Hey hey folks! The start of the new year and I have just been shown this site by my girlie-butt so I was thinking I might as well post my stuff here too, photos of projects Im working on, and anything that goes on in my head 'bout them too. I learned fursuit stuff via Mama Matrices and Ive always wanted to pay-it-forward in terms of helping out the community better themselves in terms of construction and understanding.
The fellah up above is my newest go at a fursuit. He started off as some random project and then wound up turning into an auction suit since I already had enough stuff around of my own (I mean seriously, I got 12 heads on my shelf right now, bahaha) and one thing I definitely learned from it was freedom from commissions is truly a blessing. When working on something of your own design it really gives you that less-stressful atmosphere to go out on a limb and do what you want with a costume. I had, for the longest time, just wanted to make a floppy-eared fellah. I also wanted to experiment around using various different fur types and fur lengths to see how it'd turn out. And to say the least, Im very much happy with how it came out, even though I was a little cautious at attempting to mess with all but just one fur type. But I thought eh, its noone's commission so Im not gonna catch heat from it!
Most of the stuff I get in LA's Fashion district so I dont know some names, heh
For the appendages I went ahead and used a 1" short pile fur (I believe called Cubby fur). Thats for arms, feetsies and so on. I also may use short pile for the muzzle since its gonna be shaved anyways (and actually wanna use some fleece stuff!). This helps out though because this stuff is pretty darn easy to get the fur out of seams, which is always a challenge especially on the hands and feet where its crucial to see the toes. Its also short to it doesnt hide the separateness of each digit, so I highly reccomend using a short pile or even a fleece for appendages to help pronounce the fingers, toes, claws, and pawpads.
The next length I use is the DF's long pile fur.
I Use somewhat a small amount of this on the body since personally I dont like how it matts. However, when brushed it can look pretty ncie and fluffy, but someone has to really keep ontop of that. What I mainly use it for is a blending fur, whereas I would sew this inbetween the Cubby fur mentioned above, and then any longer furs I may use, so that way the transition from short to long isnt something drastic (unless intentional, such as highlights or chest fur) otherwise the two furs stand out way too much and can look odd.
The third length I use is the DF's xtra long pile fur.
Normally I hate this stuff since it matts like.. grossly. However it seems like they've been getting better at producing it so I didnt have as much an issue using this stuff. But pretty much this is wherever I wanted the fur to be long and I didnt need to use too much of it. As I personally find, when I use a lot of it, it winds up looking like a shaggy dog who needs a brushing, but when I use it for just bits and pieces, such as elbows, heel tufts, etc, it looks beautiful and does its job well!
The longest length ive used is a fur Im absolutely in love with: Monkey shag
This stuff is like, 4-5 inches or so, and looks gorgeous. It flows nicely and doesnt matt at all and is something you definitely want for chest floof, for pretty pretty tails, cheek fluff and for anything else of that sort that you want long and fluffy. It might seem like a bad quality cause the backing on it looks pretty weak, but the fur itself hides its thin backing and it is actually a wonderful fur to use. This border collie is actually covered largely in this fur on the chest (You can see it blowing crazily in the wind right here too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIi9Nf0fb-U )
But anyways, hope you guys like the stuff I make! Ima try to get more social in this community since it seems enormous and there's always somebody that is looking for help, so maybe I can be that person! Hopefully this border collie is bought out and debuts at FC for anyone wanting to see him in person. If not, I might just have another coming to visit FC< heehee!
ANd if you wanna see the entire body of the fellah you can check him out here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9641676/
For any of those folks that are actually interested in this guy, as I had mentioned he is on auction, you can check it out right here! Got a bit of time left to bid, too! http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1038735.html
And feel free to just stop by and say hi, ask questions, show me your own stuff, or whatever! I love love love talking with builders and aspiring artists alike!