Tig is doing a fursuit?!
Err.. not *usually* do I do this sort of thing, but I love my characters so much, I decided to begin constructing costumes of them. I really admire animatronics artists and costumers, they get to put on a different identity and think as someone/something else would, stepping into someone elses paws and walk around in them. I've always wanted to create a really great character and be able to bring them into a 3D format, it's even better being able to "become" them. I didn't really think it could be possible, financially or artistically, to make a fursuit, it seemed like such a daunting thing since I'm not good with 3D arts and haven't much practice, after all you cannot just erase your mistakes when carving foam or cutting fur. But when i saw an opportunity, I jumped at the chance just for a self-challenge. I began researching what would be the least expensive and what mechanics I could get away with constructing without being overly-technical.
Tig fursuit is complete! Check it out here!
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the "Tig" half-suit
I've loved my character "Tig" for awhile now, she has all my good and bad qualities, fears, hopes and obsessions. I use her to express myself in an artistic form. Some people call it their "fursona", an anthropomorphic animal (aka. anthro, furrie) that they assign to represent themself in-character. Half-suits are much cheaper, and Tig wears clothing all the time, so I opted to make it a half-suit (head, paws and tail).TaniDaReal's method of construction seemed to be easiest for a non-sewing type like myself. I'm using Tig's reference sheet as a guide.
Head: drawn up a quick sketch for the foam.
(night 1) progress photos. glue foam together with a hot glue gun to create the basic frame that holds the head to my head. Right now, it resembles a car without wheels or a baseball cap.
(night 2) progress photos. still glueing foam bits in, filling in the gaps, finding eye placement, adding a bit of detail on the muzzle. Tigs muzzle is very long and slanted, and her eye placement is set high, so I have tilted the frame down a bit, so the eyes will sit higher. Now it looks a bit more like disney's "Goofy" or a scottish terrier. Please ignore the crappy foam job in the back of the head, i accidentally switched the two foam pieces, gluing them in opposite places, so they didn't fit right and I had to put in foam slivers to fill in gaps. Yeh.. I'm inept, I should just stop now.. but I won't.
(night 3) progress photos. carving! what will I make the eyes out of? I have no idea, but I hope I'll be able to see through the entire eye instead of just the pupil (whatever the material will be). I'd like for the eyes to look at each individual person too. Hm. Anyway, just the basic carving of the head, one eye is carved inside, also the upper and inside the mouth. and I have to glue on more foam to the front of the muzzle-cheeks to round them out, and behind the block of foam that the eyes sit on so the eyes don't stick out like that. She's starting to look Tig-like now, the basic head shape is there.
(night 4-6)progress photos. A giant leap forward! The jaw is connected and functions, the ear-wires are in place, the lynx-tuft foam is in place. I still have to fix the sides of the head and build up the lynx tuft foam accordingly. After messing with that goofy jaw for a long time, I realized that now I have built up so much foam for my chin to press against, that whenever I open my mouth, it shoves the jaw open AND it pushes the head back (obstructing my view and being a general nuisance). I know that one of the causes is because there is a large gap between the back of my head and the foam, and it's very tight around my ears, so much so that it pivots on the sides of my head like a Pez-dispenser whenever the jaw is opened. I have yet to fix it. She looks like a tiger with an egyptian headdress and alien/buggy anttenae right now.. That'll change as soon as I get more glue-sticks for my hot-glue gun.
(night 7-8) progress photos .. more cutting, the ears are furred and glued on. Blue fluff courtesy of Joecifur.
(night 9) progress photos. .. taping the head. DO NOT USE MASKING TAPE like I did, it can barely keep its hold overnight, yet I let mine sit for three days and the end result looked like a curly-quilled porcupine. Note, the eyes seen here are "temps" made of paper and marker, used to help me get a feel of the overall appearance and to judge how deep they need to be for the "follow me" effect to work, later they will be made of a linen mesh and painted nicely.
(night 10) progress photos. Furring the top of the head and the eye region. I was getting all the upper-area markings on there, until I... I ran outta hot-glue sticks again (apparently 14 wasn't enough, overall I must've used up 30 sticks so far). Also realized I need to buy another sheet of long tan fur for the back of the head, that area was alot bigger than I previously thought. The tan fur isn't *exactly* the color I want, I tried taking a orange prisma marker and making it more peach-colored but it just made it look like tan fur with orange streaks (later it will get moussed into a feathery "layered" look and have green tips, I hope the fur holds out against the mousse).
Finished product - I've been looking at this shorter brown fabric for weeks for the brown/green feathered headfur, but it was too short and I couldn't think of a way to make it work, and later I eventually bought it figuring I'll find *some* way to make use of it, because I didn't like the marker-colored fur I mentioned in the "night 10" description. I cut it into long head-width stripes and then cut them into large fringes, then brushed green paint against the fur-grain to make it stick up. I glued these fringed fur sheets in tiered layers, applying extra unfeathered sheets to hide any foam patches that showed up. I used a stick of charcoal to darken the fur on the nosebridge, and to give shadows under the corners of the mouth and in the crease on the eyelids. The nose is originally clay, but will be replaced because it's too heavy. Her jaw no longer functions after the furring process because for some reason my chin now has to be at least two inches forward to open the jaw, I have yet to understand why (the jaw has not shifted during furring). Anyway, that's another issue I must deal with. Lips and inside the mouth are white sheets of "foamies" that i've painted with acrylics. The clothes-hanger wire that was used to prop up the ears were taken out to make the head lighter, so the ears now droop a bit more than before and flop around (think Yoda's foam ears). There is still a U-shaped wire pinning the inside of the head to underneath the ears (besides the hot-glue in-between) and a poseable metal strip inside the ears to make them curl (SO.. my effort to make the head have less weight is fairly unnoticeable..ugh). On the bathroom scale, the head measures 2.5 lbs, I can't imagine trying to do anything *fun* with 2 1/2 pounds of weight on my head, so I'm considering how to get the weight off without tearing it to pieces. Plus my body structure is skeletal and i'm 5'2", this big head overtakes the size of my body.. (anybody have a shrink-ray?) On the upside (there's an upside?), my glasses don't fog up while i'm wearing the head because the buckram-eyes gives it just enough ventilation. It still gets stuffy and unbearably hot because of the unfunctioning lower jaw though, the air inside becomes instantly stagnant with no way of escape, making it hard to breath, but somehow the glasses don't fog up. 9_9 She still needs teeth and white eyelashes, buuuut anyway, there it is. One "Tig" head.
Head supply list: poly-foam $15, peach fur $3 (scraps), 2 preforated plastic sheets 70c, electric carving
knife $15, 2 springs, wire (bottom jaw) $3, buckram-like stuff for the eyes $3, 4 white long-fur strips $6, 2 yds
short white fur $13, half-yard long brown silky fur $7. Oh.. I've lost count, but I'd say the foamies, extra fur,
unneeded things like eye-globes and so on totalled about $10 or less. 40 hot-glue sticks at 7c each (Hancocks).
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Hand/Foot Paws:
(Handpaw photos) (Arm with handpaw photos) Hand-paws: fun-foam pads and fur, hand-sewn, tips stuffed with polyfoam.
Foot-paws: (finished product) I wanted to make them extra big because the head is bigger than it should be. But they turned out looking like the usual size. The slippers are a womens size 9 1/2 and the paw-digits reach to 3 inches in front of that, width across the toes is 9 inches, from toe-to-heel is 14 inches, and tallest toe 5.5 inches. I used Matrice's method. I ended up loathing furring it because I had bought such cheap white fur to work with that it sheds off on the edges creating bare spots. The fur that sheds off is like fake sheep wool or cotton, it's awful, and the only way to patch it up is to shave off some fur from the scraps, roll it in my fingers, put a dot of glue on the bare spot and plug the area. I regret ever buying the stuff. Reguardless, I used it because I had bought two yards of it and I had to get rid of it. So, while making the feet, I had to make sure to glue the seams together quickly or else i'd be left with a big bare spot. I can tell that having this fur on such a wear-and-tear area as the feet will definately not last long. So, in hopes of prolonging it's lifespan, I will need to make Timduru sandals for them. I used pink/black prismacolor markers to put on the claw-slits. The paw-pads are "foamies" which I think will last the least unless i put sandals on the feet, or find that shoe-goo that Matrice's footpaw page was talking about..
supply list: old pair of rubber-soled slippers, white extra-long fur, white short fur, fun foam.
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Tail:
(finished product) All held together with hot-glue and duct tape. Each spot was individually cut out and glued in. Alot longer than it should be, it drags along the ground. So its movement is somewhat dull. But it's pretty to look at, so I guess that's all that matters, eh? If I have time and a few extra bucks, i'll search for a tail-ring.
supply list: camping mat foam, long fur fabric, short fur fabric, airbrush, coat-hanger wire, a belt,
twine, duct tape, hot-glue.
Needed supplies: a napkin-holder ring (tail decoration)
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Legs: (extra padding/custom jeans)
(finished product) Lookit! Foam digitigrade legs!
supply list: elastic bands, foam
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Clothes:
Look at the pics of the complete suit for a peek at the pants and poncho. I also made a conbadge with bells, and a oversized metal peace-sign necklace at a costume shop. :)
supply list: blue-jean printed material, square piece of lightweight ty-dye fabric (summer poncho)
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