I got into Bluesky! Find me at https://bsky.app/profile/bufnickels.mustelid.party

You can also follow me on Mastodon: https://meow.social/@buffalonickels or stay up-to-date via my Telegram Artcast: https://t.me/+TNWGesKL_OQrr3Hy

I will almost definitely be winding down my presence on Twitter as the alternatives become more viable. See ya 'round!

Out of curiosity, I tried joining Mastodon and I kinda love it! The community is 100% pleasant, even if you venture out into the general feeds. And there's enough of a userbase where I'm getting a steady stream of interactions and people discovering my art. And it's so comforting not having to deal with the ads, trolls, algorithms, cloutchasing, ragebait, NSFW-bans, and all the other crap plaguing corporate social media at the moment.

I've been drip-feeding my portfolio of art to https://meow.social/@buffalonickels (or specifically @buffalonickels@meow.social - to follow me properly, make an account on any server, then copy/paste my full username into your search bar).

If you don't have a Mastodon account or heard the service is complicated, it really isn't. I had no familiarity with Mastodon but was up and running in minutes. All you have to do is find an open server, make an account, and start posting/following, just like any other social media service. People can follow each other no matter which server they're using, and if it's ever needed you can change servers later without losing your followers. So don't worry about finding "the popular server" or one that "looks perfect for you". You can just dive in.

A very nice big server list is available here. https://www.furryfediverse.org/ It also has recommendations for phone apps, although honestly the 1st party Mastodon app works fine by me.

I am not an expert on what servers are out there, but here's a quick list of nice-looking and probably-relevant-to-my-audience instances I was able to drum up:
https://tiggi.es/
https://vulpine.club/about
https://pettingzoo.co/
https://thicc.horse/
https://this.mouse.rocks/
https://social.tigerstyping.com/
https://chitter.xyz/
https://bear.community/
https://snaggletooth.life/

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48764191/

Alt Sonas: I like doodling my sona with swapped species, because who doesn't? Tiger is the most common, followed by bull and boar, with lots of other species drawn as a 1-off.
Kinks: If you've looked at my posts close enough it is no surprise I have a kink for combat sports (boxing/wrestling/mma) and a related fetish for athleticwear/shorts. It's been that way as long as I can remember!
Telegram Channel: I also upload up-to-the-minute art to a Telegram channel (18+!) https://web.telegram.org/z/#-1289062010
Bara Buddies: Bara buddies is the collective name for my three most common OCs. They're intended to be my most long-lasting and porntastic OCs, but I don't draw them as much as I should, maybe. They each have individual folders in my gallery.

Volleyball Bros: Volleyball Bros was the first ever art series I uploaded here! It features fun beach volleyball teammates. https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery.....olleyball-Bros
Underwearwolves: Underwearwolves was an art series featuring (what else?) werewolves in underwear. https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery.....wolf-Wednesday
Jackalopesona: My first fursona was a jackalope who lasted until I swapped him out for my current design in 2017. Still can be seen towards the end of my Sona folder: https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery.....41490/Sonas/2/
Boxing Day: A cheeky annual celebration every Boxing Day (12/26), I upload fight-related pencil sketches to my scraps.
4 Fingers: I stick to the classics when it comes to cartooning: everything I draw has four fingers.

"Boardies": I saw this goofy term for board shorts once on a shopping site, the term has stuck with me ever since.
Vore gift art: Every once in a while I draw vore for my boyfriend  buhk, most of it can be found in his gallery.
Skullpuppy: My original logo/avatar, a dog skull that can still be seen in some old announcement art (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26392948/). I still like him, but my profiles became a lot more popular after replacing him as my avatar x)
Pencil sketching: Digital sketching has never felt very satisfactory for me: all of my art is drawn on pencil/paper, scanned, then inked/colored digitally.
@buffalobills: Supposedly numerous people have accidentally tweeted at the Buffalo Bills football team when trying to reach me on Twitter: the key is that bufnickels only has one F!

Stylization cheats: "Cheats" refer to little drawing techniques that don't make sense in real life, but help a drawing look or communicate better. Ones I employ often that come to mind: 1) the shape of hair looks the same regardless of what angle the head is (the "Philip Fry" cheat) 2) tails vary in size/location to make them more visible (the "silhouette" cheat) and 3) mouths sometimes 'slide' to the side of the head and don't stay connected to the chin (the "Peppa pig" cheat)
Design first, species later: A few character designs I've done were simply making a nice-looking critter first, and then only afterwards deciding what species they most closely resemble. Both Hewland, Bayern, and to a small extent my badgersona were designed this way.
Stripe order: Less common nowadays, but if you look closely at the folders for Bayern and Badgersona you'll see that there's inconsistencies in how I color the stripes of their tails.
OC piercings: Bayern has a gold earring (that changed from a hoop to an industrial piercing over time), Alvis has ear gauges, and Hewland has one nipple pierced (he was a bad boy in college).

Bara buddies card suits: Look closely in you'll see art of Hewland, Bayern, and Alvis have references to card suits, hidden in the background or placed in props. For instance:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16861438/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/17613043/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/33258427/
Bayern is always the King of Clubs, Hewland is always the King of Hearts, and Alvis is always the King of Spades! I've been sneaking these cards in for over 7 years now. Does this mean there's a job opening for the King of Diamonds??
Raster v Vector: Most of my art is inked using raster (Clip Studio Paint) but some is inked using vector. Vector looks cool and chunky, but is more labor intensive. Here's a vector piece for reference: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/22847226/
Nick L: My name, which is really my actual name for real ;)
Dick modeling: Bayern's dick is modeled after my own! Only issue is it felt weird and lacking in variety when I started drawing my own sona's dick. So, I just kinda draw his however I'm feeling.

I've made a Telegram Channel if you wanna stay super up-to-the-minute with my art. Note it includes NSFW Stuff:
https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAEzVhnrCi_zkK69x8g

You can also stay up-to-date on Twitter (which I keep basically PG-13):
https://twitter.com/BufNickels

<3

🐰 https://twitter.com/BufNickels

Copy and Pasting so I can be informative without thinking too hard:

What is your name?
Nick

Where are you staying?
Leows

What day are you getting there?
Friday afternoon

How long are you going?
Staying until Sunday

How are you traveling?
Driving through WisCAHNson

Who will you be rooming with?
 buhk

Who will you hang out with during the convention?
If I don't have anything else going on, I'll probably be with the Nice City Cru:
 buhk
 sky3
 arcticorange
 kerun


What do you look like?
6'2", bearded, holding a Jackalope messenger bag

How old are you?
29

What is your gender?
Male

How is the best way to find you?
Look for the tall drunk hipster or send me an @ on Twitter

If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Just say hi! Really!

Will you be going to parties?
Probably. Mostly planning to chill around, hanging with friends old and new.

Are you in a relationship?
Fight me

Can I talk to you?
Please do!

Can I buy you drinks?
Only if I don't buy you one first (ask me about Werewolf Beer~)

Where will you be most of the time during the day/s?
Chilling and drawing

Goals for the con?
... Chilling and drawing

Contact Info?
Twitter BufNickels
If we're mutuals DM/Message me for Telegram

I'm tweetin' it up.

https://twitter.com/BufNickels

WOOOO

In honor of Spring Break, I'm drawing a frat bro each day for the whole week. Each one more drunk and adventurous than the last!

Enjoy.

Well, I'm sure you've already noticed if you're a follower, but I grabbed some of the better unused sketches I had lying around and posted 'em into my scraps. Enjoy~

I've had a strong-and-steady drip of new followers over the past few days! I think some of my art has been making the rounds on Tumblr, which has actually never happened to me before.

(Speaking of which: I'm cool other folks with reposting my art to Tumblr- just credit me as BuffaloNickels, link back to my original submission, and don't do anything skeezy like edit the art or put watermarks on it.)

But yeah. Hi, new people!

Old journal was old, so here's a new one.

What's been happening recently? Lots of stuff. Volleyball Bros is done for the time being (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18260964/), and maybe I'm a jackalope? (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18404502/). I missed out on MFF, but made a solemn vow to show up next year.

Otherwise, just pluggin' along. Thanks for hanging around! I ♥ you, as always.

-Nick

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/buffalonickels/
https://www.weasyl.com/~buffalonickels
https://twitter.com/BufNickels

I do a crummy job of advertising my Twitter account. Partially because I only started it a little bit ago and forgot to update for a while. Oops.

But hey I'm posting all my art as I make it now! And also wip shots and werewolf doodles and stuff. If that doesn't interest you I don't know what will.

Get on it:
https://twitter.com/NickelsBuffalo

Oh, it's been a whole since I've made any art for the Volleyball Bros series. That changes today: the character overload continues with the introduction of two new teammates.

Aaaaand it will also be the last two teammates in the set! The Bros are old characters of mine, and these seven characters are all I really intend to publish. Basically I'm planning on making a bit more art of all the Bros, then they go into the vault and there will be no more volleyball ever again ever. I still enjoy drawing 'em, but it works out so much better when a project has a finish line.

After that I guess I get to pick out a new big series to work on.

♥,
-Nick

So, I try to commit myself to uploading two art pieces a week. It's been nice! It pushes me to make more stuff and not slack so much. However, for the past few weeks I've been working off a "buffer" of art pieces, and now that buffer has run out. So... I need to start cranking out more stuff! I uploaded some development sketches to fill out this week, at least.

I don't mention this to apologize, or beat myself up, or anything. I just wanna re-mention my "two arts a week" goal in case you ever see me talking about "this week's art" versus "next week's art" or whatever. It's a schedule I wanna stick to!

-Nick

I'm gonna try out keeping a Twitter for my art! My dumb username was already taken, but all the same, you can follow it right here. Should be a nice way to keep up with my artmaking:

https://twitter.com/NickelsBuffalo


I don't quite know what sorts of stuff I'll be tweeting other than the same art you see here, and I guess WIPs and stuff? In any case, stop by and say hello.

To entice you over, I posted an early look at the pieces I'm working on right now, which is good ol' fashioned Animal Crossing fanart.

-Nick

I've never made a journal to really discuss all this stuff I'm uploading, so here we are.

The way I find myself making art is to think up a theme/setting, and then go crazy designing lots of characters for it. Maybe needless to say, the pieces so far represent art I made for one big beach volleyball setting.

For those playing along at home, we've been introduced to three characters so far: Quint, Dex, and Hammer. I have 4 or 5 more of these characters whose art I want to polish up and publish, alongside more art of the characters we've already seen. At my current rate of two pieces per week, and the hope of making a few pieces per character, it'll be... a few months before we finish it all, apparently?! Hm.

I dunno if I'll make an effort to get some sorta variety in my uploads... admittedly, I'll probably just wind up arting and uploading whatever I feel like. In the meantime, kick back and enjoy the ride.

Long-time artist, first time submitter.

If you're reading this: high-five.