# Barefoot (er, pawed...?) furries?



## garudaserpent (Oct 29, 2006)

Okay, might as well come out with it, that I am very much a foot fetishist, especially when it comes to anthros >.>;  Shh, it's a secret!

Anyway, independently of that, I've always wondered about the odd sporadic patterns in the way people draw footwear on anthro characters.  I for one can't draw any kind of footwear to save my life, and that has nothing to do with my inexplicable fetishism, but that's the foremost reason all my anthro characters are barefoot.  Besides that, I just see a bit of an unearthly charm to it, sorta separating-yet-connecting you with the characters - and once again no explanation there.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
(Honest, I'm posting to help improve my art I swear!  Well, okay...)


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## TheLostWolf (Oct 29, 2006)

I think it would depend on the setting the character was intended for.


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## Kiniel (Oct 29, 2006)

Although I don't draw, none of the anthros in any of my writing ever have footwear, and I don't ever think I would.

An anthro in shoes just seems... odd to me, at least in my style of thinking about anthros.  *shrug*


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## RailRide (Oct 29, 2006)

One of my characters is a committed barefooter (and a naturist), the rest are either-or, depending on the situation. I happen to be rather good at drawing footwear of virtually any variety, so I often draw recognizable styles on my characters because nobody else does, and observers sometimes pick up on that.

The rule I established was if more than one character appears in a given pic, then they all either have them or they all don't. The exceptions being the 'nekkid skunk' referred to above, and interactions (collabs) with anyone else's characters who may or may not wear shoes, due in part to the 'cool beans' factor of having my characters dealing with situations and characters not under my control (i.e. in the comic they appear in, guest characters' lines are (ideally) written by their respective owners).

---PCJ


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## Hyenaworks (Oct 29, 2006)

A 'roo looks funny in shoes...


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## Growly (Oct 30, 2006)

Most of my characters are barefoot, especially the ones with pawpads. The ones with more tender feet (possum, lemur) wear shoes more often, but can still comfortably go without.


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## WelcomeTheCollapse (Oct 30, 2006)

Putting an anthro in shoes just isn't right, man. Let them be free.

/Hey, pass that pipe over my way
//This drum circle's too damn big


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## BlitzWolf (Oct 30, 2006)

My fursona actually wears sneakers...not sure why I made him that way, I just did.

*shrugs* Oh well...


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## Rhainor (Oct 30, 2006)

No foot-fetish here, but I *do* go barefoot in RL whenever possible/reasonable, and I think anthros (especially digitigrade ones) shouldn't have footwear unless it's absolutely necessary.


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## robomilk (Oct 30, 2006)

I'm crappy at shoes so just draw obscurely shaped feet.


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## Bokracroc (Oct 30, 2006)

Mwahaha. You won't like being bare-foot after I stomp on your feet with my boots!:twisted::twisted:


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## Damaratus (Oct 30, 2006)

I have to say that I'm more impressed when an artist can integrate the shape of a foot/leg into some form of footwear.

Example (Adult! Not safe for work.)

Unfortunately, footwear of anthro characters is not always done with great success.  Not that it's a necessity to have it in the first place.


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## GuitarSolo (Oct 30, 2006)

The only time footware seems weird on a furry(well to me at least), is when there is no other clothing.Fetish or not. Hmmmm, I should give an example but none are coming off the top of my head.


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## Fox Amoore (Oct 30, 2006)

Mmmmmh. Feet....paws.


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## Sylvine (Oct 30, 2006)

Since the Anthros in my art are generally _strongly_ anthropomorphic ( they actually get _hands and feet! _ ), it ain't much of a dillema here. Depends on the situation. 

~Sylv


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## shy (Oct 30, 2006)

I think it is interesting to see what kind of footwear people "adapt" to fit the more animal-like anthro form. I prefer to draw things without footwear as I myself hate wearing shoes to begin with.


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## Faukx (Oct 30, 2006)

I draw my anthro's all digitigraded. so... whel there all bare foot


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## Tinintri (Oct 30, 2006)

shy said:
			
		

> I think it is interesting to see what kind of footwear people "adapt" to fit the more animal-like anthro form. I prefer to draw things without footwear as I myself hate wearing shoes to begin with.




Wahahahaha!  Try fitting my birdy feet into shoes.


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## Hyenaworks (Oct 30, 2006)

Damaratus said:
			
		

> I have to say that I'm more impressed when an artist can integrate the shape of a foot/leg into some form of footwear.
> 
> Example (Adult! Not safe for work.)
> 
> Unfortunately, footwear of anthro characters is not always done with great success.  Not that it's a necessity to have it in the first place.




I suppose ultimately it depends on context.  I go back and forth a lot, even within the same universe.


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## garudaserpent (Oct 30, 2006)

Well, thanks all for the input.

>.>; I really do want to improve my art as pertains to shoes, since I want to do the occasional human now and then, and some people I want to draw fanart for draw shoes on their anthro characters, but such simple ones that I don't know how to do it in my style.

And arg, foot fetishism will kill me some day - thanks for not judging on it anyway.  This just seemed like a good place to get it off my chest...


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## RailRide (Oct 30, 2006)

garudaserpent said:
			
		

> Well, thanks all for the input.
> 
> >.>; I really do want to improve my art as pertains to shoes, since I want to do the occasional human now and then, and some people I want to draw fanart for draw shoes on their anthro characters, but such simple ones that I don't know how to do it in my style.



For the most part, you have to draw a decent-shaped foot first, then you draw the shoe on top of it. That's mostly what it is--keep in mind the position the foot is going to assume (especially important if the shoe has an elevated heel), and that dictates the basic shape of the shoe around it.

(that all assumes you're inclined to draw shoes on your characters in the first place  )

---PCJ


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## bfl (Oct 31, 2006)

As I wrote to Train when he brought this subject up: "My characters are barefooters, but each creator must decide what's appropriate for his or her own characters." Having said that, I prefer bare feet on furries myself. And Garudaserpent, you are not alone.


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## XNexusDragonX (Oct 31, 2006)

Rather than footwear, I've always liked this type of foot protection instead:

http://www.furaffinity.net/full/221640/

Still enables a fair bit of flexibility. ^. .^


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## insanityJ (Nov 4, 2006)

^^; gotta admit im a bit of a footpaw person


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## Rhainor (Nov 4, 2006)

To borrow a line from _Dune_:  "When in doubt, bare feet are best."


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## insanityJ (Nov 4, 2006)

and when macro and footpaws combine = yummy


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## SpiritCreations (Nov 7, 2006)

Usually when I draw anthros I do not include footwear. I myself NEVER wear shoes (and if I have to go somewhere where shoes are mandatory.. I put on my footpaws). I hate shoes so so so much. However, with my Xelaros novel series and the illustrations.. those characters all wear shoes.


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## Sersokhi (Nov 7, 2006)

It depends on what character and how I draw them. Some of them have humanoid feet and some have paws. *shrug* and sometimes tennis shoes are a must with jeans. hehe.


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## garudaserpent (Nov 8, 2006)

SpiritCreations said:
			
		

> I myself NEVER wear shoes (and if I have to go somewhere where shoes are mandatory.. I put on my footpaws). I hate shoes so so so much.





Ah, I myself am something of an erstwhile barefooter, independent of any fetish or anything.  But I ended up giving it up for a number of reasons, just too neurotic.  So, kudos!
...no punchline I guess.


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## Icarus (Nov 8, 2006)

well...technically my claws really, really rip up socks....so
I already have tough scales.


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## insanityJ (Nov 11, 2006)

lol sockies are gewd


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## RailRide (Nov 12, 2006)

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, one of my characters is a lifelong barefooter (and naturist, but that's another story). After reading some anecdotes on the alt.lifestyle.barefoot newsgroup regarding how tough one's soles can get with repeated exposure to outdoor surfaces, I did a pic where this character was walking down a sidewalk toward the park. Another of my charactes was walking alongside (she was wearing platform sandals) and was expressing disbelief as she had just witnessed the first character walk unharmed through the remains of a shattered bottle. To which the first oneÂ Â replied that "you could do that too if you'd quit wearing shoes all the time".

(I dunno where the pic is, having misplaced it before it could be scanned.)

---PCJ


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## Icarus (Nov 12, 2006)

ech....glass?
O.=.o
I'm hurting just thinking about it...
but i know what causes no pain...
*cough*callouses*cough*


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## RailRide (Nov 12, 2006)

Icarus said:
			
		

> ech....glass?
> O.=.o
> I'm hurting just thinking about it...
> but i know what causes no pain...
> *cough*callouses*cough*



The idea is, that while walking barefoot outdoors, you adopt a flat-footed stride (i.e. you plant your foot without sliding or dragging or landing heelfirst). That way, small bits of glass only poke the skin like  a pebble or twig, without penetrating it, much the same way you can touch a sharp knife without cutting yourself, as long as you don't slide across the blade. One of the regular posters in the aforementioned newsgroup had talked about going out of his way to step on bits of glass to test the notion that barefooters are especially vulnerable to random bits of glass, and came away unscathed due in part to the way he was walking.

Of course big jagged pieces are to be avoided, barefoot ot not (unless maybe if you're wearing wood-soled clogs or something like that), which is why I depicted the character stepping on the scattered bits from the middle of the bottle rather than the bigger top/bottom pieces.

---PCJ


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## rayvenredfield (Nov 12, 2006)

digitigrade furres should never be given any kind of footwear IMHO because they look un-natural in the end, the same goes for those twisted humans that just HAVE to dress thier pets up in ridiculous outfits and "booties" x.x that IMO is animal cruelty on a mental level for the pets...


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## Mikau (Dec 4, 2006)

None of my characters wear footwear, unless you count the jewelry... xD;

Though my fursona wore boots before, in later years I ditched them and have been barepawed since. Well,a ctually, someone suggested I lose the boots. XD So I did.


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## Mikau (Dec 4, 2006)

rayvenredfield said:
			
		

> digitigrade furres should never be given any kind of footwear IMHO because they look un-natural in the end, the same goes for those twisted humans that just HAVE to dress thier pets up in ridiculous outfits and "booties" x.x that IMO is animal cruelty on a mental level for the pets...



I fully agree with you on this. Why give digitigrade furries footwear? It absolutely makes no sense. I can understand the jewelry part to make their feet look glamorous, but when given footwear, it's just a step too far. Might as well make them plantigrade.

Clothes are fine on furries, though, but definitely NOT on animals.


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## Defiler Wyrm (Dec 4, 2006)

Shoes look really damned silly on digitigrade critters...especially when you take into account that they generally already have pawpads, scales, etc, to act as cushions and protection against whatever they're stepping on. Thus, bare feet in my gallery.

With one notable exception of spats.


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## AnarchicQ (Dec 4, 2006)

My one furry, Gideon, actually wears spats.
By Crave wears combat boots with the toes and soles cut out. This was a big thing in the Gargoyles fandom for a bit.


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## Kattywampus (Dec 4, 2006)

I don't like teh shoes!  on me or my furries!

And hey, foot fetish isn't that uncommon, so don't feel funny.


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## Cozmo (Dec 4, 2006)

If i was to do any drawings like that i would give them shoes or bunny feet.


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## XNexusDragonX (Dec 4, 2006)

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/221640/

How about these? I quite like footwear, as long as its tasteful and suits the scene. Obviously not every character would be able to use footwear. This does pretty much come down to the same issue as whether furry characters should use condoms.. its all preference really. Personally, they could be a form of protection or armor.


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## RailRide (Dec 5, 2006)

XNexusDragonX said:
			
		

> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/221640/
> 
> How about these? I quite like footwear, as long as its tasteful and suits the scene. Obviously not every character would be able to use footwear. This does pretty much come down to the same issue as whether furry characters should use condoms.. its all preference really. Personally, they could be a form of protection or armor.



(Looks at pic)
Personally, IÂ Â put that in the same category as the exotic species some folks are constantly wondering why more people don't make anthro characters of (because it's too difficult to make them look good, duh).

I recently commented on a piece by an artist who mentioned in the description she had difficulty drawing shoes. Since she's a pretty good artist (that's why I was watching her  ), I offered to provide assistance if she needed to draw another character wearing them in the future. Her reply was that she normally drew her characters digitigrade (and thus, bare-pawed) and wouldn't have any use for the info (the pic was a one-off commission).

In the end, my perspective is probably skewed because I _can_ draw shoes correctly (example 1 2 3 4 5 6) , which appears to be a rare trait since I've seen plenty of accomplished (i.e. commercially published in Japan) manga artists who can't do that (oh, those poor schoolgirls  ). I find that especially jarring since they usually get everything else completely right.

---PCJ


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## Squirl_X (Dec 5, 2006)

yeah i like furrie its feel me horny ^^ *giggles*


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## Lobo Roo (Dec 5, 2006)

Since Lobo has kangaroo feet, not human....kinda hard to put footwear on him. I prefer barepawed, anyways...feet are great.


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## Pyrodemonfox (Dec 5, 2006)

What about paws bursting out of shoes/boots?


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## Defiler Wyrm (Dec 5, 2006)

Great example of an artist's rendition of footwear for a digitigrade anthro.



			
				RailRide said:
			
		

> In the end, my perspective is probably skewed because I _can_ draw shoes correctly [. . .] , which appears to be a rare trait


It is, really. Shoes are bloody difficult, as are human feet.


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## Wintreln12 (Jun 24, 2018)

Why not wear spats? Spats give the feet a very good shape...mmmr
	

	
	
		
		

		
			








www.furaffinity.net: Paw Fashion: Spats (white) by doraneirok


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## SSJ3Mewtwo (Jun 25, 2018)

Closing this due to extreme necro.


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