My Friend @arrowawsome Has Been Playing The Sims 4 And Been Keeping Me Updated On The Goings On Of Its

'Donuts — Blue Background' Contrast Tank by Kat A.

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[Image Description: Photo of a person from the waist up. The person is looking at the viewer and smiling. They are wearing a pale blue tank top with a pattern of donuts in various colors on it. End of Image Description.]

A little something I’ve been working on for the past 2 weeks. Since I love fashion and patterns made up of “unconventional” components, thought I’d try my hand at making something like that. It’s nothing spectacular, and I don’t expect much to become of it, but it was nice to try out.

Finally got around to drawing Three. I modeled my take on it after some of my early concept sketches for Murderbot, a few other Murderbot fan designs I enjoy, and, much more subtly, canines (given the vaguely feline traits I’ve given Murderbot).

Yet another gal to fill out the furry universe Matonne inhabits. Hopefully I can get these out quicker and then start doing some real art with all these guys.

The PreservationAux team in All Systems Red, dressed in their casual attire.

One of the things I love about TMBD is how certain things are described with far less detail than you would expect, including the appearance of several major characters, leaving a lot of wiggle room for interpretation.

I did, to varying degrees, pull from the Subterranean cover for Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Book 4.5) for the characters that appear in the illustration, but the information in the text was the only strict limit I put on myself.

Well that, and the colors assigned to each character. There’s no way I wasn’t going to give each of them a specific hue.

I highly doubt that I'm going to be or have been impersonated, but just in case, I am not taking commissions at the moment.

Scammer Targeting Tumblr Artists

The title says it all really. So if nothing else, please share and reblog this post to raise awareness for those that might be caught out - both artists and followers. For a TL:DR, please look at the bottom of the post

What is happening?

Right now, there is at least one person actively impersonating multiple artists across tumblr in an effort to scam their followers into paying for fake ‘cheap commissions’. The scammer will clone a tumblr, usually using a slight change to the url/account name to look like the real deal. They will then message people directly through Tumblr with messages along the lines of “Hey, i’m doing cheap commissions right now. DM me to get one”. Naturally, this is ends up just being a way to take their money without giving anything back in return.

Who does this affect?

Everyone. Simple as that. As long as the scammer in question works unopposed, they are free to spread their influence and continue to scam more people. Even if you haven’t been targeted yet, it does not mean you are safe or immune. Several artists have already fallen victim to this scammer, and I encourage any artists that have to reblog this post with the details of their affected account(s) and the ones the scammer has set up.

How can we stop this?

Tumblr, like many other social media platforms, seems to care very little about ‘minor’ occurences like this one, and despite reaching out directly to them over a week ago through multiple avenues of contact - they have refused to comment on the situation, provide a recommended response for users, or take action on behalf of those already affected. Despite this, there are still tools at our disposal that we can use to make this scam more difficult, and to increase its visibility to those within Tumblr staff that are required by policy to take action. Tumblr has the following to say on the topic of impersonation: Confusion or Impersonation. Don’t do things that would cause confusion between you or your blog and a person or company, like registering a deliberately confusing URL. Don’t impersonate anyone. While you’re free to ridicule, parody, or marvel at the alien beauty of Benedict Cumberbatch, you can’t pretend to actually be Benedict Cumberbatch. They then provide a link to this online form that you can fill out if you suspect someone’s identity is being confused. Unfortunately, this can only be filled out if you are the victim of impersonation. In other words, only the artists can fill this out legitimately. So, what about the followers and users of tumblr whom aren’t being impersonated? Our most valuable tool in this online platform is the platform itself. It enables us to spread our word near-virally across all the many sub-communities on Tumblr with remarkable efficiency for a user-driven system. We can take advantage of that effect to increase awareness of the situation. Even if you - the one reading this right now - aren’t an artist or don’t know an artist, the act of reblogging this post or sharing it directly with friends improves it’s ‘ranking’ in popularity increasing its chances to be seen by more people. We don’t need everyone on Tumblr to see the post for it to be effective, just like we don’t need the entirety of the human population of the world to be immune to a disease for that disease to be rendered ineffective or eradicated. If enough people are aware, the likelihood of pulling off a successful scam increases dramatically reducing efficiency to a point that it no longer becomes profitable to continue.

Why should I care?

It disheartens me to say this, but of the many artists I contacted directly over the past week to warn about this issue many of them refused to listen or dodged the responsibility with lines like;

“I’m not being impersonated, so it doesn’t affect me”

“I’m just one person. I can’t make an impact”

“I need to take care of my community. Other people can look after theirs”

This is honestly disappointing that so many artists or art-rebloggers care so little as to intentionally wave the responsibility of keeping their followers and fellow artists safe from this, that they cannot spare 10 seconds of their time to share an informative post. I’m not here to bash artists, but it is time that everyone takes responsibility for their own communities, and of those around them. Artists: You have a responsibility to ensure that your followers and fans aren’t being abused by someone who may impersonate you. If they succeed, your reputation will be damaged, and your followers will resent you. Your followers are also almost guaranteed to be following other artists meaning your efforts can spread beyond your own circle of influence, so don’t be naive when you think you have little effect. Followers: You have just as much responsibility to be aware of those that might try to scam you or your fellow followers. Don’t just sit in silence when you see something wrong: Ignoring the issue only makes it more resilient to our efforts to stop it. You are the vocal majority if you just use your voices to be heard!

TL:DR

A scammer is impersonating artists and scamming money from their followers under the guise of ‘cheap commissions’. If we ignore the issue, it will get worse. Every single person that reads this can afford to spend just 10 seconds to reblog and share this post. Those 10 seconds can save others from being scammed for hundreds of dollars. Reblog & Share

[Image Description: Drawing of of a tall, white anthropomorphic duck wearing a sweater and holding wings with a tiny gosling wearing a cowboy hat. End of image description.]

@kittodekiru challenged me a while back to create a character based on this little gosling. Decided to throw in a sweater-donning crested runner duck based on a video in the same thread. Say hello to Sweater Mom and her cowboy-obsessed foster gosling.

Some ideas (subject to change) on my furry characters and their relationships. And because this a terrible diagram, here’s the info in text form.

Matonne Cerise and Bev: Each other’s main romantic (and sexual) partners. Their love language is making all manner of animal noises at each other and cuddling a bunch. They have a shared love of speculative fiction, abstract art, food, and encouraging each other to be bold.

Matonne and Camry: They date, sometimes swap clothes. They in particular like to have group dates (and sleepovers 😉) with each other and their main partners.

Matonne and Flora: Probably the most physical of the two’s platonic relationships, since both of them crave physical affection. Occasional bedmates.

Matonne and Octávio: Housemates and drag performers who work together. Most of their bonding is over fashion. Every so often they’ll, uh, share a bed.

Matonne and Joan: Matonne highly respects (and is slightly intimidated by) Joan who admires Matonne for his artistry. Joan sells the clothes Matonne makes in xir store.

Matonne and Tristan: Neither of them quite know how platonic or romantic their relationship is. Both are really good at (and comfortable with) listening to the other vent. And yes, Matonne’s bed is open to Tristan too. Bev and Camry: Met through each other’s main romantic partners. Like going out for sweets together, with or without their partners. They love talking with each other about their crushes (which include their current partners).

Bev and Flora: Best friends who met in college and currently live together. Bev and Flora helped each other out a lot in their queer journeys. Bev has a slight crush on Flora (Flora knows). Traded entire wardrobes.

Bev and Octávio: Gym buddies who also trade recipes. They also both really love speculative fiction, mostly movies though where they fawn over the costumes.

Bev and Joan: Joan sells Bev’s books. Bev is less intimated by Joan than Matonne is.

Bev and Tristan: Gaming buddies. Sometimes Tristan proofreads Bev’s writing.

Camry and Flora: Lovebirds. They’re constantly reassuring of each other through hugs, and head pats, and words of affirmation. They’re both can be pretty sensitive, and are both the most understanding of that for each other.

Camry and Octávio: They absolutely love clothes shopping together. Often these two, plus Flora, will just give each other makeovers.

Camry and Joan: Camry works at Joan’s shop and lives with xir. He’s often very jokey with xir and is the only person Joan trusts to run the shop without xir.

Camry and Tristan: Cousins, best friends, and roommates. They’re always finishing each other’s sentences (and sandwiches) and playfully bantering. Camry is the person Tristan near always turns to when he needs physical or medical assistance.

Flora and Octávio: Octávio teaches Flora makeup. Flora teaches him board gaming. Octávio can sometimes be a bit much for Flora, but he’s learning to tone down his intensity around her.

Flora and Joan: Flora was at first intimidated by Joan, but xe quickly made sure she felt welcome around xir. I mean, Flora is at Joan’s house a lot.

Flora and Tristan: They trade gaming and gender tips. Frequently mistaken for siblings in public.

Octávio and Joan: Octávio is the muscle of Joan’s store, taking care of most of the heavy lifting. Joan is probably the only person who can reign in Octávio’s wild energy.

Octávio and Tristan: They did it once together when Tristan was still figuring out his orientation. You’d think this would make things awkward from then on, but actually, they’re really chill and hang out a lot.

Tristan and Joan: Joan may be Tristan’s boss, but they’re almost like family at this point. Joan is pretty lax with Tristan when it comes to his work and understands his limitations and medical needs. They both bond over media and art preservation which they use to guide the direction of the store.

[Image Description: A drawing of a golden lioness laying down on a rock with a peach lion cub laying near her front legs. End of Description]

I’ve been watching a lot of Drawfee and The Lion Guard lately, so I was inspired to experiment with brushes by drawing Malka and his mother, who I’ve named Tafuta. The background I am not proud of, but the main drawing I quite like.

A long while ago I had a dream about an anxious cat who worked as a professor at a mostly human college. After gaining a few more furry followers, I drudged up these drawingd of said cat, his kittens, and his ex/the other parent.

Some notes on this little family and the world they live in.

Cats in this universe look like cats in our world but with human-like intelligence, behavior, aging, and lifespans.

The cat to human ratio is about 1:9.

Cats are typically matrilineal and matrifocal. Things like surnames, property, and social status are traditionally inherited through one’s mother. Cats also tend to be closer to their maternal families than their paternal ones with it even being acceptable or expected for a cat to not know their father in many feline cultures.

Henry and Felicia had a family less conventionally. Henry was more ready to be a parent than Felicia, and after trying and failing to raise the kittens together, they broke up and agreed for him to take the kittens.

Tools, buildings, transportation, and so on exist specifically to accommodate cats, though how readily available and effective they are varies.

Cats only wear minimal clothes and accessories for aesthetic, professional, or ceremonial purposes. More extensive clothes are usually only worn to protect them from the elements.

Just like real cats, they can only eat meat, though some cats can also eat dairy.

Taking a bit of a break from designing furries and diving into something I haven’t done since high school, space art. I would usually just manipulate photos to create such images, but I wanted to try my hand at drawing and painting instead (especially since I use Procreate now instead of Photoshop). There’s a lot of areas I know I can improve, but it was nice jumping back into an old favorite art genre of mine.