Maid from the Netherworld - WIP

Närcon is getting closer, we're travelling there next Thursday. It's the first time I'm going to a cosplay convention outside Finland so I'm excited to see what's it like. We originally planned to go there to cheer on Päivi from Uruhara FC, but I ended up registering me and Minorea for Närcon's Cosplay Group Performance contest.. whoops! The contest is on Thursday, the 1st day of the con.

So, as I earlier revealed I'm going to cosplay Airi from Queen's Blade. I'm usually really shy about showing lots of skin, but it's starting to look like that as long as I'm going to compete with the costume, I can wear revealing cosplays... So Närcon's visitors are going to get some pantsu shots, wohoo!

I was the most worried about the scythe, but luckily we got help from a carpenter that Minorea knows. He let us use his tools and told us what to do with them so we wouldn't hurt ourselves. I used to study woodwork for 6 years in elementary and junior high school, so it was really fun to work with something like this after such many years (and with better tools too). I added details from Apoxie Sculpt and started the paint work. :3

It... it looks like a scythe! So pretty!

Sculpting the handle. I used Apoxie Sculpt because it's so handy! It's really soft to sculpt and dries in air in about 2-3 hours. It gets really hard and after that you can sand it, saw it or drill it! :) It also gets attached to pretty much anything, which is why I covered the scythe with sticky-backed plastic.

The handle is drying. I had to balance it with a cutting board (that I made in elementary school ;D).

The sticky-backed plastic worked and I could remove the handle! Yaaay! Now I can separate the prop into smaller pieces for easier transport. ^_^

Sanding the handle.

Priming paint!

Spray painted scythe. After it dries I will add darker paint to the edges for more contrast.

I also got the wig and cut the bangs right away. It was harder to get the piggy tails done than I expected, but they look rather nice. I still need to make the small tufts on top of them and add some fibers to the back side. But it's nice and red, red is always good! <3

Make up test.. I think I look really scary (and cross-eyed) like this! xD But Minorea told me it looks cute, lol.

The dress itself is more complex to make since I still have no idea how to sew clothes. I've managed to make the skirt and cut out all the fabrics. There's so much ruffles and little details everywhere, even though I thought it's a simple costume to make. Oh noes! Currently I feel like the time is running out and I even sewed at work at the hotel reception... orz

It's still not finished, but looking good so far! The last time I attempted a puffed sleeve it looked.. not so puffed. But this time I edited the pattern and it came out just perfect <3 Also, a piece of my ruffles..

I've never done a ribbon before, but it turned out pretty~

The underskirt weights a ton alone. It's going to be so hot wearing this costume... T__T

My cosplay at work. I didn't notice one customer coming to the reception and had to show him what I'm sewing. xD

I still feel kind of positive that I'll finish the costume in time, even though I had only one day off from work in two weeks before a convention. I have to say I'm really looking forward to finishing the costume and the contest, our performance is going to be awesome because our audio is great already (so great that even neighbours came to the backyard to see what the hell we are doing). x3

My little helper got tired of all the pieces of fabric and ruffles.

Alma the Husky

Hi everyone,

It's been a long time since my last entry! I had a blast at NordicFuzzCon 2014 and I'm already looking forward to the next NFC... :) I will write more about NFC later, I've been too lazy to get my pictures in order.

After NFC I started to work hard on a fursuit partial commission. It's a toony husky head for Twixs on FA, and it's the first toony head I've ever made. It was both challenging and fun, but I still prefer building realistic heads. I guess I made my record in building fursuit heads, it took me about 3 weeks to finish Alma instead of the months I've wasted with mu previous suits. x3

All started with a reference sheet. I drew it as a commission to Twixs. It was interesting to do since it's based on her dog!

After the reference picture was finished I started working on the base. It got done rather painlessly and I was happy with the over all shape and all. 

No I don't like Lapin Kulta or any other beer. It's an old shirt from work and I tend to wear old shirts when I work with fursuits. The foam and faux fur stick to anything! The nose was sculpted with Apoxey Sculpt.

The eyes were definitely the most challenging part of making this fursuit since I had no experience how to do them. I Googled for several "3D follow-me eyes"- tutorials and created these for the head! I used soft foam, buckram for the pupils and acrylic paints. They really have a nice effect and it looks like the eyes follow the viewer. :)

I was surprised how easy it was to fur this head because usually I've had a lot of problems with it. The pieces of fur are sewn together and glued on the head. The markings were quite challenging to do, but everything went well. :D

Before trimming.

After the first trim. I've cleaned all the edges around eyes, nose and mouth.

After final trim, it looks so much different than the first one without trimming! The black areas on the head were too narrow to be sewn on the fur pattern so instead I painted them on with acrylic paints. At this point the head missed neck piece, teeth, tongue and eyelids.

After finishing the head I added a neck piece and made a tail and hand paws for the suit. Alma got finished in time for Twixs and was shipped to her after my little photoshoot.

Meet Alma the Husky!

My dog Olia absolutely loved this fursuit. She just had to hug and kiss it. x3

Finished Projects & WIPs

I thought I should make a small update on my projects before Nordic Fuzz Con. I haven't done that much recently, I've mostly worked on drawing commissions and school stuff.. But here are some older finished pieces as well as projects I'm working on at the moment. ^^

For Desucon Frostbite I did two black canine tail commission for Kite and Rave:

Last autumn I did bodysuit commission to Vzion. Because the wearer can't use the fullsuits, she made just legs out of the body. The digitigrade legs are made by me, the partial (head, paws & tail) by BlackPawCreatures.

Bodysuit on me. I'm too small for it, but you can hopefully get idea of what the whole thing looked like. Sorry about the flash and dirty mirror, I didn't have any other way to get a picture of it. xD

This is Deo with the digitigrade legs! Pictures (c) Lutu.

The next piece is a recently finished bodysuit commission to Rimawolf. I'm too small for the costume, but you get the general idea! Oh, and our fursonas, Rima and Gaikotsu look so alike, they're like sisters! ^w^ We even have the same colours for our tails so I used Gaikotsu's tail when taking these pictures.

The next project is something special! It's a realistic cat fursuit partial I'm making for Linnea. It will be finished by NFC'14. The character's name is Lei and he loves you! <3 Have some progress photos!

A reference picture of the character. Art & character (c) Linnea aka Kirepapa.

The base after I thought it's finished. Since I'm mostly a canine artist feline anatomy is kind of  strange to me. I was hesitant weather to make the snout smaller or not, but luckily Minorea told I HAVE TO make it shorter because at this stage the base looked like a dog to her. And it does look like a dog to me too now!

The head after I shortened the snout, a lot more feline. :3

For this project I tried casting resin eyes for the first time. They turned out so pretty!

And here are two big, beautiful, hand painted cat eyes for Lei.

I made patterns for the fur and tried the pieces on. Everything looks alright, so I'm ready to sew the edges and glue the fur down!

I fooled around a little bit and tried the ears and eyes on the fur. Nothing's in place yet!

I scuplted a feline nose, jaw and teeth for the head. I really like the jaw! I used FIMO, Sculpey Ultra Light, Game Colors and Deco Acrylic paint. These are not finished yet!

 Oh and I also got a new baby: an airbrush set! I just have to get some other colours because those that came with the set are NOT suitable for faux fur. I ruined two test projects with them (I tried it on different quality of furs). I can't wait to use it to add more detail to my work.

I'll update about Desucon Frostbite once I get some more photos. ;)

Ponyta Quadsuit & Cosplay Update

I'm sorry I haven't updated more  frequently, but I've been busy with well.. making cosplays for  Desucon (one of the biggest conventions in Finland) and also making my Ponyta quadsuit. To be honest I sent in my cosplay portfolio for Nordic Cosplay Championship! Keep your thumbs up because I really want to go there with my Ponyta! Four cosplayers will represent Finland in NärCon in July and those four people will be announced in Descucon next weekend!

I drew the redlines around a duct tape dummy that Minorea helped me with. The redlines show where I need to add the padding to!

After I made the redlines for the quadsuit I've made fast progress. I have the back legs finished (the paddings are not sewn in yet though), I started with the furring of the head and finished my arm stilts too!

The head with fur on. Time to start trimming!

I added light red felt on the ears and the nosestrils. I painted shadows on them with darker light red too.

I covered the duct tape dummy leg with padding with canvas I used as a model for the fur fabrics.

Finished back legs (without padding).

Arm stilts made from PVC-pipes.

You can see how the arm stilts actually work in the video below. I wore my Gaikotsu fursuit head while trying them out.

For Desucon I'm going to wear (of course) my Gaikotsu fursuit, but only for one day. That'll most likely be Friday. For Saturday we're going to wear our new kigurumis with Minorea. They will be really bright coloured ones with pink and yellow, and we'll both wear orange wigs and ganguru gal make-up. At some point (maybe on Sunday...?) we'll join Soul Eater group cosplay. Minorea is doing Patty and I'll do Liz Thompson.

Patty & Liz

I'll be pretty lazy with this cosplay so I'll just wear old jeans instead of making them myself. The shirt and the hat will be done by me though!

After the convention I'll go straight to a friend's stable where I'll join a riding camp and after that we'll have some midsummer fun-time! I'll do my best to update on Ponyta and Liz before that. :)

1st Quadsuit Project - Ponyta

I challenged myself with a more difficult form of fursuiting: a quadsuit. For I love both fursuiting and cosplaying I decided to combine my hobbies: I'm going to cosplay Ponyta from Pokémon.

I don't even know where I got all this inpiration, but I started this new project couple of days ago. It took me only one morning to finish with the head's base! This time it's slightly easier though because I don't need to worry about the head fitting my head, eye vision or ventilation. I'll just place the head on a helmet on top of my head.

Foaming in progress.

Today I had the time to do the last touch ups on the base and cover it with duct tape. Next I will cut out the duct tape and use it as a model for cutting out fabrics. I'm excited I'm getting this done so fast!

First I planned to do the mane and the tail from yellow and orange wigs, but I changed my mind. I want it to look more like the character's fiery mane, so I'm making it from yarn. It will be a lot of work to tease the yarn so it would look good, but I've already made some of the front mane.

Mane of fire! The mane still needs to be straightened and rearranged.

The head looks more like Robot Unicorn Attack than a Ponyta at the moment, but I hope it will turn out to be a wonderful little Ponyta galloping on four legs. x3

1st Fullsuit WIP

Hey everyone! I've almost got my Gaikotsu fullsuit done! I never expected I could do it, but today I wore it for the first time and it was quite comfortable to wear! 8D I'm really excited to wear this suit for this weekends MimiCon. It's a Japanese popculture related convention, but we'll have a small furry meet there. :3

The after I had sewn almost all part together. I know it's a bit weird. xD

And here's how it looks on me!

I still need to make the hind paws and a new tail for myself, but other than that it's done! I'm so happy! I have new paws too and they are way better than my old ones~
I still haven't fixed the head, but I'll do that today. :3