zine: how to preserve furry art and why it matters

this zine was made in jun 2025 using clip studio paint and samsung notes

the fickle nature of the internet has always bothered me. i was there to witness the great death of flash and i still carry that sadness of all the web games that were lost to time. while there have been great efforts to restore flash games online with services like ruffle, not all were saved and some still have game-breaking bugs.

the furry fandom must take steps to preserve its own history for posterity, and that effort can be done by individual art collectors just like you! i keep two major furry archives, art that i have commissioned and art that i just like and waited to save on my hard drive. the zine above will take you thru the methods i think work best for organizing files, but here is an example of how i store and save my commissions.

the top folder is my fursona’s name, then that top folder is filled with subfolders that are titled as the artist’s primary username. the inside of an artist’s folder will have a .txt file with weblinks to all known accounts, as well as an email address if i received the commission via email. the artist folder then has subfolders of each art piece i have gotten from them, starting with the year and month it was finished.

nested file framework example:
fursona name > artist > YYYY-MM commission title

the folder for each commission will have many files. those files are any work-in-progress pics, the final art and any alts, a .txt file with links to where the art was posted (i track both official from the artist and reposts), a copy of the email exchange, and the original ych image if it was a ych commission.

i also like to keep the different sized or cropped versions within the commission folder. often times, artists will give you a full sized art piece and then a web optimized version for posting. you likely will get watermarked for personal use and unwatermarked for posting versions too. i crop a lot of my art for icons, so i save those custom crops with the dimension size in the folder too, like cole-icon-500px.png.

keeping note of price paid is also helpful for history. i log the price paid in the .txt file for each commission and keep a spreadsheet externally for all records. when i look back and see that i have spent over $10k for my fursona’s art, it does give me mixed feelings. i like that i have been such a patron to furry artists, and i do like having so many works with my fursona, but i am sure my family would say i should have invested that in a retirement fund or car. whatever, it’s my life and i love all my silly dog pictures.

not all my commissions have this great level of provenance, but this is what i think is the best method for record keeping on furry art. if you are even a little like me, you invest a lot of money into your fursona; shouldn’t you want its history to be preserved well?