An April Fool's #CoatiMonday! I jumped at the rubber clown 'sona experiments FA/techno (indrikisxiii on birdsite) was offering, and haven't stopped bouncing.
https://twitter.com/indrikisxiii/status/1245269650755268608
This was such a fun commission to get and is a lesson to volunteer for artists who're trying experiments. There's so many great lines here.
I don't like shoes RL (they hurt my feet) but as part of a clown makeover they're great for my character.
Happy paleoart #CoatiMonday! This Spaceroo piece has me, Bigears, and Spaceroo celebrate HoneyBadger's October birthday. https://yerf.metafur.org/siemjohn/hbbdayjs.jpg
https://yerf.metafur.org/siemjohn?page=2
HoneyBadger and Bigears were the hosts of the Burrow, *the* FurryMuck hangout spot of 1996-98, and Spaceroo and I regulars.
This has maybe the darkest paws I've ever had in art. I have no canonical, consistent fur pattern, mind; I love the variations.
It's a #CoatiMonday of surprises! FA/LaraTheLabRat got quite into a weird zipper-transformation idea I'd had.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/28552395/
The zippersnake idea is, they'll turn their victims into fursuits, and LaraTheLabRat's done it better than I could, with this sequence. I have, like, notes for maybe two more pages explaining zneks and about one-tenth the ability to render it. This is a shame since, looking over this sequence: there are a lot of people who'd reeeeeally like more of this.
Also it's my #CoatiMonday anniversary! I'll reshare the start, a Thomas K Dye ( http://newshounds.keenspot.com/ ) picture that got lost from the birdsite version of thread.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/30943322/
I should definitely make up a Generic Early-60s Hanna-Barbera Scene to get a 'still' from.
I have to miss #CoatiMonday on an urgent appointment that suddenly arose! But never fear here's superhero Cosmic Coati luckily here just as I stepped out of the room. Picture by FA/Zen_Fetcher.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/21925616/
Gloves and sneakers may seem like a lot to wear but you do want something to keep transmutation powers under good control.
Is #CoatiMonday getting warmer? A melty commission by FA/techno (at that time, plushcub) of me being all soft-hearted and soft-everything else.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/25788646/
My melting point has been pleasantly lowering. ZukaroTravon and techno have been great influences, as good solid non-solid artists.
And you may recognize this as the source of the banner and my current (early May 2020) icon here.
#CoatiMonday digs into paleofurry art! In '98 Cecil drew me hanging out on a mouse mage's shoulders.
https://yerf.metafur.org/rydedavi/kara.jpg
I still leap onto people's shoulders, but less often as, like, I'm a giant on FurryMuck and that can be trouble.
Cecil was a regular on Furry and FurToonia and his archive has a lot of regulars of the era. https://yerf.metafur.org/rydedavi
If my snout seems off remember this was posed before Google existed. Reference photos were rare and getting away from dog snouts was hard.
A hot new #CoatiMonday! @/Bimshwel on Birdsite (FA/fmirsokp) offered sketches and was kind enough to take me on for this gorgeous piece.
https://twitter.com/Bimshwel/status/1262123085244874752
I've admired their drawing style, and humor style, for *years* and am thrilled to have a joyful piece like this.
An ancient #CoatiMonday! In 1998 Shadow joined me and Spaceroo at Albany Anthrocon, and drew us at the diner. https://yerf.metafur.org/kalecorw
https://yerf.metafur.org/kalecorw/fcrdiner.jpg
Shadow and Spaceroo were wizards on SpinDizzy Muck (and its predecessor Toons Furr and Fluff) with me. I've lost touch with that Shadow in the decades since, though, and miss him.
You can see this is before I was eating vegetarian.
#CoatiMonday provided by FA/techno. today, who was kind enough to draw my first(!) pinball portrait.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36454962/
I am amazed it took me this long to think of 'draw me doing the thing I spend the most time doing'. Seriously, pinball is about 60% of everything I do in normal times and I still had trouble thinking of what the picture should be me doing.
Happily techno was game. Read the comments for why that's funny.
Another vintage #CoatiMonday as Shadow draws something 'based on a tale' from Albany Anthrocon that I don't remember at all.
https://yerf.metafur.org/kalecorw/dernquix.gif
I like being thought of as someone who could help in a crisis, though, and remember, #BlackLivesMatter and always shall.
It's hard to say why all furry art looked like this in the 90s, but an important part of it is that scanners didn't work and nobody knew where to get paper and there were, like, two marker pens anyone could buy.
More vintage #CoatiMonday! HoneyBadger drew this piece in reflection of my space and (theoretical) rocket interests.
https://yerf.metafur.org/dyerich/austd_01.jpg
I *believe* this was intended for the Burrow fanzine but don't know if it was published. I do know #BlackLivesMatter.
A nice warm #CoatiMonday at last! Puddle commission from prdarkfox@birdsite who's melting folks all summer long. (US$20 commission; see https://twitter.com/prdarkfox/status/1273376128703619072 )
It's fun spending time as a liquid, and I like a good melt, but not as much as I like the fact that #BlackLivesMatter.
For our anniversary #CoatiMonday enjoy a drawing my wife made at Motor City Furry Con 2019 showing us on the Hospitality tables.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bunnyhugger/49958223098/in/photostream/
The con set crayons and paper over all the tables, and people covered these in joyful abundance, a great idea I hope they do next time.
Also, the Moral Law tells us #BlackLivesMatter.
Happy #CoatiMonday! FA/ fmirsokp did this spectacular piece adding color to my toes.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36934469/
https://twitter.com/Bimshwel/status/1275272995653771265
I've admired their style and energetic poses and bold colors for years and am thrilled to have gotten two pieces by them recently.
Also, for how much I like it, you'd think I'd have many pictures of me being painted. (TF and non-TF.) But it's only in the past month that I realized I could commission pictures where I *do* something instead of nervous-smile.
Happy #CoatiMonday! FA/techno. wanted to practice robot sketches and so that's how my second robot-coati picture came about! I don't know the significance of the circular handle on back but I really like it.
... Considering how I like technological forms you'd think I would spend more time in one.
Someone has given Robot Austin a time-out this #CoatiMonday! Follow-up picture from FA/techno. from last week's picture.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37276526/
Thanks to VahnoEckran on birdsite for suggesting this insult to my dignity.
Also I like characters caught by something that should, logically, be easy to escape, like this.
I'm in a different fix this #CoatiMonday! corpsepet@birdsite (who's open for more object commissions) drew me in plush, struggling to speak.
I really like plush who can only speak with a drawstring pull they can't give themselves. It adds a nice petty vulnerability and that's rather pleasant. Don't see that nearly enough.
This #CoatiMonday finds someone else thought I was being a pill.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37182913/
Picture by FA/TheDarkestDream
It's tough to make a chibi coati but TheDarkestDream managed pretty well. I really like the claws, too.
Another paleoart #CoatiMonday! In 1997 Dakhaari, one of the first aeromorphs, drew me on her ward Niami. https://yerf.metafur.org/macnmoni/niamis.gif (with gallery at https://yerf.metafur.org/macnmoni?page=1 ).
Dakhaari used a remote drone (the small catwoman on right) to interact as furry hadn't yet invented just being an anthro CF-105 Avro Arrow.
I had fun prowling around her (and husband Kintannon's) real, airplane, body, but that can't be realistically drawn so it's clear what's going on.
I play the fool this #CoatiMonday! A new rubber-clown sketch from FA/techno. and why is everyone so tense?
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37869074/
Austin as a clown was their idea but it fits startlingly well. It's a delight having a commission show a side you didn't know you had. So I'm happy to have another performance in.
Vintage #CoatiMonday today! Remember conventions? Gene Catlow and I went to ConFurence East 2, and I can prove it:
https://yerf.metafur.org/tempalbe/cfe2_5.gif
More pictures that Gene Catlow did are in the Yerf archive at https://yerf.metafur.org/tempalbe?page=3
Furry art just scanned like that in 1996. Nobody knows why.
Fun Fact: Gene Catlow was the first person to call me cool who wasn't my parents!
My plan is going very well and everything fits in place this #CoatiMonday! A Chocobouchees fairy trap. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37915261/
Yoinking magic tokens and getting harmlessly trapped is a scene I don't tire of, but didn't think to commission before this.
Not that there's anything bad in being in an inescapable shiny magic trap.
Going vintage #CoatiMonday again! I don't remember coatiating Gene Catlow; it may have been a bit of fun on FurToonia Muck, back in the day.
https://yerf.metafur.org/tempalbe/coatiatd.gif
One of FurToonia's built-in commands is to hug someone. And you can make your own hug-like globals. (Most mucks have these options.) I did that eagerly. I do think I made 'coati' one of the verbs. But see next post for a more likely explanation ...
A multifaceted #CoatiMonday! I like spending the shiny holidays in amethyst, and @frengers did that perfectly. Alternate textures are a great thrill, and I don't get to be a living crystal enough. (It's easier to ask for melting or goo art, understandably.) I am fortunate frengers drew it so compellingly. It was also great fun watching in stream as frengers seemed to be working *magic*.
Spaceroo provides today's Vintage #CoatiMonday! A head shot of me with cousin honeygliders Skippy and Smucker: https://yerf.metafur.org/siemjohn/skaugljs.jpg
Skippy was the Animaniacs character played by a fan; Smucker was his other-colored twin, and sometimes they weren't squirrels.
Skippy-and-Smucker are not played anymore. Their player is still active on FurryMuck.
A warm October #CoatiMonday! techno. on FurAffinity was offering to melt people and how could I resist? https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38248887/
I can't explain the joy melting or other transmutation-like scenes brings me. I'm glad it comes across in the picture. The moment of becoming free-flowing, though, that's such a sweet thought.
An ingenious #CoatiMonday as FA/Akaji_lion drew me using elasticity to snag a shiny in a shiny-snagging plan that can't possibly miss! https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38490766/
I don't get to play enough with stretching or flattening and so am glad I had an idea and that Akaji, who's just a master at stretching and flattening art, was willing to do it.
Happy #CoatiMonday! ArtByHornbuckle@birdsite/https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/-hornbuckle-/ brings me in a Scarecrow mood as we approach Halloween. Who doesn't love that Ray Bolgeresque slipping?
Hornbuckle's an expert in tf commissions, an amazing bundle of positivity, and, last I checked, open for Halloween commissions still.
https://twitter.com/ArtByHornbuckle/status/1316684256865857536
Happy Haunted #CoatiMonday! PatchO'Black, Jellicle Cat of SpinDizzy muck, gave me a ghost-colored paint job for the season and that's been a lot of fun. And then Hornbuckle (ArtByHornbuckle over on birdsite) was wonderful enough to draw it.
This is my first real experience with a Halloween spoopy form and it's been fun playing out all the Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost body-humor scenes I could hope for.
Happy Halloween! Berkeley Moreland, crab-eating raccoon and Off-Brand Candy Shop owner, offers a Meh, Henry. Picture by ArtByHornbuckle@birdsite.
You can get these and other Off-Brand Candies at the shop on SpinDizzy muck. New this week: Peanut Ductile. Said one lucky taster, "That takes a while to finish."
It's a very 80s #CoatiMonday as FA/techno. gives me an Automan makeover! Remember this 'Tron, but a Cop' show?
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38616957/
Seriously though watch the credits and guess whether it's a real show or an over-the-top parody of 80s shows. I loved it as a kid but have not dared watch it with mature, adult eyes, if such a thing is possible.
(CW: Automan's powers include other people can wear him and take on his super computer powers so be aware if this causes emotions.)
For #CoatiMonday FA/techno. animates me in clay. Gumby had this great style.
I keep meaning to play out being the material more, but I haven't found a way comfortable for me to do it outside FurToonia muck. But getting pictures like this, that get the Gumby style right, has to help.
An unusual #CoatiMonday! Thomas K Dye of 'Newshounds' and 'Projection Edge' did a banner for my mathematics blog series on celestial mechanics. https://wp.me/p1RYhY-1dO
I realize the end of that post promises a continuation that I never did write. This is a risk of an open-ended series.
Picture CW: eye contact
Another banner-image #CoatiMonday! Thomas K Dye, of 'Newshounds' and 'Projection Edge', did this for the 2017 glossary project on my mathematics blog, https://wp.me/p1RYhY-1hk
Glossary projects are fun but exhausting: I write an essay for each letter of the alphabet and then wonder why I commit to such a workload. The answer is that the exhaustion is the fun.
Observe #CoatiMonday with the 2018 glossary on my mathematics blog Thomas K Dye, of 'Newshounds' and 'Projection Edge', made this snappy header. https://wp.me/p1RYhY-1B7
Also, if you're on birdsite, you can help him have a completely overloaded, busy weekend of drawing!
https://twitter.com/projectionedge/status/1333126459674693633
Picture CW: eye contact (cartoony)
First #CoatiMonday of the holiday season! A ghost-painted Austin has a legit excuse to not help Chitter Squirrel decorating. My own art.
I may have a shaky grasp of anatomy, muscle, composition, and lettering, but I *nail* 'cardboard boxes left in the basement all year'.
Also I'm stunned how much I like the effect of a 50% opacity on a color layer. Art tricks that easy shouldn't *work*.
Happy #CoatiMonday! Gosh how did I mysteriously end up stuck inside a too-small bottle again? It's some weird thing that just happens to me now and then for no good reason. And I'm not even a genie so far as anyone knows.
Fun sketch by FA/techno. as published at https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39349620/
A #CoatiMonday gift from FA/ZukaroTravon; thanks from the wax fox, after I gave heated socks for his powerfully-popcorn-scented feet. ... Yes, of course this is a good idea all around, why wouldn't it be? https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34348841/
Zukaro's a kind, if fragile, person with interests in low melting points and such. Befriending him rekindled my interest in melting and fluids and that's been fun.
(Gallery CW: vent art, sometimes with melting as a dire fate.)
Another banner #CoatiMonday! Thomas K Dye rushed to dress me up to host the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival last March.
The carnival's this roaming educational/recreational mathematics project that you, too, can host. It's challenging but worth it! https://wp.me/p1RYhY-1UX
Picture CW: eye contact (cartoony)
One more banner #CoatiMonday! Thomas K Dye created this for my mathematics blog's 2020 glossary sequence.
That's an annual project during which I explain one mathematics term for each letter of the alphabet. It's fun and exhausting.
You can see what I covered for 2020 at https://wp.me/p1RYhY-256
And the other side of last week's #CoatiMonday, a Coatimundi Day special! A rainbow color scheme of FA/techno.'s splendid painting. It's hard to decide on a good paint scheme so variations are always great.
Coatimundi Day is this event at the Cohanzick Zoo in Bridgeton, New Jersey where they have three coatis forecast the weather by what plate of fruits they go to. I don't know whether it's happening this year.
Judging by the top of the air-conditioner looks like there's about 5.5 inches outside and the storm isn't half done. So unless the zoo keepers slept there and are bored, probably out of luck.
Frommer Possum art this vintage #CoatiMonday, and a 1999 watercolor of me at my most photorealistic.
When I first met Frommer he thought I was the new character of someone who'd quit FurToonia forever and ever and this time he meant it a couple days before, and he grabbed me and stuffed me into his pouch, just like the jokes about introverts making friends.
When his friend rejoined a couple days later we became friends too. And it *really* made sense people would think we were the same guy.
Another vintage Frommer Possum piece for #CoatiMonday, a 1998 picture of me enthusiastic about spaceflight. Imagine me, being enthusiastic!
Frommer had a crush he never figured how to get me to reciprocate. But one time he was just messing around, and finger-painted me yellow all over and I realized, oh, that is *quite* nice. Rewrote my description to match. Being painted is a real joy and only a few people ever try it.
I think he never realized he activated a particular interest in me.
A surprise #CoatiMonday! crazyyellowfox@birdsite did a draw-your-mutuals meme and picked me for the bottom row. https://twitter.com/crazyyellowfox/status/1364797153365823491
I suspect a Frommer influence in how the head was shaped.
In 2004 Loam was annoyed my Livejournal didn't have an icon, and fixed that. This #CoatiMonday icon is still my default image at https://austin-dern.dreamwidth.org
The Krazy Kat influence is because I discovered the comic about the same time I discovered coatis and pushed both on my friends in the 90s.
Loam (https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/loamchu/ ) isn't an active artist anymore, a pity, though they are still around on FurryMuck regularly.
Love that #CoatiMonday! FA/techno. did a great piece of me having got into the paint bucket again.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/40961642/
This was part of an art trade; https://www.furaffinity.net/view/40568860/ is my half of it.
Another vintage never-seen-before #CoatiMonday! This is another Loam-created sketch, practice for my Dreamwidth/Livejournal icons.
Loam is still around on FurryMuck and a few other furry hangouts but what I understand is he doesn't draw much and he posts even less.
https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/loamchu/ for his gallery, though, including pictures of other coati characters.
Enjoy another Loam #CoatiMonday! This rough-draft is great enough I often use it as my first icon when I join a site.
https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/loamchu/ for Loam's finished work.
Another Loam sketch for #CoatiMonday; it's unfinished, but I do like its showing the thinking of how to abstract 'coati' in a few lines.
Also that Loam figured one of my default reactions to the world is wide-eyed surprise. I think it's still true, although in different ways from back around 2005.
A busy #CoatiMonday! Ardarius commissioned https://vk.com/art_niche to show me keeping him and Beltrami up to pressure. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/41130256/
Ardarius (the purple dragon) and Beltrami (the silver/clear dragon) are SpinDizzy Muck regulars and this is a view of me in inflatable form.
Another Loam-created study for an icon this #CoatiMonday. It's got a great soft look with a healthy-size snout.
I love these sketches for just expressing a quick mood, mostly 'startled', in this nice quick casual way.
I don't know, just seems like any old day to me.
(1998-vintage picture by Spaceroo, https://yerf.metafur.org/siemjohn/robotroo.jpg )
A gift from DeeterRabbit (on birdsite and Telegram) for this #CoatiMonday, showing off me with muscles I did not know I had!
CW: eye contact (cartoon sketch)
@Austin_Dern Looks great! Inflatables keeping other inflatables, well, inflated reminds me of the "dogs petting dogs" joke :)
…um, speaking of application of pressure, I'm guessing it's purely coincidence that with my phone in landscape (instead of portrait), Tusky's unexpanded image preview focuses on everyone's footpaws. >.<';
@digitalfox Glad you like, and I'm always glad to see interesting inflatable interactions, even as I don't join them often enough.
The preview isn't coincidence, or at least isn't purely coincidence, though. I set the preview section to focus on my involvement and that happens to put the dragons' feet in view too.
@Austin_Dern Yeah! There's a lot I don't understand, but I'm fascinated with how you and others explore different forms and what amusing/silly/in-depth situations can result, inflatable/pool-toy being one such thing.
(For example, a little while back on Bigfurs IRC the topic came up of an inflatable that's large enough to host a pool party *inside* theirself, by partially filling with water, or as another suggested, fully filling with some form of oxygenated/breathable liquid.)
As to pedestrian pursuits, uh, I guess the unusually tall/wide aspect ratio of some modern day phones contributes to exaggerating the effect - here's an unedited screenshot of what greeted me:
(It wasn't /entirely/ my fault for noticing this…)
@Chiaroscuro I did say photorealistic ... and, Frommer pretty fast developed a crush on me that I was never really able to handle well (or, for a long time, even realize was there).
I'm as certain as I can be, for events I did not witness or hear described, that he was able to explore particular interests with the guy he'd mistaken me for, at least.
@Chiaroscuro Yeah; at the time, I was a naive young 24-year-old with the sex drive of one of those flowers that's only pollinated by an extinct species of bee. These days I can manage that sort of scene better, but I think he also enjoyed my intense awkwardness.
And there's a fun coda that I was figuring to deploy with another Frommer picture.
I understand, I think.
For me, it was more navigating through decreasing straightness, including a phase of 'Your character is female so we can nookie, but if I know your player is male then no."
That didn't last too long, thanks mostly to [X] and a complicated counter-crush, but that's a story to tell later. :)
@Chiaroscuro Yeah, I have a history of growing more comfortable, and more out, with kinks and related behaviors. A lot of it is coming to appreciate that people are expressing these joys, and appreciating that I get to see that.
That's all a catalogue of individual encounters and small epiphanies, though, and only a few actual stories.
Austin Dern, Dean of Coatis
Damage control kobold
digitalfox
Robert "Chiaroscuro" Armstrong