The Furry Forums
Creative Arts and Media => Fursuiting and Cosplay => Topic started by: guest22811 on March 31, 2017, 12:07:19 PM
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If you have been in the furry fandom for long enough, you may recognise this fursuit:(http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/2.jpg)
Her name is belo4ka/sofia lioness, and it was made by her talented husband, Basil Lion. The clothing that belo4ka wears is also designed by her mother.
There is a slight possibility that you want to know how it's made.
After a while of staring closely and examination I have in fact figured out how it was made, what was used, etc. Or at least, close enough.
I previously tried to make a skintight fursuit here:
https://www.thefurryforum.com/forums/index.php?topic=36038.0 (https://www.thefurryforum.com/forums/index.php?topic=36038.0)
However, the suit was not as skintight and slim as I wanted it to be.
So here we go:
An Indepth Analysis Of My English Assignment The Amazing Belo4ka Fursuit.
Lets first simply analyse the 'specs' of this suit:
The suit itself is the exact shape of belo4ka- there does not seem to be any padding used.
3D eyes.
Fullsuit (obviously.)
What is it made of?
Now, this is something that I had trouble figuring out. I went to many stores to find the shortest pile of fur that I could, and in fact, I did find many. However, none of them were short enough to make it not look slightly bulky.
Her website says that the suit is made 'from the fur of a plush toys'.
This was slightly confusing because of 1. The strange grammar and 2. The word 'plush'
At first, I literally thought that she bought 894729837 plushies and then cut them up to use for her fursuit, but no, thats absolutely ridiculous. Don't do that. I soon figured out that it was 'plush fleece', or 'mink fleece'. Or 'cuddle fleece'. There's quite a lot of names for it.
Problem is, you don't usually find this fleece in the fabric store. No idea why. I went to too many places and I have decided that you cannot buy the raw fabric from anywhere. If your store does have it, either you're lying or lookin at the wrong thing. Or you're extremely damn lucky.
So where can you get this fabric?
Blankets and throws. Some bathroom robes too, in fact. Also used on onesies/kigurumis.
Sounds ridiculous. So that is right. You gotta cut them blankets and robes up to get this precious fabric.
Achieving the skintight look
Since she uses plush fleece, it's stretchy, allowing it to fit her body shape smugly. However, I am unsure about this since her husband stated on his deviantart that the first version of this suit was done with non stretch fur and 'lots of detailed tailoring work'. I have no idea if this is the way to go, but this is probably inaccurate since he was talking about V.1 of the suit at that time. The fursuit that I am referring to is the second version.
If you look at this picture:
http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/4.jpg (http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/4.jpg)
You can tell that it is plush fleece because the fibres can be seen individually 'clumping' together. Fur doesn't do this unless you don't brush the suit.
What the heck is she wearing under the suit?/Ventilation
Ventilation seems to be primarily achieved through the ears of her suit. There is noticable holes in some of the photos that she has. The jaw seems to not be sealed tight - There is a photo of her on deviantart somewhere drinking out of the suit. The suit also might be split into two parts top half and bottom. However, I'm unsure about this as she wears clothes over the suit.
As for wearing clothes under the suit.
I don't think she wears any underarmour. Possibly just a croptop and shorts or something. I can tell from this picture http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/7.jpg. (http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/7.jpg.) Her handpaw is ever so slightly coming off, revealing her wrist XD .
The suit's pattern.
I have absolutely no idea what the pattern of the suit is, however I have a feeling that a DTD was used as it was how her first suit was made. Handpaws were made seperately. Her feetpaws are simply patterned socks, but I think a small bit of foam was placed above the toes to give it more shape. Toes are defined by threading a,,, thread between them.
The head.
Ventilation for the head is done through the ears and mouth. There might be some in the back of her head, although I'm mostly unsure. The nose is made out of fleece or some sort of sculpey- unsure. I assume it's fleece though since you can slightly see the pattern of it in this photo. http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/9.jpg (http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/9.jpg)
Drybrushing/airbrusing were done around the eyes and nose to make it blend in.
As for the head itself, I have no idea if it was done with a balaclava, bucket head etc. I do have a feeling it's made with the bucket-head technique though. You can see the slight shape in this image.
http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/5.jpg (http://belo4ka.com/img/original/sofia/5.jpg)
And that's it, yall!
I hope I have helped in some way.
If you have anything else that you can contribute, please do!
If basil lion is happening to read this, dude, you're really talented, wha t the heck ho w d o y o u d o t h i s
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Wow! I never seen this before. But she looks fantastically made. ^_^
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She is indeed! Quite impressive, eh?
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Very impressive such an in-depth analysis! :D
I want to point out a few things (having tailored clothes myself and other things) >3>
- You state it's most likely done with DTD. It might be, but I wouldn't be too sure of that. In my experience if you are able to directly measure someone's waist-size, etc. (such as this fursuiter's husband) then you don't need a DTD. DTD's are very common method for fursuit builders it seems. It's understandable as it's usually impossible to measure a person's measturements as they live in separate contries, etc. However, DTD's seem to be (sorry to say) rather amateuristic, often done when people don't really know too well how to measure and work/tailor clothing. Once again, just been my experience. For example OneFurAll Studios (in Canada) only require measurements. They don't do DTD's (http://www.onefurall.com/faq#3,020.00) (I got this confirmed when I was applying for a quote from them). When speaking to fursuiters owning a OneFurAll fursuit (and wearing them), they are extremely happy with how well-fitted it is. And that shouldn't be surprising. If you think about it, well-tailored business suits are also done my measuring sizes of various (important) aspects of a person's body and they fit extremely well and need to be comfortable as they are worn usually the whole day (worn longer than fursuits :P ).
However, the other reason which I think is more likely why DTD's are being used: As stated, if you live close to your (fursuit) tailor, then you will go there and they will make it based off measuring your sizes personally. Living far apart will make this extremely difficult. So to 'impersonate' your body, they request a DTD. This way they can measure the sizes from the DTD they need, without 'worrying' if you really gave the proper body sizes they need.
SO! All in all, while possible a DTD was used, I am more inclined to believe they didn't use a DTD in this case of Sofia Lioness. - As for the fur-type being used. I think it really depends also where you live and what time of the year. Where I live there are a large variety of fur and fur-types but usually only in the winter (GJEE I WONDER WHY XD ). In the summer it's so hard to find (decent) fur, let alone various colours and types. Further I noticed that the fabric shops usually don't sell the fabrics or fur I would need or want, but the weekly market would. Once again, mostly in the winter, but still! ^^
- As for personal experience with ventilation. Oddly enough I sweat and heat-up less fast in my dragon suit than my wolf suit. The dragon suit is more skin-tight and has that short-plush fur (moreso faux seal-fur). While the fur is 'thicker' than the wolf's fur, it is shorter and it's easier to air (to a certain degree) than the longer fur of the wolf suit. If there is no wind at all though, the dragon suit gets warmer, but slower warm than the wolf's long fur.
- Also, short note (I have to finish this sooner than expected ;-; ) I also don't think it's an entire full-fursuit. One of the images you linked shows she is wearing a corset. Considering the thickness of the fur, how she usually always wears some form of clothing around the torso and waist, I think indeed it is a split-fursuit, the torso-waist might be 'unfursuited', so to speak.
I don't know if you already tried, but if you haven't, perhaps you can ask them personally how it was made? :)
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About the DTD thing: Basil lion said that himself somewhere on deviantart, but that was for the first version about the suit. I have no idea about the second one though; measurements might have been used, yes.
For the fur type, yeah, it most likely seems to depend on where you live. From personal experience though, all the fabric stores stock up on fur and fleece etc all year around. There doesn't seem to be a pattern at all. My other suit was also made with seal-fur - thicker, shorter and easier to air, however, it definitely isn't the one used for the lioness fursuit as the pile is still slightly too long.
I have a feeling it isn't a full-fursuit either but she does state that it's a fullsuit on her website.
Doesn't mean that it covers her waist though-after all it isn't visible lmao.
I really can't be bothered to ask Basil-Lion. He doesn't seem to respond much to comments asking about how the suit is made.
Here is the link to his DA
http://basil-lion.deviantart.com/ (http://basil-lion.deviantart.com/)