Furry art gallery Inkbunny says it is covering hosting costs from sales after three months of operation. The maximum file size of free works has also doubled to 20Mb. The site, launched this June, helps artists sell prints and digital downloads for a 20% cut.

Meanwhile, all-ages art site ArtSpots has undergone a complete redesign – much to the surprise of users. While many praised the new layout, not all like the "blog-like" artist homepages, and some feel the new site lacks useful features like sketch chat.

The changes come not long after Fur Affinity updated its own menu style, providing slightly cleaner visuals and more horizontal space, but also more prominent ads.

Mature furry imageboard e621 has apparently closed its doors:

Thanks to numerous threats to our host, false claims of illegal content, harassment and a few things that are much worse, e621 is being closed down permanently. It's been fun running it.

The closure is likely the result of allegations made earlier today that e621 hosted cartoon child pornography.

Update: All is impermanent. Varka (CEO of Bad Dragon) intends to take over the site.

Ursula Vernon's mythological representation of Capricorn as a sea-goat was commissioned as the poster-beast of the New Jersey Summer Reading Program, and featured in libraries and promotional material across the state.

Her work was packed with symbolism, but turned out to be controversial in a way she had not anticipated. [snow pigeon]

A new furry art and story community has launched, offering artists a way to sell digital downloads and prints.

The site – Inkbunny – permits non-human artwork of all ratings; however, only adults 18 or over may join.

Site founder Starling outlined the sales philosophy:

At Inkbunny we believe two revolutionary things about selling art; that people want to buy your work even if they can get it for free, and that you should not worry too much about piracy of your work.

Development took over a year, with nearly 800 works uploaded in a four-month private beta.

The golden age of carousels may be a century past, but apparently Carousel Works is still at it, with a newly-opened merry-go-round at Pier 62 outside the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

Rapid T. Rabbit reports the rides on offer "[represent] the natural wildlife that can be found all the way up the Hudson Valley […] [including] foxes, raccoons, rabbits, bears, deer, coyotes, ducks, turkeys, and even assorted fish."

The project cost $482,477 and is open 11AM-7PM daily, weather permitting. Rides are $2.

Painter and "meta-furry" Jay Van Buren's fursuit portrait project is covered in a video in which he describes fursuiters creating "a kind of bubble of Disneyland":

I'm trying to paint both the human that I know […] and also the fursona that they are projecting when they are in the suit.

The coverage appears to be from two years ago, but is only recently making the rounds.

Jay also featured in the student documentary A Tail of Identity, and helped to organize the recent fursuit video shoot for Higher Than the Stars.

The winners of the 2009 Ursa Major Awards, announced this weekend at FA: United 2010:

• Best Comic Strip: Housepets!, by Rick Griffin
• Best Game: Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, developed by Insomniac Games, published by Sony Computer Entertainment
• Best Graphic Story: Concession, by Immelmann
• Best Magazine: Heat #6, published by Sofawolf Press
• Best Motion Picture: Avatar, from 20th Century Fox, directed by James Cameron
• Best Novel: Out of Position, by Kyell Gold, published by Sofawolf Press
• Best Other Literary Work: Draw Furries: How to Create Anthropomorphic and Fantasy Animals, by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges, published by Impact
• Best Published Illustration: Blotch's cover for Kyell Gold's Out of Position
• Best Short Fiction: "Drifting", by Kyell Gold
• Best Short Subject or Series: The Penguins of Madagascar, produced by DreamWorks Animation for Nickelodeon

Read on for the full list of nominees . . .

A new site, Watchtail, was recently launched by Nedded, offering a video streaming service to the furry art community.

As of press time the site hosted six active streams; two had ten or more viewers.

UK furry convention ConFuzzled 2010 went out in style this weekend, raising £6,200 for the Wildlife Heritage Foundation.

The final auction item was a piece of tablecloth art by guest of honour TaniDaReal. Starting at £50, the price rose swiftly, fueled by a bidding war between ConFuzzled staff member Colifox and U.S. fur Beshon, ending only with the latter's bid of £2,000 (US$2,962).

There's an interesting discussion over at the Fursuit Lounge LiveJournal about whether you can make a realistic living as a fursuit builder.

To sum it up: You can make it work, but you'd better love the job, as it takes over your life.

Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Art and Literature first published during 2009 ends on April 18.

Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also. Visit the Ursa Major Awards web site to sign up to vote, or view the list of nominees.

On April 9, David Hopkins, the author of Jack, contacted the Ursa Major Award administrators to request that the work be withdrawn from consideration for the award in the category of Best Graphic Story. For technical reasons it must still appear on the ballot, but as the online voting system allows people to revise their choices at any time until the close of voting, those who have voted for Jack have the opportunity to select another nominee if they wish.