Information for Furry Artists' Pages

The purpose of our Furry Artist Pages is to give those furry artists with no other web page host a place to showcase their work. If you already have a page or ftp site somewhere we'll be happy to provide an Artist Index entry and a link directly to it. If not, we can create and host your page on Tigerden's web server.

We will try to produce a quality page to hilight your work for you, but that quality will be dictated by the information you can provide to us. We obviously can't guarantee that you'll be swamped with orders as a result of your page being here, but we hope it will help.

Cost of Web Page Service

Providing links and hosting artist web pages is a free service. Because we do not charge for service and our bandwidth to the net is limited, we are unable to act as a complete archive site for all of an artist's works. Information regarding selection of sample works for your page is provided below.

Information Needed for Your Page

One way to see the things we need, and how they will be used, is to examine pages we have already. As a minimum, the following should be provided:

Your Name -
You may also include any text information you desire about yourself. Suggestions are where you live, interests, hobbies, and other personal biographical tidbits.
Your Art Techniques -
Describe the art techniques and media you use. Examples would be computer, pencil, marker, chalk, water colors, etc. You should be sure to mention what characters (tigers, dragons, whatever) and settings (portraits, full scenes with backgrounds, etc) suit you best. Indicate what subjects and situations you will and won't draw (nudity, erotica, sexual or violent scenes). The idea is to give the prospective customer the best idea of you and the kind of work you will do.
Your Commission Rates -
Itemize the kinds of media/technique you can provide and your rates for each. Examples would be pencil sketch, inked sketch, color sketch, color inked print. Include itemized prices for things you consider 'extras' such as multiple characters, backgrounds, boarders, use of heavy card stock, mats, or whatever. If your prices for various things are negotiable, be sure to mention that as well.
Other Items For Sale -
If you have portfolios, prints, or other pre-prepared items you sell, be sure to mention those, along with itemized prices.
Delivery Time -
You should tell the customer what is your expected delivery time for commissions and pre-prepaired items. This means how long it someone can expect to have you finish their commissions and/or fill their orders. You should also mention any carrier delays they should expect if you live in a remote location with difficult or unusual postal delivery times. Some artists take a very long time to deliver due to backlogs, and you should tell your customer up front what they can expect from you.
Limitations on Use -
You should make clear what uses your customer may make of the items they purchase. Some artists limit or prohibit scanning, copying, modifying, and/or further distribution of their works and commissions. Others feel that once the customer buys the art, it is theirs to do with as they choose. You should state clearly what your expectations and limitations are and if you are willing to negotiate these conditions with the purchaser.
How to contact you -
Suggestions are e-mail address, postal mail address, and telephone number. At least some method for customers to contact you is required. If you have a character on any MU*s and don't mind being contacted there, be sure to mention that as well. However, this should not be the primary or only method of contact.
Sample Images -
We'd like a few images to show your range of style and subjects to include on the page. Images must be GIF or JPG format, although we may be able to convert others. We don't have the storage space, or the net bandwidth to host your entire archive, so pick your sample images carefully. Large images (greater than 50K) are discouraged due to the slowness of downloading the image for others. We will try to work with what you provide as best we can.
At least one small (88x108 approx) image is needed for an icon on our index page and to use beside your name on your page. We can shrink/crop one of the other images you provide if you will indicate your preference. Some detail may be lost in reduction, but we will do the best we can. Images that work best are color rather than line art for icons since areas of color will retain the image, whereas lines may begin to become jagged or spotty.
If you do 'hard erotica' subjects, we request that you provide more 'G-rated' sample images for your page. With all the flap over 'indecency' currently raging, and the fact that the courts are now hearing arguments on the recently passed federal law against display of 'indecent' material, we would like to keep the page as uncontroversial as possible at least until there are some court rulings. In the meantime, we reserve the right to exclude or crop sample images as we see fit to minimize our potential liability under the law. For any who don't know me, I despise censorship in art, and have no intention of being overly prudish. I hope you will understand, however, I don't wish to become a martyr at the moment. My suggestion is to submit whatever you like, and we can discuss anything I feel I've got a problem with. I also urge you to become familiar with the net censorship issues and write your congressmen to voice your views. There are additional pages on Tigerden's web site which provide more information on this issue.
If there are other locations or publications where your work may be seen, include a listing. Examples would be comics, fanzines, or images on the Avatar Furry Image Archive, ftp sites, etc. We can provide links to those sites/images provided you give us the site addresses/URLs and image titles.

Submitting Information

E-mail your request and other information to webmaster@tigerden.com.
Images may be sent as MIME attachments to e-mail, or as uuencoded files. We can provide color and line-art scanning if you must send hard copies; however, please contact us *before* sending any hard-copy material. *NEVER* send originals as they can easily be lost or damaged during delivery.
If you have the knowledge of html page design, you may provide an page of your own construction. However, it should follow the guidelines above, and follow closely to our 'standard' format for pages. More about page format is provided below under 'Miscellaneous Format Notes' Your submission will be modified to add our normal 'home/back arrows' as well as any other changes needed to make the page consistent with our page standards. We will, however, attempt to retain all of the factual information you provide.

Changes to Your Page

You should try to keep the data on your page current and correct at all times. Additions, deletions, and other changes should be sent whenever appropriate, and we will try to incorporate them as soon as we can.

Further Distribution of Your Images

Images on your page may be captured, stored, and possibly altered and/or redistributed by those viewing them from the web. We obviously have no control over, and cannot be responsible for, what happens to them. You should not place images on your page that you don't want distributed further. You may place a statement regarding further use on your page if you like, but that is no guarantee it will be followed. You should include your signature or logo somewhere on each of the full-size images.

Miscellaneous Format Notes

We will include a 'hit counter' at the bottom of your page that will graphically show the number of accesses your page has received. This number does not reflect the number of individuals who see your page, but simply the number of times we've been requested to transmit it. The counter excludes accesses from Tigerden itself, so maintainence work on your page should not artifically inflate the number. The date the count was started is also indicated, and we can reset the count whenever you have a desire for us to do so.

Our pages tend to be 'simple' without much of the fancy backgrounds and graphics you may see elsewhere. This is for several technical reasons which we believe are sound. Backgrounds and other fancy frills require extra graphics information to be sent each time your page is accessed. This translates into additional time for the viewer to get the image, which, if excessive, may cause the viewer to abort the page before they get it all. Also, page definition standards are not universal. Netscape, for example, can do lots of fancy tricks that will go unnoticed on or, worse, may break other browsers. Likewise, many users are confined to text-only browsers, and the frills and graphics are wasted on them. We try to make our pages as universally viewable as possible, which dictates keeping the fancy features to a minimum. We generally test pages with Netscape, NCSA Mosaic (HTML-2 compliant) and with Lynx (text only).