Everyone has their own definitions of what a Were, an Anthro, and a Furry is, and in fact these definitions are debated -a lot- on the internet. WHEN IT COMES TO MY OWN ARTWORK these are only what I personally think of when I think of "Werewolf", "Anthro", and "Furry". So when I say "I am drawing a werewolf", this is what I mean. Or if I say "I am drawing a Furry", this is what I mean, etc. Most of my art subjects I consider this definition of "Anthro". Of course these are my own definitions of these and can, and do, change. Your own definitions will likely differ and vary.
So here is my -personal- definition of a Werewolf, an Anthro Wolf, and a Wolf Furry (let me clarify that all of these are "Anthropomorphic", just to different degrees)
Were - To me, this is what werewolves are. Not pig-monkeys or dudes with too much body hair, or even someone changing into a natural wolf (even though all of those are other people's ideas of what a werewolf is), but shapeshifting humanoid beast wolves who are fully capable of dealing some damage and messing your world up, complete with supernatural powers baby. Werewolves are bloodthirsty ass-kickers. Very much NOT anywhere near the same as an Anthro Wolf or a Wolf Furry
Anthro Wolf - These guys aren't shapeshifters; they simply are what they are. They are only human to a certain degree, but otherwise they have all the instincts and natural tendencies of an animal. They just get to have opposable thumbs, a reasoning mind, and an ability to make and use tools and fire. Think of them as animalistic cavemen, or other primitive tribes of humans. They function on instinct first, intellect second. Anthros are what I draw most of the time.
Furry - To me, when and if I draw a Furry it is a human with fur, ears, and tail. Not much in the way of animal instinct or behavior other than a few cute vocalizations or actions. They are (in my mind) somewhat smaller than humans, but otherwise they are averagely human in every way. You can dress them up any way you want, give them superpowers, a big sword, a nice car, etc.. Absolutely fun! But drawing these guys isn't really my cup of tea.
I do not consider that what I draw is "Furry", rather it is "Anthro" or "Were".
Again, this is just how I view things for myself and where I personally draw the lines between the three (major) types of anthropomorphics (there are of course many variations of anthropomorphic animals, from animals that talk, to Furries, to humans with a few animal traits. I'll probably draw my definitions of these in the future as well).
As a side note I do know that "Furry" is also a definition of a fandom and/or lifestyle and that the true definition of what is and is not "Furry" is -HEAVILY- debated. That's cool, but for me I just don't consider -my own artwork- or myself to be "Furry". I consider myself an "Anthro Artist". ^.^
You may color this artwork, but please keep my copyrights intact and provide a link back to my DA or website!
This is incorrect. I have some academic knowledge to clarify things here... Werewolf: this is the English term based upon a German term that inherently falls from the idea of the Loup Garou and similar legendary wolf-like creatures. In the various cultures, the wolf-like creatures are often depicted as ape or man-like beasts, but were often more akin to gorilla-like wolves than human-like wolves but werewolf was adopted anyway (were from German means a human, and a wolf is a wolf). This idea might have descended from a rare surviving wolf descendant such as a direwolf, or it could have just been that someone saw something similar, the rest of this belief had descending as scare stories (especially towards children) that were passed on through the centuries. The most popular/modern idea of a werewolf, from what I've gathered is a human that can turn into this seemingly "wolf-like" beast or the "hairy human" pseudo-wolfman (which is somewhat akin to the concept of cynocephaly). The concept has been twisted and has changde through time and may well even have earlier roots, but the principle still applies.
Anthro: Anthropomorphism in visual art means to represent a concept or object as a human, such as a god (although many religions would argue man is made to appear like such gods and not the other way around) or an alien that looks seemingly identical to a human (think like Doctor Who), that appears to look just like a human. Anthropomorphism in literature is when an apparently non-human / animal character/object is personified which gives off the sense that the animal is doing human things and must thus have human attributes, describing a car with headlights for eyes or giving an animal voice are all examples of this form of anthropomorphism - this form of anthropomorphism (in the case of animal characters) may be expressed in illustration in many various ways and this is popular in fables (for example, Aesop's Fables), cartoons (for example, Looney Tunes) and animations (for example, The Lion King, Disney's Robin Hood, which are often aimed at the PG audience), etc.
Furry / Furry fandom: Furry is a sci-fi and high fantasy subculture that has its earliest roots seen in the sci-fi and funny animals fandoms, but more specifically became a founded term when Unix hackers started to make their own groups online in the late 1970s, "furry" very easily referred to animals and is nerdishly easy to type on the QWERTY keyboard (keys F, U, R and Y are closely spaced). The usergroup was aimed at the BBS users to discuss primarily cartoon animals (such as those found in the Critters comics, media such as that from the Vootie/Rowrbrazzle APAs and funny animals films) but secondarily anything related. In 1982. The fans of such cartoon/anthropomorphic animals were nicknamed furries, only colloquially were the characters in the media the furries enjoyed also called "furries" but that was only because it related to the furry appeal and was often times easier to say. Furries were some of the first to invest time in digitally assisted animation, quite a few furries were hired to help make animations such as Oliver & Co, although many were just passively hired, but the fact the likes of furries experimented with digital animation is what largely lead to the switch for the larger corporations such as Disney. I think the first time I heard of the sexual aspect becoming a stereotype in the furry fandom (which is nowadays often preached by LGBT escapists to the furry fandom who confuse the whole furry thing for "ponyplay" towards the mainstream media) was when people took the animator 'Shawn Keller's "FurryFans" animations a little too seriously. Although like in any form of art, there's always an erotic appeal to something (and since furry fandom in the appeal of nerds, nerdish things occurred) google "rule 34" to see that this is the case for many things when taken to nerdish extremes and not just furries.
Furry / Furry community: Nowadays, the furry fandom is still around, of course, but it has left behind an internet subculture very much akin to the anime/manga fandom. Sites such as FurAffinity and even more so on DeviantArt, there are many of these types of "furries". What type of furry I'm describing here is anyone who makes furry characters and most likely uses one (this is called a "fursona" to represent themselves on the internet, and yes, DA is full of them, although some reject being called furries for fear of nerdish stereotypes that evolved in the furry fandom. The furry community and furry fandom are now pretty much relative to each other, they are the same thing but the difference is how you treat it. This type of furry is generally not very "nerdy" and orients around the aesthetic of anthropomorphic/cartoon animal characters like it's simply one of their (usually core) interests, this type of furry is fluid, if you have a fursona it doesn't need to be so strongly anthropomorphic as shown in the picture above, it may (usually) walk on the natural count of legs and can be drawn as human or animal as you like. So this form of furry isn't about the anthropomorphism so much as having an animal persona/character, although the characters are usually human-like in some respect because such characters can express the best of human and animal attributes and as a hence a somewhat cartoon or chibi art style is often applied and far more artistically fluid in terms of this (cartoonism often uses anthropomorphism as it allows extraordinary emphasis of human traits in non-humans). This attitude towards the furry appeal was largely among the furry lifestylers (who are still around now) who enjoyed oftentimes dressing up as animal in public using animal stereotype apparel (such as ears and tails) and fursuits, now I'm sure most persons on DA have some form of animal persona. Furry has thus, of sorts, lost somewhat of its original meaning, but the word was pretty much stolen from the English dictionary, so this form of furry could be described as a different subculture to older furry fandom, if you so wish. Another note to add is that feral is moreover a pejorative term, a stereotype describes ferals as non-anthropomorphic animals, although those artists often stereotyped as ferals do in fact usually make their characters human-like, for example, their characters may have human eyebrows or just facial expressions, the ability to interact with human things and a stereotypical human-like intellect or character. If a furry character walks on all fours, it doesn't make them necessarily feral, for them to be entirely, non-anthropomorphic they'd need to have no noticeable human specific traits or personality. Moreover to those persons who say "if it has four legs, then it's feral" that is illogical, as not all non-human animals have four legs, for example kangaroos have two legs are they thus non-feral? Any artist (or even a zoologist) experienced in examining animal anatomy, rhythm and behavior can very easily distinguish what is anthropomorphic and what is not.
But by the by, a furry fan / furry may like all three of these, all examples relate to similar approaches, although some may not like the appeal that the werewolf shown in the picture follows the idea that the character is human at the base and thus less fantastical, whereas anthropomorphic/cartoon animals are more fantastical and somewhat more pure with their own background. I've known furries with werewolf and anthropomorphic animal fursonas.
Werewolf: this is the English term based upon a German term that inherently falls from the idea of the Loup Garou and similar legendary wolf-like creatures. In the various cultures, the wolf-like creatures are often depicted as ape or man-like beasts, but were often more akin to gorilla-like wolves than human-like wolves but werewolf was adopted anyway (were from German means a human, and a wolf is a wolf). This idea might have descended from a rare surviving wolf descendant such as a direwolf, or it could have just been that someone saw something similar, the rest of this belief had descending as scare stories (especially towards children) that were passed on through the centuries. The most popular/modern idea of a werewolf, from what I've gathered is a human that can turn into this seemingly "wolf-like" beast or the "hairy human" pseudo-wolfman (which is somewhat akin to the concept of cynocephaly). The concept has been twisted and has changde through time and may well even have earlier roots, but the principle still applies.
Anthro: Anthropomorphism in visual art means to represent a concept or object as a human, such as a god (although many religions would argue man is made to appear like such gods and not the other way around) or an alien that looks seemingly identical to a human (think like Doctor Who), that appears to look just like a human. Anthropomorphism in literature is when an apparently non-human / animal character/object is personified which gives off the sense that the animal is doing human things and must thus have human attributes, describing a car with headlights for eyes or giving an animal voice are all examples of this form of anthropomorphism - this form of anthropomorphism (in the case of animal characters) may be expressed in illustration in many various ways and this is popular in fables (for example, Aesop's Fables), cartoons (for example, Looney Tunes) and animations (for example, The Lion King, Disney's Robin Hood, which are often aimed at the PG audience), etc.
Furry / Furry fandom: Furry is a sci-fi and high fantasy subculture that has its earliest roots seen in the sci-fi and funny animals fandoms, but more specifically became a founded term when Unix hackers started to make their own groups online in the late 1970s, "furry" very easily referred to animals and is nerdishly easy to type on the QWERTY keyboard (keys F, U, R and Y are closely spaced). The usergroup was aimed at the BBS users to discuss primarily cartoon animals (such as those found in the Critters comics, media such as that from the Vootie/Rowrbrazzle APAs and funny animals films) but secondarily anything related. In 1982. The fans of such cartoon/anthropomorphic animals were nicknamed furries, only colloquially were the characters in the media the furries enjoyed also called "furries" but that was only because it related to the furry appeal and was often times easier to say. Furries were some of the first to invest time in digitally assisted animation, quite a few furries were hired to help make animations such as Oliver & Co, although many were just passively hired, but the fact the likes of furries experimented with digital animation is what largely lead to the switch for the larger corporations such as Disney.
I think the first time I heard of the sexual aspect becoming a stereotype in the furry fandom (which is nowadays often preached by LGBT escapists to the furry fandom who confuse the whole furry thing for "ponyplay" towards the mainstream media) was when people took the animator 'Shawn Keller's "FurryFans" animations a little too seriously. Although like in any form of art, there's always an erotic appeal to something (and since furry fandom in the appeal of nerds, nerdish things occurred) google "rule 34" to see that this is the case for many things when taken to nerdish extremes and not just furries.
Furry / Furry community: Nowadays, the furry fandom is still around, of course, but it has left behind an internet subculture very much akin to the anime/manga fandom. Sites such as FurAffinity and even more so on DeviantArt, there are many of these types of "furries". What type of furry I'm describing here is anyone who makes furry characters and most likely uses one (this is called a "fursona" to represent themselves on the internet, and yes, DA is full of them, although some reject being called furries for fear of nerdish stereotypes that evolved in the furry fandom. The furry community and furry fandom are now pretty much relative to each other, they are the same thing but the difference is how you treat it. This type of furry is generally not very "nerdy" and orients around the aesthetic of anthropomorphic/cartoon animal characters like it's simply one of their (usually core) interests, this type of furry is fluid, if you have a fursona it doesn't need to be so strongly anthropomorphic as shown in the picture above, it may (usually) walk on the natural count of legs and can be drawn as human or animal as you like. So this form of furry isn't about the anthropomorphism so much as having an animal persona/character, although the characters are usually human-like in some respect because such characters can express the best of human and animal attributes and as a hence a somewhat cartoon or chibi art style is often applied and far more artistically fluid in terms of this (cartoonism often uses anthropomorphism as it allows extraordinary emphasis of human traits in non-humans). This attitude towards the furry appeal was largely among the furry lifestylers (who are still around now) who enjoyed oftentimes dressing up as animal in public using animal stereotype apparel (such as ears and tails) and fursuits, now I'm sure most persons on DA have some form of animal persona. Furry has thus, of sorts, lost somewhat of its original meaning, but the word was pretty much stolen from the English dictionary, so this form of furry could be described as a different subculture to older furry fandom, if you so wish. Another note to add is that feral is moreover a pejorative term, a stereotype describes ferals as non-anthropomorphic animals, although those artists often stereotyped as ferals do in fact usually make their characters human-like, for example, their characters may have human eyebrows or just facial expressions, the ability to interact with human things and a stereotypical human-like intellect or character. If a furry character walks on all fours, it doesn't make them necessarily feral, for them to be entirely, non-anthropomorphic they'd need to have no noticeable human specific traits or personality. Moreover to those persons who say "if it has four legs, then it's feral" that is illogical, as not all non-human animals have four legs, for example kangaroos have two legs are they thus non-feral? Any artist (or even a zoologist) experienced in examining animal anatomy, rhythm and behavior can very easily distinguish what is anthropomorphic and what is not.
But by the by, a furry fan / furry may like all three of these, all examples relate to similar approaches, although some may not like the appeal that the werewolf shown in the picture follows the idea that the character is human at the base and thus less fantastical, whereas anthropomorphic/cartoon animals are more fantastical and somewhat more pure with their own background. I've known furries with werewolf and anthropomorphic animal fursonas.
I don't think such and explanation was so nessesary...