Fuck Originality
BlahListening to: Kamelot - Memento Mori
Don't get me wrong. Originality is a fine concept and I encourage it.
But what the fuck is with this "Originality Olympics" thing going on with Anthro art?
It seems to me like I am now, out of the loop because I have characters that are feline, and that apparently is "taboo" now since cats are common critters in the furryverse.
You know why most of my characters are cats? Here's why. BECAUSE I REALLY REALLY FUCKING LIKE CATS! They're my favorite animal. EVER! I am 100% born and bred cat person. I mean I like dogs, and lizards, and goldfish and racoons. But damn it, cats are on a PEDESTAL here. They're the only animals that ever really spark my interest.
I also have cat characters, because cats are part of the story I've been worknig on since HIGH SCHOOL. There are 3 known races (so far) in it. Cats, Humans, and Halens. I might have a few other races I might introduce, but cats are one of the main 3. I have their subculture and mannerisms and characteristics down to the point where I could write a fucntional RPG out of it.
I think my whole point with all of this, is that I am working on consistancy here. It isn't that I don't like to draw other animals. It's just that with the limited time I have drawing these days, I need to focus on keeping what I have CONSISTANT!
As for my designs... Redrock is, and will always be a red abysynian housecat. Her hair may change, her clothes may change, and maybe her personality will change, but she is a character that would NEVER work as anything other than a red abysynian housecat. Ever. Same goes for Jessie James and Bruce and Kip and Roadie and everyone else. I'm not going to conform to the masses because people have problems with furries.
And I might add... I've been drawing cartoon animals LONG before I had the internet and found out that other people were also drawing cartoon animals and had a label for it. So kindly shut your pie holes.
Devious Comments
Most of my characters are cats or foxes... or humans OMG! How unoriginal is that? Humans?! I don't really care about all of that, though. It's not the shell of your character but the soul and story of the character.
I've missed something in my absence, haven't I. o.o
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You know... that artist-type guy.
You know what I'm talking about? Shit like giving them 100 tails and making them like 8 different species so no one will copy them.
Don't get me wrong, I welcome originality, but there is a such thing as going a LITTLE too far.
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Like you, I'm cool with folks wanting the originality of as completely unique a character as they can muster and all. In fact, I dig one girl's work partly because of the interesting mix in her main character. It's the drives of some of the other artists out there that disturbs me.
To do it, that is to say go batshit crazy with a character's design, to prevent copying goes against the laws of Supply and Demand. Many newer folks demand a new and unique identity, the supply for an uber-fancy original character would rightfully be low. These newer artists will snatch bits (or the whole) of the original designs they find appealing to use as their own thus breeding copying. I used to see this same tactic used as an elitist thing - A visual "I'm better than you are" deal so-to-speak - but not so much recently. Those folks also land themselves in a similar situation, only their self-made high stature falls faster than a crappy pop music star's career after a successful album (Or American Idol). o.@
'Tis a dark and strange situation indeed. To limit one's creativity is criminal but to build something on the sole premise of being seen as original outside of one's desire to express one's self is just as bad.
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You know... that artist-type guy.
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