Could anybody teach me how to create a fursona?

[WirbelBeast]

Hello community, I have joined recently and I am lost in this topic of creating my fursona. I really do not know very well what to do in the situation in which I find myself and I am looking for someone to help me and guide me, because there are people here who have a lot of experience. I clarify that I do NOT need help to choose the characteristics of my fursona, I need help to know how to create one, I need someone to give me some advice, to tell me what I do wrong or right.

The general question would be: What would you do in my situation? And before you answer me, let me explain my case.

*The paragraphs between asterisks (*) only serve as a remark or note, it is not an interruption of the text*.


I have had the idea of having a fursona for 3 years now, even before I knew I was a furry. During all this time I've only had in my head a few characteristics that I like for my OC, but nothing more than mental ideas that I stored up as the years passed. It was about two months ago or so, when I became interested in the fandom and I wanted to have a clear visual representation, a real image of that OC instead of just having a few fuzzy, abstract ideas inside my head.

Due to my great ability to draw very badly, one day I had an idea, I decided that in the future I would commission an artist to draw a reference template of my fursona.
Of course, the artist needs references and a detailed description of what I want in order to start drawing and to avoid misunderstandings.

And this is where I come in, I have to get out of my mind those ideas that I have accumulated during all these years and transfer them to the physical plane. A task more difficult than expected, one must have a great ability of organization and decision, which is a real challenge for a person like me.

I was recommended to look for reference images, the more the better. I ended up finding about 84... . The main reason I have so many pictures is because I want to create a new species. It is actually a hybrid between a fox and a dragon but with some distinctive characteristics. Because of this, I had to look for references of fursonas of both species and there are images that I only chose because of small details or because I liked their style xd.

*I have also thought of using f2u templates, but since it is an invented species, I think these are not very useful for me*.

Later I decided to make a descriptive text to compile those characteristics that I want my fursona to have, and to organize myself better this way. The bad thing is that when I start to describe I don't know how to continue, I get lost and skip important parts. Many will say that I'm not decided and that's why these things happen to me.
It is true that there are some details that I still have to decide about my fursona, I don't have a very clear image to be able to describe it with words, because there is too much to take into account, so many images, too many mental ideas?

However, not everything is the fault of indecision. I don't think a painter has a very clear image of what he is going to paint from the beginning, like a picture recorded in his mind that he has to copy and paste on the canvas. At most he will have visual references and his ideas, but I guess it's more experimentation and imagining as he progresses, always keeping in mind those abstract ideas and transforming them into something concrete. The indecisions don't worry me, they are solved with time, since one can always modify his fursona or create another one. I care about the process of how to create my fursona.


What stops me the most is my ignorance in these matters, and that is why I am writing, I need to learn from someone. I am lost, I don't know what I can do with what I have, I don't even know if it is possible to achieve what I want. Furthermore, I have to be specific, but I don't know how to describe, if it should be with words, images or in another way.

Then I surrender because I think I am not doing it right, I feel insecure because I have no one to tell me if what I am doing is right on an objective level, if it is a good methodology or not and how I could improve it.

Other times I don't even start describing because I don't know how to do it anymore. I don't understand what I can do now, I have never designed an OC, I don't know how I can get good references for the artist with what I have. Many tell me to just give it a personal and original touch but they don't explain to me how. They say I have to listen to myself but I am sure I need external help. I lack management, that art to use what I have now to reach what I wish. I watch videos, read tutorials, but I can't get advance.

What can I do without an instructor to guide me? I only have some ideas and mental images plus some visual references with separate features. If someone tells me how to proceed, or gives me advice, I would make progress.

Many think that what I need is help in deciding what my fursona should look like...NO!!! (wait I am still thinking of saying this again). What I need is someone to guide me through the process, give me steps, advice or point out if I am doing something wrong. I want to know what is the opinion of others about the procedure I use, so I can learn and improve. I don't want to know what they think of my fursona.

Probably there are things that I have not yet decided and have not taken into account, things that I do wrong or that make me fail to advance, so I need other eyes besides my own.
I don't want someone to design my fursona for me, I want someone to teach me how to design my fursona.


*I thought about paying those who help me in the whole process. I recognize that it is hard to help someone in all this, as it means to be by their side even if it is virtually and to be aware of it. It's not a 5-minute help. There are two small inconveniences with this payment thing, the first is that I am a minor and the second is that people are going to refuse the money because of the risk of scamming. But honestly I'd rather have someone who is really interested in helping me, than just doing it for the money.*

*I decided to send this message in the middle of summer as people are not that busy usually and neither am I, but I don't pretend to ruin your vacations.*

If there is any kind and humble person interested, please comment and if you want something in exchange for helping me too. Well, let me know how you want me to contact the interested ones and don't doubt to ask me if you don't understand something.

I also can give more details of my fursona and share the photos I found.

Sorry for being so boring, I wrote so much. (U - U)

Well, once this is said, I say goodbye, although I hope you don't kill me if I ask any more questions, I promise it will be something more specific and less extensive xd...

Have a good summer, best regards :3.

 

[Ziggy Schlacht]

https://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/i-need-someone-to-guide-help-me-in-the-process-of-creating-my-fursona.1681042/

There's a thread on this, some guy getting buried in the weeds. I've answered it there. Stop thinking so hard.

 

[TyraWadman]

Are you asking for help on how to draw it with art software, or are you asking for someone else to draw it for you?

 

[Khafra]

https://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/i-need-someone-to-guide-help-me-in-the-process-of-creating-my-fursona.1681042/

There's a thread on this, some guy getting buried in the weeds. I've answered it there. Stop thinking so hard.

It's almost the same thread, down to the requests and species used...

Either way, @WirbelBeast, since you claim that you know perfectly well what your character looks like, that's all of the design process done already. You've finished. Describe the character from head to toe to an artist, send them the images you think fit best and you're done.
Only a physical description is required. If you're worried about missing some details, write down what you remember and let it sit for a while, and add the things you forgot another day. You only need to describe the shape of the body parts, colours and any special markings, if you have them.

There is no strange process to this, because no process is needed.

 

[WirbelBeast]

It's almost the same thread, down to the requests and species used...

Either way, @WirbelBeast, since you claim that you know perfectly well what your character looks like, that's all of the design process done already. You've finished. Describe the character from head to toe to an artist, send them the images you think fit best and you're done.
Only a physical description is required. If you're worried about missing some details, write down what you remember and let it sit for a while, and add the things you forgot another day. You only need to describe the shape of the body parts, colours and any special markings, if you have them.

There is no strange process to this, because no process is needed.

https://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/i-need-someone-to-guide-help-me-in-the-process-of-creating-my-fursona.1681042/

There's a thread on this, some guy getting buried in the weeds. I've answered it there. Stop thinking so hard.

That's not a coincidence, VortexDelta and I are the same person.
I have a problem with my other account because for unknown reasons it doesn't let me see the answers you sent, I only see your profiles and a white box without text where the comments should be. The little I could do is to give you like. I also wanted to edit my message (due to the fact that I didn't explain myself very well) with that account or even send another message with a better explanation, but when I click on the save or publish button my screen begins to load but it does not finish. These problems happen to me with the rest of publications, I only see white boxes without text and I can not send messages or reply in any post.

 

[WirbelBeast]

Are you asking for help on how to draw it with art software, or are you asking for someone else to draw it for you?

No, I am asking for help to know how to make a good reference of my fursona in order to commission an artist for the drawing.

 

[Khafra]

That's not a coincidence, VortexDelta and I are the same person.
I have a problem with my other account because for unknown reasons it doesn't let me see the answers you sent, I only see your profiles and a white box without text where the comments should be. The little I could do is to give you like. I also wanted to edit my message (due to the fact that I didn't explain myself very well) with that account or even send another message with a better explanation, but when I click on the save or publish button my screen begins to load but it does not finish. These problems happen to me with the rest of publications, I only see white boxes without text and I can not send messages or reply in any post.

And it's only on that account? Strange, seems more like a browser problem.

No, I am asking for help to know how to make a good reference of my fursona in order to commission an artist for the drawing.

That's also a much clearer explanation than the one above, but still, not really a big issue. If you're afraid of missing something, just divide the body into parts and describe each separately - head, arms torso, etc, and attach relevant pictures of said body part as reference.

Any artist worth their salt will give you WIP sketches so that you can point out mistakes and changes as they work. You can specifically ask them to do so either way. That way, even if you missed something in the description you can later point it out on a sketch.

 

[Ziggy Schlacht]

Man, you could've asked that in a single sentence... "Hey, how do I make a good reference for an artist. I can't really draw"

Starting out, you can very easily just send art you like and go "kinda like this" and describe changes. You don't need a reference per se. You can also google "free fursona reference" and color as you want. Text descriptions work too.

Again, calm down, breath... You're so far buried in the weeds that even the bugs are feeling crowded.

 

[vickers]

As an artist who has been asked to create characters from absolutely nothing, here's what I usually expect from people:
Gender;
Body type (you can describe it as muscular, skinny, chubby etc);
Colors (you can use hex color codes, they are very useful for artists);
Markings;
Species;
Personality (this is not that important fro the design, but it can be worth mentioning);
What your character's junk will look like (this is very important for some people XD);

and honestly that's it... like others have mentioned, usually an artist will send a wip of the process so you can tell them to correct the design if you end up not liking it.

Just keep it simple and try not to get lost in the details. If you can describe each aspect of your OC with just one or two words, the design process will go a lot smoother. I hope this helps.

 

[WirbelBeast]

And it's only on that account? Strange, seems more like a browser problem.


That's also a much clearer explanation than the one above, but still, not really a big issue. If you're afraid of missing something, just divide the body into parts and describe each separately - head, arms torso, etc, and attach relevant pictures of said body part as reference.

Any artist worth their salt will give you WIP sketches so that you can point out mistakes and changes as they work. You can specifically ask them to do so either way. That way, even if you missed something in the description you can later point it out on a sketch.

Thank you very much for the advice . The problem I had with my other account has been solved. It seems it was some temporary glitch with the browser account, because when I logged in this morning everything was fine.

Man, you could've asked that in a single sentence... "Hey, how do I make a good reference for an artist. I can't really draw"

Starting out, you can very easily just send art you like and go "kinda like this" and describe changes. You don't need a reference per se. You can also google "free fursona reference" and color as you want. Text descriptions work too.

Again, calm down, breath... You're so far buried in the weeds that even the bugs are feeling crowded.

Yes, I think it would be better to have asked with just that one sentence than to write the whole bible above, but I was also worried that I missed something important. All in all, thanks for the tips and you really made me laugh with this one: <<You're so far buried in the weeds that even the bugs are feeling crowded>>. XD pure poetry.

As an artist who has been asked to create characters from absolutely nothing, here's what I usually expect from people:
Gender;
Body type (you can describe it as muscular, skinny, chubby etc);
Colors (you can use hex color codes, they are very useful for artists);
Markings;
Species;
Personality (this is not that important fro the design, but it can be worth mentioning);
What your character's junk will look like (this is very important for some people XD);

and honestly that's it... like others have mentioned, usually an artist will send a wip of the process so you can tell them to correct the design if you end up not liking it.

Just keep it simple and try not to get lost in the details. If you can describe each aspect of your OC with just one or two words, the design process will go a lot smoother. I hope this helps.

Oh thank you. I guess I needed to have an artist's point of view as well. I didn't expect that what you said about garbage XD.

 

[Ziggy Schlacht]

Yes, I think it would be better to have asked with just that one sentence than to write the whole bible above, but I was also worried that I missed something important. All in all, thanks for the tips and you really made me laugh with this one: <<You're so far buried in the weeds that even the bugs are feeling crowded>>. XD pure poetry.

That's the beauty of being brief - people will fill in the important bits for you. If you get too specific, you people will find you missed things. If you're rather general, they'll do the work to fill in the blanks for you.

I can almost guarantee plenty of people had good advice, but saw that novel and went "I dunno what they want" and left.

To the point of working with an artist:

Good
Orange back, white belly, black stripes

Artist can fill in the colors themselves, and can tweak the orange as needed. For that matter, an artist could work from "natural tiger" and get there. Hell, if I went "natural tiger with red bandana" that covers everything to realize I'm probably talking about Tony the Tiger. I never mentioned frosted flakes, or his build, just defining features.

Bad
Orange (Pantone 1495 C) over 50% of the body, with a crossfade, going to white on the other 50%, having details of the fur itself, with black (Pantone 101820) stripes, having 4 stripes per arm, 7 on the left leg

Depending on lighting, you may never come near Pantone 1495C for Orange, even if they sample right off a nuetral reference. How exact does 50% need to be? Do I really need exactly 4 stripes per arm? And you've missed the pantone for white, as well as how many stripes on the left leg. So you got too specific, and ended up missing details - but the "good" description has all the details an artist needs. Remember, you're not drawing it for them, you're giving them direction they need to draw it for you. Any artist worth working with can "fill in the blanks."

Now, once you have a reference, a lot of the specifics get filled in, but starting out you do not need to write a massive novel. Let the artist work.

 

[vickers]

Oh thank you. I guess I needed to have an artist's point of view as well. I didn't expect that what you said about garbage XD.

Haha I meant "junk" as in "genitals" pff. Which isn't that important of a thing, but you never know lol

But yes, in regards to working with artists, I agree with the example Ziggy gave above. One time I was asked to design someone's fursona and they just told me that it needed to be "green with purple markings", so I went from there. I made a couple of variations of the colors, and let them pick the one they liked the most. In the end, they told me to adjust the colors, like "make the purple a little darker," which is an easy fix so it was no problem!