Sta.sh
Info
I've been drawing since I could hold a pen, animals were always a favorite subject. When I was in 2nd grade, I wrote and illustrated a story turning myself and everyone in my class into a bipedal animal. I remember seeing white tigers for the first time at the age of 10 and fell in love with them instantly. I found them so beautiful and fascinating that it was hard to believe at first that they were real. I soon abandoned my former eagle alter-ego for a white tiger cub, who I named Tacoma. Wasn't aware of the furry fandom until 1999 when I discovered the internet. I was inspired by all the art and stories other furries had created, and had decided to get my stuff out there and share Tacoma with the world. Yes, I was a silly kid.
These days I'm obviously still going at it. Tacoma has grown with me. She's been there for me during some of the hardest times in my life, as well as the most joyful. I am very grateful for her. Recently I've been in a bit of an art slump. It's been hard for me to feel good about what I draw lately. Sometimes it takes going through old drawings to realize how much I've evolved. I feel like the best way to overcome this is by giving myself more time to practice and experiment with different styles. So, until further notice, I'm only doing trades and therapy art. xP
Commissions
[+] Yes, I'm accepting ART TRADES, but it helps if I know you...I don't appreciate people I've never spoken to before asking if I'll do an art trade with them...
[-] NOT Accepting commissions for traditional artwork.
ALSO: DO NOT ask me if you can use any of my art for projects/websites/whatever as you will not be granted permission. I realize that DA is a breeding ground for art theft and I won't be taking any chances. In short, don't expect me to allow you use to anything in my gallery. Respect the time and effort I've put into my work, please be original.
I'm going through a bit of an art slump. Alright, so it's a massive and consuming one. Which means it's become increasingly difficult to draw for others when I can't be proud of one damn thing I do for myself. I am simply not a portrait-dispensing machine and honestly, as much as I love working on pixel art it's not what I have in mind for future work and not the style I feel I can best represent Tacoma with. I feel a strong urge to improve my traditional drawing skills and well, times like these just call for some therapy art. Which may be just the thing I need at the moment.
Still, if you've got any questions or concerns feel free to drop me an email.
Trades </U>
- Completed 
- Completed 
- Completed :3
- Completed 
- Completed 
- Completed! 
- Completed 
- Completed 
-Completed 
- Completed 
-Sketching! 
- Sketching Gifts</U>
- Completed :3 - Completed Update : September 7th 2005
I see so much beauty in the world and everything around me and as an artist I need to find my own way to express it or it will drive me crazy until I get it out of my head.
I find it very hard to talk about these struggles with anyone, not even the people I'm closest to. Not my family, not my friends, not my counselor who I haven't seen in two months anyway. I feel like no one gets it and I'm completely alone with it. I tried a little support/critique group on the furtopia forums, and DA is mostly harsh critique or praise that gets boring after awhile and is not what I'm looking for.
It really hurts. When I'm at work, all I can think of is.. "can't wait to get home, I'm gonna draw my brains out." but then, when I do finally gets home, I don't want to do anything but chain smoke because I'm so stressed and nervous.
I hate feeling incapable of expressing myself the way I planned. Inspiration is my greatest enemy right now.
Update : April 9th 2006
Last year on deviantart sucked. I hated people frequently pointing out flaws in my anatomy when I've always known I have anatomy issues and I got burnt out. Sorry I couldn't respond to everybody who had left me notes while I was on break. Thank you all for your concern and support. <3<3
Yep. And I was pushing myself really hard for 10 months, which didn't help. I did all my best work while I was stoned. I experimented with shading and colors and focused heavily on wings and posture and expressions. Which I'm rusty on but haven't given up.
Problem is, when I quit smoking pot, my drive crashed. Few things inspired me to draw. A good example of this is while I was in Minnesota, the most fun I've ever had. I was inspired but I could barely draw anything that reminded me of that time (even after I came back home). But I took a lot of pictures which was more satisfying than damn near anything I could draw to express how I felt.
So I am still drawing, trying to make up for lost time. But it was driving me nuts, because I'd gotten to the point where I knew I was improving, and it became harder and harder to successfully shit out new art.
If I upload anything new in the next few months, I'm going to disable comments. Favorites are always appreciated, if you really like something, but I'd rather not recieve critique at this time and having any comment option open will bring that in.
So I am still alive, but I put art on the back burner for way too long and it's finally starting to bite me in the ass.
Hope to see you all again soon.
Update : May 7th 2006
Someone got their fuzzy panties in a twist and decided to report my Spectrum of Stupid for being offensive. Art is supposed to be offensive. I had the artist's parodied in my drawing actually say they liked it and agreed with it, strangely enough. But THEIR fans took offense and got my pic taken down off DA and I just outright deleted it on SA because people are assholes. I guess it's only okay to poke fun at less popular people who don't have a ton of fans. I honestly do respect Huskie and Akita, both of which had nothing against my art. But those other random furs..ugh. Fuckers. But I succeeded in offending people, and art is supposed to sometimes. Art is supposed to be powerful and influencial and offensive and explicit. But it's ok for me to draw a tiger laying down in a pretty pose. No, that's not all I do. But I guess the fandom is just a game where one furry fuck follows the other's tail and originality is absurd.
I don't have anything else to say at the moment.
Update : May 25th 2006
Lately I've been going through my archive and working on some personal sketches. I noticed that...every trade I've done with other artists has been of their canine fursonas. Mostly wolves, of course. And I've also been looking for galleries of other tigerfurs and...is it me or is it hard to find cat fursonas lately? Tigers are...kinda scarce. Atleast in contrast to the plethora of multicolored huskywolves with markings that are obviously given to diffrenciate them from other multicolored wolfdogs. And it's just...really fucking sad. Especially considering how insanely popular some of these kids are. Now, combining this with the fact that all of my tradehalves for others have been of their wolves, I'd REALLY appreciate it if..people would just..not have me draw their wolves. I am seriously burnt out from this. Also just a personal peeve of mine. If you have a feline, small critter, marsupial, horse, dragon, etc. and you're interested in a trade, I'm all for it! Just give me something I enjoy, I've seen some kickass furs out there that I'd love to draw. I'd love to see more of them and less of all these children's "wuffs" if it isn't too much trouble. Regardless of your fursona, I love all you guys here who watch me. I can be moody and opinionated but just remember that I do care
Update : June 15th 2006
I'm taking commissions for furcadia portraits at this time. If you're interested, email me with these details:
Gender, Species, Markings, Build, Hairstyle, Clothes, Expression/Pose, Jewelry, Wings, Background.
Each portrait costs $10. Three portraits for $25. Five for $40. Full dream set (all species, unspecified genders, gryphons, phoenixes, dragons, squirrels and rabbits) for $150.
Update : November 26th 2006
This will probably be the last update here until '07. I am still accepting commissions for furcadia portraits, in fact I'd like to stress this as I am very low on funds. As always, accepting trade requests. I'm trying to finish up a good chunk of what I had left untouched from the summer. I went dead on art for a bit, and regret it now. Feel free to request a trade, or commission me for a portrait if you'd like one.
While on the subject of portraits, I am also taking commissions for DA/messenger icons (50x50) or livejournal icons (100x100). 50x50 are $5 ea. or 3 for $10. 100x100 icons are $10/ea with your choice of traditional, digital or pixel art! Interested? Send details to tigressfire@gmail.com or leave a note here.
Hope you guys have Happy Holidays!
Update : May 18th 2007
Hey guys, yeah I know it's been..a really long ass time but I'm still doing art and I didn't leave DA. Just not submitting anything recently. Fucken MMORPGs, biggest waste of time I swear. But I'm still working on a couple art-related projects and trying to get in touch with folks who commissioned me for Furcadia Portraits. To anyone I owe a trade to, I apologize as well, I haven't forgotten you and I am still working out my halves and will most likely be submitting a good batch of work over the summer. More later...
Much Love,
.:Tacoma:.
Lazy 
The original blue-striped tigress 
![[link]](http://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj223/Extraho/Dragorecopy.jpg){kind=link}