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FBOTM September: Artslave
14 years ago
September 2011
So FBOTM has been revamped with a couple new questions and here to test drive them is
artslave. In a world of sweet, fluffy fursuits, this builder’s costumes stomp in and strike fear into the foamy hearts of furries. ArtSlave has become popular with semi-realistic/realistic and often frightening costumes sporting impressive muscle and digitigrade padding. After some conversation I have come to find that ArtSlave, like her costumes, is very, very cool.
Describe your history in the furry fandom.
Actually, I got into furry via another furry. When I was super little I would wrap up towels with rubber bands and wear them around like a tail, and I just thought that people with tails was the KEENEST idea. After a few years I stopped doing that, of course. Sometime in high school, I ran into some bloke I'd known from both frequenting a local gaming shop, who had a fairly convincing wolf tail that he wore around everywhere, 24/7. Eventually I popped the question and did "that" google search. Found a bunch of furries in my area who did social meetups and so forth, and they all turned out to be really stellar folks, so I hung around for a while. I really love meeting new and interesting folks, so conventions are a huge plus for me. I've been to other conventions before, but I really adore the personal creativity in the furry fandom. Other conventions laud adoration on canon, but furry is really the only fandom I've seen where folks design their own characters, worlds, and so forth. Between that and the fact that it's populated with some of the best artists I've ever seen, I ended up sticking around :D
Describe your fursona/s.
I'm an avid roleplaying nerd, so I've got a filing cabinet of characters somewhere, but I really only have one I consider my fursona. It's a towering, daemonic thing. Just a generic monster, I guess. A friend of mine(Midori) drew up a sketch of a monster for me one day, that I loved so much so I went with it. It's pretty laid back for a monster, never really going out of its way to visit wanton destruction on villages or anything(Unless there's a village or townsfolk in its way or harassing it with pitchforks, of course). Most of the time it lives under the beds of troubled children and befriends them, helping them cope with life and so forth. Horrible, unapproachable monster, totally a good person inside though.
When did you build your first costume and what was it?
Oh man, actually when I was two or three I "made" a costume.. and by that I mean I stapled netting to the arms of a pair of green fleece pajamas and put a latex raptor mask on. Obviously this was a dragon with a majestic wingspan. Not terribly impressive but, hell, I was three.
The first real costume I ever built was a set for a husbandry event(Where you and your horse had to have matching costumes), where I made a wolf mask out of faux fur and cardboard(Big bad wolf), and I made a cloak and hood for my mare(Little red). I didn't get started sewing fursuits until late 2002.
How many fursuits have you been paid to build?
Oh jeez. I would venture to say more than 50, but less than 100? I'm not entirely certain, to tell you the truth. I don't really keep track of this sort of thing. Quite a few, though.
What is your construction method of choice?
I like balaclava and foam method, with some tweaking with different densities of foam. Its comfortable, cheaper than resin, and lightweight, with no uncomfortable pieces of plastic or anything to jam in your face.
What is your average price range?
Full suits start at $1200, Partials at $850, heads at $450. I can't offer an average because most folks who come to me to build something for them want something different, so alot of my stuff has muscle padding, or a full suit or prop armour or is made entirely out of fleece, or something, to make it pretty non-standard. But for regular fursuits, those are pretty much what you'd be looking at :)
Who was your favorite to build?
Definately my lizardman. I got to work ALL in fleece, which was a first, and got to build a full muscle suit- everything, back, legs, arms, OH! And TONS of airbrushing. That was my favourite part XD. Because it was a personal suit I got to do 'whatever I thought was good at the time', so got to experiment with alot of new techniques and tools, so it was a big springboard for me working on lizards- I've got a ton of techniques I can apply in the future. I like building personal stuff for that reason- if I find a technique that doesn't work, it's not a huge deal, I can just go back and fix whatever I messed up later, rather than messing up a customer's order. So I try to dump as many new ideas onto the few personal suits I churn out, so I can experiment all at once. :D
What are some challenges you have had to overcome as a builder?
Time management. Totally time management. People don't tell you that when you do something you love you might forget how long you've been working and end up working an extra 3-5 hours a night. This doesn't sound like such a bad thing but when you start to think you're superman and can work 12 hour days, 6 days a week, you get overloaded or backed up REALLY fast. So time management is one of those skills I'm still trying to master. Obviously there's technical skills, I still can't use a sewing machine to dart for the life of me. But those are much easier to get over, a little practise and things become doable. Time management needs more than practise. Like.. a bachelor's in economics and a personal aid(My cat tries, but she just isn't up to snuff.. caught her sleeping at her desk AGAIN. I've gotta fire her).
What makes you unique as a builder and why should people choose you?
I think the market is saturated with folks who do cartoon style costumes and hyper realistic costumes. I cater more to the scary/freaky/gross/monster crowd. I don't see many people who do scary suits as a running theme, so I think I've got a pretty solid corner on that market. People should choose me only if that sort of thing floats their boat, while I can stumble my way through making other styles of costume, 'rar' suits are definately more in my comfort zone, and if someone's looking for realistic or cartoony, there's definately a ton of folks out there who do it better. BUT, if you want that zombie/werewolf/daemon/hellhound/mind flayer/evil-psychic-tire that you've always secretly craved, my prices are pretty reasonable and I'm always available for quotes.
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/artslave/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5898256 (Lizardman pics)
So FBOTM has been revamped with a couple new questions and here to test drive them is
artslave. In a world of sweet, fluffy fursuits, this builder’s costumes stomp in and strike fear into the foamy hearts of furries. ArtSlave has become popular with semi-realistic/realistic and often frightening costumes sporting impressive muscle and digitigrade padding. After some conversation I have come to find that ArtSlave, like her costumes, is very, very cool. Describe your history in the furry fandom.
Actually, I got into furry via another furry. When I was super little I would wrap up towels with rubber bands and wear them around like a tail, and I just thought that people with tails was the KEENEST idea. After a few years I stopped doing that, of course. Sometime in high school, I ran into some bloke I'd known from both frequenting a local gaming shop, who had a fairly convincing wolf tail that he wore around everywhere, 24/7. Eventually I popped the question and did "that" google search. Found a bunch of furries in my area who did social meetups and so forth, and they all turned out to be really stellar folks, so I hung around for a while. I really love meeting new and interesting folks, so conventions are a huge plus for me. I've been to other conventions before, but I really adore the personal creativity in the furry fandom. Other conventions laud adoration on canon, but furry is really the only fandom I've seen where folks design their own characters, worlds, and so forth. Between that and the fact that it's populated with some of the best artists I've ever seen, I ended up sticking around :D
Describe your fursona/s.
I'm an avid roleplaying nerd, so I've got a filing cabinet of characters somewhere, but I really only have one I consider my fursona. It's a towering, daemonic thing. Just a generic monster, I guess. A friend of mine(Midori) drew up a sketch of a monster for me one day, that I loved so much so I went with it. It's pretty laid back for a monster, never really going out of its way to visit wanton destruction on villages or anything(Unless there's a village or townsfolk in its way or harassing it with pitchforks, of course). Most of the time it lives under the beds of troubled children and befriends them, helping them cope with life and so forth. Horrible, unapproachable monster, totally a good person inside though.
When did you build your first costume and what was it?
Oh man, actually when I was two or three I "made" a costume.. and by that I mean I stapled netting to the arms of a pair of green fleece pajamas and put a latex raptor mask on. Obviously this was a dragon with a majestic wingspan. Not terribly impressive but, hell, I was three.
The first real costume I ever built was a set for a husbandry event(Where you and your horse had to have matching costumes), where I made a wolf mask out of faux fur and cardboard(Big bad wolf), and I made a cloak and hood for my mare(Little red). I didn't get started sewing fursuits until late 2002.
How many fursuits have you been paid to build?
Oh jeez. I would venture to say more than 50, but less than 100? I'm not entirely certain, to tell you the truth. I don't really keep track of this sort of thing. Quite a few, though.
What is your construction method of choice?
I like balaclava and foam method, with some tweaking with different densities of foam. Its comfortable, cheaper than resin, and lightweight, with no uncomfortable pieces of plastic or anything to jam in your face.
What is your average price range?
Full suits start at $1200, Partials at $850, heads at $450. I can't offer an average because most folks who come to me to build something for them want something different, so alot of my stuff has muscle padding, or a full suit or prop armour or is made entirely out of fleece, or something, to make it pretty non-standard. But for regular fursuits, those are pretty much what you'd be looking at :)
Who was your favorite to build?
Definately my lizardman. I got to work ALL in fleece, which was a first, and got to build a full muscle suit- everything, back, legs, arms, OH! And TONS of airbrushing. That was my favourite part XD. Because it was a personal suit I got to do 'whatever I thought was good at the time', so got to experiment with alot of new techniques and tools, so it was a big springboard for me working on lizards- I've got a ton of techniques I can apply in the future. I like building personal stuff for that reason- if I find a technique that doesn't work, it's not a huge deal, I can just go back and fix whatever I messed up later, rather than messing up a customer's order. So I try to dump as many new ideas onto the few personal suits I churn out, so I can experiment all at once. :D
What are some challenges you have had to overcome as a builder?
Time management. Totally time management. People don't tell you that when you do something you love you might forget how long you've been working and end up working an extra 3-5 hours a night. This doesn't sound like such a bad thing but when you start to think you're superman and can work 12 hour days, 6 days a week, you get overloaded or backed up REALLY fast. So time management is one of those skills I'm still trying to master. Obviously there's technical skills, I still can't use a sewing machine to dart for the life of me. But those are much easier to get over, a little practise and things become doable. Time management needs more than practise. Like.. a bachelor's in economics and a personal aid(My cat tries, but she just isn't up to snuff.. caught her sleeping at her desk AGAIN. I've gotta fire her).
What makes you unique as a builder and why should people choose you?
I think the market is saturated with folks who do cartoon style costumes and hyper realistic costumes. I cater more to the scary/freaky/gross/monster crowd. I don't see many people who do scary suits as a running theme, so I think I've got a pretty solid corner on that market. People should choose me only if that sort of thing floats their boat, while I can stumble my way through making other styles of costume, 'rar' suits are definately more in my comfort zone, and if someone's looking for realistic or cartoony, there's definately a ton of folks out there who do it better. BUT, if you want that zombie/werewolf/daemon/hellhound/mind flayer/evil-psychic-tire that you've always secretly craved, my prices are pretty reasonable and I'm always available for quotes.
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/artslave/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5898256 (Lizardman pics)
