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A guide to the furry fandom

Incomplete, may never be complete. To be added to when I feel bored. This is just a hoard of links and suggestions I wish I had when I was new to the fandom and wanted to get involved, but had no idea “what furries did all day”. It’s dedicated to the guy who told me they wished there was such a guide while walking past me near some escalators at some con. No clue when and where that happened.

Online hangouts

The /r/furry subreddit is pretty active, and there’s lots of links in the sidebar and wiki, such as related subreddits and chatrooms. /r/furry_irl has good memes (including some NSFW ones, but they’re generally tagged). There are a lot of chatrooms — I don’t think I can specifically recommend any, just look for whatever interests you.

Art websites

The biggest, most popular furry artwork sharing side is FurAffinity. It’s still going strong, although I cannot in good conscience link to it without some acknowledgement of its tumultuous past (see e.g. eevee’s FurAffinity timeline; after FA was sold to IMVU in 2015, it was sold back to Dragoneer in 2021. RIP Dragoneer). There is a long tail (haha) of other furry art websites, including Weasyl, Inkbunny, SoFurry, and FurryNetwork. There’s also a lot of art on DeviantArt and Twitter. Furry Amino is somewhere between a subcommunity and a standalone app.

There’s a certain popular and frequently memed-about imageboard for adult artwork, but for the sake of steering clear of any acceptable use policies, I don’t know if I want to directly link to. Instead I’ll mention its underappreciated SFW cousin e926 and trust that you know how to do your own research if you so choose. Visit whichever of these you like.

Commissioning art

If you like videos, consider dont_jinxit’s video.

Some general tips:

• If you have a fursona or other character you think you’ll want to commission art for more than once or twice, you’ll probably want a reference sheet (here’s mine), which is artwork depicting your character in various poses from various perspectives to serve as a guide for artists to get their anatomy and color right. Many artists offer it as an option for commissions. If your budget is tight and your art skills are similarly limited, you can also find free or low-cost line-art “bases” online that you can color in yourself. Here’s a list of free resources from Rune.

• Start looking for artists well ahead of when you think you might want to commission art. Sometimes artists only open for commissions briefly every few weeks or months. The most effective way I found for finding artists started with following a few on Twitter from various places, including conventions and reddit posts, and gradually expanding by seeing who they retweet. Following the whole X thing, I’ve mostly moved to Bluesky and it still works decently well.

• You may experience some sticker shock when first looking at prices for various kinds of art. Please don’t complain to artists about their prices. They probably set their prices because there are people willing to pay them, and if there actually aren’t, that’s still none of your business.

  (On the flip side, if you think an artist is undercharging, feel free to commission them and tip them well!)

• During the commission process, be exactly as specific as you want to be about what you’re looking for, but no more. Artists vary in how much artistic liberty they want to keep in their pieces. Feel free to ask them.

  If you have a fairly concrete idea in your head for your character design or for a scene featuring them, you may want to provide visual references in the form of images you find online, or even just scribbles you’ve drawn in MS Paint or whatever. Similarly, if you want to request a change, it may be useful to open the draft they sent you and draw on it. Even if your artistic skills are severely limited, drawing can often still be a more effective way to communicate your requests than describing it in words.

• Don’t do anything with your art that the artist didn’t agree for you to do. Usually when you commission art from an artist, they retain all rights; the exceptions will be loudly telegraphed. So this means: don’t remove their signature or watermark, don’t make and sell merchandise using their art, don’t repost without crediting them, for the love of Anankos don’t pass off their art as your own. Artists are usually okay with you uploading art you commissioned from them as your profile picture or banner, but it never hurts to ask. Don’t digitally alter their art without asking either.

If you’re interested in making/publishing/selling art, I have no idea. Let me know if you find out.

For both sides, Soatok has a post about commission prices that also has tips near the end. I am not sure if the algorithm for price-finding as presented (a doubling exponential search) is a good idea in the real world, for fear of making commissioners feel cheated (justifiably or not) if they commissioned you at the highest price before you reduce it substantially, and would probably suggest a smaller exponential factor, particularly if you think you’re close to the right price point. But this is all evidence-free armchair analysis.

IRL

Furry conventions are cool places to meet people and hang out. WikiFur appears to have a pretty well-maintained list. There’s also an interactive map.

• What should you do a convention? There were a bunch of great articles on the old Anthrocon website, but I think they got lost in a website redesign in 2017, so that’s a Wayback Machine link. Most of the advice is generally applicable to most furry conventions, though details will vary. Some of the most important things I would mention:

  • On fursuit handling: Most fursuits have limited vision, so be mindful when interacting with or walking around fursuiters. Fursuiters also still have personal boundaries you should respect. Wearing a fursuit is not a free pass for you to hug them, touch the suit, or take pictures. Many fursuiters will be perfectly happy to let you do these things, but you should always ask them first.

  • The 6-2-1 rule is a popular rule for the minimum amount of self-care you should do at a con: 6 hours of sleep, 2 meals, and 1 shower each day. This is a floor, not a ceiling, and you should usually aim higher.

• What do you “actually do” at a convention? There are usually scheduled events that can range from interviews and panels to musical performances and game shows. There’s usually a place (perhaps called a “dealer’s den” or “artist’s alley”) where you can buy stuff and commission art from artists. At night, dance floors with nonstop music are common. There may also be a board/video game room, which is where I spend a lot of my time.

  (I suspect “normal furries” would say that the thing you go to conventions for is the room parties, which may or may not be advertised publicly. It’s helpful to know people.)

For people in the same age range and general life situation as my past self, there is often a college/university thread around when the (U.S.) school year starts, which could help you meet people. General small gatherings may be found by looking for “furmeets” online.

Note

You do not have to do any of these things to call yourself a furry. Lurking and keeping a low profile is totally valid.

If you are a minor, stay out of adult spaces and please do not lie about your age to other people. This can cause massive issues for everybody involved, legal and otherwise. Everything will still be here when you turn 18.