post #1375169 post #2531894 post #3228030 post #157629

Artwork created by "recognized" artists, usually historical, with no connection to the furry fandom, and made for the sake of the piece itself (not as advertisement or as part of a piece of entertainment). This is art that typically would be seen in an art museum, and what could be considered classical "fine art".

• Formal Art will almost always be created with traditional means, such as paint, engraving or pastels.
• These pieces rarely depict anthropomorphic characters as typically seen in popular art.
• Formal art is often also ancient art - however, some 21st century exceptions exist, usually featuring realistic feral animals painted by non-furry artists, or sculptures of animals.

Important Note:

Regardless of how detailed or acceptable to a "mainstream" audience a piece of contemporary furry artwork (read: art created by members of the furry fandom or art created by an individual artist in a non-corporate context) or even "official" artwork featuring anthropomorphic characters may be, formal_art should not be applied to it.

This tag is not intended as praise, or a judgment as to the quality of the work, "formal art" is intended to describe the context the art was created in. Formal_art as a tag should be used sparingly. Use tags such as realistic or detailed for modern, high quality artwork depicting a realistically rendered subject that is not made by "fine arts" contemporary artists.

Not to be confused with:

• Official Art - official art may be high quality and created outside of the context of the furry fandom, but isn't as historical or considered "museum appropriate" like formal artwork
• Ancient Art - these tags are often used together, but ancient art means that the work was created before 1980

See Also:

• Inspired by Formal Art - contemporary art that references or parodies specific pieces, or uses historical art styles
• Grandfathered Content - many Formal Art submissions are irrelevant to the site per current rules, and were uploaded a long time ago, but are kept for quality/historical reasons
• Tag Group:Art