What kind of foam are you using.

Normally it's a hard-ish styrofoam like material.

From my understanding you could use a lot of different foams. I don't have any myself yet, but the only type of foam I can find in bulk around any stores around here is this squishy green foam. It MIGHT be polyurethane. The hard foams I've found seem too hard to work with..

Wouldn't it be nice if there was just a big store with all the stuff one needs right there?

Maybe you could glue some sheets of a easier to cut foam together.

The green foam works the best. The white foam is almost IMPOSSIBLE to carve with an electric knife. The green foam is much more stiff and usually carves nicely. Most fursuit makers use the green (lots use the white, too, depends on preference). Wal-Mart has the white foam and Joann's has the green foam.

For lower jaws, I use the black foam, but I can only find that whenever I get a package and it was used as padding. XD I don't know where to buy it and I am almost out. Still, it is very stiff and supports itself, which is nice for a moving jaw.

Foam isn't hard to shape, it's just time consuming. I use the green foam mostly and use an electric knife to get the basic shape. Then, I shape and smooth with scissors. This is where it gets time consuming. Sometimes I use white foam with the green.

As for the above commenter, I've never seen anyone use a Styrofoam-type material for making a fursuit. Never. Not saying they haven't done it, but I've sure never seen it.

As for shaggy fur, the longest pile I've personally seen (without ordering from NFT or NTF or whatever the company's blasted name is) is Distinctive Fabric's 3-inch pile. http://distinctivefabric.com/fabric.....=EXTRALONGFUR1 Sometimes, Bev at imstuffedfur.com has neat furs of different lengths, as well.

As for your paws, I think they look good. :) They'll look nicer once they are trimmed up a bit and your claws are filed and installed. Best of luck! :D

Electric knives..! I'm kind of scared of those lol. But I suppose it would be the best tool for carving foam. Here I was looking at a pair of scissors wondering what the hell I would do.
This is all very informative, thank you!

Electric knives are generally safe. :) If you ever need help, let me know! :D I'm a beginner myself, but I seem to be pretty good at this and I've read about everything you can read on fursuit making. X___X I'd be happy to pass on any knowledge.

The most basic one is the green upholstery foam you can get from craft stores. You just shape it with a pair of scissors or an electric carving knife and glue it together with hot glue.

is that one of those things that smells like popcorn????

yup! :D

Omg I love those! :P when your done you should totally spray the suit with something popcorn scented!

YOU CAN DO IT...

Maybe I should start with paws P: I have some textured leather I could use as paw pads. Who knows. Lol. Lookin' good so far!

AWESOME

One thing you could experiment with to achieve that look I think would be to take a pair of black stretchy extra long gloves, then attaching the super shaggy fur to them down to where the fingers attach... just a thought. But this is cool. I love how multi-media you are, it's a quality I admire in an artist :3 And wow, I bet it took patience to do this by hand with fur that thick.

Thank! I love being able to do multi-media.. I tire very easily of the same thing and I need a constant flow of new things or I'll get too bored for motivation. I still have clothing, plushes, large scaled sculptures in the making, and eventually I would like to do actual taxidermy and latex mask making. The things I want to do are endless.
And patience yes.. I did do a rushed job so there's some 'off' looking seams but they're easily hidden, but good enough so it won't just pull apart. Cutting the fur with sears was the most frustrating part since it got all over the place.

AGH god I hate that about working with fur fabrics, its like having 36 cats rolling all over your house.