Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny McCraken.
Danny, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Southern California as a New Year’s baby. My parents grew up in California and so I stayed there for my whole upbringing. For 6th grade+ I was homeschooled using a Christian program, partially due to how much the anxiety caused by public school was affecting my grades, but also my body. Being homeschooled allotted me much more time to be able to work on personal projects such as art and animation.
On YouTube, back in the early days, many artists I knew would animate their own animal characters to various songs and audio clips. They would then copy off of each other, making their own versions of these videos called “memes”. I animated my own character over and over again when I was a teenager, inspired by my friends in the community to push it further with my drawing and animation skills.
As time passed I got more into other aspects of drawing these animal characters and started uploading digital art to DeviantArt. It was around this time that I was being heavily bullied online, my address was found out, and I was forced to come out to my parents as gay. The animation community on YouTube was my safe space up until that point, where I was discovering myself and detaching from my Christian upbringing. When my privacy was being breeched, I had to leave the animation community and start something new.
As I got older I began to create costumes of the characters I was drawing. It started off with personal projects and eventually grew into commissions for other artists. Creating these costumes allowed me to learn many new skills like sewing, shipping, and managing a business. Replying to Emails and keeping my website updated all fell onto my lap, and I was able to become a way more responsible person with this new array of tasks I had to upkeep.
In early 2016 I started to travel and left my home state of California. I flew to Massachusetts and immediately fell in love with the state. After experiencing so many mental hardships in California, where I didn’t feel I could grow as a person, the accepting and loving nature of the state of Massachusetts was overwhelming. Throughout the year of 2016 I visited 4 times, and by the end of the year saved up enough money to be able to move to Middlesex County.
Today, I create costumes from home in a household full of other freelance artists. Originally we all lived in a small apartment, and have now upgraded to a house, where we all have space to work to our fullest potential. We have a large work space dedicated to costumes, artwork, paintings, music and sculpture, where every day we can wake up, go to the office and find something inspiring to work with.
With the hard work put into making this possible, I am now selling my costumes at conventions internationally. One convention for example being Anthrocon, the largest Anthropomorphic Art convention in the world, with an attendance of over 7,000 people in 2017. Next year I am aiming to attend another convention all the way in Sweden, called NordicFuzzCon.
My overall goal is to continue to bring smiles to people’s faces when they see their character come to life. I want to push my art to the absolute limit and create things that will inspire other artist’s to break out of their shell and try something new. I am inspired by all of the creativity in the world, and to be able to give back any is truly an honor!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest challenge has been discovering myself. I’ve had to recognize that I am a human with diagnosed mental illness that is also a part of the LGBT+ community. Being a part of these things that are ultimately looked down on in our culture is a struggle and a constant source of pain, constantly poking at me to be better, to be normal, but ultimately motivating me to become the best person I can be. While mental illness is a large source of stress in my life, being a part of the LGBT+ community is the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
I’ve come to realize that I may not be cut out for what others in this society would consider a “normal” job, where I slave away hours of my time doing tasks for a large corporation that does not recognize me as a human being. However, being an artist and managing your own business is as much of a job as anything else is. I work full time from home, and at times, it can really exhaust a person to be working that way.
Technicolour Costumes – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Technicolour Costumes creates animal costumes otherwise known as fursuits. An artist will send me a design sheet of a character that they want made into a costume, and I will translate it into fabric for them using the client’s measurements. I am most proud of my attention to detail and efforts to improve, where every order I get I focus very steadily on to make sure it is exactly what my client is looking for. I constantly strive to improve so it’s not only a more stream-lined experience for my clients, but I am able to be more confident in my own abilities and be able to pave a way for younger artists who want to create costumes as well!
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is constant improvement. Putting your pen to the paper every day, looking for details you can fix, things you can make easier, issues you can smooth out. If you have a sketchbook and you sit yourself down to draw in it for even just 10 minutes a day, by the end of the book, you will see improvement.
As an artist it’s impossible to know just when you’ve “made it”. One day you could make the best thing you’ve ever created, but the next you could make something even better. There is no finale that will tell you that you’ve succeeded. It’s crucial to stop and notice when you make something good, pat yourself on the back for it, then continue to grind away at whatever project you have. If you make something you’re not proud of, remember that nobody is making the perfect piece of art all of the time, and failure is the biggest part of a successful person’s life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://technicolourcostumes.weebly.com/
- Email: tcostumes@yahoo.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TechnicolourCostumes
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/T_Costumes
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
