Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Modern Stone Age Furries

Last weekend I drew the t-shirt design for Anthrocon. This year’s theme is “Modern Stone-Age Furries.”


I'll be giving three digital slide lectures and a technique demo.

But the big event will be the fursuit parade. This is one of the largest events of its kind, with over 600 participants. All the costumers don their fursuits, which are handmade and often very elaborate. They’re mostly based on anthropomorphic cartoon animals.


According to an insider's description:

"Fursuits, similar to what athletic team mascots wear, are constructed of fabric, not fur or animal skins. While in a fursuit, a furry walks upright.

Some furries superimpose human clothing on the fursuit; for example, a snow leopard diva may wear a red cocktail dress and a big yellow dog may wear blue jeans.”


Anthrocon Official Site

What is Furry?
Wikipedia on Furry Fandom

10 comments:

Stephen Southerland said...

Wow. That was very bizarre. Yet for some reason, I have a hankering for Cheetos...

Rachel said...

The effort that goes into some of those costumes just blows my mind.

Super Villain said...

convention rules
"No water pistols, silly string, or any thrown or projectile-type toy may be used in any area of the hotel or Convention Center"

no silly string?! man, i'm not going, haha.

looks crazy though, hope you have fun!! are you making a suit?...oh wait i bet you already have one! it all makes perfect sense now!! were you in that tigger outfit on the video, the one holding up the line, haha!! hilarous!

Patrick Dizon said...

This is like cosplay, but instead of anime characters you have furry creatures.

Cuprohastes said...

Hi! I'm the chap who's doing the colour and layout for the AC badge t-shirt.

Saying fursuits are like Mascot suits is technically indeed true, but really doesn't express the amount of variety and innovation you'll get to see.

Fursuits are often a worn artform. They range from the goofy, big head fuzzy types you're familiar with, to finely fitted, prosthetics with mobile ears, working mouths, camera eyes (And HUD systems inside the heads), and even "Rarsuits" that have their own built in audio effects system for roaring and stomping and other interactions.

They really are well worth seeing.

My Pen Name said...

the ones that look the strangest are the ones who just walk like 'normal' humans... it doesn't seem to fit - while the ones who have exaggerated 'cartoon' walks look 'normal'

Scale said...

It's an interesting environment, though quite different from other conventions where you may have been. Furry art revolves around animal characters, but especially realistic reanderings of animal characters, which are somewhat rare in commercial art compared to cartoony animals or meterial of other genres. So books like Dinotopia are very prized by furry artists and they made a good number of fans interested in dinosaurs.

Kelly Toon said...

Mr. Gurney, I am a furry convention veteran (shhh!). I wasn't planning to go to any this year, until I found that you are GOH at AC 2010. Now, it is IMPERATIVE that I attend with my sister. Dinotopia was a key book in my formative years. I used to stare at those paintings for hours, trying to work out how they had been created. Thank you for inspiring me, for sharing your incredible blog full of wisdom, and for giving furries a chance ;_; we are the nicest bunch of freaks you could ever hope to meet. Glad to know the Anthroconstaff has been an example.

Look for me wearing a Dinotopia-themed, airbrushed t-shirt, which I will hope to have autographed. Peace!

James Gurney said...

Hi, Kelly Toon--wouldn't miss it for the world, and look forward to meeting you.

Cupro: thanks for doing the coloring on the T-Shirt, and thanks for the clarification.

SuperVillain: No, I'm afraid I won't have a suit, and my monkey wouldn't come, so I'll just have a sketchbook.

SVSART said...

Please create a video VLOG of you and Jeanette's Journey at this Convention. It will be so interesting to see.