Anthros, eh?
I see 4chan is still actively hostile against any degree of furry. You'd think they'd have gotten over that already, but c'est la vie, I suppose. Buncha hypocrites, if ya ask me.
You know, I've been following the furry fandom for over a decade and I've not seen a whole lot of this much-vaunted drama and its associated bullshit. Then again, I haven't delved into it that deeply and mostly stuck around for the art, not the politics. Still, I can't help but feel that the haters be overblowing, as per usual.
Of course, there's plenty of examples of obnoxious furries (such as Kewln00b's story there) but I think we of all people should know that the outliers of the vocal minority do not speak for the silent majority. You might argue, though, that furries have the highest concentration of such people. Perhaps, perhaps. But that's a bit too simplistic for my liking. Have you ever considered that maybe it simply seems that way because the vocal minority is part of an exceptionally large group? The furry fandom is by no means a small one. But how come you rarely hear anything about them unless it's in a negative context, then? Well, let me tell you a little story…
Furries are by no means a newfangled phenomenon started by those darn kids with their hippin' and a-hoppin'. And I'm not even talking about the various instances of anthropomorphism you'll find throughout cultures both ancient and modern, though that's a factor worth considering as well. No, the beginnings of the modern fandom were in the eighties, as a minor offshoot of sci-fi and fantasy fandoms. Back in those days, the fans were mostly just a bunch of artists that took a liking to the concept of anthropomorphic animals, and applied it to their works. Of course, as with many other things, the advent of the internet brought about great growth for the fandom, and as a result, the artists became a smaller portion of the numbers.
That's, arguably, where the troubles started. In the primordial chaos of the dot-com boom, folk weren't all that careful about what they said and who was listening. So, inevitably, journalists looking for a bit of juicy scandalous behaviour heard tales of this interesting little group and went in looking for a scoop. And when you're looking for one, it tends to be easy to find one. So they released some smear articles, the nascent trolling communities got wind of things and that's when the slippery slope turned into a straight drop into the abyss. Now, the furry fandom has never had a good track record when it comes to policing itself (then again, if we're being perfectly honest here, what fandom does?) so you can imagine how well that went down. Hell, you don't even need to imagine, that's pretty much the single most well-documented aspect of the whole shebang.
So, after being the internet's buttmonkey for the better part of a decade or two, is it any wonder the sensible ones prefer to keep it under wraps? They know well enough that they won't be able to make any significant dent in the public perception, especially when the ones more eager to strut their stuff aren't helping much. Instead, they've opted to play the waiting game, as they figure the bad blood will eventually bleed off and they can try to make a good second impression. And that, boys and girls, is why you don't hear of the furries very often.
But, back to the topic at hand.
As I've said on multiple occasions, the human body is of little interest to me. It is far too commonplace and, to be perfectly honest, not very interesting in the first place. I've always felt it represents an incomplete evolutionary step as well, especially the legs and feet are quite ill-suited, no longer useful as extra hands and still a ways off from being good for stomping around. Far too rigid, yet at the same time, too soft and squishy for such. As a more personal peeve, I've always found the human face rather boring as well. Very flat and lacking in interesting features. Expressiveness is no saving grace, as it can be applied to non-human faces fairly easily.
So, on that chart, number three is most to my liking. It gets rid of many flaws and makes things much more interesting. Numbers four and two stray too close to their respective extremes and therefore lack any significant differences, which makes them fell rather arbitrary. The two extremes are, of course, the basic models so there's not much to elaborate upon.
Speaking of anthro art, I've been doing some more of it. Again, it isn't pony related, but since we're discussing it, I might as well subject you lot to the horrors I've created yet again:
Wanna know why the ponies have more stylized, human-like faces? Take a look up there, that's why. It's difficult to make a horse's face look good, let me tell ya. I even had reference and everything, still looks shitty.
Since the dead-center front of the face proved especially difficult, I decided to try approaching the problem from a different angle instead (har har). The body I just sort of tacked on as an afterthought, so it kind of sucks. Still, got a bit of practice on doing hands, can't go wrong with that.
I figured I've done enough simple stuff so I decided to try something more complicated, like aggressive combat poses. I like how it turned out. A bit more static than intended, but still, not bad for a first try. Ye cannae go wrong with a highlander and a big claymore, laddie!
Featured
Locked
.gif?1351799398)
