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A disclaimer from our anonymous contributor

This is not an authoritative guide. These aren’t hard rules, they don’t apply to all situations. Etiquette is a common code of polite behaviour designed to avoid unnecessary conflict. Etiquette doesn’t always go far enough and it often goes too far. I think the best case is that this guide informs your better judgement.

Preparation

• Some artists use Trello to organise their work. It’s actually great for commissioners too! You can keep a commissioner’s Trello to keep track of hoped-for, upcoming, awaited, and completed commissions.
• Keep a list of commission ideas. It can be really helpful for diving into quick sales, but thinking ahead also lets you develop an idea and gather useful references.
• Always read the artist’s terms of service. If you’re commissioning a private and tender moment between you and a loved one, you might not want to see prints of it being sold at conventions. You might also be expecting a high-res version for personal use. Never assume. An artist’s terms are there to protect them and you.
• Know what you’re getting into. Don’t assume that you’ll get your art within a couple of weeks of paying; read the artist’s journals to get a feel for how they work and what situation they’re in. Some artists take months to turn a commission around, some of them are working through personal issues. Life happens, and people in a bad situation don’t get many opportunities for good luck to happen. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t commission them, it means you shouldn’t add to their problems by getting upset when they fail to meet your unrealistic expectations.

Commissioning

• If you have a very particular composition in mind, ask for (or provide!) a “stick-figure”, “outline” or “thumbnail” WIP. Unsurprisingly most artists are imaginative and visual thinkers, so text descriptions rarely get interpreted the way you might expect. Send references if you can; Google image search is an obvious choice, but there’s also a huge treasure-trove of anatomical, pose and character references at http://pinterest.com/characterdesigh/ if you’re stuck for ideas.
• If you expect a certain turnaround, make sure the artist agrees with it. Some artists prefer being given deadlines, but most don’t.
• Don’t pester even if you’re in the right. If you’ve not had any word from an artist for a while, it’s reasonable to nudge once or twice, but “a while” means something different for each artist. If you do nudge, be polite and understanding.
• Communication between an artist and commissioner is often welcomed by artists, but never presume a commission relationship is equal to an offer of friendship with all the demands on their time which that would confer. Keep contact light, friendly and constructive, and if you end up making friends then that’s great for both of you.
• Text descriptions are are a lot more ambiguous than you probably realise, so get a ref-sheet, especially if your character has specific details that are meaningful to you. Make sure you’re explicit about small details that matter to you, e.g. piercings, shaped markings, etc.
• If you have complex markings, wings, tentacles, or specific details, then expect to pay sparkletax. It might not seem fair to you, but they’re usually a lot of extra work. And on the other hand, if you’re happy for an artist to experiment with your character’s design or clothing, say so!
• It’s great to provide references for poses or backgrounds and even colours or moods, but don’t ask artists to make something exactly the same as the images you provide – photographic or artwork. Aside from the obvious storm of drama and accusations of tracing that this invites, it also denies artists the chance to be creative and devalues their skills. It’s also kind of weird and rude to ask a furry artist to draw in another furry artist’s style.

Reviewing

• Ask for changes before inking and colouring. Don’t expect changes afterwards. Try to send all your changes in one batch. And wait at least half an hour before hitting the send button. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve either spotted something else, or discovered that a change I wanted didn’t need changing at all.
• When an artist sends you a WIP, give yourself enough time to spot changes. If you’re experienced and have a good eye for anatomy, that could be as little as a few minutes, but more likely you should look at it critically, then come back to it a few hours later. Flipping the image horizontally is a simple way to give yourself a fresh look at an image without having to wait too long. And remember, if an artist can keep working on other slots while you’re reviewing, you’re also giving them time to look at your work with fresh eyes when they come back to it. Time is a precious resource for artists; give them enough to stretch themselves.
• Keep changes to a minimum. Proposing a small anatomical fix or pointing out missing piercings is one thing; asking for a different angle or pose is another thing entirely. This is why references and thumbnail sketches are so important if you have a specific image in mind.
• Show what you mean when you want a change. Artists are usually visual thinkers, so highlight areas you’re not sure about and send a dropbox link or put it on imgur or something. And be helpful but not demanding – offering a redlined fix is great if you’ve got the eye for it. Trust their judgement if they disagree, and accept that some changes are too big to do anything about this time around.
• Furry art is not an industrial process. No one churns out consistently good art (despite what you might see in a gallery), so don’t expect perfection. Accept that some jobs are more challenging than others and sometimes the planets just aren’t aligned for your particular piece. There’s always the next time.
• Artists are their own worst critics. I’m not saying they’re precious snowflakes whose feelings need preserving at a cost of your own happiness (that usually ends up with both of you being unhappy), but don’t compete with their inner demons. Always be constructive with your criticism, and put at least as much effort into telling them what you’re happy with as what you have concerns about. If you say nothing, then many artists assume the worst. Being gracious, patient and generous pays back in this commission and every one that follows.

Money

• We’ve all been there; that artist who’s never open for commissions suddenly has slots available, but you aren’t paid until next week. Or it’s $30 more than you have right now. Stop. There’ll always be other slots opening and other awesome artists to commission. Put money aside for commissions and don’t spend more than you can spare. Remember that it’s a lot easier to put a few dollars aside on payday than at the end of the month.
• It’s rude to complain about an artist’s prices in public (especially on their gallery or journals). If you can’t afford it, that sucks, but that doesn’t mean it’s overpriced. It’s common for furry art to cost between $30-50 and take 3-5 hours to complete; could you live on $10/hour? Can you get health insurance and feed yourself on that?
  Some artists get in trouble and offer “doodles for donations”. Be generous, but remember these are not commissions; if you expect anything more than gratitude in return, chances are you’ll be disappointed.
• You might think you’re being helpful by sending a payment as “friend/family” instead of as “goods/services”, but Paypal can be total dicks about accounts which have dozens of friend/family payments coming in from various places (freezing or closing accounts, etc), and you lose any kind of payment protection if things go wrong. If you really want to be nice, throw a couple of dollars on top of the asking price to cover fees instead, but don’t say in the payment notes that you’ve done this because it’s against Paypal’s terms for artists to charge more to cover fees. Mentioning Fur Affinity in the payment notes can also cause problems, so don’t do that.
• Tipping’s part of the culture in the US, so it’s surprising it’s not more widespread in the furry art world. If you can afford to, tip, especially if you got more than you expected, if the work was done really quick, or the artist was super nice.
• If the price was low, tip high. The market on FA is pretty tough for beginner artists to get into; when artists are starting out they’re competing at the bottom end of the price range with people who can kick out 2-3 times more work than them in the same time. If you end up paying $15 for a commission you love (and you can afford to), tip another $15. You’ll make the artist’s day and you’re still getting a bargain.

submitted by InsertUpvotesHere
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submitted by Kriegshound
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submitted by FigN01
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Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips are always welcome.  ____________________________ Mainstream sightings _____________________________ BBC’s “The Why Factor?” will air a Furry story. “Why do we project our emotions onto animals?” gives a 4-minute clip.  Flayrah has air times for the 18-minute piece. Growing community of ‘furries’ finds acceptance on campus. USA Today does “not […]

submitted by Kerri12
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So after seeing some posts lately, I just wanted to see all you milfurs raise your paws out there...or talons! XD Anyways, totes introduce yourself and talk smack here and whatever else you want.

I'm personally in the process of becoming a marine officer (currently a midshipman) and I hope to be stationed in San Diego. Awesome, Can't wait to hear from you guys!

submitted by cheesequake404
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Basically I keep getting invited to meets by my local-ish fur communities. I want to go since a couple of online friends go and I need to go socialize, people keep telling me anyway.

But it's just difficult for me to go there; I don't like taking trains alone and I do not want my parents driving me there to be greeted by furries, the awkwardness would be far to much for me. And honestly furries in real life seem to energetic and playful for me, I'm more of a stay at home where everything is calm kinda guy.

I know this'll seem a bit ranty and petty but does anyone have any advice for me? I don't want to let my friends down.

submitted by SirJiggart
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submitted by VMPDANDraws
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submitted by steven304
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So I am starting work on a fursuit head and I've seen two relatively cheap ways to go about it but haven't decided what will work best. I've seen a method using a balaclava and putting foam directly onto it, and a skeleton head method that would go on similarly to a helmet. Does anyone have any experience with this that can give me some insight?

submitted by swankysandals
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For me is my Trident Elite knife and my wallet that has my fuzzbutt pictures. What do you guys never leave home without?

submitted by Luna2424
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So as you guys know Skyrim has a crapload of furry mods and well hell the base game you can play as a cat person or lizard people. A lot of you I've seen say that you don't have it because you can't afford it, well nows you're chance as its $5 frecken dollars! So go beg mom for the Visa card

Now I'm not trying to be spam I just wanted to let you guys know that you can get a game that has lots of furry stuff cheap.

submitted by Rolo_Swag
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submitted by VentKazemaru
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submitted by Ritewing
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submitted by Falox
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Free art.

Okay but seriously I made this post to point out while I do myself check out every free art thread on this subreddit I make sure to not only praise the person for it, but to upvote their post. If you notice there are almost always like 15-40 comments on a free art post and if you check the upvotes it only has like 6 or 7. While to many upvotes are trivial to some it actually matters and makes them feel that much better because their good art and good nature is been appreciated and seen by many, where as there are the people who swoop in to get a picture and then swoop out without saying anything or upvoting. So basically what I am saying is...

UPVOTE THE GENEROUS FREE ART GIVERS POSTS, OR AT LEAST BE GREATFUL FOR IT!

submitted by Eddyoshi
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So I guess I'll start by giving some background here. In 16 years old, keep myself busy with sports and musicals and stuff, and bisexual. My long-distance boyfriend (or I guess girlfriend, since he's transgender. This post might be a mess of pronouns used, so I'm sorry) is 14 and doesn't do nearly as much stuff as I do. We met about two months ago when I was on another furry website and I saw that he was posting about being upset about a breakup. So I message him, we exchanged our Facebooks since he doesn't have a phone, and I end up preventing him from suicide in the first night I know him. A few weeks later, he reveals that he has a huge crush on me. At this point, I just decided "why not" and we started dating. Over the next few weeks, I am able to talk him out of suicide on several occasions. He's got all the usual depression symptoms for someone like himself: feeling like he's not pretty, thinking that no one loves him and he's not worth it, etc. And then just last week, he reveals that he cries whenever I'm gone to a sport or auditions for a musical or anything. He literally can't handle not having me around to talk to. He's isolated him from his friends and given up hobbies, even started skipping meals so that he can talk to me more. I have Lacrosse practice every night, and he thinks that I'm abandoning him over what he calls a "pointless hobby." He's taken to cutting himself by now too. Over the last week, I've talked him out of suicide 4 times, and then had to leave because of another commitment, or sleep. So last night, he absolutely loses it. He threatens to kill himself if I don't give up everything that I love to do, for him. Lacrosse, musicals, band, everything. He thinks that he is the only thing that I'm allowed to love. I can't give all of it up, even if I wanted to. My parents wouldn't let me. (side note: I'm out to my parents, but they don't know about him). He tried guilting me to make me feel like a horrible person, claiming that I never loved him. That's not true, I did love him. But I can't keep talking him out of suicide so frequently. He's either dead or in the hospital right now from cutting himself last night. He said he would get help before I couldn't stay up anymore. This was at 1:30 AM. I feel like there is no happy way out of this situation for me. I don't know what to do. Sorry about the wall of text, but I needed to get this off my chest, and you guys seem like the best people to tell.

submitted by A_Stealthy_Taco
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Hello all you fuzz butts and scale stuffs! It's Friday night for me here in Aus and a public holiday tomorrow so I figured I'd stay up and do some art for you. They're just simple cut out style icons. You'll get a 500x500 and a 100x100 image so you can use them around the place.

 

Examples

 

SLOTS

1. MRjarjarbinks

2.bjorn0411582

3. Mysfit_

4.Nintyboi

5.Arawnn

6.CptMeat

 

EDIT: Alright friends. It's 2 am so I'mma hit the hay. Don't worry though, everyones been sketched and are just waiting to be blocked out.

submitted by Sweet_Moon_Sugar
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submitted by Andreus
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