For the 100 Animal Art Challenge, click here: [link]
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Quick question!

Situation: I'm interested in trying my hand at making some digital con badges. My skill at real media still really sucks, so I'd almost feel bad charging any money for those. Thus, I'd prefer to stick to digital, if possible.

Problem: I would like to be able to print these badges and mail them along with their badge holder to the people who commission them. However, my printer sucks even more than my real media skills. Therefore, I would like to print them using some sort of service. However, none that I've found will specifically print them in 3x4", the size my badges will be. How do I solve this?

Do I print them out with a lot of white around them and try to cut them down to the right size? Is there a place that can print things for me at the exact size I need (I've looked and had trouble finding any)? Should I just do the badges and expect the commissioner to figure out how to get them printed (I'm too nice, though. )? Should I resort to just using my fugly real media skills? What should I do, those of you who have experience with this?

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For the 100 Animal Art Challenge, click go here: [link]
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Hi everyone,
Sorry I haven't updated here in a while. ;__; I've been very busy with work lately. Just haven't had the time or energy for art these past several months.

Regardless, I just wanted to let people know I'm considering migrating some of my character references from TLKFAA over to here instead. I would be putting them in my Scraps folder, so no one would have to see them unless they have it selected that my Scraps show up on your DevWatch. You are free to remove me from that part of your DevWatch if you have no interest in seeing reference pictures like these: [link] [link] If you do wish to see my character designs, though, I definitely appreciate the feedback and support.

The way you do this is go here: [link]
Scroll down until you see the name alaitallon, then go over to the box in the Scraps column and deselect it (that is, if it's already selected and you don't want to see refs in your DevWatch; if you DO want to see them, then leave it selected).

So yeah, I wanted to give people a warning in the chance they wanted to avoid seeing this! I know some people have complained about it being kinda spammy/repetitive before, so I wanted to avoid that if at all possible. If anyone has any additional feedback/suggestions, that is certainly welcome as well!

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Art trade status: Closed for now
Request status: Closed forever
Commission status: VERY open, see here: [link]

For the 100 Animal Art Challenge, click go here: [link]
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Now that I've finally finished with college for now, I thought I'd take a commission again and see how it goes! I've posted an auction over on Furbid and the winner can choose any rating between G-XXX. [link]

Thanks and happy bidding! I could use the funds! XD

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Art trade status: Closed for now
Request status: Closed forever
Commission status: VERY open, see here: [link]

There have been a lot of various art challenges going around, but I thought it might be a fun idea to start one that may inject some creativity and new interest into the furry/anthro art community. Far too often, we see the community saturated with wolves, foxes, big cats, rabbits, and occasionally an equine. It's time for some variety! So I thought it would be an interesting challenge to not just push myself personally, but to see if the rest of the community would like to do the same. Therefore, I've created this list of animals that have seen not nearly enough love in the fandom. While some of these may be canines, felines, etc., I tried to pick a few that are relatively unseen in the furry community.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Draw each and every one of the animals on this list. There is no time limit. It doesn't have to be in order, it doesn't even have to be anthro/humanoid. It doesn't even really have to be fully colored, it can be a pencil sketch if you'd prefer. Just give them a try. Not only will you push yourself in the process, you will learn about more of the amazing and exciting animals this world has to offer! Feel free to post this in your journal or webpage to show your progress, share it with friends, or simply use for inspiration. Some of these WILL be difficult, but you can do it! I tried not to make any of these so obscure that they wouldn't have much information or pictures of them. Some of these are also extinct, but all of them have artistic interpretations and pictures of their skeletons available on the internet or in books.


001. Giant Pangolin (Manis gigantea)
002. Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
003. European Lobster (Homarus gammarus)
004. Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus)
005. Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus)
006. Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus)
007. White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala)
008. Red Ruffed Lemur (Varecia rubra)
009. Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
010. Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii)
011. Pacific Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbianus)
012. Dimetrodon
013. Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)
014. Red Lionfish (Pterois volitans)
015. Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus)
016. Mongolian Gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)
017. Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)
018. Wolverine (Gulo gulo)
019. Muskox (Ovibos moschatus)
020. Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus)
021. Styracosaurus
022. Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)
023. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
024. Quagga (Equus quagga quagga)
025. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius)
026. Manta Ray (Manta birostris)
027. Black-footed Cat (Felis nigripes)
028. Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus didactylus)
029. Mexican Redknee Tarantula (Brachypelma smithi)
030. Checkered Sengi (Rhynchocyon cirnei)
031. Dodo (Raphus cucullatus)
032. Pteranodon
033. Common Genet (Genetta genetta)
034. Elasmosaurus
035. Indian Cobra (Naja naja)
036. Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)
037. Porcupinefish (Diodon nicthemerus)
038. Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)
039. Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Pelamis platurus)
040. Common Duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia)
041. Hercules Beetle (Dynastes hercules)
042. Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)
043. Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus)
044. Betta Fish (Betta splendens)
045. Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)
046. Parasaurolophus
047. Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus)
048. Okapi (Okapia johnstoni)
049. Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobatidae)
050. Ankylosaurus
051. Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus)
052. Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)
053. Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii)
054. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
055. Gold Dust Day Gecko (Phelsuma laticauda laticauda)
056. Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa)
057. Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
058. Narwhal (Monodon monoceros)
059. Spanish Ibex (Capra pyrenaica)
060. Oviraptor
061. American Bison (Bison bison)
062. Zebra Moray (Gymnomuraena zebra)
063. Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis)
064. Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox)
065. European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)
066. Coelophysis
067. Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena)
068. Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo)
069. Stegosaurus
070. Ostrich (Struthio camelus)
071. Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus)
072. Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum)
073. Glyptodon
074. Oriental Fire-bellied Toad (Bombina orientalis)
075. Ring-tailed Coati (Nasua nasua)
076. Ceratosaurus
077. Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)
078. Goffin's Cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana)
079. Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)
080. American Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja)
081. Western or Lowland Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus)
082. Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens)
083. American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)
084. Leafy Sea Dragon (Phycodurus eques)
085. Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata)
086. Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini)
087. Naked Mole Rat (Heterocephalus glaber)
088. Caracal (Caracal caracal)
089. Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
090. Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)
091. Aardvark (Orycteropus afer)
092. Llama (Lama glama)
093. Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)
094. Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)
095. Diplodocus
096. Florida Manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
097. Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus)
098. Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)
099. California Leaf-nosed Bat (Macrotus californicus)
100. African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana)


Good luck!

ETA: There is now a LiveJournal community for this challenge, for those interested! [link]

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Art trade status: Closed for now
Request status: Closed forever
Commission status: VERY open, see here: [link]

Because I've noticed lately that several people are unclear on a few things about my art, I wanted to clarify them here, so hopefully they won't come up again. Please let me know if you have any additional questions and I'll add them here.

1) I am not only open to critique, I welcome it.
It's understandable why many people lately would be reluctant to offer constructive criticism, given how often it is met with reactions like "OMG WTF HOW DARE YOU BASH MY ART!!!!!" Please note, however, that I am not like that. Perhaps I may have been touchy many years ago when I was younger and considerably less experienced with how to maturely handle criticism, but I believe I have grown past that by quite a bit. So please, if you see something that's off in my art, even if it's a finished piece, TELL ME. I'd certainly prefer that you be polite about it and elaborate if you can (comments like "Wow, that leg is fucked up" don't really tell or help me much), but aside from that, I'm open for it. While I love all comments, I would much rather get concrit on some of my pieces than just "Kawaii!" or "Cool!" all the time.

2) I do not use dodge/burn. Ever.
Several people mentioned this lately and it really puzzled me. I will freely admit that in my earlier years I took the shortcut of using the lighten/darken tool (dodge/burn's younger brother) in Paint Shop Pro, but pretty much one of the last times I used it was on this picture, back in 2003: [link] Since then, I've been using varying shades of my base colors to shade and highlight my pictures.

3) I know I need to draw more from life.
I have been struggling for several years to get out of the TLK style. It's a lot harder to do than I ever realized it would be. A word from experience to all beginning artists: Never ever ever learn by copying a style from somewhere. Ever. Because when you do, it will be nigh impossible to later teach yourself to stop using someone else's shortcuts instead of developing your own. As I've heard many times before in the art world and feel should be repeated, "You have to learn the rules before you can break them." In other words, learn how to draw things as they actually are before you start going off in your own direction with them. I just wish I'd learned that seven years ago.

So again, let me know if there's anything else unclear that I can clarify. Thanks.

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Art trade status: Closed for now
Request status: Closed forever
Commission status: VERY open, see here: [link]