# Raptor Fursuit Head: details and process



## Nitral (Oct 28, 2018)

Hello! I’m Nitral. I’m relatively new to the furry fandom. I’ve done cosplay and worked on fursuits in the past, but lately I’ve been working on my own personal fursuit. I’ve always wanted to be a raptor, or at least look like one. However, when I was poking around the internet for raptor or scalie fursuits, there was quite little to reference. So! I’d like to share some bits and pieces of the suit I’ve been working on.

Alright, I’ll start off with the head.





This beautiful resin base was made by Kierstin LaPatka / Kiri. (Check out her stuff, it’s awesome.) Sadly the cast has been retired so she doesn’t make them any more. As you can see, next to the mask I have my idea sketch for my raptor. 





To start off I paint the mask black. The teeth I actually got in a set with the mask, though the alignment didn’t work well. I had to actually had to separate all the teeth and realign them. They’re all set in epoxy clay here which is used for the gums and tongue. Unfortunately the clay tends to be a tad heavy, added some weight to the mask, more than I would have liked. But, the realistic look was worth it. 






I originally wanted to do my own eyes, but the resin I was working with was giving me issues. I caved and bought eyes from Saltysuits on Etsy. The eyelids I did by folding over some thin stretchy fabric and gluing it to the eyeballs. I then used epoxy clay to actually set the eyeballs. A hell of a pain but it worked. 

Now, painting the mask was actually more difficult than you’d think. I wanted each scale to have dimension. So, each scale was individually painted using puffy paint. Puffy paint is what you find at a craft store in the fabric paints. It’s got really nice dimension to it, and remains rised once it dries. I also wanted to keep a black border around each scale. So, one scale at a time, I painted this mask. 





Here you can see some of the foam I used to round out the head and secure the mask. It’s actually connected to a plastic mesh, but you can’t see that here. Because the head is rather forward heavy, I actually have some elastics in the back that connect to a harness I wear to offset the weight. I’ll go into that another time though. 






So! The fabric material seen here is just black fleece. There’s approximately 6 pieces of fabric sewn together. Each piece has a bunch of extra creases sewn into it. All the sewing done here was to mimic skin folds. Unevenly hand sewn to get a natural look. I used the blanket stitch for most of the sewing. Places where I couldn’t use it I used the puppet stitch. 






Aaaasnd the painting process. Each scale is hand painted. I couldn’t think of a better way to do the scales. In order to get the size gradient and flow I wanted, it had to be hand done. There’s also the fur and feathers I started to integrate. The fur is puppet stitched onto the fleece, though I had to be careful around the neck. The fleece areas were stretchy, good to get the head on and off, but the fur had no give. 






Skipping ahead a bit, here’s the full head with the rest of the partial. Some day it’ll be a full suit, but it’s forever a slow process. 

Well cool, thanks for looking!


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## Deathless (Oct 28, 2018)

This is amazing! I'd love to see more progress photos when you make it into a fullsuit!


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## Troj (Oct 28, 2018)

Beautiful! Love it. Thanks for showing us your process.

It always seems like good raptor heads are in short supply, though! Frustrating.


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## crystallinecanine (Oct 29, 2018)

This is really amazing! I actually am in the process of making a raptor suit as well, but in a toony style. I've got everything down pat except for how I want to do the back of the head/what fabric I want to use. Your method for doing folds is very smart and a great idea! Would it be possible to reach out to you for some advice?


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## Troj (Oct 29, 2018)

I might like advice as well.

I got a resin (or maybe plaster?) head for a raptor head long ago, but it's so large and heavy that I'm sure it'd hurt my neck after a while, so it's sat in the closet. 

When I searched for smaller resin raptor heads with visible scales, none were for sale anywhere. 

I'm also concerned about resin or similar casts being hard to pack and easily damaged.

I like my current foam head, because it's comfortable, soft, easy to pack, and hard to damage. 

But, I like the look of the resin heads I've seen, and the realism they add.


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## Nitral (Oct 29, 2018)

The resin cast I used wouldn't have been so bad on its own, but the additions I put on it definitely made this head weighty. I can't wear it for very long without getting a headache on top of normal overheating typical for suiting. I did manage to find a way to reduce the neck strain though, especially since I was constantly tipping my head up to look through the mouth. So, I have a rig/harness under my suit and clothes that I use to keep my head and tail in check. I secured two metal rings to the sides of the back of my head. The two rings are connected to a ring on the center of the chest harness with thick elastics, the type used in clothing. The angling aligns with natural neck muscle positioning. The back pull helps my neck muscles move the head around, and I'm not fighting the front weight of the mask all the time. Here's a quick and dirty sketch. I'll probs put up a more full explanation of what I did at a later point.


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## Nitral (Oct 29, 2018)

Also, are these photos sideways? I originally posted this on my phone, so I might have some formating mixed up


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## Fursuitsandmore1022 (Nov 3, 2018)

AMAZING! I was thinking of making a lizard fursuit, the amount of detail in this one is amazing!


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## TheUnyeetableLizard (Nov 8, 2018)

It's hard for reptiles to get suited it seems. A lot of refs for art of them but few suits.


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## Raptorworks (Nov 8, 2018)

Ah man, it's always good to see other raptors--you blended the scales of the mask into the neck really nicely! I'll be interested to see what the full version looks like as well!


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