# How Do You Go About Making Your Characters?



## Limedragon27 (Feb 10, 2019)

Characters, Fursonas, however you want to call them. We all have them, whenever it be just one, or over forty. However, I'm curious how the people of this forum go about making their characters. Do you insert yourself and basically make you as an furry? Or do you make general characters? I don't really like to insert myself, but rather make characters that have at least some differences from me, whenever it be in behavior, thoughts/opinions, ultimate goals, ect. I found I prefer giving them their own personalities and backgrounds, in order to make them different from me, and conflict with each other. I tried the whole me as a furry thing before, but it didn't really work for me.

However, enough of me. How do you go about making your characters? I'm curious to know.


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## Sarachaga (Feb 10, 2019)

In my case it's more about what clicks with me when I create the characters.  None of them is based off me. Some are just gimmicky and some are more in depth.


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## mareenaicefin (Feb 10, 2019)

It's all MAGIC!!





In all seriousness for mine it's just, I dunno, a bit of me, a bit of how I think others see me? It's all just some weird personal journey?


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## Tendo64 (Feb 10, 2019)

Most of my characters are admittedly design based but I still have plenty of characters with well developed backstories. I don't design many of my characters anymore because I suck at coming up with a design I like, so I buy or trade for designs mostly, but I do design characters myself from time to time when something inspires me.

Most characters aren't based off myself but I sprinkle bits of my own traits in there, some more than others. In the case of my fursonas, both of them have energetic personalities like me, but one is more general and the other is his own character, not really a self-insert, but has a personality very much like mine. My persona on the other hand, is just me. Me but with exaggerated cartoony traits.


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## Mr.Mentlegen (Feb 10, 2019)

Whelp, I just try to mix it with some game characters, some species, and of course, my personality!
But the funny thing is that I originally wanted a character based on the spy in Tf2, but without any reason, it becomes based on other characters 
Few weeks later, it became a brand new fursona!
And this is now


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## ManicTherapsid (Feb 10, 2019)

I only have about 3 characters, but my main fursona is mostly based upon my younger self but also takes inspiration from Carl Kolchak from Kolchak - The Night Stalker, and Randy Stone from the old 50's radio program Night Beat.  The other two are more or less based upon characters I devised for a web comic I never made in college because I didn't draw very well and didn't have/take the time to learn. Now that I finally got around to learning to draw again, I can hopefully resurrect the project at some point in the future.


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## TR273 (Feb 10, 2019)

Mostly aspects of my own personality made real.


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## Water Draco (Feb 10, 2019)

There is a lot of myself in my character, of which a lot of aspects of the detail of my character carries symbolism that is important to me.


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## Deathless (Feb 10, 2019)

My original fursona, Deathless, was actually inspired by an extra set of Pawstar ears I got for Christmas by accident, so I weirdly enough made a cute wolf out of it from lots of free to use templates on Google Images after I sketched my first ever furry art, which was hard, so I didn't do it a lot...
She's had some glow-ups over the years but I'm happy with the way she is now because one, I have a fursuit of her already so it's a little too late to change anything, and two, I like to keep my characters as simple as they can get with minimum unique markings for project purposes (drawing, clay figures, etc).
Here's some photos of her from when I first made her to now:


Spoiler


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## MosquitoBeest (Feb 10, 2019)

My main sona (which is the wildebeest beauty in my avatar) is simply myself in anthro form, so it's an insert I guess. I picked a wildebeest since I love how they look IRL and I thought a hoofed animal fit me best while keeping away from something general like a horse (plus both male and female wildebeest have horns and I love horned animals as well). 
Now I just had a ref for another sona done, but that one is a sona for only a part of my self instead of my whole self (she's the anthropomorphization of my being born and raised in New Jersey, so instead of looking like myself she looks like what I think the Jersey part of me would look like).
I'm more of a quality vs. quantity person so I likely will only have these two for sonas and just get a whole lot of art done of them!


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## fantasticalfrenzy (Feb 10, 2019)

I usually base characters off of what I like or aspects of my personality and go from there. I like to think that the most well written characters are the ones who write themselves !


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## Faexie (Feb 10, 2019)

For Ramona it was just an animal I really liked (still do) and my two favorite colors.

There's another one that is a cabbit, based on what my husband calls me sometimes: chapin, which is the french worda chat (cat) and lapin (rabit) mashed together.

Aside from that (and some pathfinder characters), all of my character are being created (none of them is fully done yet) as a challenge, either a design challenge (animals that don't look at all like humans, like sea star, jellyfish and manta ray) or something that would be hard to make as a fursuit (like a winged legless snake and a goat centaur)


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## qu.0 (Feb 11, 2019)

My first attempt at a sona was a anthro version of myself, but I didn't really connect to the design. After i had two main ones that I occasionally used, but those were more mascots I think? It's didn't really feel like a personification of myself or how I saw myself ect so again I didn't really have that attachment. It has only been with my current sona, Frankie, that I've felt a connection with. For me, that meant a design that represented how I saw myself symbolically/metaphorically and also how I WANT to be seen. So simple, non threatening, ect.  In retrospect it's kinda funny how difficult it was to make my sona, only because I create characters all the dang time! I guess because it was and is so personal, and it represents ME, that it just took a lot longer.


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## Pipistrele (Feb 11, 2019)

Ramona Rat said:


> For Ramona it was just an animal I really liked (still do) and my two favorite colors.
> 
> There's another one that is a cabbit, based on what my husband calls me sometimes: chapin, which is the french worda chat (cat) and lapin (rabit) mashed together.
> 
> Aside from that (and some pathfinder characters), all of my character are being created (none of them is fully done yet) as a challenge, either a design challenge (animals that don't look at all like humans, like sea star, jellyfish and manta ray) or something that would be hard to make as a fursuit (like a winged legless snake and a goat centaur)


I kinda adore Rara, actually - at least from the userpic of yours .w.


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## Glairdron (Feb 11, 2019)

I think my characters are nothing like me. I try to create something that I think it would be fun to play at being, not something representational of me. Maybe I just don't think a dragon version of me would be interesting to come up with or paint 

But yeah, I'm firmly in the camp of coming up with characters that are different from me. I get enough self-reflection from other hobbies, the furry fandom is my chance to play around a bit with unfamiliar personalities!


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## Guifrog (Feb 11, 2019)

Apart from my passion for frogs, my character is essentially myself with some added spice and a bit of research. The blue dart frog happens to be native to my country, is very territorial - suits myself - and I love their colors.


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## JakeTheFoXx (Feb 11, 2019)

When I was thinking about my sona, I decided to make Jake a mirror image version of myself, just as a fox. I went this way mainly because as I lurked around the fandom and decided I wanted to make myself a fursona, I felt that an "avatar" that represented myself in furry fashion would just make the interaction feel that more relatable and genuine for me on a personal level. I feel that my sona being like myself, makes it easier for me to interact as well, as I dont consider myself someone who is super creative. I do enjoy meeting other furs and hearing the backgrounds of their sonas, especially when their background and attitude differs from the actual person themselves.

(Sorry for the bad grammar lol, work has been unrelenting!)


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## Universe (Feb 11, 2019)

Mine’s me as a dragon


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## Le Chat Nécro (Feb 12, 2019)

I don't try to insert myself, but parts of me do usually end up in there, like my judgmental glare or anxious under monologue. Lol

For the most part I'm just struck by a random idea, usually influenced by something I'm watching or reading or browsing on Tumblr, and then just run with it. Like with Edelweiss, the idea started with a dnd joke, her name and design came from a song, and her personality ultimately ended up being the antsy teen I wanted to be in the nineties (I was like seven and thought myself cool).

So it's a very mixed bag


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## Ravofox (Feb 18, 2019)

In terms of design, I try to get my (several) sonas to have at least some facial resemberlance to me. This is pretty difficult, as of course you're trying to squeeze a human face into, say, a fox one, and I don't think I've ever gotten it quite right, but I'm satisfied and pleased with them once I'm done

As for personality, I base them off different aspects of myself. My main, Ravo, is probably the most representitive of me overall, with some exaduration


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## Liseran Thistle (Feb 18, 2019)

sometimes i just make fursona's based off of my pets or animals i really like or think are cute. 






here's a picture of azriel, my mermaid oc. I just based him off of my pet beta fish whose really moody, also he passed away this year. 

and my profile picture is a cute pastel dog named parlor that i just randomly designed and named one day because i thought it suited her. My mom used to own a dog and i took inspiration from that.


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## Devo Waterfowl (Feb 19, 2019)

It was inspiration by duckman


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## Jackpot Raccuki (Feb 19, 2019)

I usually try and think of some kind of theme.
I at one point had a theme in regards to music and wanted to make a bunch of OCs in a band together, so I based their designs around a music genre they like.
Which lead to a Guitarist Werefox(Punk), Drummer Rabbit(Metal), DJ Dragon(Rave) and Lead Singer Bear(Pop)
Of course, the Lead singer is the only female character, yet was also a character who I scrapped since I had no actual use other than she existed, basically recycled her.

And in other cases yes, I do put a bit of myself in the characters, not my whole self, but part of me.
Heck my fursona was a reference to how I used my characters as the way to identify me, but obviously decided to stop and make one character(fursona) to tie them all together...

I know people try and present themselves fully in the fursona, but I try and avoid that, part of me is fine, but not the whole me.


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## The Matte-Black Cat (Feb 19, 2019)

Limedragon27 said:


> Do you insert yourself and basically make you as an furry?



That's what I did.. 

One day in high school, I was bored and was wondering - "How would life be if I was a mountain lion instead.." then I started daydreaming about stuff like that - and it eventually lead to my fursona to be what it is now..I've been doing that for 10+ years and yet just recently discovered that I'm a furry.


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## Luca Listis (Mar 3, 2019)

I created Luca to see what a fursona would be like. But he doesn't have enough personality. Too much of a recluse. He is a projection of me if I was a pure introvert. I would say I'm introversial offline, but Luca takes that to another level.

I'm going to have a word with him about it. See if he can open up a bit. I guess he hasn't been around for that long and is a little shy.


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## Liseran Thistle (Mar 3, 2019)

well actually, when I first thought up Peter and Zachariah and the rest of the Beasts of Blackwell Bayou, it all actually started with a dream I had. It was a short dream where I was not a participant in, but that i saw as a third person. Kind of like watching a movie in your head. I saw three figures, a Fox, a Bunny, and a Badger who were all slowly creeping over the crest of a rather large hill. The Badger was saying something, and he and the other two had prominent southern accents one that I recognized immediately, and he was telling them about "Deadmen". The Deadmen were just zombies, but he was explaining them as if they were some supernatural force. I can't remember exactly what the badger was saying, just that he was explaining what zombies were to these other two animals.

When I woke up, I had that dream stuck in my head, and I figured it'd make for a pretty interesting story concept. I remember the only reason I had that dream was because one time i was watching the walking dead with my family, and there was a pivotal moment where rick went to investigate a missing person from the group who hadn't come back. He walks along the foggy forest pathway, only to be spooked by a deer getting chomped on by a zombie. This scene kind of made me wonder what it was like for animals during a zombie apocalypse, and what if there were a movie, preferably one animated like one of those old vintage disney films about animals surviving the zombie apocalypse? And thus i started to write a short story called The Ferals on Blackwell, added names to the badger, bunny, and fox and called it a day. Of course I added other characters along the way, like Umbra the Devil of Blackwell Bayou, but the one thing that always remained was the idea of a zombie apocalypse right outside these Beasts' doors. 

I have said before on this site that I just made up Thistle the deer from watching Bambi a lot, which is true, and Parlor the Dog was made simply because I liked her design and just added her in the mix. I haven't really written a whole lot for The Ferals on Blackwell, mainly because of time restraints and what not.


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## KitWulf (Mar 3, 2019)

I've made myself, then remade myself as a male. Those are the only two that have traits of 'me', as they're my different sides/personalities. 
Dozens more have been created, many are originally founded from a person I'll know as a personality base, while others are from scratch that just come together as I go along. They'll get pictured, a visual representation is laid out, then a personality is given and whether they're 'good' or 'bad'.  

Best part is when you can create chimeras, but when in a different setting where humanoids are the main theme, you have to get creative. Not just visually, but with quirky traits and flaws that have them stick out from the rest. Cookie cutter characters are definitely something I'm glad to see the Fur community does not have


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## Luca Listis (Mar 4, 2019)

KitWulf said:


> I've made myself, then remade myself as a male. Those are the only two that have traits of 'me', as they're my different sides/personalities.
> Dozens more have been created, many are originally founded from a person I'll know as a personality base, while others are from scratch that just come together as I go along. They'll get pictured, a visual representation is laid out, then a personality is given and whether they're 'good' or 'bad'.
> 
> Best part is when you can create chimeras, but when in a different setting where humanoids are the main theme, you have to get creative. Not just visually, but with quirky traits and flaws that have them stick out from the rest. Cookie cutter characters are definitely something I'm glad to see the Fur community does not have


Which is exactly why I need to talk to Luca


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## KitWulf (Mar 4, 2019)

Luca Listis said:


> I created Luca to see what a fursona would be like. But he doesn't have enough personality. Too much of a recluse. He is a projection of me if I was a pure introvert. I would say I'm introversial offline, but Luca takes that to another level.
> 
> I'm going to have a word with him about it. See if he can open up a bit. I guess he hasn't been around for that long and is a little shy.



Projection of you _if_ you were an introvert? 
From I've seen from many, it tends to be introverts that have bigger personalities then their counterparts(Many of anyway). Being as they are recluse, they become more aware of some things that others aren't, so have to factor that in. 
Being an extension of _you_, there will still be similarities, pieces of yourself that you like, so build on those


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## dathazelnutboi (Mar 4, 2019)

well, I tried many different ways of making a fursona and none of them seams to stick for long before I was right back at it making another. so I took a look back at what shaped me as a person and I remembered the redwall show I used to watch when i was really young, and form that point I decided to make a fursona this time the same species as the characters I loved. this made him a mousy badger, which is why he's got a long tail and brown fur. now this silver eyes came form my love of tolkien novels, I wanted his eye to resemble the door of morias pale blue glow and a bit of mithril. as for his name, that came form night in the woods... sorrta. after playing that I felt I wanted his name to be something warm, inviting, autumny...hazel worked.


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## dathazelnutboi (Mar 4, 2019)

as for Roxanne, I've long felt like there was a hidden wild side of me sitting under all my shyness and low self confidence. it took the love of a man once again to fully re-awake it, and once it was awoken I wanted a representation for the new self I was now becoming and giving hazel a second form as it and this is why Roxanne has brown fur, long hair and is also a femboy. I reflected again on my past and there was Pokemon the anime. among the Pokiemon a lucario was perfect, they already where among my favorite Pokiemon. I represented the now awoken inner flame my making him a alolan lucario and giving him a magenta glow.


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## Luca Listis (Mar 5, 2019)

KitWulf said:


> Projection of you _if_ you were an introvert?
> From I've seen from many, it tends to be introverts that have bigger personalities then their counterparts(Many of anyway). Being as they are recluse, they become more aware of some things that others aren't, so have to factor that in.
> Being an extension of _you_, there will still be similarities, pieces of yourself that you like, so build on those


No, I am an introvert.
If I said introvert then sorry I either meant "recluse" or "more introversial than me".

I'm still happy to hang out with a couple of my closest friends and can just about tolerate a party (although parties can be mind-numbing and/or overwhelming)

But Luca's character has changed now so that is now kind of irrelevant...


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## Luca Listis (Mar 5, 2019)

Oh yeah sorry I didn't read your whole post.

I made Luca even more of a pacifist. I would love to get angry as rarely as Luca. But then again, I wouldn't want to be biologically enhanced and brainwashed for battle.

Hmm... Maybe Luca isn't the worst thing ever. I do miss his old pacifist self tho


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## StolenMadWolf (Mar 6, 2019)

I've got a ton of different characters and how they come around tends to vary alot. However, one thing I can say for certain, is that I tend to scan around a few places until I find one piece on inspiration, such as a piece of art, or a graphic or a piece of media. But once I get that inspiration, I completely run away with it to create something in a great level of detail.


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