Hehe, well when I started liking them versus when I started drawing them are certainly two different dates. Much similar to most furry fans, my initial liking of anthropomorphic characters can date back to the early 90s, the halcyon days of the saturday morning cartoons. I grew up watching Loony Toons, Thundercats, Duck Tails and Tail Spin. I enjoyed films like Disney’s Robin Hood, Once Upon a Forest and The Secret of Nimh. How could I not develop a fondness for such characters? To me, these types of characters were just as natural as any human.
This relationship to the characters began to change as I reached my mid teens and… well… we all know what begins to develop around that time and curiosity got the best of me (despite my Mormon upbringing). Although my parents, elders and community leaders claimed it to be a sin, I couldn’t help but explore my sexuality. Bare in mind, this was 1998. The internet was young and porn was less accessible. My parents had also installed a primitive parental control software on the computer- but as any parent will discover, a child with determination will always find a way.
It started simple- curiously probing about to find what websites weren’t blocked by their parental controls. It didn’t take long before I discovered that anything related to fine art was unblocked so early on I enjoyed nude photography. (I know, what does this have to do with being a furry? Well, I’m getting to that!) However, after a year or so, artistic photography just wasn’t doing it anymore and my imagination yearned for something more and the call was answered by Napster. Yes, I know the program was designed to share music but it could also share files and I used it as a clever work-around for parental controls. This gave me access to the levels of sleaze I never thought possible. For some reason, however, I always seemed to have a preference for illustrated porn over photographic porn. It could have been that I was so sick of artistic photography or it could have been that as a virgin, live-action porn was just a little too ‘real’ and my young, awkward self could only deal with things that were imagined/make-believe. That being said, it was only a matter of time before I stumbled upon furry art. After all, when downloading an image from Napster, you really had no idea what you were getting outside of the file name. Curiosity about Digimon and Pokemon porn would invariably pull up furry work- and I liked it.
Unfortunately my parents eventually discovered my dirty little secret and I was punished quite severely. Unsupervised computer privileges were taken from me and I was forced to meet regularly with my bishop. It was nothing short of embarrassment hell. I was more than eager to move out upon turning 18 when I could once again explore. Many people do not know but I didn’t legitimately pick up drawing until I was 18 and on my own. I drew mostly cartoonish stuff for the first couple years but if I go back to my earliest uploaded furry work on deviantArt, I started getting into furry work myself in 2005. Linda was actually one of the earliest furry characters I ever developed. The third, actually. Seraph was the first, Terra was the second and Linda was the third.
The, uh… source of inspiration for my characters is always somewhat awkward. You see, my characters are always drawn from my real-life experiences, sometimes people I know personally or even family. Linda was… well… in a way she was roughly based on my mom. Linda is actually the name of my Aunt who is my mother’s identical twin sister. That being said, my characters always develop far, far away from where they start. I no longer think of Linda as anything like my mother- just that my mother was the initial inspiration for the character, much how my brother was the initial inspiration for Seraph but I never thought of him as a fursona of sorts. Even Linda’s design has come a long way from where it started but I maintain that I try to keep my characters from falling into common stereotypes. Above all else, I didn’t want Linda to just be another overly-buxom fox girl just like the rest. I intentionally drew her breasts smaller than most others and gave her thick thighs. I even changed her fur pattern so it wasn’t just like every other fox. There was no way for me to know that Linda would come as far as she did but I’m certainly glad she did!
I hope my long-winded response answers your short question. Honestly, I like openly talking about my experiences. I can only hope it leads others to be similarly open as well and not be embarrassed of something that most everyone shares: sexuality.
