#my cat fursona is so much simpler

[chaos-potat]

Please draw Old Hob🙏

an attempt

I love him, but I cannot draw anthro very well ;-;

[alienpupy]

Ok so i wanted to make a post to highlight how far my fursona has come in terms of design, and how it also showcases my artistic ability improving and reflects, in a way, my relationship to my gender over the past few years.

This is gonna b long and personal so I’m putting it below the cut (plus image descriptions of course, the alt. text function doesn’t allow super long descriptions)

(image description:

A poorly-drawn reference sheet of an anthropomorphic, skinny raccoon, though they look more like a cat that fell in a bucket of beige, green, and purple paint. Their body is the beige-brown colour, and their paws are green, as if they were wearing gloves. Their hair is the same shade, and their tail is striped green and brown. They are wearing a purple t-shirt, green shorts, and a sleeveless black jacket. They have heterochromia, one eye is green, and the other, purple. The colour palette is all over the place and poorly designed. The image is captioned “Mint: raccoon, 5 foot 5, androgynous (I hope)”.

An updated version of the previous reference. The character still looks more like a cat than a raccoon, and the colour palette is still bizarre, but the execution of it is a bit better.

Yet another updated version of this character’s design. This time, they look more like a fox than a cat, the ears have fluff at the tips. the colour palette has much more contrast to it, and it much simpler. The brown is very dark and the green is a very pastel, minty colour. The character is no longer wearing their cloths, though they are present in the image, and instead have a large purple band-aid on their shoulder. It’s still not very good.

The fourth version of this character’s reference. This time, they actually look a little bit like a raccoon, and the contrast has been toned down. The character looks a bit chubbier, too. The image is captioned: “Mint, species: raccoon, Age: ???, Gender: genderfluid/nonbinary, pronouns: they/them/theirs”

The fifth version of the reference sheet. They are even chubbier, and their colours are brighter, though still don’t go very well together. The image is captioned “Mint, genderfluid/genderqueer, like 15-16 probably, raccoon, fat and floofy.”

The sixth version of the character. Their design has changed a lot, and is now a lot more complex. Their gloves are now two-toned, a dark green for the paws themselves, and a lighter green for the forearm and calves. They also now have light green on their belly, like an actual animal, and their hair is longer. The nose is now a dark purple, instead of the black it was on the previous versions. They now also have seven digits on each paw. Their name has also changed, and they are now named Green.

The seventh version of the character. They look almost exactly the same, although they now have a bunch of piercings on their ears and the art is better.

The eight, and current version of the character. The design has now changed to be much more complex, with two more shades of brown to the body, one light and one dark, so the fur looks more natural apart from the green parts. Their “gloves” are now stripy, like their tail, and now the heterochromia has been dropped, their eyes are both purple. They looks really nice in this version.

end descriptions)

I first made my sona when I was just starting to figure myself out, when I had just really come to terms with the fact that I don’t fit in the gender binary, and as you can see, how i labelled my sona reflected that. The “androgynous (I hope)” caption in the first reference i drew of them was really honest, because that was how I wanted (and still want) to be percieved.

Representing myself as a raccoon also allowed me to separate myself from the more feminine cat-sona i had before, and really restart with how i presented and described myself. if you looks at my old posts when i first put these references out there, the language i used to describe them and me really changed over time, and that transition of vocabulary is quite dear to me.

Idk, this is a dumb, long, rambly post but I felt like making it. It’s important to reflect on how you evolve sometimes.

[peekychu]

The history of my fursonas! 🐱

I’m in an especially infodump-y mood at the moment and I watched a video about fursonas that inspired me (Shoutout to Pocari Roo’s channel!) so here we go ^o^ 

Click under the cut to read the whole enchilada! (It’s a long post, make sure you have the appetite for it first xD)

I first learned about the furry fandom in about 2013-14 from some friends at school! Granted, the two teenage boys I talked to a lot were more obsessed with the... sexual side of that xD I won’t go into that though because that would involve me talking about more uncomfortable stuff >.> I also had another friend that was such a huge influence to me and they’re a big reason that I still draw fuzzy animals to this day! Their fursona at the time was named Icy and I thought that character was the freakin’ coolest. I remember going home after talking to them, filled with inspiration and making my very first fursona!

Her original name was Rogue Feather, but the name Scarlett came later and ultimately stuck way better! Her design was simple, a red fox with a purple bandana! Not much thought was put into her, I just put together what I thought a typical fursona would look like :P I didn’t draw her much since I was way more focused on MLP and my ponysona Starfruit, but I still enjoyed doodling her!

Shortly after Scarlett, I created Citrus the cat! To be honest, she didn’t really represent me other than being a cat xD Her design was actually based off of a girl that I had a crush on at that time, but that’s a whole other story >.>

Also, it was coincidental that Twinkie has elements from both of these beginning characters, I just noticed that making this post! I learned that I loved cats from creating citrus, and I loved drawing Scarlett’s wings and bandanas so I suppose it was natural that my current fursona would have all of these traits :P

Well, months pass after posting the first drawings of Citrus and Scarlett on my Instagram, and at this point I decided to try taking up digital art! I downloaded FireAlpaca for free (still my program of choice x3) and worked really hard at drawing with only my mouse!

My friend that inspired me to draw more furry characters had changed their fursona over from a bright sparkledog-ish color scheme to another character with muted browns and oranges. Inspired once again, I designed another cat character to represent myself!

Meet Macchiato (or Mac for short)! They were made when I switched my focus from My Little Pony to furry characters, and I moved from Instagram to DeviantArt as my main art site. 

When I made Mac, I was close to beginning high school and I questioned a lot about my identity, mainly my gender and sexuality :P For a period of time, I pushed aside my adoration for ponies, Pokemon and colorful things in favor of things I thought were “cooler” and more boyish. A large part of this was my complicated relationship with my gender identity, but also because I thought I had to act more mature... so I expressed this by drawing myself as a cat? It was complicated xD

Anyways, while I have a soft spot for Mac, they’re sort of my own Rex Dangervest if that makes sense :P I mean, they were my first expression of feeling neutral to gender which was a big deal for me, but when I look at their drab colors it sort of makes me sad that I didn’t have much fun designing them. (I did have a blast drawing that pixel reference though, I remember that xD)

I also created a few more furry characters just for the fun of it! I won’t post pictures of all of them for the sake of length, but they were Chamomile the fennec fox, Minx the cat, Caira the alien dog, Pfeffer the bunny, Flicker the bat (who I should draw again sometime >.>) Mitzi the dog and... Whatever animal Skyler was supposed to be xD I made all these characters before I attempted to make a fursona that I felt more connected with...

Along came Clash the cat, an even more depressing character than Mac for me to look at xD I was considerably depressed at this point from the pressure of high school and my identity issues, the droopy eyelids and chaotic color scheme of him sort of reflect this. 

It’s a good thing you can’t read his description in that screenshot, Believe me, but I think I should quote a part of it because it greatly represents how I felt about myself during the time period when I made him.

“If you were to dissect his brain, you’d see something much like somebody’s tangled collection of thread and yarn. Colorful, unkept, and full of pushed aside potential.”

Ouch!!

Well, after a period of depressing fursonas I played that one cat icon creator game that circulated on Tumblr for a while, and I made my favorite old fursona! I think that he had a lot in common with Twinkie and I used them more than everyone else beforepaw.

Here’s Cetrada, my little Nickelodeon slime cat xD I named them after the Italian citron-flavored soda that my friend Francesca (Love ya buddy!) sent to me in the mail! That soda is actually spelled Cedrata, the misspelling of the name was not a creative choice but an actual dumb mistake xP 

I genuinely still love this character, I nicknamed them Limey since it’s simple and cutesy like them, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever use them again. Think of them as teenage Twinkie I guess xD I love ya Cetrada, you were a good kitty <3

Eventually Cetrada grew stale for me and I went through a couple of other fursonas. I don’t have much to say about them since they were pretty short lived, but I’ll post a single picture of each of them! I’m getting a bit tired of making mini collages of them anyways :P

While Reese’s design and colors are a bit awkward, I genuinely adore their mini companion Mallow the bat :P They look like pistachio pudding, what a cutie!

Ugh, this fursona stresses me out to look at too xD I mean arguably they’re the closest in design to Twinkie (yellow cat with angel wings and star knee markings) but they remind me of a rough time I suppose? I drew a couple pictures of them looking more sexualized and with a more slim body type when in reality I was overweight and scared of intimacy... they just remind me of an unhealthy period of my life @_@ I must have felt that too though, I dropped this fursona pretty quickly.

I do actually like Kit even though I used him very briefly, I was starting to have WAY more fun with bright colors in my drawings! Sure he’s a bit too pastel 2015 Tumblr, but I do still like that pink and yellow combo ^w^

Eventually I grew sick of my DeviantArt and mostly just posted art on my main Tumblr where I got super into the kidcore scene! I had rediscovered my love of fun colors and sparkly eyes, kidcore sparked a new me! I wasn’t doing fantastic in life, but I developed more optimism and a genuine love for simple things which grounded me a lot. This was such a wild part of my life, through reblogging pictures of rainbows and Pokemon and slime I gained over 2,000 followers O.O Two of my closest friends told me that they found me by my influence in the kidcore Tumblr community back around 2016 and were intimidated to talk which is just nuts to me x’D

Anyways I’ll try not to go on a tangent about that anymore, but 2016-17 was wild! I should give a shoutout to my very first sparklesona Cosi, but he was made only barely before my true fursona...

That’s right babey, the one... The only!!!

HE’S FINALLY HERE! Twinkie, the fursona I truly felt a personal connection with. I mean, he’s everything I love bundled into one! Pikachu has been my hugest comfort ever since I was four years old so naturally I would have to incorporate it into my fursona somehow! I also gave him a bandana, my favorite accessory to draw on furry characters, and wings! Of course I love rainbows too so I gave him rainbow wings..... But I tweaked his design since the colored wings made him more bird-like. Nothing against birds of course, but I thought plain white angel wings were simpler and more iconic for him! I did give him a touch of rainbow later with his tag design! I also scrapped his red dot eyebrows and his tail bandana, but overall I loved the character I made! I was thrilled to have a fun cartoon kitty that I could use to express myself :3

Before him my only true-feeling ‘sona was Starfruit the pegasus, it was fulfilling because I feel like when I made Twinkie, I started to find myself! 

Twinkie did go through a couple redesigns including a semi-drastic color change sometime in early 2018, but I really do feel content with the way he looks right now! In Twinkie I see friendliness, optimism, and a caring heart which is what I strive for! He represents the journeys I took to be more comfortable with myself and he radiates the confidence that I hope to achieve one day as well >:3 I mean it is possible I could change him for a new fursona or even flat out drop him in the future, but after 3 strong years I think Twinkie will stay a part of me for a while ^w^

Anyways, if you’ve read all of this, THANK YOU!! This was a really personal post and I think it’s fascinating to look at my own self progression this way, I hope somebody gained something from this but if it was just for me that’s okay too xD

If anyone read all of this looong post and wants to make a similar post, PLEASE tag me! I’ve been so interested in fursonas and how people see/represent themselves through cartoon animals, isn’t it a wild phenomenon?? 

If you don’t feel like making a big post like I did though, you should reply with some cool facts about your fursona or count how many you’ve made in the past xD That would be rad <3

[squishysoltan]

There’s a twitter meme going around about your fursona evolution, twitter sucks so you can only do 4 pics (that don’t even go in the order you put them in) and only a few words. So I wanted to do a better version here with .

Zoltan started out as a combo of my IRL cat and IRL me, since I had no idea how to make a fursona. I just knew I wanted to be a cat lol. He was an orange tabby cat and didn’t really have any story other than “dis is me as a kitty”

After meeting Shippo and joining Second Life, we ended up getting me a brown tabby avatar, since we couldn’t find an orange one that I liked as much as the brown tabby one. It got more anime-esq since I was big into it at the time, gave him a backstory and magic powers and whatnot. With doing that tho, I kinda drifted off from seeing him as me and more as a character I was using to interact with people. This was the one I was for the longest period of time.

When I moved out on my own with Shippo, I was able to be more “free” with my art and stuff, and I decided I wanted to have a more feminine fursona (after years of slowly realizing how much I liked it with my human persona) so I made femmy Zoltan. I made him less anime and more grounded, still gave him a magic power/backstory thing, but switched to a more “dis is me as a kitty” mindset again. This only lasted for a couple years

And now we’re at Soltan. He came to be because of said issue where I didn’t feel Zoltan was ME anymore, also there were issues I had in the past while being Zoltan, so I felt like I just needed to do something different. I decided to give him a simpler backstory just to explain why he looks the way he does, but I’m not focused on it as much as before. He still has magic, so that way I can have him drawn however I’m in the mood for, without having to think of WHY (which was another issue with Zoltan, I was always EHH about doing new stuff with him because I felt I’d have to explain it). And also made him more androgynous so I can do whatever “gender” I want him to look like.  As of now he’s the definitive “dis is me” character.

[gabbu-art]

New fursona because I am way too lazy to draw my old one T__T She just had wayyyy too much happening, lol. So now she's simpler but she's still nice n' minty ☆ Idk what species to call this.... panda-lemur-cat??? LOL