have any art advice?

• keep drawing! nothing will teach you more than practice and experimentation can! practice every day!!
• don't know how to use an art program or a certain medium? press every button and try everything you can think of!
• remember to use references and google to find resources! there's a lot of help out there, you just have to reach for it!
• everyone starts somewhere. you will not learn unless you try. failure is a part of learning.
• you do not need expensive tools to practice or improve. start with paper and a pencil.

have any species advice?

• having a species is really trial and error, luck, and preserverance!
• if you have no experience with a species, i don't recommend making your own right off the bat! join another one first to get a feel for being a community member, and then try to become a staff member to get behind the scenes and see how things are run!
• while your species is young, you'll likely have to handle all the duties of it yourself (archiving, making adopts and art, management, etc), so be sure you're capable of doing all of these things!
• don't argue over nickles and dimes! do your best to keep your community happy, without them you wouldn't have anything! don't forget that your staff members are community members first, try to keep them happy as well, and when possible, try to keep your species fresh to them by even surprising them too, though they can see behind the scenes!
• in my opinion, less rules is better! if you foresee a rule or restriction making problems for the community in the future, i recommend removing it! there is nothing that people crave more than freedom, and having such strict control over your species is only going to create more work for yourself, expecially causing micromanagement problems.
• most importantly, remember to have fun and make sure your community is having fun too!