Over the weekend I accepted an invitation from Foxfeather and her husband Roman and came up to Minneapolis to attend the
Furry Migration. This was a gathering of mostly Minnesotan "Furries", which despite some bad press and misunderstanding in the boring mainstream community, are mostly creative, artistic people who love animals, and celebrate the idea of anthropomorphic animals (animals with human characteristics like walking on two legs, talking and dressing).
A convention allows furries to gather, and for those who have gone all out to create costumes of their "fursona", or furry persona, to walk around in costume, play games, and generally have fun together. It is also an opportunity to peruse through the Dealers Den and Artist's Gallery for anthropomorphic art, or just plain animal art. Foxfeather has been participating in this fashion for more years than she can count. It is where she makes some of her most sales every year. BTW, you can visit her web presence here:
Foxloft
Most, probably all conventions, also select a local animal charity and help to fund raise for that charity. It is putting a love of animals into action to actually help animals. At this convention the charity was the
Minnesota Pitbull Rescue. I made a donation by buying a shirt.
For myself, I think I have found my lost tribe! I used to participate in art, mostly sketching, and some experimentation in other medias waaaaaaay back in High School, and then I had a small scholarship for the one year I attended University in 1985. I quickly determined that I was not good enough to really make a living on it, so went on to do other things. However, over time I have allowed myself to get out of touch with art altogether. This is something I should change, RIGHT NOW.
I took a sketch pad with me, and then sketched from pictures I took at the Convention. Furry costumes are absolutely the best for quick sketches, as many of them are what is called "toony", looking somewhat cartoonish, which makes them very easy to render into quick drawings.
Please note, these are all really quick sketches. The point was not to go for realism, but to just dust off my skills of rendering onto paper what my eye sees, quickly. Most of these were done in quick minutes.
On a few I added color. After all, I lugged my bag with colored pencils to the Con, having to park like a half mile away and walk (OK, maybe not that far, but it felt like it).
I had such fun that I am already making plans to go to the Convention in Chicago,
Midwest Furfest. That is, one day of it. I have already checked in with my girlfriend, Darla, and found out that she does not have plans for that weekend. So I will visit her, and we will attend the Saturday. I can take more pictures, and do more sketches.
Who knows, I even have a fursona in mind for myself, but that would be a whole other level of creativity, and would not be ready by the first weekend of December. We'll see how far this new zest for my art takes me.
