Holy cow. So, a while back, I bought some scents from HUFF Aromas. They're a furry themed fragrance company producing sexy perfumes/colognes, particularly for use in the bedroom to enhance musk play.
Curiosity finally won me over so I bought a bottle. It's really sexy, woody, leathery... blew my expectations out of the water.

I emailed them to say how much I enjoyed the product, and I couldn't help but also ask them if they'd ever be interested in collaborating on a scent, and amazingly, they were more than happy to make a deal with me.

We're in the process of signing papers rn... To begin with, we'll be doing a Sabre-themed scent, but the doors are open for other merch in the future.

I feel like a professional artist! This is like a dream come true!

I've just started a new comic called "Into the Woods"! I've already published the first few pages on Patreon if you wanna check out the first few pages early, but otherwise I'll be posting the first page here starting in about a week. This time, look forward to some species transformation, and a little higher production value! As with spliced, I'm aiming to squeeze out a page every four days on average.

So the first drawing of 2024 is up and I've got two more in the pipeline - one's a commission for a close friend of mine, and the other is just for me; a follow up to my dragon prince drawing.
A few years back, I used to have so little drive for drawing - it'd go a month or two between projects before I felt the desire to keep going. Most of the time, I'd go a few weeks where I wouldn't even think about drawing, and then I'd eventually get a tiny inkling, but nowhere near enough to actually want to do it. I'd open photoshop and just... close it immediately.

But about a year ago (and change), I just... I dunno, I found this groove and I didn't think it'd last this long, but it has - I'm pretty much -always- in the mood to draw. It's such a dramatic change and I can't explain it but I'm happy for it all the same. I think maybe part of it could be that I've made it into such a habit, I feel like I'm aimless if I don't spend at least a little bit of time drawing most days.

Lately I've been considering doing a stream as well. I'm pretty inefficient when I draw, and I tend to get distracted, which has kept me from doing it in the past... but I wouldn't mind buckling down maybe once a week, maybe with some nice music, and some nice company. Would you guys be into that?

I wanna wish all of you guys a very merry Christmas!
I've had a rough year, and while the first half was filled with some amazing highlights, the second half has been.. probably the worst few months of my life. My fiancée has been of great support to me, but being able to draw has also given me a lot of peace. When the world around you is chaos, being able to lose yourself in something purely creative is like stepping away from it all. So I want to thank you all for giving me your support and checking out my art. It's the best Christmas present I can ask for!

I hope you've all had a really nice day with friends and family and you've walked away with bellies full of good food and arms strained with loads of gifts! ...and bellies full of something else too, perhaps ;)

As the title suggests, I've decided to be a bit more active on FA going forward. I've neglected you guys and that's gonna change!

Over the past couple of years, I've been leaning more heavily on twitter/X as my "main" platform, and for fairly good reasons I think. As one of the major social media platforms, it seemed like a natural way to reach a new audience and grow as an artist.

However, my reach has just tanked there, and I assume I must be shadow banned on some level: Despite having a slightly larger audience there, my art is only getting around 10-25% of the traction I get here or on e621.
Don't get me wrong; I draw because I love it, not to get likes... but it is natural to want to be the best artist I can be, and it does suck to put in a week's work on something, only for it to be almost entirely ignored.

So! Rather than fight a losing battle over on X, I just came to the realization that hey... I've been posting here for longer than I've been posting there, and you guys have always been super supportive and kind to me. Maybe I need to be a little more active on here and start thinking of FA as my main platform again.

Man, what a year it's been. Thank you all for your support and your faves and your watches - it means a hell of a lot. This past year, I've maintained the momentum I started with in early 2021, and I've felt my creative juices flowing almost non-stop. I've completed 50% more art projects than last year, which was already 300% more than the year before, and it feels like all that work is paying off. My audience is growing, I'm seeing my art featured in a few places, I've received new commissions, and even have my first supporter on patreon (like a -real- artist!).
Not all of my work has been in drawing though - apart from a few non-furry ventures into video production and writing, I've also started working on a point and click adventure game based on my old ATR-comic. I've got most of the core gameplay systems working, and there isn't much left for me to do before I'm ready to put together a demo... a rough, bare bones demo, but something I can build off of.
Sheesh, sometimes I feel like I have too many projects to know what to do with my time.

And you guys are what gives me the drive to keep going. Knowing that I'm producing something that brings you joy, or boners, preferably both... that energizes me! So thank you all, and let's keep things rolling into the far-off future year of 2023!

I have to say, the past few years, I have not been producing a lot of art. Back when I was drawing ATR, I was pushing out a page a week. That was insane, unsustainable even, but then it went the other way instead, and that was no good either. Last year, I managed two, maybe three new submissions. Eech... And for most of this year, it's been the same. I've not done very much at all - but lately, I feel like I've been on a roll. Three big drawings in the last two months alone, and I'm already working on the next one.

And! For the first time ever, I'm on a drawing high in time for making a holiday themed piece. Look forward to Halloween!

So my boyfriend just went back home, and I'm feelin' all lonely and stuff. And that's a conducive environment for drawing, so... yeah, I'm back. Comic is on. Woo~

So I know this is untimely considering I juuuust finished re-uploading the comic and adding new pages, but I'm going to be spending the next two weeks on holiday with my boyfriend, so y'all will just have to wait for more comic.

So cancel my last journal entry - seems I didn't need a few days to upload the old comic, I needed one day. It's all there. Now all y'all gotta do is wait for the new content!

...is a bit of work, and there's 66 pages to get through, so I'm gonna try to do a chapter a day until it's all there. Then we'll keep going with new pages. First batch is done and the prologue is finished!

It's been nearly four years since the last sighting of the Carver City vigilantes. The two masked heroes, who protected the city from evil-doers while wearing elaborate wolf costumes, have all but faded from public memory. They garnered fame in local media for their outlandish costumes, and their equally outlandish weapons, often seen sporting both a katana sword and assault rifles. But after almost three years of operating on a nightly basis in the city, the two wolves suddenly disappeared. One of the last sightings of them was near the ECN Field Office in east Carver. As of yet, nobody knows what happened to them, or even if they are still alive.
Many believe they perished during a mission and that their bodies will one day be found. Others contend that they're still out there, waiting for the right time to come back to us.

So, I haven't been in much of a mood for drawing lately (it's coming back though!), but HumbleBundle is having a bob ross themed bundle and one of the included pieces of software is corel painter essentials. I recall using corel draw as a little pup, and I remember thinking it was real cool, so sheet, this is gonna be a nice opportunity for me to try an alternative to photoshop.

See, I've been a little annoyed recently at how ...'precise' photoshop is. it does precisely what you tell it to and nothing more, and nothing less. if you don't know how to set your brush up for the correct result, well, no hand holding. if you hand shakes a little, photoshop feels like a magnifying glass. I wanted to try another program; perhaps one aimed specifically at painting, and that featured some nice line smoothing and a good set of brushes with an easy to navigate interface.

In all fairness, corel painter essentials excels in this regard. The drawing tools are fantastic - smooth, beautiful lines, well adjusted pressure sensitivity on my tablet, and a brush selector which is just to die for - out of the box, it's divided into oils, pencils, crayons, etc - and each subcategory has nice big, visual examples of what the brushes look like. And they turn out good - crisp, smooth... they feel solid. It also has a great color wheel which kind of floats over your main window and is big and easy to use.

Unfortunately, that's the entirety of the praise I have for this software - the rest of it is lackluster, backwards, needlessly complicated, buggy, and generally shit.
Lets start with the basics - there's no way to customize keyboard shortcuts, and to even see the shortcuts I had to go to the online help file. I understand the professional version has this option, but essentials is still a $40+ piece of software, and that kind of restriction just is not acceptable. Fact is, the options menu has next to nothing of value - beyong choosing scratch disc and number of undo states, the only thing you can really do is choose if you want multi touch on your tablet, and choose how big the increments are in the brush sizing.

Speaking of shortcuts, I can't seem to find the eraser shortcut in the help file. So I was unable to bind that to my tablet button and had to constantly move back and forth to the toolbar. I also had to do this while transforming my selection, because instead of having an intuitive system based on ctrl, alt, and click dragging, the only way to rotate, transform, or skew a selection seems to be by using buttons. Perhaps there are shortcuts, but I don't feel like learning five separate shortcuts to activate five separate tools that do what one tool is meant to.

rotating my canvas can be done with alt + scroll, but only in one direction. and when you try to rotate the canvas from the edit-menu, it resizes the canvas and rotates your artwork within the canvas. There's also a line tool, but nothing as complex as photoshop's pen tool it seems - it just does lines. of one thickness. with no visible controls for changing the thickness... well, except that one time the line decided to be variable thickness for no reason and with no input from me.

On that note, it's also buggy as shit - sometimes, my canvas will just disappear, and after rezising the window, it comes back with a big line across it that I have to erase.

bottom line - the painting tools are wonderful, and I WISH photoshop had something quite as well put together. But the rest of this program is an annoying, frustrating, buggy, horrible, scum sucking, dog licking, spider eating, low life, aggravating, needlessly complicated, stripped down, nefarious and untrustworthy ball-chortling pile of ass.

Or am I wrong? Seriously, if you use corel painter and like it, and it works for you, and you think I'm being a dumbass, please tell me. If not, well... give me back my 15 dollars humblebundle. >:(

I've got some time on my hands in the coming weeks, so I figured I'd try to get some drawing time in. Anybody interested in getting a commission, now's the time!
Check my price list for a rough estimate of what I charge, though these prices are flexible. Usually $30-$100 depending on the content, clean or NSFW is fine!

I'm gay.

That's not something I've been saying long. In fact, this is one of the first times where my heart isn't racing from saying it. Over the past few weeks I've been coming to terms with my sexuality and I've started coming out to a small group of friends. If you know my art, you're probably rolling your eyes right now: "Of course you're gay. We knew that already."

And certainly, this is not really news to me either. It's been a long time coming; but a lifetime of self denial brings with it a lot of twists and turns, and it's been a thought provoking experience for me. I want to share it with whoever wants to listen. Maybe you've been through the same journey... maybe you're on your way there. Maybe you're not on that path, but you just want to know what it's like. Either way, I want to share it with you.

***

Until recently, I didn't 'know' I was gay. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well, there was a time where I would have agreed with you. How can anyone not know if they're gay? You either get turned on by stuff, or you don't. How could it not be clear? The truth, as is often the case, tends to be a bit more complicated:

For one, the world is straight. That's biology. That's normal. Mom and dad are straight. Your best friend in grade school was probably straight. Your goldfish is straight. It's the way of the world, and it's what we're surrounded by on a daily basis. James Bond has Bond girls, teenage girls swoon over Justin Bieber, and your folks want you to find a wife, buy a house and have 2.4 kids and a dog. And that's okay.

But what happens if that's not how things work for you? Put yourself in the shoes of a kid, maybe twelve or thirteen years old. He's beginning to discover his sexuality. The world is straight. So naturally, he assumes he too, is straight. I assumed I was straight. I didn't know any better and there was no conscious thought behind this, just an assumption. Naturally, it didn't take long for me to realize that there was more to the story. I was curious about boys, and they'd pop up during fantasies as much as girls did. It was a long time ago, but I'm fairly sure that the boys were more exciting to me, as well.

Still, I was a normal boy, and I did normal boy stuff. So I figured "alright, lots of people are probably a little curious and maybe I'm just a little more curious than most". The thought of me being anything other than straight didn't really get any foot hold. In part, it just didn't occur to me. However, at the same time, I was also eager to fit in. Who wouldn't? This isn't something I reasoned, by the way, or consciously decided. It drove me from underneath.

But the girls simply didn't interest me as much, and soon I found my eyes chasing after cute guys on the street, rather than cute girls. "Okay, maybe I'm not straight. But I'm not gay. Maybe I'm bi." Because at the end of the day, I still like that sit-com family picture of me with a wife and kids. And I know that's how it's supposed to be. And I know that's what my family wants. So maybe I'll experiment a bit, maybe I'll gawk at some guys... but sooner or later, I'll just get my fill and I'll find the right girl and that'll be that.

Of course, that never happened. I went on dates with girls, but they were awkward. VERY awkward. It was stressful and terrible; I never knew what to say or do, and the intimacy, on the rare occasions where there was any, felt all wrong. There was never a second date and sure as shit never a third. I assumed I was just out of practice. The thought never struck me that there was a reason I went out with a girl on a once-every-other-year basis. Part of me simply refused to accept the truth.

I should point out that I've never felt it was wrong to be gay. I hold no prejudice or judgment, there's no shame, there's no ridiculous religious conviction tugging at me. It simply wasn't something I had put in the realm of possibility.

***

But then this summer rolled around and I decided it was high time I at least begin exploring these feelings. I asked a guy out and we went on a few dates and... Everything changed. Suddenly, all the awkwardness was gone. Meeting him was terrifying, yes, but once the date actually got underway, it was nice; it felt right, it felt like everything it was supposed to feel like. It was fun, relaxing, I enjoyed it. He told me about himself and I talked about me. We connected. It was what I knew a date should be but had never experienced.
When we kissed, it was good. It was sweet and intimate.

That's when I knew.

It never escaped me that I liked guys, but it wasn't until that moment where I finally understood. It's like a light bulb turned on, and I remember even saying to myself "Wow. I'm gay."
The signs had been there all along, and I just never listened. I'm not with that guy anymore, but over the next few weeks, I learned to accept who I was.

I felt this enormous weight lift that I didn't know was there. I felt happier - and I'm talking a deep, soulful happiness. I felt more at peace. I felt comfortable in my own skin in a way that I hadn't realized was lacking.

I eventually told some people, then some more people. I'm telling someone almost on a daily basis now, and every time, it feels better. I feel more free, more open. There's a part of me I've always kept hidden and I can finally share it; be open and honest about my life with those I love.

And as if on cue, I have found love. I have found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, and I love him more than I thought was possible. He makes me soar!



That's my story, and now you know as well. I know I'm new at all of this, but I feel a belonging and a pride for who I am after a lifetime in the fog. I can't help but share it - Thank you for reading!

Over the past few weeks, I've been in talks with the moderators over at yaoihavenreborn.com and discussing the possibility of getting my own gallery set up. For those who don't know, YHR is an adult website which features drawings and comics. They've got various categories of art, including a lot of hentai and an extensive collection of furry smut.

I always considered the art they host as 'proper porn' - A large amount of the furry art they host comes from artists you've seen before or comics and drawings which are well familiar to those who like to look at such things. As such, I always looked at it as somewhat of an accomplishment to end up there.

They've recently opened up to allow artists to send in their art and have it vetted by the mod staff. As of a couple of days ago, I now have my very own gallery on the site!

Woo!

What do you do when you, as an artist, feel you've hit a wall? That's how I've felt for a while now. I look around me at the amazing artists who share their work on FA, dA, and all the other communities on the web, and I feel as if they're in a different league. There's something magical about their art; it pops, it's eye candy. The technique is beautiful, the characters seem alive and you just can't get enough. Let's face reality; that's not me.

Let's be fair, it's ridiculous for me to even compare myself to those great artists - you know the ones - but nevertheless; I've never been one to shy away from a challenge, and I never aim for second place. So if I believe I have it in me to be a great artist, then I need to identify the problem that is stopping me from being one.

My art might not be awful, but it doesn't have that magical sparkle. Why? Well, my anatomy is decent and I'm learning proper linearting and coloring/shading. I've studied some of my favorite furry artists and I'm trying to improve my technique as well as take cues to perhaps be more colorful, and not always resort to dull browns, greys and beiges. Those are shortcomings, for sure, but they're not the root problem.

The truth is that I am terrible at drawing furry heads. I draw the head of a furry the same way I always did. My technique refines, and I add new features here and there, but the groundwork hasn't changed. The way i make the lines, how curved they are, how many angles or how to slope the forehead. That stuff is mechanical in me, and it has been for yeeeeeeears. THAT is my problem. No matter how much fluff I put on Sabre's neck, or how good I am at drawing a canine nose, it's still a house built upon a foundation of... crap. If you look at my art, you can actually see that there's this demarcation line between body and head. The body is all smooth flowing lines and minimalism in the lineart, and the head is blunt, brutish and full of clutter.

So... what to do? I can't really 'fix' it. I can keep making improvements, but it'll never be what I dream of my art to be. The heads have become this.. barrier.
Well, I took some advice from Frank Underwood: "If you don't like the way the table is set, you turn over the table."

Who says I have to keep drawing heads like that? I decided to start from SCRATCH - just.. draw a furry in a completely new way, using my favorite artists as inspiration and guides, and just... forget everything I've learned. That's a tall order, but I really felt I needed it.
And holy cow, it turned out good! THIS has the spark I've been looking for.

It's gonna take a whole lot of practice, and I'm diving into it head first, but I just know this is gonna pay off! :D

It's about time I jump on the Patreon bandwagon- I just set up my page there in order to get some help funding the creation of my two new comics, sample #17 and 'untitled project that's gonna be awesome'.
See it as a fancy donation jar; if you'd like to help me keep my art coming out at a good pace, and also earn some nice rewards along the way, please consider tossing me a few bucks. As thanks, you'll get high quality, early access copies of my pages, behind the scenes looks, sketches and more! Whether you pledge or not, I really hope you enjoy the comic!

You can check out my patreon here, where you can also read a bit more about the comics: https://www.patreon.com/AlphaSabre
And the promo drawing for Sample #17 is here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19483532/