Get over yourselves and stop letting morons on the internet attempt to label you, make you feel self conscious, and steal the joy of drawing the cartoon subject matter of your choice. In other worlds, stop whinning.
If you like drawing a lot of humaniod animal characers, guess what, people have been doing it as far back as the cave man. Animals are creatures that people of all races and gender can relate to, because they are different and don't hold any other ethic, racial, religious, or sexual orientation context that a human being does. When given human qualities, I.E. anthropomorphized, the characters become universially easier to relate to because they convey pure human values instead of translating the human limiations that ethnicity bring along.
I like Dora the Explorer, but bottom line is, she's a hispanic character and there is going to be aspects of her, being that I'm an African-America, am not going to relate to. However, I also like Goofy. Goofy is a dog, I'm not a dog, but I like the humanity of the "every-man" he conveys that anyone and everyone can relate with.
That's why SPider-man as a character is so universially easier to relate with. That fully body costume allows children to be able to easily believe they could be Spider-Man when he's in full costume (I remember a Awesome issue of Spider-man where he was seen through the perspective of a little black boys eyes, and I felt, yup, that gets it perfectly why people love SPider-Man. In the boys mind, when Spidey took off his mask, he was a black guy underneath (OF course we know Peter Parker isn't, but to that kid not knowing, he could have been anyone).
Trying to either lable or distance youself from a term like "Furry" when you draw predominately anthropmorphic animals is a huge waste of time and mental energy. For one, the term is so vague nobody can clearly define exactly what "Furry" means, and exactly what about it is so positive or negative. Afterall, if you draw a bunch of cartoon talking birds, some people are going to lable you furry (never mind the obvious fact that birds don't have fur). Save if you draw dragons, lizards, ect.
I draw anthromorphic characters that would be considered part of the superhero genre set in a science fiction world. For some aspects they could be looked as being alien, genetic constructs, natural evolutions and it doesn't matter what type of animal creature they may happen to be people are going to look at them and say "HEY, You draw furries!" Or, if it were say 20 years ago, people would be using another genertic term to describe animal orientated genre "HEY, you draw FUNNY ANIMALS!" (Never mind little of what happens to my characters could be considered funny).
So basically, if you like drawing humaniod animal cartoon characters do so and don't waste your time with trying to define what you are or aren't, because as any mature artist knows, once a work of art is created and released for public consumption, you can no longer control the narative of how people will see or lable your art, no matter how much you flail your arms and make images saying the contrary. If you feel the term "furry" is something to be embarrassed about because of the narrative that's been attached to it, then change the narrative. Be like, yeah, this is furry art and look, it's not as bad as you may have been lead to it was. Because I'm sorry to say, saying you're not furry (with a 100% posting rate of cartoon animals in your gallery) is like saying water isn't wet. You define your narrative and yourself, stop letting others do it for you, if you're so concerned about such things.
Me? I draw kick ass art that apparently enough people like enough to want to see more of. And I happen to find drawing animal faces more interesting than humans because the my level of possible different facial types expandes 1000000 fold when I consider drawing all of God's awesome creations and not just focus solely on creatures that look predominately like myself. That's why it's so cool having an imagination and the ability to put it down on paper. The limites of what I can draw are only confined by myself.
Now get out there and draw something.
- Mood:
Rant - Listening to: Jim Rome Show
- Playing: Batman Arkham Asylum
- Drinking: MILK