I've long been into furry art, characters, and even fursuits, but I was never attracted to fursuiting enough myself to dedicate the time and resources. Isolation following a work injury has pushed me to find a time consuming and engaging hobby. It's finally time to do this!

I was never much interested in making my own fursona before, so now I had to come up with one. I wanted to design something that I have a connection to, rather than just picking an animal that looks neat. I had long identified with the image of a black wolf, as a representation of a sort of primal side of my personality. I know, edgy right? It was a good place to start.

I wanted to have a little more fun with this than just a monotone, clever patterns are half the fun of furry art! Red and black is already my favorite color combination, so that was a given. Bold, but not interesting enough. I decided I could use grey to add more detail, and keep in theme with the character.

The concept of "The Wolf" in my mind was always darker and unsettling. I already liked what I saw from some realistic fursuits I had encountered. But they are far more challenging for a first, and I was worried I would be defined and restricted to that role or image, and I didn't want to be. How could I effectively walk in both worlds?

To begin to answer this, I thought about how the fursuit could react in variable lighting. The darker side of the character, as I had always imagined it, could be presented in low or dark light. If I used a dark red and grey, they would appear close enough to black in low light to blend better with the primarily black figure. Conversely, in the brighter light of conventions or daylight, the more fun pattern and color would stand out. Different outfits could also sway the feel of a dark fur character one way or another. A goth or punk outfit would create a full dark figure that is more intimidating, while formal attire in lighter colors would provide great contrast and a more lighthearted approach.

Born from this, was one of the most important core concepts of the character. To bolster the unsettling nighttime image, I wanted the character to appear much like a wild animal would. With the teeth, tongue, and eyes being the primary distinguishable features. Reflective eyes were absolutely necessary to get that look of a wild dog under camera flash! To keep this interesting and unique, as a furry character has to be, I thought the reflection should bear color. Not just a white flash. Ideally, this could add a colorful sparkle in daylight too, improving my ability to play a lighter character.

I was initially motivated to approach this project when I saw Spencer's/Spirit selling cheap entry level heads. I thought I could customize one for cheap, and get started doing stuff with local furries for fun. I quickly found they were completely out of stock and not coming back. But I was far too emotionally attached to this already. I saw discussion online that an entry level base could be had for a similar price. So, I set about looking for one. It was a little challenging finding one how I wanted, until I came across one WAY outside my budget. So good I lost sleep over it, and eventually justified spending over 3x my budget on the base and accessories alone.

This beautiful head base is from YazursCrittersHub on Etsy. It has a moving mouth, deep set eye blanks, and magnetic attachments for eyelids. The seller was able to custom print the mouth in black and the tongue in red, to promote the image I was trying to create. This head is ideal for the overall design I want for the character. I want to land right between cartoon and realistic, to bring to life the slimmer character style from many famous artists I already know and love. It's a relatively small head base, and I'm a tall and lanky 6'2", so it should match me well. I found several reviews of others making their first head with it, with much better than average results. I was sold that this design is effectively "idiot proof" and worth the extra money.
Yeah, just watch me overcomplicate this anyway.

Now that the base was on the way, I had the monumental undertaking of creating see through reflective colored eyes with detail. Something that, as far as I could find, has never been done before. My initial plan was clear reflective spray paint. Reading into reviews, this was a bust. Next idea was to use more industry standard beaded powder over colored paint. I was fairly set in attempting this, until I came across reflective heat transfer vinyl. A good idea, but not clear. Couldn't find any clear reflective vinyl, but I discovered images could be printed onto reflective vinyl. I found the local company that prints road signs and decals for the PD, and checked out some of their material. Better than expected! With reflection even visible at room lighting. They had a reasonable minimum order, so I went home and designed an eye image to use. I brushed off old Illustrator CS2 on my 09 MacBook. Took me a couple days and a few hundred layers to create the design I wanted, with detail and a range of color. Now I just have to figure out how to get hundreds of tiny holes in a piece of vinyl. My initial idea was drilling, until I found just how hard it is to find a 1/32" drill bit. I got assorted small sewing needles as a starting plan.

Then I wait for parts, while I figure out... everything else. I don't know the first thing about faux fur or making a head!