Hi!, it's Taylor here again.

Well… this is a little document I wanted to write for you, my dear followers who have been watching my content for almost 3 years in the macro fandom and furry in general.

I don't know where to start but I think I'd like to use this space to talk a little bit about the history of how it all started, as over time I've met many people who have helped me and shown their interest in what has inspired me over the years. :3


I remember It all started one afternoon a long time ago, before I opened my official Fa page I had another account with which I used to see the content of all my favourite artists, I was like an anonymous soul among all the sea of views that those artists had in their publications, I never dared to comment anything because I was a bit shy and I never believed that what I thought had importance, so I always looked at the content from afar, at that time I was just a consumer.
I mostly liked to read stories, and my favorite artists were almost always Kencougr, scream and some others that maybe I don't remember at the moment, you know, the big ones, in fact, I remember that I got to see how several of my favorite artists were emerging from nothing, and today they are very famous and their drawing styles have evolved, but well that's part of it, sorry if I suddenly get sidetracked x3

I never thought of being part of this fandom, as I said I was just a consumer and being someone who has never been successful in art, I didn't see any hope in that either…

That Drawing

I remember it was one afternoon back in 2021, between April or March, I remember that one afternoon I was bored and while I was drawing, it came to me the ideas of making a silly image for fun, oh yes, that first image that you can see in my gallery was what I started to do that afternoon,I had a very funny time drawing it, I laughed at how silly the concept was as it evolved, I remember that first it was the 2 silhouettes of the dog girls, then what made it macro, a mini human!, yes, just that was enough for my drawing of 2 cute little dogs to become macro. At that moment I was like "hahah, what is this!?". In fact I hadn't even put much effort into it, besides my limitations from my previous computer, even my drawing skills were still very poor heheh.

Now, I'll explain a bit about the context of the image; in my stage of anonymous consumer, let's say I could discover something interesting in the fandom, this is not a criticism or something negative, but I realized that although in the fandom there was a huge amount of art images, videos and concepts still seemed to be missing many things or themes, for me it was very usual to see that most of the macro art were very similar, especially in the use of animals, because, you are not going to lie to me, the standard furry animal is the wolf and the husky, I repeat, it's not a bad thing, (in fact they are my favorite animals to be honest), and I remember that that same thing pushed me to make my first macros to be retrivers, I did a quick research for different types of dog breeds, and it was very strange to find a lot of macro content of specific breeds outside of the common, "mmm, what if I make an anthro retriever (insert a thinking emoji here) and with that, I did with that drawing.

That's how my first drawing was born, that would be the beginning of a universe in progress, in fact it wasn't published immediately, I kept this drawing for some time for myself, I didn't pretend that nobody would see it because I was a bit afraid of the internet world, but one day I said, you know what, I'll upload it to this page at least as a backup on the internet, and on the other hand I won't lie that there was also the idea of knowing what kind of comments it would receive if somebody would see it.

The site

When I created my page I didn't use my previous account because it had a super random name which I couldn't change, so I had to create a new one, I have to say that at that moment I didn't have a plan or anything, so I just chose a random name that I liked the most and I added "NOIR" at the end because it's a little nickname that I had from an experience in the past, now I had the name "Taylor Noir"

And having my account in order, I uploaded the drawing, and I remember that at that moment of the description an idea came to me, maybe a habit I have in all my art, but I like to give a little context of the image and at that moment I added a little story after that I just thanked whoever looked at it and finally I pressed "upload" and closed the page and leave.

I left the page for the rest of the day and when I opened it again I realized that I had started with my new account and suddenly BAM!, there I see in the right corner of the screen several numbers with letters in the notifications; at that moment I was really excited, well it wasn't like it was much haha, it was just a couple of notifications, but being someone who had never received a single comment in any art publication the sudden arrival of someone to say something in a picture of mine is always something that excites me to this day.

And the rest I think would be history, then the second drawing motivated by the previous one I wanted to continue with a sequel, yup, with the same retriever girl sniffing and then licking that little human she found in the forbidden forest when crossing the walls.

In fact, to this day I still get people telling me that this is their favourite drawing of the gallery, to which I give a big thank you, you don't know what a smile it makes me remember when I did that little comic.

The first commission

Here is a small parenthesis, because it is between these drawings that I received my first "note" notification, aaah a direct note!, those really make me nervous every time I open them, not for something bad, but it is like opening a door, you never know what you will find on the other side hehe, but that notification was special because it was the first time that someone on the internet asked me for a commission.

I remember I was super nervous, because I didn't know anything about it, I had previously made commissions in real life, but these were for friends and close people, plus they were almost free because of who they are hehe, but on the internet I was, uuf, how much to charge and how?, how to send it?, will they ask for an impression?, but more importantly, will I be able to fulfill what this person asks for with the cost I will give them? not that my drawing style is the best now and much less before with my equipment limitations, and that made me hypernervous.

Fortunately everything went well, and at that time I had to learn how to use a payment account and the client was very kind and really liked my work, in fact to this day they had been one of the people that I have commissioned the most over time and I thank them very much for the support of being the first economic support that I had, I had never been paid for my work, I am still a student and to have a couple of dollars that wasn't from my parents was something that made me feel that the work was worth the effort but it was also a demonstration that despite my small start and that I didn't have a lot of good things to show for it, it made my work feel valued.

Then came the second person, and oh yeah, this is where you guys are going to see the birth of one of my greatest and still valued drawings, the "mawshot of Curious", I'm still wondering how this commission has become the most viewed hehe, but you guys would tell me that in the comments x3, it was one of the first drawings where I really put a maximum effort, this talking about content for the fandom, I never thought I would make a drawing with that quality and in fact it overcame some of my limitations in the colouring, of course it was a bit difficult but the client loved it and gave me one more support to upload it to my profile.
From there I think the rest is history as far as commissions are concerned, it's just a parenthesis I wanted to give due to the fact that I was also part of the first months drawing the content and getting more into various fantasies. :3

Riavandia

And now we're finally going to talk about what's coming hehe, I hope I haven't bored you hehe, it's just that I have to express how much I love you :3

Riavandia, how did that come about, where did I come up with such a concept?
Even I wonder about it xD


At that moment there were 2 or 3 paths I was considering, the first one was to give them an aggressive macro role or rampage to my macros which would come from the inspiration of other artists, another one was to use a more sci fi or military aesthetic which would also be inspired by some famous artists that I admire that I think many already know which would be anthros coming from other planets to invade us and so on.

I was really undecided on what to do, any decision would be vital to define which way my little universe was going, I wanted to do something like my favourite artists but at the same time I didn't want to look like a copycat and if I was honest, I don't think I could do a work that could compare to their level.

One afternoon I was drawing and watching a history documentary and suddenly I saw part of the roman empire and I don't know but it came to my mind "anthros in Poman armor, does that exist?" and again I did my little research, yes there were a couple, some representations but there wasn't much, or at least not the drawings I had planned, so this is where I saw my chance, being a fan of history and art I couldn't avoid that my characters had an aesthetic, more classical, or more similar to the ancient civilizations.

And I said, why not, let's try to do something with this.


I think if I can start talking about Riavandia it's the aesthetics, I didn't have anything planned and everything was happening on the fly and with several tests in any drawing, but after a couple of concepts was when I contemplated the idea of creating this little world or reality of setting my drawings in a certain world where the anthros existed in some coexistence with the anthros, I think it was when I brought to life my other characters :3

First would be Hilda the saluki, whose style would be the representation of a military or police anthro which I wanted to give her the role of being one of the guardians who leads the army of a canine empire, serious but at the same time kind, she will protect its inhabitants including the humans of the cities that were part of the kingdom.

With her is that I was inspired to shape the aesthetics of the kingdom, the timeline would be located in the present, I have not yet defined very well if the current countries exist in this reality, but on the one hand I had the humans want to have this way of living similar to the one we know, with their buildings all the modernity, and on the other side were the anthros civilisations, who in order to have a cultural contrast were given this design based on ancient civilisations, that would bring a more marked sense and would make the anthros look with another line of thought different from the human and also denoted the difference in styles between both civilisations.

...plus yes, it's not a lie, it's like that because anthros look sexier, and yes, fur is the anthro's coat, the less clothes the better hahah x3c

So Hilda was the first design where I tried this idea and actually a very fun one to draw.

Then followed Akila the queen, because a kingdom needs its leader right?, I remember talking to a friend and he gave me that idea, a few days later I started to draw and for her breed I remember it was a surprise to find almost no design of great dane macros in the fandom, and being a breed that is big and impressive among dogs I said, I thought it would look good to represent her.
For her design I was a bit inspired to give her something minimalist but identifiable, to which I added a golden olive wreath on his head and some golden and red details on her coat along with a scepter.
This also defines the name that would have the country where the canines live, although generally I also use it to refer to the world in general, but this was born in a conversion with a friend in which he gave me several names that he invented quickly and I made a combination of sounds which resulted in "Riavandia" the only name that I found pleasant to pronounce and then give it some meaning.


At the time of uploading Akila's drawing I also tried to define some broader details of how the human and anthro world worked.

The whole way in which in the world the anthros and humans will live somewhat separated by the size difference, with humans being the smaller beings and the anthros being the "normal" sized ones, where historically humans build these big walls to protect themselves from the titanic beings.
Akila would then be the protagonist of this kind of anthro-human union and coexistence.

I think that to this day she has been one of my most popular characters among my characters and I'm happy that you liked her as much as I do

I could go on talking about each of my characters and all the details of the world, but that already falls into the category of deeper lore and right now I'm talking about what inspires my world, but if you want something more extensive or dedicated entirely to talk about the lore of Riavandia and how it works I'll make a document later if you want :3

The rest can be a bit of history, little by little I was defining the style, at first I tried with the greek roman aesthetic even a little bit nordic, because it was the one I liked, then was born the kingdom of Rodderlet that would be like a little rival of Riavandia and would have this aesthetic inspired more in the egyptian and african.

Aesthetics

Now I'll talk a little more in terms of aesthetics, although many things were already covered before, I can mention some important points; actually I've been sorting out my stuff and after so many tests I think I already have very well defined what I'm looking for.

You could say that the aesthetics I use in my characters are a mixture of foreign ancient civilizations but at the same time fused with my own. At first I was contemplating making it entirely faithful to the original, but on the other hand I also wanted to keep some of my own cultural essence.

And well, being from Mexico, I thought, why not, also give a little bit of the essence of my own country in my art.
So all my designs since then have had that interesting way of fusing one style with another and having something new, for example, Hilda's costume is a good example, a mix of Aztec patterns with a Roman helmet.

The whole symbology and flags are based on patterns from the state where I live as well as their meaning was inspired by poems from the regions here.



Although it is important to emphasize something, I have never tried to represent a specific civilization, as an artist and designer everything I have created has been inspired by the aesthetics of certain things, taking what I thought could serve me as inspiration to make something of my own, the only thing that today is taking more relevance in the visual style of my personal ones comes from the my culture


Final


And to finish last year, 2023, was…, in a few words a crappy year, I really hated it because of everything that happened, from when my previous computer was dying making it an ordeal to work on commissions and not to mention the theft I had of my bank account and its consequences that to this day have affected me, plus personal issues in real life that have left me a little off, I don't even know what will happen, but I hope everything will be better this year.

If you got to this point, I just want to thank you for your time in reading this, I know it's not the most interesting special and I hope I didn't bore you with how long and sometimes redundant it got to be, let's say that for me it's like sitting next to you and telling you everything hehe, it's just something I wanted to share with you.

I don't think I'm someone famous, it's not like my posts are the biggest or most interesting nor do I have contact from big artists, I'm someone small, haha not literal, I mean in a huge world full of millions of bigger artists, I'm just a small page but it makes me very happy that they appreciate my work, but the reason why I stay is because I feel comfortable with this audience I have, I've rarely had bad moments with anyone, once in a while I meet someone strange out there but at least until that they haven't hurt me.

I like to make content for even those few who see it, and happy to get those nice reactions from my closest friends to my work. I like just reading your comments, they are like the reward I hope to answer when I finish each drawing, so thanks for everything guys, you are wonderful and nice people.

I don't really know how long I'll be here, who knows what will happen in the future, but it's been a wonderful 3 years here, let's keep going, see you soon and happy new year.

Love from your giant doggo Taylor :3