I had planned to start the sketch for the new drawing, but I can't decide which scenario to go for. So I fixed lots of small things in the first drawing
Like imagine you have these huge flappy wings and you'd hold them in front of you to look at them. The drawing would be all wing membrane with nothing else going on
I'm still thinking about the new drawing and how to add a reflection. The only situation I can see it work is waking up in my bed and having a conveniently placed mirror right in my field of view
@wook_k Yeah, the levels and abilities stuff was a bit much. I don't like it when the protagonist gets all answers handed to them instead of learning them themselves.
Alright, I decided. I'll complete the old drawing with the new wyvern design and hopefully better shading now, and then I'll start a new one. I already have a rough idea for the new drawing. The most tricky part is adding a reflective surface in a way that makes sense, but that's exactly the kind of challenge I live for
I guess this is more or less how I'd imagine a situation like this would play out for me. I wouldn't immediately be happy because right now, according to my understanding of reality, this will never happen. When you fantasize about things like this, it's easy to readily accept it because you're still operating under the knowledge that it's just a fantasy. It's easy to forget the uncomfortable parts. The fact that your old life would be over and you wouldn't see everyone you know ever again. That you'd have to survive in the wild by yourself. That you'd have to relearn how to even operate a body. I think you see these thoughts way too rarely, so I want to depict them myself.
What I want to capture is the same as last year: The moment you wake up as a wyvern. Seeing a different body. Foreign sensations. The inability to even form words in your mind because nothing was spared from the changes. The confusing and rising panic. That's the essence.
I think the reason I kinda lost interest in this drawing is that you don't really see as much as I hoped. A lot of artists elevate the viewpoint so you see more, but it isn't realistic and I hate these sort of compromises. ^^ Soo I'm thinking about starting with a new piece where you see your own (partial) reflection
Remember the wyvern POV drawing I drew a year ago? Watching the dragon isekai really makes me want to pick it up again, and also do other projects like it.
I've been having very strong "I wish I was Areon" feelings lately. It's what pushed me to work on his new emojis and fix the shading in the avatar.
These feelings are more difficult to handle than with my wyvern because I think his form - being closer to human - feels more attainable, yet I'm fully aware it's still completely out of reach
I think you're showing a healthy dose of self-reflection. A lot of people claim to have "non-human thoughts" or a "non-human mind" without thinking properly about what it really means and how these are fundamentally and plausibly different from having a "human thoughts" and "human mind" respectively. In the end, it all boils down to being a belief which gives them their confidence to say "I am a creature", but not everyone has the personality to accept this kind of belief. It isn't a choice you can consciously make, just like how "just believe (in God or whatever)" won't work with most people.
And I think that's fine. It doesn't make them inherently more of a creature than you are.
I think these situations aren't exactly comparable because the focus of the furry fandom lies somewhere else: in the appreciation of animal characters. A lot of therians etc may be furries, but there are also a lot of furries to whom being a furry is simply about art, designing characters, roleplay and having fun without a deeper connection to animals. It's hard to talk about shifts and animal spirits and all such topics with the latter because they simply don't share this part of you at all. And if these topics aren't relevant, it's unlikely for different views on them to be caught up in the same dynamics as in the alterhuman community. But this also means the furry fandom isn't a "replacement" for the alterhuman community because the interactions they desire aren't in the foreground.
I suspect this monolithization of communities may also be one of the factors behind the therian/otherkin communities turning more and more indistinguishable from one another and the emergence of the alterhuman community which understands itself as an umbrella for all these identities. Many consider it a positive development, and I will concede that it is the logical conclusion to reach since all of this is based on subjective experiences without an objective truth behind it. However, I see it more critically for one big reason: these communities actually only cater to one specific mindset.
I talked about it many times before. I'm a very analytical person and above all else, I strive to understand our world the way it is, not the way I wish it was. Beliefs have limits, and it's important to recognize what their limits are. Holding beliefs is perfectly fine as long as they don't get in the way of rational thought.
And yet, this is exactly what these communities encourage. Members will commonly talk about their beliefs as if they were objective facts; that they have science on their side by making statements such as "I am psychologically a wolf" as if that by itself needs no further explanation or proof. Word games such as "I am a wolf, therefore my body is a wolf's body" serve no other purpose than allowing someone to say "I'm a wolf" with the conviction that they're more legitimate than others.
People like me can't properly talk about our views because they will often be perceived as disruptive by the majority. You will be criticized, you will be called an elitist, and any negative feelings stemming from having your needs constantly disregarded are entirely your own fault.
The reason why I'm only talking about topics related to therianthropy in my little corner here is that these communities aren't such open-minded spaces after all. People underestimate just how gigantic the effort would have to be to bring a huge crowd with vastly different views together, and to maintain an environment where everyone talks about them on equal terms. If you can't do that, cramming everything under one umbrella does more harm than good because ultimately, the majority erases everyone else.
Volpeon Extra
@areon@icy.wyvern.rip