Character design has always been something that’s been very dear to me; it allowed a moment of escapism during hard times as well helping me reflect on my own self. Although very different, a characteristic that many of these characters hold are some of my own traits. Each character was made at a different point in my life where I was going through different events in emotions and I wish to explore them in this series. All these characters are very important to me so I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoyed making it.

Pandora was the first character I had ever created; at a young age, in the vast and wretched internet, I had found myself enticed by the world of Youtube Sonic AMVs and DeviantART. It’s funny to say that a video of a slideshow of “Sonadow” fanart with “Be My Bad Boy” playing in the background was the jumpstart to my artistic career. Needless to say, Pandora was, indeed, a Sonic the Hedgehog fan-character (do not steal). Pandora was very much a self-insert and too overpowered by how bland her original design was: she was daring, witty, cunning, smart, brave and any other positive characteristic you can think of. Although cringe, she was a very important part of this journey because after all, this all started with her!

What to say about Diaz. She’s a strong willed talented musician with a big heart, a caring and thoughtful person and just overall incredibly loveable. How Diaz came to be is quite interesting to me, originally a side character in a bad romance story, I fell in love with this character and she became even more important than the original story itself. Of course the infamous story is no more and now Diaz is who we see today. Diaz is the character that has had the most redesigns and that just comes to show how much I love this character. When I first started developing her character more, at that time diaz was everything I was not, at least that’s how I saw it in my small, preteen brain. Diaz was so strong and incredible and I was not; Diaz and the rest of the characters that accompanied her were a comfortable escape from the wallows of mental illness and growing up.

Of course Jaz was going to show up sooner or later. Although it may be surprising for some of you to see her so early on in this series. Jaz, (originally known as Melody),  is a happy-go-lucky cat-girl with a bubbly personality and plenty of energy to accompany her constant good mood. You might have known her as a sporty-looking gal but she wasn’t always like this. Originally she was to be a Japanese idol-type singer in a band with Diaz, which is quite the jump to how she is now. Jaz’s design was inspired by a character that I saw in a “How to Draw Anime’’ book back in my tweens; she had all the anime characteristics (she still does but in a less feral way): purple hair, big ol’ green eyes, a loud and ugly outfit and a pair of very fitting knee-high, light blue, shiny leather boots. Jaz’s character didn’t last very long in my catalog, it was only 3 or so years ago where i redesigned her and made her part of my entourage; I decided to redesigned her for fun, I thought her design and colour palette were silly so I thought I would keep that silly nature but with less… light-blue, shiny leather boots. What made Jaz stick all those years later was the fact that her design was so childish, in my teens I had grown to hate my style and hate my anime roots; I felt that because of my cartoonish style I would never be taken seriously, unfortunately along the journey of detaching myself from my art style, I had lost part of the personality my work has. With jaz’s new arrival I learnt to have fun with my characters again, no matter what everyone says.

Revisiting Benji was like seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time. He accompanied me on my darkest times and allowed me to escape the loneliness that I felt at the time. Benji is a shy and anxious yet determined person, his love language is physical affection and his one and only passion is dance. His origins are what the cool people would call “cringe” (and they would be correct), Benji was my roleplay character back in middle school. Yes, I was VERY popular. Of course Benji wasn’t called Benji, he was called Boxxy (unfortunately). As cringe as his origins were, I have a lot of good memories from that Kik roleplaying group, not only of the character itself but also of the people within the group; that group was really a shelter from the confusing reality I was going through and Benji’s fictitious gay romance was comforting for my lonesome self. 

Friday, my love, my moon, my stars, my everything. Words cannot describe the love I feel for this fictional character. Friday is a confident and independent woman who is not afraid to march at the beat of her own drum. I think Friday was quite an integral piece to build up my self esteem, she was everything I wanted to be even with all her flaws and obstacles. I especially admired her in the way she dressed (which sounds a little crazy because I designed her), the bright makeup, the piercings, the nails and even tattoos, I loved all of that and wanted that too. My life motto in my teens was “if Friday could do it, so can I”.

All of the characters in this series are very personal to me, but out of all of these I say that trist is the one that is most personal to me. Trist is a quiet and calm guy, he has trouble expressing himself verbally but can do so beautifully through writing, although trist battles mental illness everyday he has a supportive and caring partner to help him through. Trist struggles with trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling), like me. This is important to me because through Trist I found a sense of companionship; trich is not a mental illness that everyone knows or understands. Even with all his hardships, Trist symbolizes hope to me as his story is about recovery, love and most importantly allowing yourself to feel. 

Soledad was my muse from 2018-2019, her coily hair and fiery emotions made it for a very good subject in my printmaking class in university. Soledad is an interesting character, she doesn’t live within a story, she lives within moments of frustration and anger and misery. 2018 was the year with the most changes and mistakes that I had ever experienced; I met up with people I shouldn’t have and stayed with them for too long, I moved back to my home country and to top it all off, I had no idea what I was doing with my life. I was carrying a lot of baggage that I couldn’t unload in fear that I would seem weaker or that I wasn’t accommodating to my new life. The only way I explored these emotions was through Sol’s rage or deep sadness. Sol in a way symbolizes the anger I felt for letting myself be hurt and affected by the pain.

Last but not least: Greg! The non binary deer with quirky outfits and a fat ass. My fursona if you will. Greg (AKA GG), Is my newest character as of today and honestly, they’re a lot of fun to draw. Their simple design makes for an excellent doodling subject; Greg allows me to explore my gender identity through a quirky cartoon deer. In contrast with some of Greg’s predecessors, their whole existence is to have a good time: kissing chicks, dressing cool and living the life. Why this is important is because it allows me to have fun with something as simple as Greg and to show the world that furry characters are cool as hell, and if you hate furries you’re a coward.