* WINZA *

Fursona

WINZA

Win-zah

Winza was my first and only fursona for over two years. She is a wonderfully happy dutch angel dragon who loves to see others smile. Her bubbly attitude and natural curiosity leads her to explore many new places and meet many new faces!

She has incredibly strong motherly instincts, and tends to adopt young ones to care for as her own.

In the homeland of Paradise, Winza was a caretaker. Tasked with caring for and educating the young dutchies and helping them to find their purpose.

Her horns emanate a soft blue glow that can chase away sadness and anger, leaving only happy feelings in one’s heart.

Creation and History

Winza almost didn’t exist.
Back in 2018 I started to get more involved with the Furry Fandom, and I felt I needed a fursona. I had always used Neffertity as my moniker, but I never connected with her like a sona. She was a character that represented me, but I didn’t feel she WAS ME. It was around the time I finished my first fursuit head that I started looking at a fursona. But picking a species proved challenging for me.

For a while I considered just making a fluffy dragon. But it just didn’t seem like “me”. So I looked at some fan species. Wickerbeast? Nah, too angry looking. Protogen? Mm, I’m not super good with technology, so that wouldn’t fit. A Synth maybe? They look dragon-like, and aren’t entirely mechanical? Hmm… No, that didn’t feel right either.
I strongly considered, and almost chose a Sergal as my sona. I even did a couple sketches of a potential Sergal-Sona.

I liked the colors, but felt there was just something missing. While thinking about what it was, I did more research on Sergals and learned they have very unusual reproductive organs…

Being Asexual myself, I immediately felt disconnected from Sergals by that. And by how sexualized they were in general. It just didn’t fit with who I am.

So I kept looking around, and stumbled across a clip of Telephone. I had seen Dutch Angel Dragons before, and really liked them. But I always felt like I couldn’t make one because then I’d just be “another dutchie”. Like it was an overused species that no one cared about. I look back at that logic now, and I find it rather odd how I thought a dutchie was overused, but a canine or feline wasn’t?

I went down a rabbit hole of videos on YouTube, and that’s when I found Dew’s video of the Legend of the Gatekeeper. Watching this story, from both the art form and the lore, something in me clicked. I knew what my fursona species was going to be.

A Dutch Angel Dragon

[original concept drawn on March 21st, 2018]

The first concept of Winza looked pretty different from what she looks like today.

In her first appearance, she was very tall and lanky. Her horns were super small, and she had her small spikes on the side of her head, rather than her cheeks. Her overall pallet was very muted as well. This would be one of the things that would change the most in her design over the following years.

Upon creating her, I fell in love with her character and connected so much.
Originally, she was intended to be all navy blue with white markings. But my good friend Neon suggested a deeper magenta and teal pallet. And I’m so glad he did.

There was so much to dutchies that made me fall in love with the species.

Coming from their origins with Ino’s horse, and all they stand for. Their history is one filled with ups and downs, and the species as a whole is genuinely the warmest and most welcoming I’ve ever been a part of. And because of their species rules, they have no genitalia and as such cannot have NSFW artwork with them.
This for me, was a big part of what solidified my choice to have a dutchie as my sona.

As a content creator within the furry fandom, I always felt a bit out of place compared to everyone else… As wonderful and wholesome as this fandom is, there seems to be a strong portion of it that’s highly sexualized. Even Neffertity as a character was constantly being sexualized since she’s a dragon, and everyone knows the kind of things dragons get up to after dark. I disliked that being associated with myself. And so having a character who’s species could not be lewd made me feel safe and welcome.

Some of my Favorite art Pieces

Over the years I’ve commissioned and created a LOT of art of Winza. More than I can post here for sure. But these are some of my favorites.

“Valley and Hearts of Fire” by CrystalBerry

artist uncertain-will update when available

The Creation of her Fursuit

My ambition is what makes me, me.
And so in 2019 I set forth to create her fursuit. And what a challenge it was! I struggled a lot through the process of making her, and at several points I nearly gave up. Her first head actually had a moving jaw, which to this day I still don’t understand how I managed to make it work for only being my 3rd head.

I was so proud of her partial that I immediately started working on her fullsuit. Which honestly might have been a mistake, since it had to be restarted several times throughout the process. Mostly due to my own oopsies of not labeling patterns right, and not doing enough research when it came to learning how padding works.

Oh younger me, how I wish I could share what I’ve learned now with you then.

Never forget…
Winza 1.0 started out as an abomination…

The first draft of her bodysuit looked absolutely HORRIBLE. I hated how fat the butt looked, the knees were saggy, and the giant feet and tiny ankles were really awful to look at and even worse to wear.

I ended up totally scrapping her body, and completely remade it.

Just between these two photos (taken roughly 3 months apart) you can see how fast I started to improve. This was a trend that would continue on for the rest of her construction.

Eventually there will be a video documentary about all her construction and what went into creating her. At which point that video will be viewable HERE.

My connection to Winza as a character was so strong that I restarted her entire bodysuit just to make it right. Dedication to bringing my fursona to life.

Over time, I worked more and more on her suit until it was finally complete!
Her first public outing was actually at BLFC in 2019, and it was my second time attending a furcon. I really animated her character SO MUCH that weekend.

This was also where I learned that she has some very good angles, and some not so flattering ones as well…

Seeing the public’s reaction to her gave me so much confidence to keep working harder and learning how to make better and better suits!

This was also around the time I finally started taking fursuit commissions. And I began to skyrocket with improvement.

In just 1 year I went from Winza 1.0 looking pretty decent for a first suit, to Winza 2.0 absolutely DOMINATING the power I acquired with countless hours of practice and learning.

Everything from my digi padding, shapes, paws, tails, just everything improved and the difference between these two suits is so vast that it almost doesn’t look like they were made by the same person.

But I assure you, my blood, sweat, and so many tears went into building both these amazing suits.

Winza has finally reached a point where I am happy with how she looks. Everything about her is how I wanted it to look when I created her, and as a fursona she fits the bill perfectly for me.

*** WINZA ***