Since I'll delete this entry anyway, or just archive it.

What is so difficult about putting your -SPECIES- on a reference? Sorry, I can't always identify your specific hybrid of species or breeds due to any number of reasons, most of which include the phrase "well it's kind of generic..." or "the style is too cartoony to tell."

This is a huge pet peeve of mine lately. LIST your SPECIES when you post or give me a reference. I have a habit of REALLY wanting to make your character look like what you ARE, not just the style you draw it in. Sorry if your coyote/Malinois/Boxer was drawn to look like a husky or a German Shepherd, but you didn't say what species it was! How are other artists or people supposed to know if it isn't listed? Sure, YOU might be able to get it, but hey... not all of us can. Maybe we don't know what an Alaskan Klee Klai is, so we drew a malamute. Or perhaps your way of drawing that leopard makes it look like a cheetah.

Please. Do us artists a BIG favor. When you have a reference sheet, LIST THE SPECIES.

_________________

Oh my god. Where have I been for the past year, because I have just.. NOTICED this outcropping of about 75-100+ new furry artists on DA that I have NEVER heard of before. Sometimes after I get off work I'll click from icon to icon to see if there are more huskies or husky-mixes I should put in this journal entry but I can't keep track. Seriously. Why don't people join VCL anymore? I love VCL, and I want to see these new artists upload there. At least on VCL the seive is MUCH easier to browse through than this DA browsing feature.

Speaking of new artists, I consider artists who came around after me/who are younger than me to be the "newer generation" of artists.. this isn't a bad thing, not at all. I just feel old. I'm used to the familiar group of artists I grew up watching, talking to, and learning with (or admiring) and seeing all these kids pop up with how simple it is these days to draw and upload.. it's nuts.
AND WHAT THE HELL.
THEY ARE SOO FUCKING ANGSTY. Angstywangsty! I swear to god, I don't remember being that angry and depressed when I was at that age, but I probably was--been a while since I went through my VCL. Still--holy damn, kiddies, I've never seen such vicious defensive aggression in my online life. I go through galleries afraid to even look at the thumbnails in case it attacks me or they draw some sort of huskyjackal hateart because "ROAR YOU DONT UNDERSTAND UR TRYING TO ATTAK ME ARRRRRR EAT ERASER SHAVINGS!! My character kill you! ROAR!"

Life sucks, kids. It sucks fucking balls. And man, if you need to vent through your art-- go the FUCK ahead, that is one of the BEST ways to do it! Upload it, hell! Pity party! I'll bring cake! But god, don't go attacking people for stupid or no reason. I swear I see so many artists at one another's throats and forming DUMB cliques because "so and so, um, talked to MY friend and uh, me and my posse agree that we think she's trying to steal my friend SO UH I hate her and I'm gonna draw hate art and get all my friends to hate her and spread rumors! Yeah! Interweb drama!" or shit like, "um your one picture, uh, uses the same left-facing one-leg-up tail-curled pose as this picture I did like 2 years ago, um.. yeah. thats art theft. look. it even has the same black nose color. that is TOTALLY thieving my picture. i'm gonna draw hate art and tell everyone you suck and that youre an art theif, and my friends are all gonna do the same! Neener!"
Rediculous. Seriously. I've probably done similar shit, and I have, but I was never so damn snarky about it. I never told all my friends to not like someone else because "they did this and that" or that crap. PLZ. Do it for the kids. Loosen up! Sometimes the sun DOES shine, even if it isn't now. At least you have internet, a sketchpad, and food or water!

___________________

Speaking of the age-old "you stole my character" bit.

• If it's a common or popular species of animal, or even a popular hybrid, don't immediately assume someone is ripping you off unless it's blatant or somewhere it says so. (as the "huskyjackal" i can't say much, but i TOTALLY support other people being that mix if they want to, inspired by me or not.)
• There are 6 basic colors in the rainbow. There is black, white, and the greyscale. There are the natural animal pelt tones (browns, blacks, whites, reds, etc). Just because you have chosen one of these colors from the spectrum DOES NOT MEAN IT IS © TO YOU. I do not hold ANY possession over the color blue (or any of its' shades), nobody else does. So are you a blue wolf? Is someone else a blue wolf? They PROBABLY didn't copy you.
• The argument that "well its a generic marking in itself so I'm not stealing it by using it the exact same way you do on your character!" is a REALLY sketchy argument. Eyedots? Please. Really. Blaze up the forehead? Come ON. Saddle of any color or pattern? Oh, GIVE UP. If someone else uses the same type of marking as you and the rest of the character looks almost nothing like yours, THEY PROBABLY DIDN'T RIP IT OFF. I don't get MY panties in a twist when someone has a saddle on THEIR character, so what makes your character's saddle so special and unique that nobody else can have ANY saddle on theirs? Before you go screaming "character theft! art theif!" take a SERIOUS look at the two. Is theirs even the same species? Maybe it looks it but it isn't. Did they use just one or two generic markings that you used, or did they really put effort into taking the specifics of your character and putting it on theirs? How similar ARE they, don't just compare what's the SAME, do a side-by-side and notice how DIFFERENT it is too.
• "It's my style" is just as much a crutch as it is a unique characterization of your art. Don't use it as an excuse.
• Critiques are NOT personal attacks on your art or you. Get over yourselves, take an ex-lax, and BREATHE. If you don't feel you're ready for a good, honest critique--SAY SO. And see the above rule, just because it's YOUR style doesn't mean you can't use the advice. If someone suggest something that you feel is against your style, try it anyway. Many times artists that take that advice or work on their anatomy or whatnot find that doing what they don't feel is their style really IMPROVES their overall art and advances their style.
• WHAT SPECIES ARE YOU.
• Just because someone else is the same species as you want your fursona to be or the same color DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T DO IT TOO. Go ahead. Don't be afraid of them. What's the worst they can do?
• Find new ways to represent your unique real life characteristics in your fursona. felt the pain of people drawing replica-manes on their characters all of a sudden after she did, and felt violated. Not because they DID it, but because they copied her near-exact way of doing so. She had it because she had very long hair, and so the mane was a long horse-like mane down the neck. The offending artists copying that trait claimed "I have long hair too!" but there are SO MANY different ways of showing that without using the SAME EXACT mane style, why is it soo hard to come up with a different way of showing it? I use the spots on my character to represent all the freckles I have, and I don't get mad when others do that too, unless they blatantly rip my exact placements off. You have freckles? Do spots, by all means, but make them tiny! Or put them only on the areas you HAVE freckles, or put them all over, make them big, SOMETHING. There isn't just ONE way to draw something about yourself, be creative.
• Just because you draw in a TLK or Balto-ish style doesn't mean you can call "style copyer" on every other person that draws in a TLK or Balto style.
• Herbivores need lovin' too.
• There is nothing wrong with telling an artist you like their art. Why is everyone so afraid to comment on other artist's pages? Why are they "better" than you? We're all artists, what makes one so much more godlike than you that you can't approach them?
• Referencing from photos is NOT A SIN. Copying a photo without permission isn't a sin either, but it's theft. Saying the drawing is TOTALLY 100% original, unique, and out of your own creative skills when you used a reference isn't a sin but it's certainly hypocritical of you. Taking your own photos and using them to help your art is AMAZING. There is nothing wrong with it, especially if you admit it. It makes you a better artist, so what is SO wrong with using photo references and admitting it? Does it make you SO much less original than he-who-never-references-yet-has-no-sense-of-anatomy? Why is it looked down on?
• *head-desk* If you copy someone's art to learn, give them credit ON the drawing itself and DON'T UPLOAD IT. For god's sake. And if you do upload it for hell knows what reason, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH SAYING IT'S ALL YOUR OWN?

____________________

Sorry it was long, I'll archive it after I receive comments or feedback... AND I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Do you agree with any of this? Disagree? Why? Let me know if I'm really making sense here or just blowing air out my ass.

Thank you,
Sabarika