Jonan

I would suggest working in different individual areas of drawing. A good way to work on anatomy would be for example, to take printed out pictures of people and draw a wire skeleton where their spine, shoulders, joints, limbs, etc are, and make circles and ovals at the chest, hips, head, etc. To get a good grasp of the general anatomy and how to copy a pose to make it more life like and proportional. I am horrible at drawing and don't do it for a reason, but I'm going to stand behind my words and give an example, simple poses like this, wire up a believable skeleton and then flesh it in, erase the lines and make a figure. This should help build depth and add perspective to the picture, and take not of how people stand, what is visible, the sides of their face, body, feet, etc. Measure with the end of your pencil a reference picture's length of arm or forearm and compare it to the shoulders to make sure they are proper for the angle, etc. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a195/Opalance/DSC00954-1.jpg The head is the single most important part of the picture, the eyes centralized of that point. So working on close up busts of figures from shoulders up will develop different views and angles of the head to give it more believability and dimension. Heads are especially important to furry artists where head shape makes the difference between the species often. So something like this. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a195/Opalance/DSC00938.jpg And don't be afraid to go abstract sometimes and go for emotion and more symbolic ways to express things. And work with different mediums to figure out which one works for you, I liked sumi ink, I wasn't good with it but I found it relaxing and something about the black on white and the flowing was very releasing of my feelings, like in this picture I showed you earlier. But charcoal is a great place to start and learn shading and erasing techniques and its very forgiving and hands on. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a195/Opalance/Struggle_by_Opalance-1.jpg There, you wanted comments so you got one ;3

Well being here such a short time I can't say I would have any misconceptions about you. I gather from this that there are several things we have in common, some I'd mention here and some I wouldn't. I will say though that among many popular denominations, and indeed the people in them, the dominant mentality on anything questionable is, "Could it possibly be turned into something bad, if so, then avoid it altogether." Like with Baptists, they don't allow any drinking, any dancing, and any theology that is questionable or vague, like speaking in tongues, other real spiritual gifts, theology about the Holy Spirit, etc. is just right out condemned or ignored because it might be possibly abused or lead to something bad. The, better safe than sorry, mentality. I find this to be immature personally, and it can possibly limit your growth by limiting any discernment you might have to make about gray areas because it's much easier to be able to look at a legalistic rule than it is to pray and read and figure it out yourself. But believe me, if you don't come to your own decision on something like drinking, sexuality, etc. it will haunt you and one day that hollow rule you got handed will crack under pressure and you'll have nothing to fall back on of your own. An example, I drink. I have set rules however on how much I drink, when I drink, where I drink, the reasons I drink, who I drink around, etc. My brother and his new wife visited us however and we talked about it a bit and he discovered that I drink, and he took that as an excuse to start abusing it, despite growing up always thinking it was bad and swearing he never would. Me, I sat down and I figured out how much I could drink without getting "drunk", I calculated how long I would need for it to completely wear off so I knew when to stop so I would be sober to go anywhere, I set rules for drinking only when celebrating something or when I was happy, never when I was depressed or angry, I decided to not bring it up and not drink around people who don't drink, and I don't drink anywhere in public where I would conceivably run into someone I know who doesn't drink and I even found a church that allows its members and leaders to drink but forbids drunkenness so I wasn't violating their rules and standards. My brother didn't do that, he just thought, "Well he does it, so it must be ok." he didn't figure it out for himself and gauge the benefits and detriments. So disdaining for no reason can be far more dangerous than partaking with caution.

Hello, I'm a 25 year old Christian fur who's looking for a more...Christian supportive furry environment. I'm married and have a baby boy with my wife of over 4 years and am an ordained minister. Also Jonan is my middle name, and it means, "The dove that multiplies the people (of God)"