The appeal of anthros vs ferals vs humanoids

I've always been an humanoid-only artist, maybe I was part of the wrong fandoms? :') I also think that since I was never really into real life animals in the first place, I personally never felt any appeal in animal-like characters.

Like many people before me said, I feel like I can do more stuff with (and relate more to) humans and humanoids, especially since my stories tend to borrow a lot of stuff from the real world. Animal-like features would feel out of place to me, and I generally prefer practical designs over purely aesthetic ones; I feel the need to explain every design choice with an in-universe reasoning haha... I'm not saying that it's impossible to write a story with anthos or ferals, just that it's not really my thing :')

That said, I'm way more comfortable with drawing humans than animals, but that's probably because I never really tried in the first place (some OCs' pets and art trades/comms aside). I don't think one is easier to draw than another, it just depends on the artist's experience and stuff~

Eyyy, another person from cs with a preference for feral and anthro characters! Same hat, my guy :0

But yeah, I tend mostly towards feral and anthro characters, with some humanoids mixed in and some other species that don’t really fit in any of those characters as well, like Kirby fancharacters and aliens and stuff. Most of my characters at this time are closed species adoptable from chickensmoothie, which are mostly ferals, though I’ve drifted away from closed species these past few years and am trying to work more with fully original characters.

That said, I do still tend towards ferals and anthros, both because I’m more comfortable with them and because I feel like it’s easier to create unique, distinct designs for non-humans. With human characters, I struggle to create inherent identifying features, probably in part due to my prosopagnosia, and find myself relying on things like hair, outfits, and other things that, you know, c h a n g e in real life to tell them apart. But with non-human characters, I feel like there’s a wider range of traits with more dramatic differences between them to work with to make them distinct - Species, markings, colorations, things like that. And since they’re nonhuman, I feel like it’s easier to push the boundaries of their appearances more without falling into the uncanny valley?

Anyway, that all said, I do have some human and humanoid ocs! They’re not uploaded here, but I have a trio who are the main characters of a novel I’ve been working with on and off for several years now, as well as basic concepts for various other characters from both that story and others :0

Tl;dr - I prefer nonhumans, but I have a few human characters as well!

I think I'm mostly good with humanoids because I watch too much anime and they mostly just feature humanoids. However, for some reason, I prefer flat faced anthros 10000000000000000000000000000% better than kemonomimi humanoids. Kemonomimis aren't clicking with me but some creative CS of it are appealing! ' w')

As for ferals, I could never imagine myself owning an actual feral except for one werewolf OC hidden somewhere among my character roster and a few cartoony mascots for my story. They're mostly wolves or dogs though since I grew up with one and loved them.

I'm starting to get attached to anthros, though! I don't know if they can fit me in terms of writing, but the idea of designing an anthro OC soon seems really fun! ' w')7

Growing up watching all sorts of television, i was exposed to a lot of things which colored my perception of species interacting among other things. I saw shapeshifters, anthros and humans. I saw animals that could magically talk help out their human companions when needed. I used to love watching Biker Mice from Mars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There were a lot of shows where anthro's and humans coexisted in the same world and plenty of magical girl shows where feral sidekicks got along great with their human partners.

So to me it came natural to have a variety of characters type by time i was thirteen and started making my own characters. I'd like to also add in things like aliens and monsters and other humanoid non-humans because I just really liked those too. So I have worlds where all three mix and co-exist with one another. It's fun for me and my friend to try and figure out how a world with such different races would have to adapt and change and learn. Like currently I have a character that makes clothes for a living and recently found that he's been bored and uninspired. Someone from an anthropomorphic race happens to walk in and suddenly he's inspired and they've become very good friends. There's now a new challenge to accommodate for fur, tails, claws, different leg shapes, etc and this has been a fun challenge for him. Some peacefully and some not so much.

I have only a mild preference to full human/humanoid because that's what I can draw but that's the extent of my bias. I try to draw anthro but i'm so bad at it oml. But really me personally each group has a ton of versatility and challenges and roleplaying those challenges and the characters trying to make it through a world not tailored to them and trying to break boundaries to communicate effectively is a big draw to why I like to incorporate all three into a lot of my stories and worlds.

That said. I don't mix every world I have. In some of the worlds it just makes no sense and I can't justify them being there. But in the big fantasy world i've been building there's a mix there and in the sci-fi world there's a mix there as well cause those two worlds can easily explain a lot of the traits and circumstances.

Humans and anthros that veer more towards the human rather than animal.

I just. don't really like 'feral' or animal characters. I don't connect with them so I don't use them in my stories.

I prefer humanoids, because I’m best at designing them and I can draw them the best.

When I was younger, though, (around 12-13?) I strictly had furry cat ocs and my little pony ocs. I didn’t really have confidence in my drawing of anything else, since I was only familiar with the “only draws warrior cat fanart deviantart accounts” at the time. It all depends on preference and in my case what I’m more comfortable creating at the time if that makes since?????

I find ferals very, very dull, over done and boring and they all look the same and follow the same basics. I've had a feral and sold it again. Just not my thing. I prefer humanoids / anthros cause they can be more unique. 

I have to agree with @Shayochism about ferals. However, I'm mostly restricted to monster/creature ferals, and ferals based on real animals tend to have designs that seem either too generic/boring or too identical to one another.

I love how this had become somewhat of a chicken smoothie user reunion, lol.

But for more input from me!

For the human characters I do have, i don't really draw them that much. Theyre mostly characters I use for stories or roleplays, since I dont enjoy drawing humanoids.

And for me, I prefer monsters and such because A. They're cool, and B. You can create literally ANYTHING! You dont have to be limited to making a demon just a normal being with horns and stuff, you can go all out and create a real monster of a demon! (Sort of like my Town Of Hell story, i guess) Why make a realistic feral (or even anthro) dog when you can have some awesome monster with whatever colors you want! Why make a basic humanoid when you can make a weird alien that isnt conventional at all!

I have always been an animal person, and when I was young, I was pretty much only interested in fiction that was about animals, so until I turned about thirteen, I exclusively drew animals! Then I got into the video game series Kid Icarus, and the protagonists are angels and gods, so I began to figure out humanoids in order to draw the characters and make my own. As a result, I now prefer humanoids because I've spent so many years practicing and working with them, though I do still enjoy ferals- as some have said, it's easier to be visually creative with them. I don't do anything with anthros, as human-animal combinations make no sense to me in any of the worlds I've developed, and I have the need to explain everything. X'D 

I don’t really like ferals because I’m such a big fan of animals and caring for animals, and it’s so weird to see them behaving like humans? I kind of associate animals with animal behaviour only I guess, so it’s just weird to me… Usually you only see humanized animal characters in movies and other media if they look anthro, but even then I just never really liked anthros? When I started drawing it never even occurred to me to draw anthros so I never did it and I never connected with the concept…

Also completely off point but I really like drawing, writing and commissioning NSFW stuff for my characters, and seeing that stuff with non-humans is just weird to me FKDJFJDJF