Hey guys! I just wanted to make a journal addressing some things:

TLDR: You should expect more activity here as I post my backlogs, be on the lookout for slots, I'll be accepting less haggle commissions but that doesn't mean you shouldn't approach me with your projects, I'd love to hear them, and there should be more personal work incoming in the next few months as well.

Life & Work:

I've had a pretty difficult year since graduating, but the path has been paved with blessings. However, I'm still not doing too well on an emotional level right now. After getting RSI/Tendinosis in my drawing hand (6-12 month healing period) my work was seriously stifled. I've just not started being able to work full weeks again, with many breaks. In that time, I decided to focus on improving myself as a person, and that became my job for a while. I was horribly depressed and needed to fix things. Every week I feel like I dig a little deeper and get that much closer to coming out fully on the other side

Lately I've been discontent with where my artwork is going. Before anyone freaks out, I'm not quitting, not going on hiatus right now, totally here to stay. However, I've been majorly considering some large business changes, and I want to focus on exploring stylistic options and ways I can improve my skill. I don't really enjoy the process of most of the work I've been making, and I think I need to refocus my work on what I enjoy rather than what I think other people might want. I've all but almost stopped studying entirely this past year because all of my ability to do art both physically and emotionally has been dedicated towards commission work and making money. Right now, my demand is still higher than my ability to work can keep up with. I've started to slow down my project intake, and in the near near future, I'm going to focus on opening experimental slots and do more adoptables.

I am also seeking a part time job. I don't have the most stress-free home life, and I need to both get out of the house more, and generate income from something that doesn't drain my creative energies. So the hope is that a side job would give my art the breathing room I need to personally explore, brush up on skills, experiment, rework my business and portfolio.

I have a large backlog of work I haven't posted on FA. Over 50 pieces (Yeah, seriously). They do all get thrown up on my telegram channel if you want it: https://t.me/ManeframeArt

Thanks for reading! I really appreciate you guys, you're the reason I can keep pushing forward with all this :>

- B / MF

https://picarto.tv/Maneframe

I got 20 new watchers from scarlet's butt

Holy crap guys.

I'm tempted to make more butt...

She could really use the help and the monies. If you've been needing a ref sheet or just a nice drawing, she's got some nice slots open :D

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/23635836/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/23635836/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/23635836/

- B / MF

I have a telegram update channel now, Which is like a tumblr/twitter/blog thing that sends one sided messages to people's telegram inboxes in a chat (It's not a group chat, entirely just seldom messages from me to you).. I don't always post my work here, and I sometimes keep things for a while before I do (I have like 20 paintings in a folder that I need to post up >.>;;;). I'll be posting things there as I do them. So if you wanna see more stuff (FOR FREEEEE~!) Then go ahead and add yourself as a member to my Channel

https://t.me/ManeframeArt

Disclaimer: There will totally be boobs. NSFW uwu

Come drop by and see what I'm up to! I already have some sketches there that haven't been posted anywhere else. ;>

I've been told a few times over the past months I should consider getting a Patreon. Now, CURRENTLY I don't think I could really offer anything special for patrons. Maybe post work earlier sometimes? I occasionally hold off posting pieces until I'm ready for more commissions, but I dunno. I don't plan to change the way I do things around FA (like paywalling, for example) What do you usually like to see as patreon benefits? Are ones without benefits that are more or less donation pools still enticing? For anyone that backs artists on Patreon, why do you do it? I'd love to hear your guy's thoughts on the subject.

https://picarto.tv/Maneframe
https://picarto.tv/Maneframe
https://picarto.tv/Maneframe
https://picarto.tv/Maneframe

Hey all!

STREAM: https://picarto.tv/Maneframe

Also, Collab slot with Xilveros is open, check here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23472394/

<3

Hey! Couple things;

My old commission slot backup is almost gone and we've only got a few things left before I have just my waitlist left

My hand is still in pain! 5 months now, I thought it'd be over. It's very demoralizing. It's getting better, but not fast enough..

I'm learning to drive, will have a license and look for a side job to help cover the bills since for the time being, I sadly can't 100% rely on my ability to do art

Ironically, that's exactly what I have to do this month, since next month my expenses increase by another 400 dollars a month. That said This month I hope to:

- Get started and make slow progress on the old commissions
- Start to chew through waitlist pieces
- Open up small slots to stagger throughout the whole thing

Right now, I'm just focused on making enough money to make payments on my student loans and insurance and such. After I get a side job, things will ease up and hopefully I can get myself back in a nice order. I haven't been able to get my commission list upright for a while because the need for new income with the limited time my hand can draw always supercedes my dissappointment for having some people still waiting for work, and those people have been extremely patient with me and my situation, and I thank them again. :>

If you were looking for something smaller from me, now would be a good time to ask, since smaller bites between the larger projects are extremely welcome :>

Because of a recent situation with undisclosed parties regarding editing another artist's work, I wanted to leave some food for thought. The things I share here I have learned from art school, talking with industry professionals in many artistic fields, and a copyright lawyer.

Copyright is a very odd field, with lots of weird rules. And by weird, I mean that fanart you make money off of is totally illegal and everyone does it anyways. So using that as a basis, you can see where there's some odd areas. I will use a couple of terms here;

Rights: The ownership of the piece, who owns it, what can be done with it.

License: A limited ownership of a piece. Basically. Sharing certain rights with certain people. For example, Hasbro licensed Build-A-Bear to be allowed to make My Little Pony stuffed toys legally. You can bet all this involved one hell of a contract, profit sharing, blah blah blah, all that.

There are a lot of artists out there, specifically the communities on dA, FA, and tumblr, that have a strong "Do not steal, edit, trace, this is my artwork, I will eat you." That's grown to the point that even very novice artists, who no one would even steal from, are doing it, because they see the big kids do it and wanna be cool and pissed off about art theft too.

So, it's actually in some cases LEGAL to trace and edit artwork, if it's done for educational purposes and not profit. That said, there are fine lines and caveats and who in the hell that doesn't have a law degree knows what, but for the most part, even if.. say, MilesDF said he really doesn't want anyone tracing his work, I could legally take it, and trace it, if it were for the intent of learning (In the art industry, this is called a master copy, and is very common.) If this master copy is posted, There's grey areas on whether or not it's appropriate, and permission is always your best friend, because the artist's word can act as a limited license.

Now, it's also super common in the various professional illustration industries to edit another's artwork. On the online art communities, this is basis for getting lit on fire and flamed off the face of the website, and reasonably so. If one were to do it and claim it as their own work, it's illegal unless a certain percentage of the image has been changed. I can legally go on google images, put a photo into my work, and if it is deemed changed by a certain percentage over the original photo, it's no longer considered infringement upon the original photographer's work. This is how collage artists don't go to jail all the time. If one were to edit another's work and not make any money, and credit the original artist, this is another gray area, and without a license could be illegal, or could arguably be for education. It's not illegal until it's posted. In the professional industry, when you do work for someone, your contract tells you WHO owns the rights to the image. a lot of times the company retains the rights and grants the artist a limited license to post their work to portfolios. In a lot of cases, the artist can't sell prints of their own work because the company owns the piece, and the artist would be infringing on the company's rights, even selling their own work. Since the company owns the image, they can edit, or reproduce, or do whatever they want. Sometimes, the contract is for the artist to retain rights and the company or commissioner is granted a license to make money off of the artwork without royalties. This is all to say, stuff like this, super duper common.

Now regarding art theft! If someone reposts your work without crediting you, it's always illegal. You have two main things to lose out on if this happens;

1. Money
2. Hurt feelings.

Regarding #1, if they're not making money, It's not a major art theft. It's someone using your work on the banner for their website or as an RP character. In the online communities, this is considered an insult and is awful and blah blah. And yes, while morally reprehensible, does get blown kinda out of proportion. I actually have found art theft in this way.. kind of flattering? Someone liked my work enough to try and use it for something. I tell them to take it down anyways, but hey, I didn't really lose out. HOWEVER, sometimes someone steals your work, prints it, sells it, and makes money! And I see so many artists get pissed and rave, but what they're missing is a business opportunity. Someone just figured out how to sell your work in a way you're probably not doing already, and YOU should be the one selling it to the people they're selling it too. In this case, I've seen artists that can claim that the sold materials should belong to them because it's infringed work, and actually end up getting a bunch of "free" stuff of their own work to sell, on top of the infringing party ceasing. Again; If someone has managed to sell your work, that's an opportunity to make money in that same exact way.

Regarding hurt feelings, best I've got is what I've said before. Someone liked it enough to take it, and that's a good sign that your work is good enough to be stolen.

Anyways, would love to hear your feedback, thoughts, experiences, anything. And especially if I've gotten a legality wrong and you know for sure, it'd be good to know. :>

 buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw

An art school friend just joined FA and is excited to meet new people and start doing furry commissions on here :> You should really go check her work out! It's super cute and nice, and she's a very sweet person. Why don't you go show her some nice community hospitality and say hi~? n-n She's already put up a bunch of nice art in her gallery for you guys to look at.

 buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw  buttercupsnowpaw

I just wanted to type out a quick journal with updates;

Hand: Thanks to  carrot my hand has been improving by a whole lot. I can draw some days without pain at all now because of following their physical therapy suggestion. I've seem amazing progress and I'm incredibly grateful and blessed, and hopeful to begin drawing more soon and even working on my portfolio

Art: I'm still chewing down the list! Everyone has been contacted recently and things are looking up. It's still taking a while, but hopefully the factors will align where, after some more life changes, I can work full time against, and have a very short turnout. I definitely definitely do not want to get backed up this bad again ever. Thanks to all who have been patient. This week, for the sake of extra income, I'll probably open a speedpaint slot just to get something quick out of my system. The gem slots were really helping my bills. :>

Finances: I'm still only scraping by barely. with just the art I do, my income has been locked at about $350-ish a month. All of my loans are in forbearance or 0 payments right now, and I only have to worry about some other bills. With my hand improving, I should hopefully be able to increase my income

What I've been doing in my downtime: Since I haven't been able to work on art, I still wanted to do something productive. The past few months have been dedicated to working on self improvement. I've spent hours and hours each day, as if it were my job (even logging hours) researching, journaling, experimenting, forming habits, reading books and article, implementing routines and structure, all these different things to try to make myself a better and more efficient person, and I have seen amazing improvements in who I am and my behavior and confidence. Most of my recent depression has been whittled away at despite my difficult situation. I've been feeling my range of emotions coming back, I'm anxious less, and I'm very grateful that I seem to be coming out of this year and a half long slump I've been in, and will hopefully be more prepared the next time I run into struggles

Thank you all for sticking around, I hope I can spend more time posting here soon. I do have some works I haven't put up yet ;>

- B / MF

Just wanted to keep everyone in the loop about some things;

Hand is still hurt. It's been officially 3 months, and I'm still having bad days with my wrist and hand. Some weeks I can get 5 hours out of it everyday, others like recently I got 2 hours, a lot of pain, and had to take a couple days off.

I'm still working down the old list, and waitlisting larger commissions as people show interest. I took a couple smaller ones before my next project to cover forbearance fees for my school private student loans (why do you have to pay money to get a break from paying money when you can't afford to pay them money?) My federal loans are currently being reviewed for a lower payment plan. With my hand I've only been pulling in about 300 dollars a month and I just can't afford anything anymore and need breathing room. Because of this, I should have a few months with very little money to worry about so I can work on my backlog, learning to drive, portfolio, and finding a side job. Hopefully I can get things in order enough to better support myself, because making money off of art is really hard with a messed up wrist.

It still has been getting better steadily, but I'm surprised it's taking this long.

I've also been doing a lot better emotionally, I got fairly depressive after my graduation, and I finally feel like thIngs are looking up despite my physical and financial struggles.

My wonderful friend  stickman bought me a pen grip for my Wacom pen, and I'm hoping it helps a little. My tablet pen is one of the only things that hurts my hand anymore. I can draw with a pencil without much issue. I've been researching into why this might be. I think it's related to how the tip of the pen is pushed in from a weird angle, as opposed to a pencil which is pushed into the paper in a different way. Anywho, I'm sure everything will heal with time and I'll keep changing things until it works.

- B / MF

https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.ne.....mp;oe=59095416

Replaced the PSU, had to do some rewiring, buuuut, all seems good? :> Probably going to be streaming in a bit, after a walk and such, just to do some simple commission edits. Unless something explodes again.

ANYWHO, glad to have my baby back and functioning <3

- B

Hey! My PSU kicked the bucket 1/20th into its expected lifespan, fun, right? Anywho, new part comes in two days, had to charge it on a credit card since I need a working machine, and I have very little monies right now. I will be looking into using the warranty on the PSU since it's not even a year old, and I use a UPS on my system, so there was no possible surge or problem that should have caused PSU failure. However, that process takes weeks that I don't have, so I just have to suck it up and spend the money on a new part for now.

All work is halted till Friday, I have a few revisions on my list~ when the new PSU comes friday afternoon I'll have to take time to install it and do some testing to make sure my other components didn't get taken out as well. Everything still booted during a test with a 12 year old PSU, but I'm paranoid and won't be satisfied till I see it run games and Photoshop without catching fire

I did get a piece done 10 minutes before it popped! Mostly, still need to add a zipper down the midsection~ https://trello-attachments.s3.amazo.....-583553680.jpg

Posted with my phone ~

- B

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22333083/

Totally forgot that FA reduces the file size. Here's a really big-ass version for yah~

- B

whoops, submitted early, sorry about the small spam message. Silly Enter key.

Anyways, just a short update here;

Hand/wrist is doing okayish. I've been able to work more lately. Sometimes I get lucky and can squeeze in 3-5 hours with frequent breaks, other days like yesterday I only made it through 2 hours before I had to stop. Doctor says it'll persist for a while, but at least I can really start getting things done now.

I've been able to keep up on bills semi-okay because of christmas money and a forbearance on some of my student loans. Because of this, I've started working on overdue commissions to try to get them off the list. I'm contacting everyone with a commsission out individually to make sure you're all doing alright and to offer refunds if you'd like them. Hopefully we can get the list all cleared off soon

In other news, I've been handling the commitment of regular small commissions quite well, and they've been helping a lot with both my bills, and my feeling like I can accomplish something, which had me very depressed the first month of my injury.

If anyone is interested in a sketch slot, I do still have one left for next week~! And they definitely won't be seeing the delay my other commissions have.

You can keep track of my list and progress here; https://trello.com/b/gTB6vBsR/manef.....mission-status (Scarlet's Kitsune design is the first thing on my list to get finished)

- B / Maneframe

!~ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/22120824/ ~!

One slot has been opened on my sketch commissions~!

Also, one of them got finished last night. I'm going to post them in groups of three so you'll see her again in a couple days, but here's an early look at one that got finished last night for  pariahlycan

https://trello-attachments.s3.amazo.....can_sketch.jpg

Hey all! so I'll be streaming soon, within a few hours. I picked up a new brush pack and need something rough to use it out on, and I could use a few bucks while I'm at it. If you've been interesting in getting a quick bust or thigh up painting from me, now's the chance! You can expect a quality similar to these, but probably a lot weirder;

$18; http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21727175/

$34; http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21624755/

And you're always free to throw me more money at a later time to refine and finish it up~

Comment here or send a note if you're interested in one, along with a ref. due to it being experimental the subject matter will be pretty basic, most likely pinuppy. You can definitely request themes. I'll Pick one or two and contact you before the stream. I'll give you my paypal and when I see the monies pop over, I'll go ahead and start :>

As always feel free to ask questions

- B

New chair and mouse have arrived, and are waaaaay better.

My arms are level with the desk, lower back doesn't hurt, pinky isnt stressed out by the new mouse, conforms to hand well. I think over time this is going to work out well.

I unfortunately had to change them since I'm behind on munnies due to circumstance, but whatever promotes healing, right?

The new acquisitions, if anyone is interested in my endorsement;

Logitech G502

E-Blue Cobra chair

Need to start taking care of myself better as much as I sit in the same spot all day. Need to get me a desk cycle or something...

- B