I'm Michelle Diane Carbaugh, referred to as "Riley", and better known as CanineHybrid. Born January 12th and a native to Colorado, I'm 23 and will be obtaining my bachelors degree in Media Art and Animation this June.

I would describe myself as an animator graphic/web-designer sculptor creature-costume-builder drawer seamstress modeler cartoonist videographer director editor entrepreneur molder/caster concept artist... I honestly play with a little bit of everything and follow each creative outlet as it spills over into the next one. I'm always looking for more creative things to add to my skillsets and more creative people to add to my network :)




First I want to talk about my username and online identity, the "CanineHybrid"... because maybe you don't know the story. A few friends of mine and myself had created an original role-playing game/collaborative story called "Eon"- which was about mutant experiments with magical powers. We had an idea, "What if our characters had an online blog and wrote about events in their lives?" While we never went through with actually making these blogs, some of us created usernames based on who our characters were in this role-playing game or what they might have picked as online handles... and funny enough they ended up being the main usernames my friends Night, Ani, and myself now use for accounts today! My role playing character Riley is half dog and half human, hence "CanineHybrid". She had blue fire powers too, awww yeah. Badass.

However, the ultimate decision on how this became my main username is for many reasons all stacked up on one another. Besides the named being based on my character, it also makes a tribute to my love of werewolves and describes my personal connection to a canine-like identity (therianthropy). I have also had others describe me as "dog-like" in my actions, behavior, and personality for years. Even my old character, Tusami the dragon, was very dog-like in her anatomy and personality.

It works as a business name to describe what I do as well- which is turn people into creatures through costumery, essentially making them half human, half whatever character they're portraying. I also think hybrids of anything can be really cool and creative. I'm sort of a hybrid in what kind of artist I am and the art I do, particularly in how I combine it all together into one project. And then the best part about this name was that surprisingly the username had not been taken anywhere on the net prior... so I was able to establish a universal name to use on every website I'm a part of, which was something that was very important to me to have when switching to a new identity, as well as being extremely easy to read and remember. Finally I had been contemplating some changes to Riley the German Shepherd Dog to make her a little bit more hybrid-like lately, so "Riley the CanineHybrid" was born as character of a German shepherd dog combined with a reptile/dinosaur.



I'm an emotional and expressive being, particularly with being female, and I've always been treated like a weirdo... and I think most artists can relate in some way. Because the world sometimes wonders about things like this and they can really define a person, I wanted to clarify the "big things": I am straight, asexual, not a virgin, and an agnostic-atheist. I currently have a boyfriend, verlis, who is also asexual. Many people have different takes on what asexual means so I'll tell you my personal meaning for it because surprisingly I get asked a lot: I am non-sexual- I have never developed a natural interest or curiosity for anything sexual in nature growing up, do not experience sexual urges or arousal, and have no interest or desire to engage in sexual activity. I have tried it before and have no emotional/mental stimulation to it and have determined that it's not my thing and likely never will be. This is obviously something this is unnatural for creatures of this earth through but I don't really feel like I'm missing out because I can't relate to the flip side.


I've been embodying the behaviors and movements of animals and monsters my whole life and have always had a passion in trying to bring those experiences to life through drawing, animation, and costumery. That's where most all of my influence has been to shape what direction my art takes. I am very empathetic to the things I see and draw a lot of power and energy from that- particularly from watching movies with creatures or idolized characters. I've always been fascinated with behind the scenes features and the way things move, both technically and artistically. This is the foundation for my passion and inspiration- to bring things to life.


Also fun fact- I used to have hair down to my waist (man I need to find a photo of that) and I cut it all off and donated it the last day of Freshman year of high school. I much prefer short hair and probably won't ever go back. Short hair ftw!


By the way, I have a FAQ here where you can go learn more things about me :p I could talk a hellva lot more about myself but then I'd keep you here all night. And then I'd look like a narcissist... but feel free to ask any questions you want! I don't bite.

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Started by Growly http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10088419/, this was an idea to honor International Women's Day on March 8th. I wanted to do it soon as I found out about it but ended up delaying it... until KazulGfox mentioned she felt she'd be too late to the party also, so we decided to both post ours up on the end of the month instead!