Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: September 4, 2026

Creative

1.How did you teach yourself how to draw?

A lot of patience. Yes, practice is a huge part of the learning process and everyone will tell you that, but so is having patience with yourself and the progression of your skills. As much I would've loved for it to happen, I didn't wake up one day with the skillset I have today, and I had to wait through years of being a total amateur before I got somewhere. Be patient with yourself, we all learn things at a different pace.

That being said, I also have a few other pieces of advice for those who are just starting out with art:

Learn about composition in visual arts, especially the 7 elements of art. In fact, I consider this pre-requisite material because everything you create will involve these elements.
Reference everything, and don't believe a single soul who tells you that you're cheating by referencing. Everyone uses references, everyone has to use references at some point in their life, it's no different when you're an artist. Reference from real life, reference from 2D artwork, reference from 3D models, reference from costumes and fursuits, reference from everything you need to. Just would advise against referencing off of genAI works—not only are there ethical concerns with genAI, but it's also not going to give you an accurate idea of things like anatomy and elements.
Studying doesn't have to be boring either- try and relate it to your interests somehow! Wanting to study fabric? Do 30 minutes of study, then draw your favourite or original character in long flowing clothes! Doing value studies? Draw your favourite animal! Studying might still be a little bit boring, but while you genuinely just have to draw things that don't fit your interests, you also don't have to eat your vegetables without seasoning.
Waiting until you magically develop the skillset you need to draw certain things is just shooting yourself in the foot. Take risks and be sloppy about it, because it's the only way you're going to be able to get your feet in the water with learning different skills.
Read art books!!! Art tutorials on the internet are fine, but studying from the source is going to have the greatest effect on your skills. Here is a list on Internet Archive of some art books I have saved for your studying pleasure.
Your unique style will come with time, practice, and studying. Don't get down on yourself for not having a distinct style when you're still a beginner.
And finally, remember that the artists you look up to have all started at the same place as you, and needed to do the work to build their skills to where you want them to be.

2.Okay, but how do YOU draw?

My techniques can change depending on the piece, but there are some that are common throughout:

I use one brush for pretty much everything, unless a specific idea calls for more brush variety. Otherwise, I use a smooth version of Procreate's default Studio Pen for sketching, erasing, colour blocking, shading/lighting, and rendering. Sometimes I'll also use the default airbrushes for gradients.
I don't do line art! At least, not with my digital paintings. Even my simpler illustration pieces usually just use a cleaned up version of my sketch. But otherwise, I'm no longer a line art guy and probably never will be.
I always sketch on a grey background, because otherwise I get bad eye strain from trying to sketch on white.
Sometimes, once I'm done sketching, I'll change my background colour layer in Procreate to orange/red. This is a technique called 'underpainting' that is mostly used in traditional paintings in order to help define color values for later painting and enrich the colours in these pieces. I find it also has a really nice effect on digital art pieces though, especially if you want to go for a more traditionally painted look.
Sometimes I choose my own colours, sometimes I use layer modes to help me get the colours I want. I tend to use multiply and divide the most for shading and lighting respectively, but I think it's well worth it to learn how to use other layer modes as well.
I use very few layers, and will frequently merge my layers as I go along. Once I'm ready to render, I'll merge everything into one layer, duplicate it, and start painting on top of that layer.
The painting itself usually involves a lot of colour-picking and using my brush at varying opacities to refine my work. Most of the work with blocking out colours is already done by this stage, so all I do is paint over what is already there.
I also rarely, if ever, use any smudging/blending tools, instead opting to "blend" colours by creating layers of brush strokes at varying opacities.
I also do a lot of cross-hatching in my work, and I think it has a very nice effect when it's used to emulate both soft gradients and hard transitions between colours.
When rendering, I try (keyword, try) to use the undo button as little as possible, instead opting to paint over my mistakes.

These are my techniques for digital painting, at least. I hope to eventually write up my techniques for my traditional mediums of choice as well once I get more comfortable with them.

I also upload my timelapses to my Tumblr blog sometimes if you ever want to check them out for a visual of my techniques, which probably explain things better than I can through words.

3.How did you learn to build fursuits?

Tutorials. That's all there was to it for me, because there's not really any courses you can take to learn how to build a fursuit (at least, not any widespread ones. I do know there's that one elective course at Stanford University in Stanford, California, but these courses are far and few in between.)

As for actual advice for newcomers to the craft, I have a few pointers:

If this is your first time doing anything with sewing and crafting, then you don't have to jump right into making an entire head if you don't want to or don't feel ready. In fact, I recommend starting with a small project like a simple tail, working your way up with handpaws, before trying your hand at making a head.
Do your research. Learn about the terminology of different fursuit types to decide what you want to make. Familiarise yourself with the various materials required, as well as the options you have for crafting your suit.
If you can help it, do not glue your seams together. When making fursuits, you are going to have to learn how to sew eventually, and it's best to familiarise yourself with basic hand stitches and how to use a sewing machine early on into the game so that you can have the best results. Not only is it just cleaner to sew your fabric together, but it also makes potential refurbishing projects a hell of a lot less agonizing.
On that note, just handsewing a partial fursuit without a machine is possible, and you'll want to learn four different stitches; blanket, back, ladder, and muppet. However, when it comes bodysuits, you'll want to invest in a sewing machine that'll allow you to sew strong stitches without it taking up so much time and destroying your hands.
Study from real-life references of the animal(s) you wish to make a suit out of—not only if you decide to carve or 3D model your own head base, but also for understanding things like fur dynamics.
Join community servers and groups on Discord and Telegram. fursuitmak.ing has their own community Discord server that you can join if you're ever stuck with your suitmaking, and Matrices' WIP Zone Telegram group is another great place to look. Part of the process is knowing when to ask for help, after all.
Read and watch as many tutorials as you possibly can. Even if you know how to do a specific step of the process, watch it anyway, because you may pick up a piece of knowledge that you weren't aware of before, or find a method of doing something that you prefer. I have many resources available on my links page specific to fursuit making for your convenience.

4.How did you learn to code/how did you code [X]?

It started out with me editing my profile on sites like DeviantArt, Tumblr, and Toyhouse, until I moved onto using templates for my first few static sites hosted on Neocities. From there, anytime I wanted to do something specific with my coding, I'd look it up on my search engine of choice and learn from there.

I'm ambivalent about the idea of recommending templates to beginners, but if you're just starting and don't know what you're doing, then they can be helpful in that regard. I think even taking really simple templates and expanding upon them is better than not starting coding at all because you don't know how to make a layout from scratch. Regardless of whether or not you choose to use a template, I also have many links on my /links page to help guide you in the right direction.

If it's something you've gotten commissioned from me, then it's part of my terms of service that you're allowed to use it on your social media profiles with credit! Similarly, I also allow fanart to be used in the same way.

If it's art with my own personal characters, I'd prefer if you didn't, but I can't physically stop you from doing so. If it's art that is made for other people with their own characters, then I highly discourage you from using said artwork.

6.Can I reupload your artwork on another website?

Please ask beforehand, or at the very least, credit me when you do so. However, you're more than free to share links to my artwork to other sites, since this directly connects people to it.

7.Can I take inspiration from your artwork/fursuit work/website?

Absolutely, please do! In fact, I don't even care that much about my stuff being referenced, copied or traced, so long as I'm credited in some way. I'm an advocate for copyleft and don't believe in intellectual property.

8.Can I request art from you?

You can submit a form to commission personalized artwork from me, but I don't do free artwork for anybody! I do sometimes do art trades, but this is exclusive to friends, acquaintances, and mutuals.

9.Can you code a site for me?

Probably not, definitely not for free. Coding is one of those things that I don't always have interest in doing and is an interest that comes in phases. I do make a few exceptions for friends, but those are made on a case-by-case basis.

10.Can you teach me how to draw/code?

Not only do I not have the time or energy for this, but I also am not a good teacher whatsoever. You'd be much better off asking someone else for help.

11.How do you make art more accessible?

This is all based on my specific disabilities and needs, so your mileage may vary and what works for me might not work for you. That being said, there's a few things I do to make art more accessible to me.

I use bulbous foam pencil grips on nearly every art utensil I use. These pencil grips are made to fit standard graphite pencils for children in school, so I've had to slice one side of it open in order to fit my Apple Pencil. These help prevent the joints in my fingers from bending backwards whenever I hold my utensils, especially ones that tend to be very thin. However, I don't use these pencil grips on my markers, since they're usually thick enough already and my joints don't bend backwards as much using them. You can find them online if you search for "egg pencil grip."

The medium of art you use also matters quite a bit when it comes to creating artwork while being disabled. For instance, since I like using bold colours in my work, I tend to go for mediums that don't require a lot of layering to get those colours. Think mediums like acrylic and oil paints, alcohol and paint markers, and oil pastels in favour of mediums like oil-based coloured pencils or watercolours.

In terms of digital art, I always choose programs that have some kind of pen stabilization tool. Adjusting pen pressure settings can also help, and I personally set mine lower so that I don't have to press on the screen as hard.

Some other tools I have tried, but tend to not use as often, are thumb braces, arthritis gloves, and finger splints. I have also tried pencil weights, but found these caused more fatigue in my hands.

If you feel like having accessible art tools would benefit you, but you don't want to go out and spend a ton of money for these tools, there's also many ways of making them yourself. Equip2Adapt has many DIY adaptive art tool ideas for your consideration. Regardless, I encourage anyone to get themselves adaptive art tools if they feel like it'll help them, even those who don't have any kind of diagnosis or health problems. Sometimes people just prefer to have more weight on their utensils or to have something larger to grip, so don't hesitate to use things that you feel will help you create things without suffering as much.

Personal

1.Why is your fursona a vampire bat?

Depends on if you wanna hear the simple or real answer.

Simple answer: It's a metaphor for being disabled and dependent on others for your own survival. I "feed" off of the lives of others in order to sustain my own, the same way vampire bats feed off of the blood of other animals.

Real answer: My partner actually came up with the idea of us being a common vampire bat and cow couple, since common vampire bats feed off of cattle. We both thought this dynamic was cute and interesting to explore in both of our fursonas' lore, where Mez (my partner's fursona) provides Hyson with his blood meals. The disability metaphor still stands here, and especially so if you consider Mez to be a kind of caregiver for Hyson. Hyson also represents the sense of freedom that I crave in my life, being a winged animal who has the ability to fly up and away from the constraints of my life. The vampire bat was also generally everything I was looking for in a fursona species—a small, flying mammal with an ugly-cute pug-like face.

I'm also a therian, with my main theriotype being the common vampire bat. After my partner came up with the idea for our fursonas, I began doing research about these critters in order to get a better sense of the kind of characteristics and traits I wanted to use when creating Hyson. As I kept reading, however, something clicked in my mind and I found myself identifying as one of these bats myself. Alongside the obvious being their strange diets, vampire bats are known for their interdependence and altruism, which is something I value more than the complete independence that is pushed within Western cultures.

I also have other fursonas of other species, as well as retired fursonas from past eras, but I won't get into every single one of them and why I chose their species here. Otherwise, I would end up writing an entire essay to cover all of them.

2.Are you really disabled / do you really have [XYZ]?

Yes, I am professionally diagnosed. If you don't believe me, that's your problem to solve, so leave me out of it.