Kayru-Kitsune

Hey all, I'm not quite ready to do a fully Etsy-style opening for commissions, but I do want to get some done this month!

For this limited run I'll only be doing some of the plushies I've made before:

* Launcher squids
* Mata Nui / Makuta stones
* Thornax beanies

PM me for an estimate - price depends on size and shipping.

Forgot I'd been posting them here, I have been updating primarily on Tumblr. Well, as you might've guessed from me completely stopping posting, I'm ending it early. (Yeah I know, I missed days anyway but hey! I drew more in 3 weeks than I have in the past year, possibly two.)

Why? Oh, because... my 5-year-old decided last minute that he wanted to be HalloweenTown Sora for Halloween. And how can I say no to THAT? I'm super proud haha. Anywayyyyy, making that costume will probably take all my free time for the rest of the month. So it's taking precedence.

I have a project in the works, however, for sort of a cosplay thing related to one of my favorite fandoms... maybe I'll post WIP photos of it soon!

So I'm posting this as part of an entry into a raffle for this gorgeous creature: 

There are a number of things you can do to enter, so if you are interested check out the deviation page :3

UPDATE: I’m on Skype now and gonna start playing with the tablet - if anyone’s interested in joining my boredom chat just send me a PM or something.

Alright! Now that most of the chaos has died down, my latest works are posted, and I have an evening to myself... I think I may get started on InkTober (ahaha it's day 8 lots to catch up on...). But I'd probably need some conversation/encouragement to get it going. I've never thought of streaming before, and IDK if that would garner much interest... just doing a Skype call with whoever's free / interested is a possibility too.

Would anyone else care to join a call or stream or something? I'm just spitballing really, idk what to do with myself on a night alone anymore :v

Kayru

1. I am not a furry. Kayru is not ‘me’ or my fursona. She is a character I created, who happens to have the same name as my online alias. It’s just a result of her origins in Bionicle (see next point), which was initially as an ‘avatar Toa’ that almost everyone had on BZPower. Even then the character wasn’t ‘me’. I used Kayru as a MALE in the comics I made. Every iteration of her design I still regard as ‘Kayru’ - but none are me, although I answer to that name, because that’s how internet alias names work. At best, she is a muse. She’s my favorite character, and I like drawing and building her in all sorts of forms and situations, and that doesn’t mean she is ‘me’ any more than it means Harry Potter IS JK Rowling. 
   
   
2. As I said, Kayru started out via Bionicle. Her name was simply made-up and had no real significance, and although I went by the alias Kayru, the character was entirely different. It was a male Toa throughout most of the sprite comics I made. By the end of those comics, I decided I wanted something more out of the character, something I could invest more into. So in the last comic, 'he' took on a new form (I made my own sprites based on a very terrible MOC I also made)... a bipedal 'Rahi' fox. This was because of one of my newer friends, Moutekea, who broke outside of the usual BZP mold by having a custom non-Toa character based on a favorite animal... I decided to do the same. Then the comics ended, and after that point I referred to Kayru as a female.
   
   
3. Visually, Kayru's design even after that point has changed a lot. Note to self: add more photos. She was sort of my guinea pig for everything, from playing with designs to text-RP setups. For a long time I preferred this form for robotics, as it was equal parts Bionicle and tweaked other-mechanics: Kayru and Minq - Robotic until a forum member named Arriathan made an awesome drawing of her, and I wanted to branch out a bit. I implemented some of her changes into My DeviantID and that was as far as she went on the robotics-end. (I made a chibi-robotic form in the intent of re-starting comics handwritten, but only got 3 in and stopped, never posting them anywhere.) She also had some plain 'organic' appearances, but was mostly just a white fox with gray ears/paws/tailtip. 
   
   
4. Kayru's current form was designed by SterlingKato. I wanted a better organic look to her, and she'd NEVER had a quadrupedal design. So I gave her all the drawings I'd had so far of the robotic style, and asked her to make Kayru in the style of one of her characters, Ahmir, who was a Jade Kitsune, with the intent of a commission of the two characters meeting. (At the time this wasn't an adoptable race, and for reasons not going over the commision never got made, but I got my fair share with Kayru's new incarnation: Kayru-- as a Jade Kitsune.) I liked the character drawing so much that with the artist's permission, I deemed this her official design. And the later-established species specifications of JKs don't conflict with her, fortunately (I presume the flame atop her head is very very translucent and almost impossible to see except against a dark backdrop, but it's there).
   
   
5. Now that I've explained the origins, you see how doing the recent MOC meant so much to me - it was a full-circle call-back to her origins, a MOC and design finally worthy of the medium.
   
   
6. Personality and 'back-story' - I've intentionally never specified her origins, but I wrote her to be a wanderer in the Le-Wahi forests. Almost never seen, but a few have testimonies of seeing her. She is reserved, silent, and seems to interact with no-one... but she guards the forest and maintains balance. It is presumed she has powers, as those who have seen her tell stories of blinding light and 'divine' intervention in times of dire need. She does not care to interfere with the events of people but protects the interests of the forest and those living in it - again, a keeper of balance.
   I suppose you could say she is a 'forest spirit' or 'forest guardian', but before you say anything, that is NOT derivative of any movie, book, or anything else. I wrote her description long before ever seeing any Ghibli movies or any of the other things people have compared her to. In fact, she's most similar to a horse creature I wrote about in a story I wrote with a friend back when I was ~12.
   
   
7. I have a tattoo of her on my back. ...yup. Also designed by the wonderful aforementioned artist, basically the same profile in a different pose. She's currently my only tattoo.
   
   
8. OK so now you're probably really asking... sooo why does she mean so much to you if she's not your fursona, especially if you got a TATTOO of her? The answer to that is sort of twofold, but related. I've had her for many years. Invested a lot of thought into her process. She's changed a lot, as have I. With all the creative projects I've had, she's been my only constant and I've been able to put thought into her every iteration and allowed her to flex into a state that I am happy with - just as I have with myself.
   On that note, she's also been my only constant through a lot of life changes, and with the fact that in those many years I've never kept a consistent close friend, I've kept her. She's been with me. I've had some of my most creative times with her in the midst of avoiding panic attacks on nights I'm overwhelmed, thinking of the people I love who have indirectly or directly cut me off... making major life decisions... embracing unexpected parenthood... an unwanted marriage, a shame-ridden divorce. She's been with me. Her personality as a silent, watchful guardian has always been comforting to think of. It sort of keeps me grounded sometimes.
   Those are why I got her as a tattoo. Not only is she visually incredible, but primarily because of how much she has served me creatively and emotionally throughout the years. It sounds stupid to write, but there it is. She serves as a reminder and comfort for me, on a few levels.