Writer's Block: ONTD Games Giveaway
Which video game character would you like to have as your real-life BFF?
One random response will win a $60 Amazon gift card! [Full contest rules here.]
Don't forget to share your favorite gamer moments on at 3 p.m. PST for Free For All Friday (FFAF).
Earthworm Jim. He was by far the strangest character out there when i lived for video games and tv. the old three player "Xenophobe" game was pretty cool fora while too watching them shuffle from a squatting position trying to evict the bad dudes and monsters.
First Finished Plushie
Last night I just finished my first successful plush toy prototype, using the Northsound Plushie pattern, and modifying the design slightly. He has no hard plastic joints, so all parts are permanently attached.
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okay
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plushies, WIP
I thought I would take a shot at plushies, using a pattern by Norhsound. The first one, I used the short muzzle. it has a great feline/rodent/other small animal appearance. It has teddy bear joints and needs features. (eyes, nose) The second one, i made in the colors and patterns of my Fursuit using the long muzzle. the fur is a bit longer, the extremities are attached to the body, stitched on, and I love the look. I took the time to hand stitch most of the second one, and it also needs eyes and a bit of a face trim... however, if I want it to keep looking like my fursona, it'll have that wild floofy faced mutt look like my fursuit head. I can't wait to finish these off, and had a great time making them. I look forward to making many more.
Hello, Introducing Two Wet Noses.
It was good to stumble across this L.J. after only two years of working on fur-suits. Maybe the learning curve would have been easier if I found it earlier. Oh well. Anyhow, I work under the name Two Wet Noses, and have opened for commissions. I don't have lots of experience, and admit, have made some mistakes and hope I've learned from them. (won't the trolls have fun with that one!)
Anyhow, here's the time line.
December 2009, I was bored with a broken ankle. I Started looking for a hobby, and decided to make a halloween costume for my son. After searching online for tutorials, I started straight to work. To test the tutorials out, I made one for myself first.
January 2010, started work on Innuk, My first fursuit. He was completed in April 2010
As you can see, he was pretty baggy, as he was tailored from a pattern, instead of a duct tape dummy. I hadn't learned about those then. Originally, he had a soft droopy tail, but i had the curly tail made for me by a fellow local fur, Tora the Maestro. I didn't trim the fur on his face, because I liked that it could be smoothed down, then look all wild and crazy if I shake my head or stand in the wind. In this picture, the pawpads are felt, and were later replaced with latex pawpads. His large sculpey nose was fairly rough, but was the size I thought represented your view if your dog woke you up with a big wet nose. His head was built on a plastic mesh construction, using my own head, and not an armature to get the shape. The zipper was a mistake. I put it down the center in the white fur, and now that he's old and getting worn, the zipper is now visible in the front. Poor guy, he's so close to retirement.. or rebuild?
June 2010, i began work on my second suit, this time for my son, and finished in time for halloween.
Onyx the Skunk,
was built also on plastic mesh head, and used the same type of bodysuit construction tailored by pattern. This time, knowing how a growing boy would quickly outgrow the costume, i tailored it, leaving the seams very deep. If I had to let it out, I could. This made for a very baggy, very loose fitting suit, that he has had since then, and only needed minor adjustments. The back straps of plastic mesh have heavy velcro, that allows the head to grow with him as well. The tail was a mistake, trying to use a large frame to get the shape, but it ended up being overstuffed and football shaped. I had hoped that the fluffy look would work better than it did, so i took to shaving it down around the face, the hands and the feet to give more definition. The feet and hands are presently being reworked.
July 2011, I found a solution to onyx's tail, and changed the eyes to painted buckram. In hindsight, i think I'd give him eyelids. The ears are too thick, so they don't need to be stuffed nearly as much, if at all.
Here's the new tail.
I also have him trimmed a bit here, and the view of his paw pads are easier seen without the fluff. (I do know his cuffs are very big, growing space....) From the first picture, It was brought to my attention that the fur quality was crappy. Actually, it's not bad, but rather needed to be brushed out better, and trimmed around the face to show the shape better. It was also brought to my attention that the teeth looked like plastic vampire teeth. I have one thing to show regarding that.
They DO look like vampire teeth.
Lessons learned from those two led me to try new stuff. Buying a dremel to shape flaws in hardened sculpey, practicing making epoxy eyes, taking time to carve foam for feet, and making skunk/chipmunk/squirrel tails practical. ( sorry, for those that don't know, that's my trade secret now.)
Here's some practice of items I can make now. Buckram tooney eyes, Epoxy Follow me eyes, molds for latex pawpads, Digigrade style footpaws and have been practicing traditional artwork to get a better perspective of proportion. On a side note, I've started working with T-Shirts, applying orignial artwork to shirts. So Far, It's limited to light colored fabric, as the Heat transfers that seems to work best that I could find, only work on light colour fabric.
April 2011, I took on my first commission. Thanks so much to Sunder~Lane for the opportunity to use her as a guinea pig. She provided me with a DTD, which I used for the first time, and went to work on a Chameleon she provided the reference for. We stuck to a plastic mesh construction, overlaid with foam. I wasn't expecting how large the build would get, and the front of the head did end up being too big. It looked more like a toothless crocodile, than a chameleon, so i rebuilt the front of the face to shorten the muzzle.
In October 2011, Tzymon was completed and delivered to Sunder~Lane, and I was overjoyed as she told me she was happy with it.
I opened up officially to commissions after finishing up Tzymon, and began receiving requests. The first Official commission came from MisterShenTiger, as he was looking to build his suit a bit at a time. I was somewhat hesitant, since that means i need to keep a supply of fur so the rest will match, but I took the commission anyways. I set to work on the canadian thanksgiving weekend, and finished up his footpaws by the monday night following. The nice thing was that I didn't need to rush, I drew up a design sketch, he said he was satisfied with and set to work.
Since then, I've been open for commissions, and hopefully wiser for the experience lessons learned. I have a great support group of local furs that have helped with advice over design difficulties, Tora the Maestro, Temperance,Hyokenseisou, Matrices, Luca(mascotplay) and Dezu Keti to name a few.
I admit I don't have the years of experience of masterbuilders of the ilk such as Beetlecat, Beastcub, Don't Hug Cacti, etc, but i hope that someday I may gain the notoriety and recognition that they receive.
Anyhow, here's the time line.
December 2009, I was bored with a broken ankle. I Started looking for a hobby, and decided to make a halloween costume for my son. After searching online for tutorials, I started straight to work. To test the tutorials out, I made one for myself first.
January 2010, started work on Innuk, My first fursuit. He was completed in April 2010
As you can see, he was pretty baggy, as he was tailored from a pattern, instead of a duct tape dummy. I hadn't learned about those then. Originally, he had a soft droopy tail, but i had the curly tail made for me by a fellow local fur, Tora the Maestro. I didn't trim the fur on his face, because I liked that it could be smoothed down, then look all wild and crazy if I shake my head or stand in the wind. In this picture, the pawpads are felt, and were later replaced with latex pawpads. His large sculpey nose was fairly rough, but was the size I thought represented your view if your dog woke you up with a big wet nose. His head was built on a plastic mesh construction, using my own head, and not an armature to get the shape. The zipper was a mistake. I put it down the center in the white fur, and now that he's old and getting worn, the zipper is now visible in the front. Poor guy, he's so close to retirement.. or rebuild?
June 2010, i began work on my second suit, this time for my son, and finished in time for halloween.
Onyx the Skunk,
was built also on plastic mesh head, and used the same type of bodysuit construction tailored by pattern. This time, knowing how a growing boy would quickly outgrow the costume, i tailored it, leaving the seams very deep. If I had to let it out, I could. This made for a very baggy, very loose fitting suit, that he has had since then, and only needed minor adjustments. The back straps of plastic mesh have heavy velcro, that allows the head to grow with him as well. The tail was a mistake, trying to use a large frame to get the shape, but it ended up being overstuffed and football shaped. I had hoped that the fluffy look would work better than it did, so i took to shaving it down around the face, the hands and the feet to give more definition. The feet and hands are presently being reworked.
July 2011, I found a solution to onyx's tail, and changed the eyes to painted buckram. In hindsight, i think I'd give him eyelids. The ears are too thick, so they don't need to be stuffed nearly as much, if at all.
Here's the new tail.
I also have him trimmed a bit here, and the view of his paw pads are easier seen without the fluff. (I do know his cuffs are very big, growing space....) From the first picture, It was brought to my attention that the fur quality was crappy. Actually, it's not bad, but rather needed to be brushed out better, and trimmed around the face to show the shape better. It was also brought to my attention that the teeth looked like plastic vampire teeth. I have one thing to show regarding that.
They DO look like vampire teeth.Lessons learned from those two led me to try new stuff. Buying a dremel to shape flaws in hardened sculpey, practicing making epoxy eyes, taking time to carve foam for feet, and making skunk/chipmunk/squirrel tails practical. ( sorry, for those that don't know, that's my trade secret now.)
Here's some practice of items I can make now. Buckram tooney eyes, Epoxy Follow me eyes, molds for latex pawpads, Digigrade style footpaws and have been practicing traditional artwork to get a better perspective of proportion. On a side note, I've started working with T-Shirts, applying orignial artwork to shirts. So Far, It's limited to light colored fabric, as the Heat transfers that seems to work best that I could find, only work on light colour fabric.
April 2011, I took on my first commission. Thanks so much to Sunder~Lane for the opportunity to use her as a guinea pig. She provided me with a DTD, which I used for the first time, and went to work on a Chameleon she provided the reference for. We stuck to a plastic mesh construction, overlaid with foam. I wasn't expecting how large the build would get, and the front of the head did end up being too big. It looked more like a toothless crocodile, than a chameleon, so i rebuilt the front of the face to shorten the muzzle.
In October 2011, Tzymon was completed and delivered to Sunder~Lane, and I was overjoyed as she told me she was happy with it.
I opened up officially to commissions after finishing up Tzymon, and began receiving requests. The first Official commission came from MisterShenTiger, as he was looking to build his suit a bit at a time. I was somewhat hesitant, since that means i need to keep a supply of fur so the rest will match, but I took the commission anyways. I set to work on the canadian thanksgiving weekend, and finished up his footpaws by the monday night following. The nice thing was that I didn't need to rush, I drew up a design sketch, he said he was satisfied with and set to work.
Since then, I've been open for commissions, and hopefully wiser for the experience lessons learned. I have a great support group of local furs that have helped with advice over design difficulties, Tora the Maestro, Temperance,Hyokenseisou, Matrices, Luca(mascotplay) and Dezu Keti to name a few.
I admit I don't have the years of experience of masterbuilders of the ilk such as Beetlecat, Beastcub, Don't Hug Cacti, etc, but i hope that someday I may gain the notoriety and recognition that they receive.
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pensive
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