Meet the artists behind the site banners: Meteor05 and Azure Paragon

by Patch O'Furr

Dogpatch Press is commissioning regular new banner art — check out a gallery from past months. Each artist gets an article, with a goal to promote ones outside the USA. Last artist was Glasses Gator from Mexico. It’s a little behind schedule, so here’s catchup with both Azure Paragon (December) and Meteor05 (January.)

Hi Meteor, so you’re in Mexico and have a wolf fursona — why wolf? And you teach — ever teach cartoon art?

I choose a wolf as my fursona because something funny happened to me as kid, when I entered primary school. I was kind of a hyperactive/playful kid, so, in my first class, instead of doing stuff for class, I just wanted to play with the other kids, I started to shout “hey, there’s a wolf at the window!” and ran around, but none of the other kids wanted to play and later they started to call me “Wolf”, something that I hated at the time (and hated for years LOL). I eventually started to accept it, and even liked it, until it became part of myself.

About my work as a teacher, I really don’t teach anything relative to cartoons or art (that would be really nice though). I’m an elementary/primary school teacher, I work at the computer lab from the school, teaching kids how to use the computer (basic stuff of course). But even though my job is not fully related to art, I use it sometimes on school stuff, like the cover of my class planning book.

Can you say a little about fandom activity where you are? Do you go to meets or cons?

Here in the Mexican state where I live there is not much fandom activity. I know there are some furries in nearby cities, but I haven’t meet them, and also there are no meets around here. I have gone to one con. In the past year I went to Confuror in Guadalajara. It was my first con ever, and it was an amazing experience, I met some good friends and other cool furry artists for the first time. There were many nice activities there, mostly related to art, games, the fandom itself and much more. I loved the really good vibes at the event, it made me feel very comfortable there, like a space to be the wolf inside of me. So, I totally want to continue going to more cons or other furry related events. This year I’m planning to go to Confurtiva in Mexico City, and Confuror in Guadalajara again, and in the future I want to try to go to foreign cons.

I like the banner art you did, it’s very fun characters. Ever been in a snowball fight?

Thanks, and no, I haven’t been in a snowball fight in my whole life. Here in Mexico there are not many places where it snows, but I really want to visit a place like that someday. I want to make a big snow “wolf” man, make other snow figures or yeah be in a snowball fight, I bet it’s fun!

Do you have any words for other artists, or want to share some of your favorites?

To other artists, always work with joy and love, I know there are always hard times where we all get blocked, angry, sad, hopeless… but there’s always a rainbow after the storm, and a light of inspiration around, we just have to look for it, so, never give up, we can do anything!

For favorite artists, I could make a very long list (LOL), there are many I like but I’m going to mention some of my most favorite. Artists like Takemoto, Teaselbone, Gyntyatyatyatya and Tardor are a big source of inspiration for me. Their art styles are pretty different from each other, but every artist is very unique, and it’s hard to not enjoy every pic from them. Also I want to mention other cool artists from Mexico that are part of my favorites: DrawItAndrew, GlassesGator and Ligoni, they’re really amazing and I’m glad to be good friends with them too.

December’s banner artist:

Hi Azure, is there anything special people would enjoy knowing about you?

My names’s Azure Paragon. Been doing art all my life, and I do illustrations, paintings, drawings, digital mediums, even print media and ceramics. For subject matter and style, it varies to the extreme, sometimes it’s not even furry. I enjoy doing dragons, monsters, figures and faces, creatures, and perhaps most prominently, environmental and surreal landscapes, including space art and dreamscapes, even fractals & experimental.

If there is anything anyone would enjoy knowing about me, it’s how I interact when it’s not serious. I do not hold back at all on my quirks. Sometimes I’m silly, others downright nutcase for entertainment, which leads me to wonder about going into cartoon character voice acting. I think that would be a lot of fun, but like visual art as a profession, I bet it’s no cakewalk either. People also adore how my character looks, depending on the depiction of my purple skydragon Azure.

You’re located in North Carolina — how involved are you in the furry community?

My days of associating with furries locally are long past. Rarely do I go out of my way to meet other furries in the state, but I want to work on that when I’m ready and more financially stable. There are a lot of other things I need to finish first.

Anything neat to say about the banner art you did for the site?

The banner art was improvised when I discovered the site in November 2019. I had a surge of energy and wanted to contribute, and thought to myself “why not?” I figured I’d contribute as quickly as possible in my trademark visual style I usually do. It’s meant to show that miracles are possible under the right circumstances.

Where do you feel you are at as an artist? In a good place already or with goals still to reach?

I always find myself walking a long and complex road. I enjoy what I do but it seems like a never ending adventure, for better or worse. Minor goals met, major ambitions always not yet met. Then again, greater things take years to truly complete.

Any words to share with other artists?

What I wrote above. If you enjoy and want to do art for positive goals, don’t ever give up. But there’s no shame in giving yourself an extended break. It might be the most needed thing in hard times. This goes for anyone with their own pursuits and careers, not just for artists and creators.

Want to share a favorite piece, or other artists who inspire you?

On the “safe for work” side, my favorite piece I’ve made was this, from November 2014. Perhaps one day maybe I can reboot it as a 3D piece!

For artists that inspire me, the piece above shows how much influence Narse had on me. I looked up to him among others such as Darkgem, Hun, SpiritRaptor, Cheetah Paws, Kenket, & Rhos. For any major pieces or paintings, I would refuse to take shortcuts and do everything from rendering to writing the concepts and lore. This is important for some comic and story series I want to finish. I have some planned, and would even love to create animations or video games of them, starting with “Anthroventures,” and “Ateht Legions.” I may make music again eventually. I haven’t done that in YEARS. When I’m ready, they’ll be posted!

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Share news on these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here (it pays.)