is the duct tape going to be in the finsal product?

That's actually not duct tape- it's a piece of fabric glued along the seams for reinforcement :)

ohhhhhh that makes much more sense!
lookin spot on btw!

Haha yeeeeah duct tape would be a silly choice, huh? XD
Thanks a bunch!

Might I ask you a strangish question? Where did you get your mannequin head? I"ve been looking for a nice not styrofoam head for a while now and have had no luck! XD Very nice progress by the way. :) Angel Dragons are always cute!

I got all fancy and this one is actually a lifecast of my real head! That way it'll fit me perfectly.

The styrofoam ones are poor at mimicking real sizes and proportions and I don't recommend them for maskmaking if you can help it. Good place to start, but a proper mannequin is worth the investment! This is the most popular: http://www.monstermakers.com/produc.....life-size.html

And thanks a bunch! :D

Thankyou so much! I will definitely look into buying this. I've needed one for so long for my hat business.

How thick was the foam you used to make the base of the head? Also, how did you figure out how much you needed? My next cosplay based project is going to be my fursuit head so I was hoping you could help. ovo

The strips I used for the base were 1" thick. For the muzzle I used 2" foam to put three of them together. I usually recommend of beginners to invest in 1" foam because it's easy to add onto if you need it thicker and it allows you to build things up more slowly as needed, instead of worry too much about cutting everything away which can kill symmetry fast.

I have foam in bulk so I don't tend to keep track well and used a few different pieces, but the area of foam I used so far I'd guess is probably about a yard and a half's worth... but only because everything is quite large. Most heads only need about a yard.

Do you remember about how much it costs...? >_<;; I'm currently torn between making my griffon and making a Scottish fold cat so the amount would be about the same no matter what.

Prices seem to be increasing constantly, but on average 1" foam is about... oh, I'd say $20 a yard retail for high density, and 2" is about double the price because it's twice as thick. (Also for reference, the size I'm referring to here is 24" wide) But straight from a manufacturer you can slash that price in half at least. So if buying from a local fabric store like JoAnn,
I highly recommend purchasing with a coupon or only when it is on sale at half price. But ordering online is an option as well- TheFoamFactory.com is a great resource.

Oh yeah, I also sell foam at a fair price :p
I can quote you, just tell me how much you want of what thickness and throw your zip code at me

I live in Canada, so I'd probably be getting the foam from either Fabric Land or the local craft ware house because shipping may be a bit of a stretch for me... @_@; Though I do appreciate your suggestion and offer for a quote on selling your own foam. uvu

Yeah, silly international shipping. Best of luck!

Sorry for not reply!! Thank you and best of luck to you too with Sonar!! uvu I'm going to be getting the foam as soon as possible, but I have one more question. I'm trying to think of a way to stiffen the foam I want to use for the beak of my griffon's head. Is there anything I could get or put on the foam to make it a bit more stiff or even a thicker foam for that sort of thing? ovo

I've always known you for being really great at making heads with the moving jaws. Will Sonar have one as well or will she have a static jaw?
Either way she is coming out fantastic :) Looking forward to seeing more progress <3

Sonar will be my first suit with a static jaw ^^ Should allows her to have a lot more facial expression that way
Thanks so much for the compliments! :D

Okay :D I bet she'll look awesome <3

Do you have printing tutorials on how to get those large print outs of your character, how to measure it correctly and so on? This would honestly be very helpful..

I have been asked to do that a few times. My method is so overly complex, I doubt it would be useful to most people. But I've definitely thought about it and potentially how I could go about making it simplier. A lot of time it's just guesswork to get the scale right, but I suppose I could always do a basic overview to answer some basic questions about the method it's just hard to find the time for stuff like that at the moment.

Perhaps the next time I do a project, I could record myself going through the process... since I'll be in the middle of doing it already XD

That'd be awesome ^^
So where will this suit be premiring?

Midwest Furfest in December :3

Pleaaaaaase explain how you do this ; ;

I need to figure this out more than you could imagine. Would save me loads of time, and the need to buy an old overhead projector x3

lol, just go to a school and borrow an overhead projector XD

I think this would be a good poll question for deviantART, just to help gauge how much interest people have in learning this.

Fffff....yeah that's a good idea *coughididntthinkofthatcough* XD

looking awesome!!!

Thank you!

*flails* That means a lot coming from you of course! Thanks a ton Ino <3 <3 <3

come to megaplex next year here in fl...i am a AD and i want more of them to come there with me.

I am always looking for more con suggestions! Megaplex is not very high on my list at the moment, but it all just kinda depends how things fall into place and what my financial situation allows. I'd love to have more angel dragon friends to hang with though :3 I took a look at your suit because I was curious but I don't think the photos you have do it any justice. Hope I get the chance to see it in person one day

here are more pics of me, better ones: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6042694/

I watched your livestream and it was amazing to watch. For couple years I loved your work and to see it live was truly awesome ^^ I wished to go to MFF but as of right now I don't have my AD made yet but once she's done I'll suit her in different cons and hope there would be another AD gathering.

Also one question. i was thinking of making a Mega Garchomp full bodysuit, how does one make the head ontop of your head and I could see through its neck? Thats the only thing stopping me for making the suit. I was gonna ask how to make the jaw movable but I think I'll make it static lol.

I hope to watch more livestreams of your Sonar coming to life ^^

Thanks for being a part of the stream! It was definitely awesome having a bunch of AD people come hang out with me :3 Thanks a ton for the compliments! I can't wait to see Snowflake made into a suit, and definitely hope to run into her at a con. I will be trying my best to make Anthrocon next year happen since that's the largest AD gathering, just as long as there aren't any life schedule conflicts since my annual family vacation has always been in conflict with it. All the furry cons I've attended thus far, Ino and Cerros have also attended so that makes things awesome that they live in the same part of the country. But it seems a lot of us are really spread out!

MEGA GARCHOMP, RAAAAWR!
There are quite a few ways to go about a costume with a neck extension. The most straightforward method is to build it on top of a bicycle helmet. Your top priority should be making it very secure to your head (and/or shoulders in some designs) and, to be nice to yourself, also try to make the head as light as possible so as not to strain your neck. I would avoid trying to do a moving jaw as it is complex to figure out and those who have are trying to keep it a bit of a trade secret I'm afraid. I see you've made a shiba partial, so it's good that you have a bit of practice in suit making. But otherwise I'd honestly suggest something easier to start out. This will be infinitely more complex because you don't have a resin blank to work with and will take a lot more engineering and testing to work out. Also be sure to look at other people's work as reference/ideas. Track down as much research material as you can that is even remotely related. The more prepared you are, the better off you'll be. Sculpting forms and playing with foam will be a unique challenge if you've not done anything like it before. I definitely wish you the best of luck!

I will be announcing the next stream date/time tonight (it'll be next Saturday) so I definitely hope to see you again

Yes no problem, hope to catch the stream when you do make it live.

I love garchomp alot XD Thanks for the helpful tips. I actually did make a zoroark fullbody once but used wrong materials lol. I hope it'll be much easier now :3 I thought of the moving jaw, i'll do that later years when I have the skill to do so. RIght now everything is practice. Thanks so much again and I didn't know you saw my partial suit lol

Btw I'll have Snowflake by next year before anthrocon 2015, so I hope to go. Its pretty far from where I live and I don't have many people to go with or how to go yet. But I hope to meet ya someday ~~

Love the shape of this one! I prefer this to the normal super chibi ones I see :)

Thanks a ton! I'm so thrilled to hear this too because I definitely wanted to make sure I wasn't cloning the shape of other costumes; I'm so glad that this shows!

Ahh it's looking so great so far~ <33

Will you be doinf a fur tutorial as well, just wondering, learning to cute fur right would be also helpful for me. I always tent to cut to close. Only if you are willing to shear pictures of the fur progress as well of course. This is damn awesome by the way, and super helpful. I'm going to do a canine base one, hope it goes well for me, though with this inspiration, I think I'll do much better this time. So many, many thanks.

I was wondering if you had any tips on making an angel dragon. I'm planning on making one for my next fursuit but I have no idea where to start. I've made a partial before but it was crappy and I made a decent quadsuit. The main problem for me is the eyes and ears. Any tips? Also, Sonar is sooooooo cute! When is your next live cam thingy( idk what it's called)