketch that shows the idea/pose (only takes me 10-20 minutes so not a huge loss if they ghost) and quote them a price

> They can pay the full thing upfront OR pay half

> I finish the commission and send updates when I do the lineart/colors to double check anything so they have multiple chances to spot any errors

> If the person paid only half on completion, I send them a low-res version of the finished thing, they finish up their payment and THEN I send them the full-res version plus any other filetypes/CYMK proofs, etc. 

Many of the people who commission me pay me up front even though I offer they pay half - and I’m really flattered that they trust me that much! Because of that, I feel encouraged to update them frequently and ask for their input as I work, so they have the peace of mind knowing I’m actually doing their commission. 

Great, but how do I get PAID????

There are NUMEROUS ways - these days money is relatively easy to transfer over digital means, and you have a few options. 

Paypal is perhaps one of the oldest digital wallets and is geared towards businesses. By setting up a PayPal and connecting it to your debit card of bank account, you can tunnel a pathway from your online business directly into your hands in a matter of days. 

Paypal also offers Invoicing - you make an invoice, price it and send it to the person’s email and they can pay whatever way they need! (It also allows partial payments.)

Pros: transfers from PayPal to bank account are free, and take a couple of business days. It also has no upper limit to the amount of money you can move in/out each month. It can force refunds due to the nature of its business-oriented payment system.

Cons: Because it’s used by businesses for larger transactions, PayPal may demand a more rigorous proof of your identity. It may also take longer to set up and be harder to get used to. I’ve also heard that they can be a hassle when it comes to closing your account. 

Venmo is another type of digital wallet that acts much like paypal, except for a few key differences - it is NOT made for businesses (so depending on whether you’re officially registered as a freelancer, you may not be able to use it). I personally don’t use venmo, so I cannot speak to its usefulness, but I know a few people that use it for casual transactions. It’s easy and quick! :) 

Keep in mind that you cannot force a refund over venmo! The transactions are final.

There’s also CashApp, GooglePay (which could load gift cards but also allows peer-to-peer transactions) and I’ve heard good things about Due, though I’ve never personally used it.

Other ways to pay: I’ve had people pay me over Patreon by upping their pledge, and I’ve had people pay me over Ko-Fi by donating a specific amount. 

Many people even use Etsy - the website specialized for independent small businesses selling art - by listing their commission sheet and offering up several ‘slots’ of commissions, which allows you to track taxes AND allows your clients to pay using whatever they feel comfortable with.

If you’re in Canada, you can even pay by emailing money directly from bank account to bank account - check whether your country offers this type of service! There’s no shortage of ways to move money in the digital world.

Just like everything else, there’s no singular ‘Best’ way. It just depends on what works for you.

I think that just about wraps it up! I can’t quite think of what else to put here - but I’m sure other artists will chime in with their own advice. :) I’m very sorry this became so long but I hope it was helpful! 

Obligatory Disclaimer: I’m not qualified to give legal or accounting counsel. Please double-check the laws in your own country/state in regards to taxation of freelancing work and do your own research. If you are underage, DEFINITELY get an adult’s permission before you start doing commissions, and have the adult help you through the process.   

. . . . . . . . . . . . 

OTHER POSTS YOU MAY FIND USEFUL:

An Extended Post on Pricing Yourself for Commissions

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome/Feeling ‘Not Good Enough’

Growing Your Audience

Advice for Starting Digital Art

[staticblitz]

Hey there!

I’m Blitz, I’m a 28 year old transmasc (xe/xem/xyrs, he/him/his or she/her) artist from Australia & Aotearoa NewZealand.

I’m 2 years into my Bachelors of Screen Arts where I plan to major in game dev & animation. My other qualification is a level 4 certificate in Digital Media & design.

I have a strong love for stylized cartoons, animation & games with science fiction, fantasy & horror themes. I also love animals & nature, looking after the environment & thinking about how to contribute to the communities I’m part of. I’ve drawn for as long as I can remember as a way to express myself & feel strongly that the creative industries is where I belong.

I aspire to be a concept artist or artistic director, character designer, 3D artist & animator with a focus on video games in particular. My main inspirations are artists & designers like Jhonen Vazquez, Charles Zimbillas, Nicholas Kole & John Romero, as well as theirs & other people’s works; Invader Zim, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls & Doom. These various sources have helped inform me of where my creative passion lies & what kind of stories I would like to create or contribute to.

My personal mission is to use my creative insight along with my own personal experiences to create media that touches on the unique & diverse stories of marginalised communities, particularly that of Queer & trans communities.

On this blog you will find my artwork consisting of art I’ve made for others, original works & fan art of series I enjoy. Lots of Furries, Crash Bandicoot & other nerdy stuff in a range of mediums from traditional drawings using paper & alcohol markers, to digital art, to 3D models & even painted Dungeons and Dragons mini figurines.

This page is intended to be safe for most audiences over 13 years, however my work may get into some sensitive subjects. There may be some violence, references to drug use & alcohol, swearing & themes surrounding mental health & social issues. These will be appropriately tagged but discretion is advised.

I will also be writing image descriptions for those who are visually impaired or rely on screen readers.

[foxymoxynoona]

Never read a hybrid fic before.. im curious what is it about? Is it about animals? Half animals?? like something in "furry" community fetish?? doesnt people found it uncomfortable reading something like that?? just curious bec i don't think i can read a hybrid fic but i want to know what is it about?? 😅

Hello! I'm going to assume good intentions with your ask and answer a few questions in here. This is long so I'll put it behind the cut.

I'm not sure if you're using a very focused definition of furry community (as in, people who have personas and dress and roleplay in those personas, although your understanding of that community as being just a fetish is incorrect) or more broad (people who like art that includes human-animal chimeras, etc.) but I do want to point out that 1. these interests and communities are not always sexual (but can be!) and 2. the spectrum of things that could be considered hybrid media are ancient through modern, and very broad. Netflix has a literal hybrid show. Many cultures have hybrid figures in their religions and mythos. Werewolves are hybrids. Mermaids are hybrids. Lots of animated movies, cartoons, and even non-animated movies have hybrid chracters. You could even argue that anthropomorphism is a type of hybrid (animals who move, think, speak, sing, etc. like humans.)

So this as a whole is a very broad spectrum of media where I guess the baseline thread is just "human + animal/alien components" (as oppoosed to cyborg, which would be "human + machine/robot components.) Clearly the people who read hybrid stories don't find the concept uncomfortable because it's a type of media they choose to consume --and it's a very, very large audience consuming things along that spectrum. I'm sure others have done much better analysis and writing on this and the psychology and history behind it, but basically, this is not really a niche thing. People have been combining humans and animals since forever. I'm not saying everyone likes catboys, but that most people have probably seen the Little Mermaid. What an individual likes along that is just an individual preference. You could like the Little Mermaid or have a crush on the fox in Zootopia but not find it interesting/appealing to think of a human with bear ears or behaviors.

I'll narrow the focus to "BTS Hybrid stories" of which I have written some and read some. I don't think there are rules, or at least I don't follow them and am not an expert in them, though some common themes come up, which can lead to general reader expectations of the genre. The two main groupings you tend to see are either "have some physical animal traits on an otherwise mainly human form" or "shifters/people who can turn into an animal", but there's a whole range of what that means in practice. I've written stories where people have some phyisical characteristics of their animal, stories where they look just like normal humans but have some behavioral tendancies from their animals, and stories where people look like people but can transform into animals. I personally also tend to really enjoy writing about how society has shaped itself around the existence of hybrids or species, as a way to deconstruct and analyze our real world systems and relationships.

People's individual tastes range as with anything else. Some of my stories lean more into the animal portion of hybrids than others, so some readers might only be interested in certair iterations. I think tastes change over time too. When I wrote Sea of Indigo, I couldn't figure out how I felt about a romantic lead with dog ears, so I actually left the story vague about whether JK has dog ears or human ears or both. Now after writing these stories for two years, doesn't phase me at all to write about how comforting it is to stroke JK's soft bunny ear when you're stresed out from a bad day. 😎

Anyway, hope that lends some insight!

[igerz]

Swamp Con Spring 2022!

This was my first ever anime convention, and also my first time cosplaying. I dressed up as Nezuko (from the anime, Demon Slayer). I planned it out about a month beforehand, and bought everything. I almost backed out; but I didn’t. It took a lot of self confidence to do, and also I think I went through with it because I already spent the money for it.

I went with three of my peers; Shannon, Ginnie, and Kevin; and we all had a very fun time. The first part of the convention we went to was the artists and vendor rooms - because at that time, that’s all that was open. There were a lot of very cool “spin-off” art pieces from a variety of different anime, video games, and manga. It was very fascinating. Additionally, there was a stand for furries, where they sold tails and ears; and another stand sold horns.

I had a lot of people approach me because of my cosplay. I ended up taking pictures with other cosplayers; I also had people talk to me as if they were Zenitsu (the person in love with Nezuko) - they spoke like him; for instance, someone called out “Nezuko-chan” in the same tone Zenitsu used. It was entertaining.

We also went to the larger vendor room, where we found a variety of anime clothing, figures, handmade earrings, and a lot of items I wouldn’t normally see in stores - or items that I would see very rarely at least. I did end up splurging on some very cute tanjiro earrings, and a Ju Jutsu Kaizen hoodie, which was embroidered - I’m not mad about the price because the stores I bought from were small businesses, so the associated fees, in my opinion, were worth it.

We then proceeded to the maid cafe, where there were coloring books and brightly themed tables; they served us sweet drinks and dessert. Everyone was in character; with a certain demeanor of maid characters seen in anime. The dance performance was amazing. We were still a bit hungry for more substantial food, so we took a break and got starbucks and papa john’s.

We checked out some of the vendors, and saw more cosplayers - some from video games, and other from anime. After that, we all split up.

I ended up attending a “MetaPanel” Paneling session. I learned so much about paneling that gave me a newfound respect for panelists; it also gave me the knowledge to create my own panel if I ever wanted to. I’ll share a couple of the key points I learned!

Paneling can be broken up into four main parts: creation, submission, prep work, and presenting/performing. In creating a panel, one must consider their passions, who their audience is when running the panel, how they want the panel to be run, and make sure the reason for paneling is genuine (and not for fame or free convention passes/perks). Next, the person has to submit the panel idea - with an appropriate title, detailed & helpful description and their resume! I was surprised about this part - panelists submit panel-focused resumes to conventions & the convention managers may even contact the panelists’ past places they paneled beforehand.

Following submission comes prep work; which can be quite a lot, depending on the type of paneling the person is doing. Examples of what is needed during prep work are visual aids, specified materials, communication within the group and convention managers, and rehearsals.

The final part of it all is to present: one has to be prepared (for strange questions, needed computer chargers or equipment, and showing up early), try to become acclimated to the surroundings (comfortability), and most importantly, have fun!

At the panel, I met Nezuko’s brother in cosplay and I took a picture with him; it was nice to see someone else from the show i was cosplaying from. After, I was invited by my bestie Meir with his friends to go to the Vocaloid concert.

I did find the Vocaloid concert a very unique experience; I’ve never done anything like it before. I listened to Vocaloid music in middle school, but today was the first time I revisited the music in a while. To elaborate, Vocaloids characters are fictional idols with synthesized voices - there is a software you can use with different character voices to create music. At the concert, we saw virtual characters - like Ren, Lin, and Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid idols) perform, projected onto a mesh screen. One of Meir’s friends let us borrow his concert light wands to wave during the performance.

Afterward, I left the building & saw a Pokemon car - which was sort of a final touch for me. I had so much fun, and I think I may even want to panel next year!

SwampCon has definitely shown me a different perspective, or rather, another side of the anime/manga world I haven’t seen before; and it’s amazing how so many people are so invested in making this really cool convention happen - and I do realize how this took an extremely large amount of dedication to do.