Four weeks, and over 62 hours. Virtually every single day throughout July, I found myself diligently progressing on an idea for someone else. Despite my initial reservations, and despite my anxiety both giving and receiving art, I found my own rhythm to follow. Knowing that I'm very slow when it comes to creating, I decided pretty early on that I would fully embrace this for my own attacks, pushing my own limits of scenes and repeat character count. I wanted every image that I made for someone else to be something I was ostensibly proud of, and not let the ticking timer prevent me from giving each piece the time it needed to be realized. Every time I submitted an attack, I felt that I gave that individual all of the love and attention I could, and in doing so, that gave me the knowledge that if they enjoyed it, they would be appreciating something I cared deeply to create. I chose to wear my heart on my sleeve during July, and I still carry that heart now—practically bursting at the seams. I've shared it elsewhere to some extent, but it is not enough to satiate my journey! So follow along, as I talk in-depth about my experience with Art Fight; creating art, receiving it, and everything else in between.
Preparation
I already covered the bulk of this in the prior entry just before the beginning, but I didn't want to leave it out of the story. I spent weeks making character sheets for Foxfire I'm very proud of, and managed to get it in a decent state before the start of the event. Beyond that, there was a fair bit of additional prep, like making character thumbnails, descriptions, character permissions, and setting up my profile and licensing information. As I'm someone who wants folks to largely do what they please, that mostly amounted to saying: “you can use my characters however you want,” and “you can use, modify, and distribute my art under the terms of CC-BY-SA 4.0.” I didn't get everything I wanted to do completed before the start of July, but that's largely just because what I wanted was effectively impossible to achieve, based on the pace I draw at. That's alright though, because what I accomplished was amazing for me, and helped carry some confidence into the start of the event.
The First Strike
“The world is out there for us, waiting...”
Although I didn't have anything specific in mind for my first attack, I did have some guidelines that I wanted to follow. The characters should be something I don't normally draw, and the art would be for a complete stranger. It being the very first project made me feel that anything less, would signal preferential treatment I didn't really like. Beyond that, it felt like nearly every single artist I'm following who was doing Art Fight, joined the same team I did! You're not forbidden from drawing for the same team, but it seems at least mildly discouraged. At this point, my plan was to ensure I did at least two opposing team images before doing a friendly fire, though things change as my goals shift during the month. So, a stranger with an unusual character for me to draw; thankfully, a simple search in the toon tag gave me some great results! There, I quickly met a character recently added by Spooky-Rooky named Tello, who's design really called to me.
Of course, he has a connection; a close relative, and camera by the name of Snap. The two have a bit of an opposing but loving dynamic, where Snap is the bubbly lady who really wants to get out and see the world, and Tello is more of a reserved guy who works with machines, keeping to himself. Both of them are apparently trapped in a place underground called Dandy's World, which is a video game I've never heard of until I saw these character pages. Now to be clear, these are not characters in that game, and are in the artist's alternate universe; they even make comics on Tumblr about it! Seeing all of this, I began piecing more and more together, and decided that if I was going to do this, I'd rather push myself than draw something simple. No, I was going to do research, I was going to learn the character dynamics, and I was going to pull out something emotional. The artist seems to have it set up for this to be about gore and body horror, which is fair for the game it's based off of, but I can pull together a fleeting moment of hope in this world of despair too!
In those first couple of days of Art Fight, I made myself very acquainted with these character pages, and also what little I could find about Dandy's World. I do not use YouTube, but I was able to find some information about maps and visuals from a wiki for the game. These map visuals were not meant for detailed inspection, but I managed to find a segment of the game, which I felt would perfectly align with Snap talking about the outside world: the greenhouse. With effectively just a tiny overhead view on a map rip from the wiki, I tried my hand at recreating the faux greenery behind glass, with its cardboard clouds on strings. I also did the same thing for the machines, albeit with far better images to reference. Thus far, I've drawn two unique scenes from within the game for the sequence, but I wasn't sure what I should do for the outside world. I wanted it to be a stark contrast from the faux foliage they're trapped with at the best of times, but it really didn't seem like there was much there, beyond old images of the above ground facility. It suddenly hit me that I could just represent the outside world with, well, the outside world. Not just any stock photo of course, that would be extremely impersonal, but I've taken a number of photographs over the years that I'm quite fond of. I took that idea and ran with it, all the way to the finish line.
“Walk with me, along nature's pier.”
I took this photograph nearly a decade ago while out at a scenic mountain range. This sunset, with the trees silhouetted along the skyline is perhaps the only time I've really loved a low light capture on my phone camera. Despite how dark everything is, it all reads so cleanly, and genuinely captured the view I had in that moment—the exact reason I stopped to immortalize it in the first place. It felt like the perfect image to use, not only for its beauty of the outside world, but also because of how well it'd fall to the wayside for the cast when I drew them there. Now I could've used the photograph on its own, but that felt like a weak ending to something I tried hard to create. I felt it far more interesting and rewarding to merely reference it, while painting the scene myself. Not only would this make it further stand out as being different from everything else, but it would also force me to do something very much out of my comfort zone while drawing! I flipped back and forth through a lot of default painting and texture brushes in Krita, and tried hard to blend things into a somewhat realistic scene—in contrast to Snap and Tello. In the end, I think it all came together to make a lovely short story. Frankly, I think the most interesting thing about it is that without lots of context, it's so niche, that perhaps only the person will naturally understand it. I spent over half a day in raw drawing time for a single person's joy; someone who I don't know, and will likely never speak to again. There's just something so pure and powerful about that, as someone who absolutely cannot stand commercialization of self expression. Not to mention how it felt to get the very excited response back from the recipient, which was relieving after the anxiousness of submitting it.
Second Wind
“Fast food, purrmaid to order!”
Coming down from my first project, I wasn't exactly sure where I should aim my sights next. I had no inbound attacks yet, and basically everyone I followed prior is currently on comedy. That being said, I did receive a follow from someone I didn't recognize, and a read of their profile gave me the why, and also some ideas! They go by Celerieee, and apparently they just really like cartoon cats. I figure that must mean Kate—the tired cat in pajamas above—popped up on their screen when searching for cartoon and cat in the tags area, which was enough to put me on the list. Unsurprisingly, their characters are all cartoon cats, and I'm quite interested in Eleanor's story. She's effectively cursed in a mildly annoying way, where any water touching her transforms Eleanor into a purrmaid, which is exactly what you think it is. Her story basically tries to continue on as if nothing changes, so there's a lot of opportunity to give her a typical task, and see how it'll invariably end up at the finish line; pun intended. I also have other info here about her working in fast food, but very little to go off of aside from two letters: WD. So, I have someone that likes my cat Kate, has their own cat that can transform with a drip of water, and a location; I have a story here!
Even if you didn't see the comic above, I think the general premise would still be pretty obvious. That being said, I had two main goals beyond just making something nice: meaningfully make a dynamic between the two characters, and make an entire brand based on the initials WD, that Celerieee might like enough to add to their lore. The second one is lofty, but I've done it before, and I'm determined to try! Despite a lot of this being new to me, I don't think anyone would expect where I put a lot of my research time into. Yes, trying to draw a mermaid tail for the first time or a seashell bra on a ¾ perspective cat was tough, but the soda machine is what really took the cake. If you've been in a fast food restaurant or a movie theater recently, you might think to yourself: “hey, that's familiar,” and you'd be right! Not wanting to forego such an important technical detail, I put in the work to look into the ubiquitous self-serve soft drink dispenser. As it turns out, there are a few machines, but all of them are under the Coca-Cola Freestyle umbrella. This one in particular is the Freestyle 9100, of which I spent time looking at technical specifications, as well as training videos to approximate its functionality. I also made sure to very particularly align its actual height along with Eleanor and Kate, so things are more grounded. Did you know those machines are just shy of 190cm tall (6'3”)? You do now!
Speaking of research, I also learned a new trick in Krita: the assistant tool. There's a few different configuration options, but I was mainly interested in making basic grids—effectively a more robust line tool sketch for me. Instead of trial and error with crafting a grid, I could use the assistant to eyeball the same thing much faster, and then put down lines afterward! I've clicked on the tool a while ago, but it starting with two point perspective—and me not knowing how to configure or hide it properly—led me to drop the tool before I could benefit from it. I'm still shaky on the other perspective modes, but I can make grids, adjust them, and hide them as needed in my projects now. Of course, while that helps add some dimension to the scene, I still needed to put a little life into the building too. We're in a fast food restaurant after all, and I find it pretty unlikely that it'd be barren of iconography and advertisement. I was locked into two things: the initials WD, and the specific yellow colorway from her uniform reference. Those initials gave me some trouble, and I spent a good day mulling over different options:
| Name | Rejection Reason |
|---|---|
| Wine n' Diner | Euphemism, alcohol mention. |
| Winner Dinner | Focus on dinner, obscured reference. |
| Wake n' Dash | Focus on breakfast, kinda whatever. |
| Wicked Dish | Sounds kinda whatever, evil themes? |
| Wish Delish' | N/A, the accepted choice. |
I still do quite like Wine n' Diner, but it wasn't really appropriate for this scene. As for Wish Delish', it felt very open ended, and quite catchy! Magic themes are also nice—especially considering the subject matter—so once I had that one, it was pretty much locked in for the project. I gave the WD initials some rounded, cursive letters, to better show off the bubbly and whimsy nature of magic, and also added a star to make a logo for the company. Simple idea, carries a theme, and 100% recognizable as a silhouette; what more can you ask for? I spent a while with the poster in the second panel, thinking of some basic sloganeering, and a generic backdrop to make some food pop on the poster. I personally think I pulled it off pretty well for what it is!
The last thing I want to come back to is the character dynamics, as I mentioned that as a goal in the start. The two never actually interact directly, but you absolutely do get a feel for how they are in the few panels we're with them. Eleanor starts off chipper, but having her heart on her sleeve, lends to the transformation quickly giving way to an almost defeated sort of annoyance. Kate, just being a chill and tired lady, really is just laser focused on stopping for a tasty snack at first. Obviously, she gets a bit distracted when she sees a cat literally poof into a mermaid. She's slow to physically react, so she's still holding her eating pose, whole mentally trailing off into pure confusion. Her paw slowly losing grip, and having the burger contents slip out, really amplifies the whole “frozen in the moment” sort of delay Kate's tired nature puts on her.
As for my other goal, well, here's an excerpt of what Celerieee messaged me when I sent over this nearly 20 hour attack:
“Wish Delish is such a cute name for a restaurant, and I might just have to steal it :)”
First Revenge
Cringy ahh attack, by tanuki_raccoon.
A few days before this attack, I received a nice compliment from the artist on Foxfire's character page. I was appreciative, but I didn't think it'd mean he'd be drawing him! This attack came right around the time I was wrapping up my Just Add Water comic, meaning that despite my quota being met, I had a strong incentive to change my plans! This means war, and it was time to concoct some revenge! As to what that revenge should be, well, Tanuki already was kind enough to set up a scene—one he self depreciated over at that. “Cringy as heck, but was the only thing i could think of,” he wrote to me, seemingly thinking I wouldn't find this adorable. Anyway, if he doesn't think this scene is funny, let's turn that into a challenge! I'm going to stay in this scene, build onto the sequence, and add my own punchline. So, what did I end up with?
“Honestly, you look better without it anyway.”
Something that likely immediately jumps out at you—aside from the whole ripping his outline off thing—is the background. It's the same scene, but entirely repainted by me, instead of just trying to nab the original photo. I'm doing this whole thing to push my limits, and you better believe referencing a cityscape is way out of my comfort zone. However, that's the scene, and I will not accept half measures for my projects. This is around the point that I realized my initial goal was impossible, because I've fully embraced putting as much love as I can into each attack I've done. At this stage, I'm thinking I might not even hit half of the original goal, but I'm making that up by being very proud of every single image I do finish. I'm getting a little out of order here though, so I'll head back to the start, which was: what should I do? I knew full well that I wanted to use the Toon Force, and that I wanted a comic style punchline, but it did take me a little while to finally close in on the final result. After running through several scenarios which didn't really connect well to the original premise, the word outline really did single-handedly carry this whole comic. It meant I could meta reference the prior dialogue, it meant I had a good working pun, and it meant I had a punchline I really wanted to do: take away a character outline.
With that in place, I was ready to study up on Tanuki's character sheet, which I ran into a little trouble with. Different sheets had him listed with different eye styles, different amounts of digits on his paws, and different hair design too. After mulling it over for a bit, I took a mishmash of what I liked best, with anything actually drawn of Tanuki in his attack towards me taking precedence. I also wanted to ensure the character dynamics were solid, so I start off by giving Tanuki the floor with his listed smug and silly attitude. Then, with Foxfire setting up a punchline and throwing him a bit off-kilter, he tries to keep up the silly, but the smug gives way to some nervousness. Finally, when Foxfire delivers the punchline—literally removing Tanuki's outline—there's really no other place to go but total shock. Honestly though, I like that lineless version of him the most. That style of art is always a bit of a puzzle for me, but it also feels so soft and cute when I put in the time to draw that way. Even with his shoulders way up, and his mouth probably more agape than it ever has been, he still looks cute! It also forces me to do more shading, which I also tried doing in the other panels too for consistency. This is also where I start lightly tapping in some airbrushing too, just enough I think it subconsciously reduces the flat feeling of my flat, cartoon style. Oh, and my first use of the text path tool in Krita, allowing me to finally bend text after all these years!
Great Minds
Hello there! Created by Nehuenloco.
After finishing my third image, I already had a target in mind I wanted to get to before the event ended: Nehuenloco (a.k.a Atom15Wave). He was the one who initially convinced me to do this Art Fight event in the first place, and the way things were looking, I felt like I only had two images left at best. Wanting to ensure I got to him before it was over, I began my perusal of his character page, and ultimately deciding I wanted to draw every single one of Nehuen's variants. While I was basically just putting my first lines on the canvas, I noticed I got an attack...from him! The timing was so impeccable, and his concern for following my guidelines so high, that I got pretty emotional about the whole experience. With my newfound conviction, I set out to make my biggest drawing yet; things did not go according to plan, however. After doing the main sketch, the weekend I should've had lots of time to finish the image, instead was me fighting a sudden cold. I had the cold for the rest of the month, but I was able to push through it after a few days, and finish the image late on August 1st.
“It's a show you'll never forget.”
This is easily the most amount of characters I've drawn onto a single scene, even if it is all technically the same guy. As a couple of them have lore related to a location called the Super Park, I figured it'd make the most sense to have the whole thing be a big act on a stage. The details of the show aren't too important, but you can imagine it likely had lots of circus style stunts and little magic tricks. Now though, we're the audience at the end of a grand performance, and the Nehuen crew are all facing the crowd for their applause. As to how I got to this point in the drawing, each day I'd sketch out one of the six different variants, and then try to pose and position them in ways which were somewhat relevant. It's honestly difficult to place six full body characters next to each other without obscuring most of their bodies, but I think I pulled it off reasonably well, without sacrificing pose variance. Half of the characters have pretty elaborate clothing, but I honestly believe that the most difficult part of designing this character is his head.
You might take one look and find that hard to believe, but his face and spikes genuinely proved to be a challenge for me to get down properly. I think the issue is that due to the simplicity, it's very easy to either make the exact same head, or make a subtle change that feels entirely wrong. Obviously, I wanted each one to have a slightly different expression, and it seemed like I was going to have to leverage the glasses to make that happen. There's nothing connecting those boxes, but they are indeed glasses, and I think their more abstract nature lends them to be able to contort a bit. I don't think he's ever done that on purpose, but I am, just enough to subtly shift the feeling. I also feel like I got a little more confident with my hard shading here, and you can see it throughout the undersides of all of the characters. It's also clear on the stage too, where I had a lot more trouble trying to simplify bundled stage curtains I was referencing into shaded areas. That being said, I'm fairly satisfied with the end result, and I do quite like the faux night backdrop, with the moon and stars on visible strings. I think the whole thing comes together well, and it made a lovely finale for my participation in Art Fight.
Missed Connections
Initially I intended for my final image of the event to be a mass attack, which would've hit the couple of other folks who attacked me, as well as some others I wanted to draw when I started. Getting sick and losing an entire weekend basically made that impossible though, so sadly I had a couple missed connections. I want to make a point to talk about each one here, in the order in which they were gifted:
I tried please. Created by Rin5.
As much as don't want to say it, this interaction was strange. The art is cute, and I'm happy to have been thought about for a little bit, but I'm not really sure how to explain the next part. They flat out said they really wanted my art—which was flattering—and I told them I would try to draw one of their characters in a mass attack at the end. They gave me a character suggestion, and all was well...for about two days. After that, Rin5 decided to set their account to spectator, and thereby prevent anyone from attacking them for the rest of the event. I kept waiting for it to swap back as I was doing other projects, but it never did, and then I got sick, so I couldn't even do the mass attack anyway. I probably could've managed to force out a little sketch or something since I said I'd try, but I can really only guess that Rin5 changed their mind about receiving art, and locked it down. They had 25 attacks already, so even if they were done personally drawing, I'm honestly unsure why they would prevent others from attacking or revenging.
Foxfire, created by Zunekix.
Zunekix is an artist I've been following for a while now through Fur Affinity and Mastodon, and I'm always impressed by how much drive he has to draw! He's always doing some sort of drawing challenge or fan art, or maybe pushing his boundaries doing something like animation on PeerTube. He was kind enough to make art of Foxfire entirely unprompted over two years ago now, an image I still have as a desktop background today. If you look at that image, and then come back to the one from Art Fight, you'll notice that the character design is quite different! This isn't because Foxfire has changed much in the two years since he drew him, but Zunekix followed his design conventions a lot more closely this time around! To be fair, I did have an absolutely huge reference sheet to comb through this year, and made it very clear which parts of him matter. Another thing you'll notice is the pose; it's a super cute, dynamic pose, where it looks like he's doing some sort of silly victory dance! Foxfire is just drawn so adorably, and I feel bad I wasn't able to get him back before the event ended. I'll figure out something, I promise!
TUFF CROWD, created by Meatybx3.
A couple days before the end of the event, I was surprised to get yet another attack! The piece leans into the comedy aspect of my character, though I suppose in this case my jokes aren't landing! Foxfire also isn't usually such a wide and fluffy boy, but it makes him look cute! It's sort of like coming out of a dryer, or having an exaggerated winter coat. I don't have a big story for this one, as this was a stranger who seemed very dedicated to attacking as many folks as they possibly could during the event: 173 this year alone! Either way, I'm very grateful you managed to find Foxfire, and spend a little time creating him.
[Pretend There's A Video Here]
Ik its not the best, created by Shadowfox69
Finally, we have a short mass animation from Shadowfox69, targeting four characters. The reason I have this last, despite it being out of order, is that it's hosted on YouTube. I also don't feel comfortable mirroring it, because it used voice acting directly from someone called Silly_Shadow; I cannot find licensing information anywhere on their profile. So for all I know, this part may have been taken without the consent of Silly_Shadow. Potential legal woes aside, something that stands out to me, is that Foxfire is drawn as a feral here! Feral as in the furry term of “walks on all fours,” not “an actual wild animal” feral. I appreciate the creativity of forging their own path with Foxfire, since I certainly wouldn't expect that. It's like seeing someone trying to draw him more humanoid, or maybe imparting his traits onto a different species; I find it interesting!
Post Event
Between preparation and execution, I spent nearly 110 hours in Krita drawing things. My big goal was to draw 10 images for the event, however, I felt much more desire to spend over a dozen hours pouring my heart into each image. I drew 22 characters, most of which were full bodies, along with several scenes and narratives. So, framing it that way, I think I succeeded with what I wanted to do in spades. Combine that with the nearly 40 characters I drew for my reference sheet, and I basically did two and a half years worth of art in less than two months. The external pressure of preparing and making art for others, unequivocally took what little time I had to use, and helped me make the most of it. It gave me spoons that I didn't know I had, because I can tolerate more if it's for someone else. It's obviously not a sustainable amount of pressure, but for a month or so? I can totally see why so many folks want to do this event.
Aside from the site being locked down to registered users only, the only annoyance I had was the culture around feeling sexual—like, at all. I quite literally had zero intent to make any NSFW imagery; Art Fight explicitly prohibits sexually explicit and fetish images, and yet every single user would make a big song and dance about how sex is bad, and don't you even think about it! I don't think I've ever felt less welcome as a being who like...has the capacity to feel arousal in my life, good heavens. I don't know if it's a holdover from some hypothetical outlaw times, when every Art Fight person was receiving goatse images of their characters, but I don't know what else it could be. If you happen to be a truly sex repulsed asexual, join Art Fight—you'll really feel at home!
Will I do this again in 2027, if they hold the event? Absolutely, without question. I pushed myself harder than I ever have, and I made images I'm very proud of, which made several other folks quite happy. The positive impact it had on my art flow is frankly undeniable, and while I'm taking a breather to focus on web design and writing, I'll likely be missing Art Fight far before July of next year. I suppose if I get the itch, I could do some fan art whenever I feel like. I can't imagine anyone who does Art Fight would get mad about getting gift art during the off season, after all. It's funny to think that even weeks after the event ended, I'm still dealing with organizing everything in the aftermath. I just recently wrapped up my Mastodon posts, which means I wrote all of the alt text I needed to for my attacks, as well as all of the defenses I posted. I also was waiting for some other artists to upload their stuff to various platforms, so I could have my descriptions point in the right locations. On top of that, I've been writing about the experience in the midst of having to transfer WriteFreely instances, and losing data I had to rewrite too. This is easily the longest blog post I've ever written, and that's before the 5k+ word count sharply rises from all of the alt text I have to append to the images.
It's safe to say that this was a massive experience, and even just trying to put it into words is an ordeal. I think if it interests you, you owe yourself to try it at least once. Take it seriously, and do whatever it is that calls to you. If you do that, I guarantee you won't regret it. You might think you won't do much, or that you're in a slump before you join, but that doesn't matter. If anything, that will just make it even more obvious that it's having an impact! External pressure hits so much different than internal pressure. You can bullshit your own “deadlines,” you can rationalize, you can put yourself down. You can't stop a deadline for hundreds of thousands of people, there are no excuses, and it's a lot harder to disappoint someone else. Be amazed as suddenly the fire hits your backside, and you do the things you've wanted to, all along.
#blog #artfight #artfight2026 #furry #furryart
All writing is licensed under CC-BY-ND with attribution to Foxfire. The FSF recommends this license for opinion pieces.