# Stealing Fursonas?



## KurtCobain (Jun 23, 2017)

I'M NOT ASKING HOW TO DO THIS.

I'm just curious how I can design a fursona that I'm actually proud of without stealing too much from another person but also having positive influence and taking certain minor aspects from their fursona, such as how the color scheme works together, brush size their fursona was designed with... something to give my fursona some oomph inspired from others rather than my own knowledge.

I could write about potential fursonas, but I'm horrible at designing. I could commission somebody to design the sona for me, but that can be really expensive and have certain other issues. I'd just like some tips maybe to design an actual fursona itself, perhaps some techniques to make a simple representation of my character such as chibi anatomy that can still fit in details such as markings, expressions, birthmarks, other sorts of things. I'd rather learn how to artistically design myself (or find some cheaper designer) so I can commission on the get-go rather than waiting all that more time and spending all that extra money for a character design.

I used to have a really bad problem with stealing fursonas though, and habitually, I'm not used to creating my own fursonas, because I lost patience or self-esteem and gave up designing characters, or I get distracted by something else, as artistically designing fursonas is a pain in the butt, and writing them is somewhat irksome as well. Plus, I have a social disorder that makes me love fursonas that represent other people or just share a connection to them significantly more than fursonas that represent me or that I write with a connection to me more. I like fursonas that basically have other peoples' emotions in them rather than my own emotions. I've tried writing characters that are the opposite of me or have major differences, but even then, it still just doesn't sit with me comfortably and I still feel like I'm doing something wrong, as I don't like the characters. The best way I got over stealing fursonas was asking people, often others, to let me use their fursonas for certain purposes, such as commissioning. 

I just need advice.
Feel free to talk anything else related to creating or stealing characters too, just don't call people out.


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## ellaerna (Jun 23, 2017)

Hmm.. I don't know if this is going to be exactly what you want, but as someone who is better at writing than drawing here are some of the things that I do.
1) find a free reference base that you can color- I suck at drawing even basic outlines of characters, so finding a base or lineart to color in is a  lifesaver. You can search the main site for free or reduced price lineart and then spend some time coloring it in with whatever markings and things you want. That way you have something visual you can refer to without having to do a full commission or fully learn to draw (or steal).
2) bum around art threads- if you want advice on coloring, shading, pallets and things like that, just talk and listen to artists. They can give a lot of good advice on what looks nice and how to recreate it without necessarily giving you their work verbatim. It will improve your own drawing skills and should give you some ideas for what you want your sona to look like.
3) check out the Art Exchange forum- if expense is your main issue (i see you mentioned others but didn't go into them), then just check out the Art Exchange forum. There are always people willing to doodle your sona for free or reduced cost just to practice. 
4) Think about why you like certain designs- ask yourself what about other people's sonas do you like and why do you like them? If it's just something basic like finding the color pallet pleasing or finding big fluffy tales cute, that's easy enough to work into your design without outright stealing. There can definitely be more than one cool-toned fluffy fursonas in existence. But if it's something more personal to the design, like a name, backstory element, meaningful markings, or personality feature, you should think about why you like it and try to go for that same feel. You might like someone's moon shaped scar, but is that because it looks cool or because it hints at a hard life and dangerous surroundings? Could you achieve the same effect with a different scar or other visual cues? Stuff like that.

Hope that helps!


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