On the Forefront of Furry: Scalerandi and New Directions in Anthro Art
We are pleased to return to Alessio Scalerandi, for not only does he possess a remarkable talent for the depiction of anthro animals, but he is also one of the most thoughtful and intentional artists that we have had the pleasure to encounter. He is among the first to consider "furry" not merely as a fandom, but a legitimate artistic movement that has relevance well beyond the narrow world of cons and fan sites. As he sees it, furry art can (and should) draw from the time-honored techniques of the Old Masters even as it suggests new approaches to the contemporary issues of our own era. In the following paragraphs, Scale shares his thoughts on art, anthro art, and a fandom on the verge of becoming a genuine cultural force.
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| Wrrrona Profile, 2016 |
"In furry art we are dealing by definition with imaginary creatures, many of which have features that wouldn't even be physically possible in real life, such as massive wings, 'taur bodies, or immense size. So is there anything that a furry artist can learn from life drawing as opposed to just studying anatomy from references?"
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| Life Study, 2017 |
"Years ago I used to think that life drawing wouldn't be very useful for me, but man was I wrong. My mistake was thinking that life drawing was mostly for learning anatomy like drawing from reference photos or anatomical schemes. While it does certainly help with that and it is also very useful for learning to render depth and volume, that's not the main point at all. The main point is developing a sense for the endless nuances that real bodies are capable of: the mass shifts, the unforeseen cast shadows, the tension or relaxation, the actual ease or difficulty of maintaining certain poses, the many subtle but extremely sensual details. None of this can be learned by any other means, and it is this kind of stuff (even more than the style of choice) that makes a drawing feel 'realistic,' whether it's a real person or an imaginary creature. With the help of a good understanding of anatomy such principles aren't too hard to translate to different types of bodies either."
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| Wandering Thoughts, 2017 |
"Since I'm not interested in learning to draw human perfectly I tend to keep my life drawings simple and sketchy so it's easier to reuse them as the basis for furry pictures when I want to. The life sketches themselves aren't as important as the details I notice and impress in my mind while drawing them anyway."
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"The furry fandom turns 40 this year, at least for those who adopt as its starting point the meeting of fans of Steve Gallacci's artwork at NorEasCon II, back in 1980. I generally do even though the first hard evidence of the newborn fandom is probably the publication of the 'Rowrbrazzle' fanzine in 1984 (source: http://www.flayrah.com/4117/retrospective-illustrated-chronology-furry-fandom-1966-1996) and even though Reed Waller's 'Omaha the Cat Dancer' had foreshadowed since at least 1976 many of the deeper concepts that furry art would develop around."
"In these 40 years the art created within the furry fandom has taken many surprising turns. It evolved from being mostly a subversive parody of mainstream 'funny animals' to hosting serious sci-fi speculation, shifted from mostly heterosexual porn to an even mix of heterosexual and gay porn, then drifted away from sci-fi towards escapist fantasy, then developed a genuine mystical vein while at the same time paying increasing attention to the biology and welfare of real animals, then became an increasingly popular tool for self-exploration and assertion of identity across the spectrum of all genders and sexual orientations. It will be thrilling to see how the community evolves next."
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| Vantage, 2020 |
"For my own future furry art I have a precise direction in mind: to take more inspiration from the ways real animals cope with human changes to the environment. I feel that visual artists in general struggle to deal with the topic of environmental change in interesting ways. It is a difficult topic to deal with because of the sheer scale of it and the general disregard for proper scientific knowledge, so it's easy for any artist to fall into sentimentalism or desperate grief. I feel there is a lot more that can be expressed though, and that anthro animals are naturally fit for the task. Friendly human-animal hybrids like those found in furry art stress the fact that humans and animals aren't much different when it comes to the fundamentals of life and that we are on the same boat in front of challenges like climate change or pollution."
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| Living Space, 2019 |
"When I think of animals facing unusual living conditions because of humans I tend to settle for humorous ideas, such as anthro squirrels taking advantage of man-made cellphone networks or anthro dormice lining their homes with plastic scraps to improve insulation. I've been tagging such pictures of mine "ecosymbolism" for lack of an existing word that could express my approach. In some paintings such as the older 'Fourier Age Avatar,' I've also been trying to express more abstract environmental concepts through symbolism, and I feel I'm only scratching the surface yet. Whatever direction the furry fandom as a whole takes next, I definitely think I've found my way for the next few years."
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| Fourier Age Avatar, 2012 |
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Incredible. Outstanding post.
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