| Red's Back Story |
[11 Apr 2013|11:24am] |
Starting Friday (4/12/2013), Original Life will be on an arc that will cover Red's back story. It's a story I've held onto for years, since shortly after her character was created, never quite knowing the best place to tell it. I think I've found the best way to deliver it for what it is, and as a way to give the character more depth. It's a story that's probably more at home in Better Days than it is in the Original Life, but there are people who have missed some of the more weighty topics from my last webcomic. So, I hope they will enjoy this. There are no punchlines. Not much about it is light hearted. But it will explain some of the reasons she is how she is in her thoughts about families, relationships, and how she needs to be in the control as well as emotionally distant in her sex life.
And if you're not following Original Life, or haven't heard of it, you might want to give a shot. http://jaynaylor.com/originallife/
My webcomics are kind of like a jawbreaker. There are different colors and flavors as you work your way through it, over time. Some people take a break and store it in the wrapper in the desk drawer, only to take it up again later. Some people's mothers find it and are disgusted. Other people never start it out of fear, but then they're happy when they finally do. And then there's that weird girl in the neighborhood who just licks it and never puts it in her mouth.
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| Red Project Complete (and upcoming comic ideas) |
[17 Jan 2013|09:24pm] |
The Red comic is completed and up on the adult catalog, now ( https://jaynaylor.com/catalog.php ) and I'm already sort of gearing up for the next project. I'm pleased that I'm doing these at an even better clip than before. A project like this would have taken me a bit longer with my old pace. The pages look really nice. I'm also really excited to work on the continuation of the original Cottonwine story. This next comic will continue events left off from the Fall of Little Red Riding Hood and be the first installment in the Rise of the Wolf Queen.
I also have a project featuring Mai and Minh and some nice little explanations about them from Priscilla's standpoint that's pretty foremost in my mind. So much so that there's a good chance it'll be the comic I do after the first Wolf Queen comic. There's also a comic possibly involving Brice having his own fling which will coincide with an Original Life arc I have planned for this year, but it's release will warrant some timing, so I can't say when that'll manifest. Aside from that, this year is fairly up in the air. There are a lot of half-stories and good ideas that I haven't yet coalesced into workable form that could make for fun things to do.
Thanks for your support! :3
Jay
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| 2013 Production |
[08 Dec 2012|10:52am] |
Things for 2013 are a little more loose than my usual collection of ideas. This is in the hopes that by the time I have time for some of the little germs in my mind, they'll still seem new and exciting and I won't feel like bypassing them. Many projects in the past have never seen the light of day because of that.
Another thing worth noting is how I plan to be much quicker in producing work. One of the things that really slows me down is overthinking which lines I'll put where and what I'll put in this frame or that in a comic, when a more stream-of-consciousness approach yields equally effective results. That's more or less what I did with the Samantha comic and it came out great. I would have finished the comic much sooner, but my move to Florida put a huge speed bump in my production schedule. But in 2013, I'm hoping 10 and 15+ page comics become normal, instead of an impressive exception. I'm also getting more work done per day in my new place. I feel much less dreary.
The next comic I'll be working on will be about Red the otter. It's something I've been thinking on for a while and it's time. I'm working on this as a comic that I'll work on as 2012 ends and 2013 ramps up. This is what I will work on while the ideas for The Rise of the Wolf Queen begin to come together in a more solid form. Right now the story is still just loose notes due to not being able to think on much else. But I am eager to get started on the next series from the Cottonwine universe. There are also plenty of ideas swirling around about Priscilla's little retinue of household help, mainly revolving around Mai and Minh. Their relationship and behavior has become a subject of a few drawings of mine and I'd love to expand on it further in project form. Right now I'm keeping that idea for later in the year, possibly after the first Wolf Queen comic.
That's all for now. Thanks to everyone who supports my work. You're the best. :3
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| Swanky Florida Digs and Production Schedule |
[10 Nov 2012|01:19pm] |
I secured the keys to my new place last Friday and I'm in the process of ferrying down loads of things leading up to moving the large things down in about a week. It's a sweet place. Secure, strong and made of concrete, having survived many decades of storms. I used to live at the same complex a few years ago and I really missed living there. I really am cut out for warm weather and a relaxed, beachy life. I'll be that self employed dude who lives by the beach and sets his own hours, and it's a good thing to be.
Here's a view of the pool from my balcony. It's a sweet pool. There's also a fitness room so I can run on a hamster wheel no matter what the weather is like.
Five minutes walk from the apartment is this:
It's a smaller beach than Cocoa to the North, but that's kind of nice. It's never been overcrowded in my memory and when the tide's too high, it's still nice to sit on the small boardwalk there and just enjoy the ocean.
The move is putting a hit on my productivity. I was sure to finish the ongoing Samantha project before the end of this month, and right now it could go over by a few days. It's a large project, so it'll be worth the wait. All my spare time is devoted to keeping the webcomics up to date and working on the Samantha project, so all the ideas I have for single images I want to upload to my site galleries are on hold and piling up in my mind. It could be a while before I continue my contributions to FA, DA, Tumblr, and Weasyl in any significant way.
It also means I'm pushing back my commission schedule. Those on my commission list aren't out any money, so there's no tension, but still, I like to keep in communication. I'll be plunging back into my commission list after I get fully settled in the new place.
Thanks!
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| The Dark Knight Rises |
[26 Jul 2012|09:52am] |
Most of this movie was about what I expected. It was clear that each film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy cover an important period of Wayne's crime fighting "career", and that this would, by necessity, had to be his last. What I also expected, and came away validated on, was that the sorts of people who really liked the second movie in the trilogy, wouldn't like this one nearly as much because it lacked the same tension and pacing from the beginning, as well as the nihilistic Joker character who holds a philosophy that justifies many of their darkest fantasies in such a macabre way. To them, the film would have fallen "flat" because they aren't really there to analyze the entire tale, as much as they are there to enjoy mindfucks and good fights. It does leave me wondering what this third film would have been like if Ledger had still been alive.
Spoilers ahead, naturally.
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| My Wheat-Free Experiment |
[01 Jun 2012|09:15pm] |
A couple of weeks ago I decided to conduct an experiment that involved excluding wheat (as well as a host of other grains) from my diet. There were a few contributing factors that lead me to try this. I had a roommate who had a sensitivity to gluten. When she excluded it from her diet, she lost a considerable amount of weight. I started hearing about various diets that downplayed the importance of carbohydrates, such as the Paleo diet movement and the like. Paleo is founded on the idea that the human body evolved for hundreds of thousands of years on a hunter-gatherer diet, as opposed to a grain-heavy agricultural diet, which was only made possible to mankind very recently in our species' history. Because of this, a diet that mirrors a hunter-gatherer diet (meat, fruit, greens) is healthier for our biology, than carb-heavy agricultural diets dominated by domesticated grains.
This experiment was very easy for me to conduct because my eating life was already a very simple affair. I've never been overweight. When I was in my late 20s and I noticed the waist of my pants getting tighter, I made the conscious decision to mind my diet instead of resigning to purchasing new pants. Despite having a sedentary job, I force myself to do floor exercises throughout my workday in order to keep some muscle tone and just feel good about myself. My diet was already pretty light on carbs most of the time. I would eat very simply. Things I could season and throw on an electric grill, and a simple side, allowed me to eat quickly and get back to work without the hassle of leaving the house for fast food. My wheat exposure at the time amounted to snacky things around the house, like crackers and such. I noticed that every three or four days of this, I would feel the urge to consume a lot of food. I needed to eat until I felt that fully satisfied (read: FULL) feeling. This would be satiated by a meal at McDonalds, some kind of chinese delivery, or a large thin crust pizza. Now, I said I wasn't overweight, but since my late 20s, I've had an ever-present layer of softness around the middle. Nothing severe, and nothing coming close to the impressive spare tires or potbellies of most of my friends. But just enough to make me less than model-thin at the waist. This was more evident when the elastic of my underwear would dig in, creating little muffin-top love handles.
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| Original Life Uncensored |
[21 May 2012|09:44am] |
I'm keeping the main comic feed for Original Life PG-13 by adding mosaic censoring to the open nudity. It's hard to cover a clothing optional community without doing that. I thought of trying to cleverly hide everything with sprigs of foliage and wisps of hair, but felt I should just go natural with it. I want people to be able to read the stories as they please, anywhere they like, without worry, which is why I'm keeping the main comic site censored.
You can find the uncensored comics on my Tumblr account ( http://jayrnaylor.tumblr.com/ ). I'll try to post them up the mornings they update on the main site, when I wake up. They're not really sexual or crazy or anything, really, but I thought I'd give the option to people who like to save the files.
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| The Kind of Fan Mail I Love |
[17 May 2012|04:51pm] |
This isn't the first time I've received an email along these lines, but this one was specific and thorough enough to share, and it sheds light into why I don't get upset when people talk about me on the internet. Reality stands for itself.
Shared with permission:
Hi, my name is (name withheld). I was reading Bad Webcomics Wiki, which is
generally entertaining in pointing out blatant flaws in comics, when I
happened upon the review of your comic, Original Life. I read the
entire reviews, as well as your entire comic, and I must say that I DO
NOT understand what they are complaining about!
Their criticism amounts to "asdf they don't have the same views as
me!!!! no fair!!!!" and insults about art style from your very early
comics, which I must say has improved greatly since the first comic.
In the later half of the article, the criticism devolves completely
into personal attacks and accusations of pedophilia (wat?).
I usually enjoy Bad Webcomics Wiki, but I must say that the article on
your comic was entirely uncalled for. I am just writing to let you
know that not everyone will mindlessly hate any comic posted on that
site, and that your comic has gained a new reader, regardless of
controversy.
P.S. In case this surprises you, I am not a very political person, and
I do not consider myself a furry. I just enjoy the comic, even though
the wiki article implies your only fans are pedophile animal rapists
with a penchant for Ayn Rand. Some people will get worked up about
anything.
<3 (name withheld)
After saying thank you and stating essentially what I said at the top of this journal post, they added in a following email:
My realization about the review of your comic on Bad Webcomics Wiki
has actually caused me to look back at the other reviews there more
objectively. I am beginning to see that many (but not all!) of the
comics on that wiki were being unfairly criticized in a similar manner
to yours, which really sucks, turning away many prospective readers
without even giving them a chance to read for themselves. So, thanks
for having a comic that stood up so well against it's critics as to
help me realize this! :D
I do understand the entertainment value of sites that make fun of other things. They can be a great bit of frivolous humor to fill a bit of time and make us laugh at the efforts of others. Unfortunately, by their nature, they do become depositories for grudges, speculation, and the accenting of faults. This is done sometimes to simply fuel the pleasure of sharing a mutual dislike for someone. Most of all, it's important to realize these things and never let such things factor into your desire to create and have fun.
If what someone's saying is untrue, your repudiation is your material. Such things say more about the people leveling the accusations and bitching over the internet, than they do about you. Simply put.
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| Understanding the Conservative Mind |
[10 May 2012|09:52pm] |
I'm often treated to the spectacle of someone on the left revealing their thoughts on the nature of conservatives and why they do what they do. Very often, they show just how much they've been influenced by sensational fiction by ascribing various villainous cliches to the motives of their ideological opponents. I guess I have a unique perspective. Having once been what one might call "on the left", and then having been a conservative, and now finding myself disagreeing with everything on the traditional left-right spectrum, I can at least come away with an understanding as to why my ideological opponents think what they think. Few seem to possess this insight.
I think the left-right spectrum is misleading. I prefer a freedom-statism spectrum, myself, as both aspects of the modern left and right embody statism and collectivism at their core philosophies, only to varying degrees and on different issues. Even when I agree with a traditional left or right stance on an issue, I find those who identify on the left-right spectrum agree with me for the wrong reasons. They all have terrible premises and sloppy thought processes, and when they're right about something, they're almost always right by accident. I know what liberal and conservative mean as modern American political terms, but I prefer to avoid the term "liberal". A hundred years ago, I'd be described as a classical liberal, the term sharing the root word with "liberty" and meaning a proponent of independence and freedom. Today, the political "liberal" is a statist at his core, regardless of whatever personal behavioral freedoms he lobbies for. Since they've turned to statism to push their agenda, they're no longer worthy of the term "liberal", and so I won't use it.
This is a very generalized description of the conservative thought process based on my personal experiences and discussions, both as a conservative in the past, and as an outsider in discussions of various contention. It's not applicable to all, of course. But I believe it most likely represents the thought processes of the majority of conservatives. They may disagree and recoil at being analyzed, but I can't help that. Any offense is unintentional, and one can rest assured that at least my own insight is more flattering than the juvenile "insight" into conservative cast by your average leftist.
The whole process toward putting this journal together got started when I noticed the reactions to the vote in North Carolina on this absurd amendment to the state constitution to prevent same-sex marriages. It's such a great issue to shed light on why they believe what they do. So that's what I'm going to use.
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| Unintentional Similarity |
[30 Apr 2012|10:51am] |
Accusations like sexual harassment and child abuse are hard to shake in the realm of public opinion, even if you're completely innocent. It's even worse for people who get involved in politics, which is polarizing by its very nature. Politicians and editorialists are assumed guilty of all accusations by people who are ideologically inclined to oppose them. It's the nature of humans who don't think: people you don't like are automatically guilty of horrible things. All this is magnified by the Internet, where the seriousness of any accusation is overshadowed by the tremendous glee taken by others in the presumption of its truth, magnified in an echo-chamber of people who also dislike the person being accused of something.
A hard thing for a creator to shake is being accused of ripping off someone else's creation. It's even more terrible when there are similarities, but they are completely unintentional and coincidental. And then one finds himself having to explain this, knowing full well those who are inclined to dislike him are much happier presuming the worst (or most probably, will never read this at all).
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| ME3 - Indoctrination Theory |
[05 Apr 2012|04:29pm] |
I couldn't post my thoughts on ME3's ending, or the fan-image I did for it, without being bombarded with comments from everyone who thought they were the first to tell me about the Indoctrination Theory Ending, and a link to the video that explains it. I'll admit, it's a very compelling video that pieces together some convincing evidence. It's even had me partially sold at some point. Only partially, because I never take these kinds of things for granted unless they come from the creative source of the original work. In other words, I won't believe it until Bioware adopts it as canon.
But, there's reason to doubt they will, as this was never their intention with the ending. Yes, the video pieces together compelling evidence. Yes, it's a very strong desire on our parts to explain away how unfulfilling and disjointed this ending felt compared to the rest of the Mass Effect experience up to that point.
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| Mass Effect 3 |
[14 Mar 2012|07:17pm] |
I completed my first run-through of Mass Effect 3, using a paragon character created for ME1, designed to look as close as possible to Bruce Willis. I have a renegade character, as well, designed to look like Grace Jones. Unfortunately, because of Bioware's limited customization options, she looks like a bald black woman with caucasian features. But still cool. Nonetheless, when you import your savegames from ME2 to ME3, the new way they show characters will probably radically alter your Shepard's appearance. My Bruce Willis didn't look very much like Bruce Willis anymore, but he was still close enough to continue with and not spend an hour fucking with further customizing the appearance. Anyway...
It's not enough to say I finished Mass Effect 3. Someone who has a character imported through the prior games has the powerful experience of having completed an epic trilogy with a customized story line altered by your decisions from prior games. It's the first time I've played a series of games like this, and it certainly enhances the experience, the anticipation, and to a small degree, a level of customization based on personal preferences. I'm probably going to talk about some spoilers ahead, so you know...
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| Rule 34s |
[02 Feb 2012|01:50pm] |
My latest little pony-themed comics have brought up some more questions about whether I'll ever do Rule 34s on these things. Well, no. I haven't fully analyzed the reason why I have an aversion to Rule 34 things in general. The more I know about a particular cartoon, either from the past or from a present following, the more of an "eh" reaction I have to fan-made adult images I run across. What I feel when I see it isn't dissimilar to seeing a celebrity's face photoshopped onto a nude body. No matter how well done it may be, there's a level of "I just know too well how fake this is" involved. This may seem surprising, since the jests that I draw are sometimes of an "after 9pm" subject. But these are just purely playing on embellishments of character, rather than a desire to elaborate on a cartoon character's personal sexual motions (or their genitals). I suppose as close as I've come was the human version of Zecora, which, while a nude, wasn't very explicit or sexual. It didn't show much beyond her bare rear end and a painted over breast. The intent was to be savage, not prurient.
I know it's one of the downsides of being known for drawing adult comics: whatever you launch into on the side, people expect it to eventually go in that direction. With my own creations, there are characters I create with the full intention of having them be sexually themed. Even characters in my free, non-adult webcomics will sometimes find themselves depicted in the adult comics. There's a whole different feeling involved when you have full control over a character and everything you write and draw, sexual or not, is canon to them. I like working with my own stuff so much, I can't imagine trying to fit my adult expressions onto mainstream creations.
I'm also fully aware that people who partake of comics and pictures do so from different levels of discernment, and many (not all) of those who look to me for adult work aren't interested in any deeper aspect of characterization, and just simply have a fascination with sex. I'm not knocking this. We all approach reading and partaking with different standpoints, preconceptions, and mental exercise. It's one of the reasons I draw comics instead of just pinups. The comics can create an elaborate context and give characters some life, which in turns makes the one-shot pinups all the more interesting. Whenever someone expresses an interest in having me draw Rule 34 ponies, I can't imagine they're really interested in an author's funny or serious take on little shreds of character here and there, so much as they are interested in just seeing the characters' naked bodies interacting. I have free reign to make my adult comics a combination of sultry, explicit, and meaningful as I want (or not). People may not take away from it everything I put into it, but so be it. That's perfectly fine. So many others will just say "it's porn, what else is there to it?" and that's cool. I don't mind. People can be on that level and I have no problem with it. But I think those who are really interested in the Rule 34 are specifically on that level. I'm not knocking it, I just don't enjoy dragging other people's creations into it, and there's also another part of me that thinks it could be construed as disrespectful.
I'm not saying I'm the Victor Hugo of furry porn. I'm not trying to insult anyone who may like something or not. But, despite some of the things I've put in the descriptions of my pony-themed images, I keep getting the same queries and insinuations about taking things "a step further". One person on FA even went as far as to confidently bet that I wouldn't be able to go a month without drawing pony porn. I was called "prideful" for looking forward to winning that bet. I suppose since I have a whole array of characters and worlds I can use of my own creation, it's staved off any desire to dabble in someone else's for explicit material. Not only is there a discomfort with doing Rule 34 material, there really is no temptation at all.
I may write about and draw characters who relish "delicious sins", but I don't believe in them myself. Some people live their whole lives believing it's perfectly fine to have your surging desires and temptations live in conflict with your mind, and can't conceive of this not existing in someone else. I don't hold back drawing what I want, and I never draw anything I don't.
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| 2012 Project List |
[26 Dec 2011|05:59pm] |
2011 is almost up and I'm going to go over the projects I know I'll want to work on, or begin working on, in the coming year. I figured I better cover them here before I forget! And also give people a glimpsy glimpse into what I have on my table at the moment. Not to say things won't be added as they blossom forth and catch my imagination unexpectedly.
Bad Love - Still in progress. I've been unable to abridge the stories I planned to include in this project, so I'm going to just end up releasing each one as separate projects, the first of which being about Sissy and Troy, within the context of her therapy. The project will be finished and released in early to mid January.
Friends with Benefits - Commission comic project that I've nestled into my production schedule. I tried doing it at the same time I do my current project, but it was just taking up too much time. If I work too late in the day, my drawing often suffers and becomes inconsistent, so I've put it into my ordinary working hours and will be doing it right after the completion of "Bad Love".
Selfless Love - This was the other story that was going to be a part of "Bad Love". It's about Pablo explaining his obsession with Mary Ann to his sister, Lupe, a much underdeveloped character. In fact, she did appear once very briefly, but I've disavowed that appearance as her, and am in the process of remaking her into a much more interesting person. This isn't really about Lupe at all, and she doesn't even get naked in this story. The majority of the visuals will involve Mary Ann with the painted horse I've been drawing lately, who I've yet to give a name. Of all the one-off bits I have planned for next year, I'm looking forward to this one the most.
After this part, the order in which I do the following projects is not set in the stone.
Samantha Struts (working title) - Samantha underwent a little metamorphosis in my mind and I have a comic I wish to do with her, and the details of it have changed accordingly. Going from a mindless sex maniac to a discriminating sadistic sex maniac has called for some plot tweaks which I think will make her a more interesting adult character.
Parole (working title) - There's not much I want to reveal about this one right now, other than to say it will make heads explode and I can't wait to feel the wave of wailing and gnashing of teeth wash over me like a tsunami of awesome. And y'all thought she was dead.
Goat's Goatly Goatery (working title) - A little more detail about Erzile's assistant and familiar, Goat, played out in a story that's still germinating in my mind. He actually has a pretty interesting origins story I want to touch on, as well. Erzile and Goat's presence in the Lumpkinville universe is the only place where I give the explicitly supernatural permission to reside in my stories.
Genwyn Must Die - A group of women conspire to murder a red panda who keeps dressing up like a girl and enticing their husbands to cheat on them. In the end, they all learn a valuable lesson about satisfying the sexual needs of the men in their life. With their anuses. Haha, just kidding. I'll never draw this.
Cottonwine - I want to spend a good bit of time running up to the first Cottonwine project. Part of my goal for 2012 is to get a lot of the other stuff out of the way so I can turn out a lot of Cottonwine material in a row, afterwards, stretching on into 2013 and beyond. As it is, now, I have a lot of stuff written and will be cementing it later. It will cover more about what happened between the humans and the wolves at the end of Red Riding Hood, while introducing the larger universe, and yes, even a theme. It's shaping up to be quite the project and, of course, the sexually charged bits will be turned into elaborate catalog projects. After a few other things, I plan to dedicate the majority of my sketching time to doing background drawings and prelims running up to the release of the first story. I'm really looking forward to this one.
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| All Them Communities |
[08 Nov 2011|10:31am] |
The issue of whether or not one should get a SoFurry account, as well as a Fur Affinity account, cropped up on twitter, recently. I think the issue for most reasonably popular artists is whether or not the extra time spent maintaining an account is worth the exposure. Fur Affinity obviously has a huge community, mostly by inertia. It's a default place for anyone seeking broad exposure and business in the shortest amount of time. It's not quite worth it for them to maintain accounts on sites that aren't going to expose them to a whole new possible audience in significant numbers. With the ease of getting a free account on FA, the community just isn't fragmented enough to justify ensuring you have an account on all sites. What would draw someone to maintain an account on both places would be a sufficient number of useful features and things that FA hasn't provided (I almost wrote "can't provide" but I think "hasn't" is more accurate). FA has quirks. It has issues, and the interface is from hunger, sure. The downtimes and issues aren't frequent enough (anymore) to cause people to leave in droves (yet). So it's a reality that artists have to take into account when they see a new site pop up that wants to host their stuff.
The whole equation boils down to this: Will this new account gain me enough exposure to new people to justify maintaining (yet another) account there, on top of FA? Or are most of the people there also on FA, and I'm simply, for the most part, showing my work to the same people twice?
On top of Fur Affinity, I maintain Deviant Art and Tumblr accounts. Tumblr follows my submission releases from FA pretty straightforwardly, though I often release sketches and in-progress works on Tumblr that I don't let out anywhere else. Aside from a submission blog, it's also taken over the role of my on-site sketch blog. Foremost, Tumblr also gives me possible exposure to non-furries and others without FA accounts. Deviant Art is largely the same. They have greater restrictions on erotic pieces, but the trade off is the exposure to non-furries. I've received more than a handful of comments and notes on DA from people who express their unease about furries but who enjoy many of the pieces I submit there. In the instances of DA and Tumblr, it's worth it to maintain accounts.
Inkbunny was a site that almost had it. They have a great interface and they had the thing that could have really turned them into a valuable site for popular artists: a straightforward commercial system where the artists could offer additional portfolios and comics for fans who liked their work enough to support it with money. It's basically the business model I have for my website, and have been making a living off of for years, now. It provided the incentive: If you're a popular artist, you now have a reason to maintain both an FA and an IB account. Sure, the site was started by some people who supported and produced some questionable and creepy material (publications which sexualized cartoon children), but the site didn't have to be about that if it drew enough traffic and accounts to make it a commercialized (read: financially profitable, growing, dynamic, outstanding) version of FA. The creepiness would have been a side-show, buried amid popular names and images offered by a host of artists inspired by making side money and producing more material than they would on FA for free. There would suddenly be a good reason for heavy hitting artists and their fans to go to IB, even as they maintained accounts on FA. When faced with their transaction service issuing an ultimatum, they chose to scrap the commercial system in favor of being able to host pictures of naked and sexualized cartoon children. Sure, they had the right, but the decision destroyed any real motivation from busy and popular artists to maintain an account in both places (unless they wanted to draw naked furry children). The decision took away the one thing they offered to people that made their site something more than just another FA.
I think before someone just thinks "let's make a BETTER art hosting site than FA!" they should really work on addressing these realities, looking at such sites from the standpoint of what makes them attractive to both artists and fans, beyond just little features, chatrooms, and slicker interfaces. The only thing FA has going for it is the sheer volume of traffic available, largely by inertia. Instead of just making a site that hopes to draw that traffic, give artists a reason to tell their fans to check out their gallery on your site, instead of FA. Give them a real incentive.
This isn't to say I don't dig how a lot of those other sites look. It's not to say I don't wish they'd become the dominant community art site. I think offering commercial options beyond donation buttons is the key. That being said, I may check out SoFurry's stuff in the future and see how I like it, but it doesn't look like it'd be a regular draw.
Just my thoughts on the matter. This isn't meant as a big smear or bitch toward anyone who chooses to run their sites a certain way. It's something I've talked over with a few other artists and have mulled about in my mind for a while now, so I thought I'd fill this journal space with it.
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| A World Unfolding |
[11 Oct 2011|12:41pm] |
A while back I came up with the idea of an elf scientist exploring the Red Riding Hood universe, and I've since abandoned my original concept. I still have a knowledge seeking elven explorer in mind, but with a different plot, motive, and emphasis. I've had the working title name "Arcelius" for a while, but I'm probably going to end up calling the world "Cottonwine" after the clear ablution featured in the older Red Riding Hood stories, which had such a tremendous affect on the humans it came in touch with. Sounds a little more enigmatically story-like, and less like a Roman adulteress.
I did this little scale sketch on Sunday just to keep a bit of scale in mind. This is just a sampling of creatures. I envisioned the lapin to be quite large due to a variety of harsh environmental factors. They're quite interesting to me because they're a race motivated almost exclusively by two factors: fear and sex. It'll be fun depicting their society. The equine tribes will be very easy to depict, because I've been drawing horses for quite a while, already. I also want to draw up the porcine folks, and I took a stab at it a few times in my sketch book, but it's taking some time to get used to depicting a race that isn't supposed to be either "cute" or "regal" looking, which is how things usually turn out when you're drawing humans, wolves, and assorted furry folks.
For a long time, I wanted to leave the outcome of the human/wolf situation depicted in the Red Riding Hood series up in the air. When I start up the new story, I'll touch on it, the outcome of the inevitable battles that ensued, and leave open the possibility of exploring its unfolding nature in the future. I never talked about what the human armies were doing far from home, but when I created the map to the world, I intended to have them be in the North, containing incursions by the porcine tribes. It's a task they'll be returning home from in haste, of course.
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| Naked Truths |
[28 Sep 2011|05:53pm] |
The next project "Naked Truths" is in full stride. I had to get rid of a lot of other obligations before I could really start full speed on this one, but now I've got my rhythm. It's a brief introduction to some of the other denizens of Trixie's clothing optional private community. It reveals some of their secrets, their personalities, their little inner workings, and their nefarious schemes. Actually, it primarily swirls around the nature of Zoe, but it involves conversation from others, as well.
Normally, I use 9x12 bristol sheets for these comics, but for this one I'm using 11x17. It gives me a lot more room to cover little things, like "animation" key-frame style sections in a comic without running out of space. It also just lets me draw larger images when I want to, like the ones in the sample work-in-progress page posted here. Any nuditious "glimpses" are pretty tame on this first page, so I don't mind putting it on my LJ in its entirety.
The page count on this one will probably only be about six, considering how large the pages are and that they'll be full color when it's done. It's not really a plot that warrants more than that. I already have the next project planned out, but whether or not it's completed before 2012 depends on how much time I have in between holidays and MFF between now and then.
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| Sissy's Trouble (Renamed Again) |
[12 Aug 2011|01:57pm] |
Work goes on with the latest adult comic. I'm about done with the most time consuming part of the project, which is the actual drawing portion.
Before this, I would finish coloring each page after I settled on the pencils. This time I decided to just do all the pencils first and go back and do the finishing like an assembly line. My mind has changed a bit on this, and I no longer fear getting into a rut doing the same thing for long stretches. I actually like the flow I'm getting from doing it this way and I think it'll come out as a better product as a result. Sissy's Trouble is going to be 16 pages of content, and I'll be spending next week applying the finishing to the pages.
The more I look at my production schedule, the more I wonder how much I want to push back the sequel to Trish's Doodle. It's kind of so-so with my inspiration right now. Foremost on my mind is the adult story that concerns Trixie and her friends. I'm going to do that one next. It won't be as long as the current project, but I'm going to put it on larger pages. If I like how those come out, I'll probably use larger pages in the future.
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| Project and News Updates |
[14 Jul 2011|08:43pm] |
Some updates for now. I've been ignoring Livejournal way too long and it's time to get back into the swing of updating it with news, now that my schedule's settling back into its usual routine.
For starters, I've decided the next adult comic is going to be the story with Sissy I've been thinking about for a while.
It's called "Shades of Sissy" or something artsy like that. It's basically about her describing to a therapist why she's such a suburban sex addict. It'll probably become a series, covering her various affairs and encounters, starting with her first one... with her brother. Not really an affair of married-ness, but it's highly inappropriate and it's why she's into it. He's the one she sort of "sticks with" through all her various encounters through her life, loving him even more than her husband. The comic itself will have a lot of pages. I'm adding a few subtle details to my line work some may pick up on, and I'm using the softer brushes when I shade, now, which others may notice. It's actually allowing me to color pages pretty quickly. I was going to do the sequel to Trish's Doodle after this (AKA: Mary Ann's Choice) but decided to put it on hold until this one was done. I'd been thinking about Sissy longer and everything kind of "clicked" in place in my head when I finished my last project. All the gray areas, all the wrinkles I wasn't sure about, ironed out in my imagination just in the nick of time, and I decided to place Sissy next.
A lot of people are speculating that Leo may run into Trixie in the current Original Life story. I thought about it, because it's an obvious connection to his wandering activities, but Trixie lives on the other side of the state from Leo, and wrapping him up in open nudity situations would be a little too... weird for me. Even in Trixie's own community, I've never thought too much about the inclusion of children. It would just be too weird a line to cross, so I'm not including them. The current story mainly deals with my own realizations as a young boy, when I first felt the realization of truly appreciating a woman's shape, and yes... her rear end. From the very beginning it was this way. I remember the moment exactly as Leo did, but perhaps not with the same level of self-awareness. But I am mostly embellishing on the mind of a growing boy.
Going to spend the next few minutes catching up on all my friend's LJ entries that I've ignored for... months now.
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| Trip to Vancouver |
[14 Jul 2011|10:35am] |
I spent a week in Vancouver, right after my weekend at Anthrocon, and it's eaten into my schedule a little. It's one reason I haven't posted anything new to my galleries in some time. I've been catching up on everything else and have had no time to work on little fun side-things.
Mahrkale wanted a dog. Not just any dog. Despite my suggestions of something corgi-like, she's always wanted a rottweiler. I'm overly cautious when it comes to animals that can do great harm, so I emailed Jessie, an ex of mine, who's whole life swirls around dogs and training. Turns out she was breeding hers and if there was a spare male in the litter, she would raise it and train it for the first five months (for a price). Despite the complications and expense, it was the better option over getting a potentially dangerous dog from an unknown person with an unknown history. We then spent a week in Vancouver with them and the dog before we were to take delivery of him. The puppy's name is Bishop.
Vancouver's a pretty area. It was very sunny most of the time, surprisingly, and I actually got a sunburn while on a mountain that still had snow on it. There are photos behind the cut.
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