#i wish someone else could design the characters so i could just draw them loll

[secretmellowblog]

At last, here’s Chapter Four: an Unexpected Party (Part One!)

First / Previous / Next

Instagram/ Webtoons/ A03

#the hobbit #retelling the hobbit #the hobbit comic #AHHHHHHHHHH IT"S FINALLY DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #chapter 4 of my high-effort hobbit fanfic #ive realized #I just really struggle with character design #i wish someone else could design the characters so i could just draw them loll #and 13!! new characters!!! ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #:_;;;;;;;;;;;;; #anyway #it's corny as usual because corniness is my entire brand on this blog #i just liked the idea of all the dwarves having their own little quirks and stuff #i might post process work for this chapter later! #bc i like it when other people post rough sketches/process work #that's why i started the first chapter with that rough process sketch #......................... #I've mentioned before that my Goal with this comic is just to get Bilbo out of the shire #like...if the hobbit were in the public domain i would definitely have more fun #but idk #something about the ip rights to lotr/the hobbit being owned by millionaires and corporations #doesnt' sit right with me #'is every fanwork i create just free advertising for multimilliondollar corporations'' #and all that #i want to believe it's more than that tho #anyway... thank you all for being patient w me #and for leaving nice comments #otherwise there's a good chance I would never have continued to write

[princecharmingtobe]

Why People Make Fursonas, and Why You Should Give It a Try

I was explaining this to a friend earlier and then was thinking about it to myself for a while. Why some people make fursonas, and why they offer something that human characters sometimes don’t. Of course there is the basic reason “Because they’re cute/cool and people like them”, but I just wanted to go over some things you can do to express yourself differently with a fursona.

A really basic one is that animals move and express themselves in different ways than humans do, so when you make an animal character with human-like qualities, you get a very wide range of expression. Due to the often cartoonish art style they can already by more expressive, but some things only an animal can do. Say your ‘sona is a dog. If you want to to draw them in a way to express your joy, you can draw their tail wagging, their ears perked up, their mouth in an open smile with their tongue slightly lolling out. If you want to express your sadness you might draw them with their tail and ears drooping, and their mouth closed.

They’re also great for presenting yourself in a way that you can’t irl. And while it’s true you could do this with a human character, furry characters just offer more to work with. Let’s say you’re short and scrawny and meek, but you wish you were big and strong and confident. You might make your fursona a lion. Big, muscular, with a wild attention-grabbing mane, grinning confidently with your sharp teeth bared and your claws out. Or let’s go the opposite way, someone who’s tall and naturally brawny, but wishes they could be cute and doted upon. They might make their fursona a little rabbit, with big expressive eyes, soft floppy ears, and a twitchy little nose. It’s a way to express aspects of yourself and your personality that aren’t obvious irl, or else the ideal you that you can’t express irl. 

And you can go the opposite direction and use your ‘sona to express parts of yourself in different ways. Ways that maybe make it easier to visualize, or that make them seem less bad. A person with a chronic illness or disability might make a fursona who lacks their disability, or they may express their disability in a different way through their fursona. I saw one recently that was the ‘sona of a wheelchair user. Their ‘sona was aquatic, and instead of legs their body ended in a tail fin, so when on land they used a wheelchair.  Someone with alopecia might make a ‘sona with long fur, or alternatively may make one with no fur, such as a reptile, or a hairless cat. 

They’re great for taking aspects of yourself you’re insecure about and making them more positive. As a personal example, I’ve been skinny my whole life, and no matter how body positive I try to be I live in a fatphobic society and have internalized fatphobia that makes me terrified of getting fat. So the fursona I’m currently designing is going to be chubby. They are cute and fluffy and chubby and it’s great, and that’s one of many things that while it is looked down on in humans, is often cooed over in animals. So I feel like if I express myself through a cute chubby animal, I will feel better about my real self getting chubby. 

On a similar note, they can be given traits or backstories that put certain things into a context that’s easier to share with others. One of my other ‘sonas is a cat who is declawed. It was done to them by their mother (who is a dog, they were adopted) because she didn’t know how to deal with a cat child. This is meant to express my feelings about how my own mother didn’t know how to deal with an autistic child, and ended up putting me through trauma that I still struggle with today and makes it even harder for me to be an independent adult. That’s a hard, heavy thing to talk about with random strangers, but I can give a small example of how it feels through my fursona. 

I’m not the first person to say it, but I do highly recommend trying to make a fursona, even if it’s the only time you do it and you cast it aside when you’re done. It can be therapeutic, and just fun.