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How my characters came to be.
17 years ago
Somebody posted a journal yesterday (I'm sorry, I don't remember who) asking where people got the inspiration for their fursona's. I thought my answer would be a bit too long, so I didn't bother. But today I was thinking that maybe I'd write it here anyway for posterity. It's a bit tl:dr 8D
The very first character I created was Felissa. She first appeared in Jr High (a million years ago) as an anime-style tiger catgirl. Yes anime was, like many, my gateway drug into furry. I do have a few images from that time, but I won't bother sharing as they are highly referenced from artists I adored at the time (Robert DeJesus, Fred Perry, Kosuke Fujishima) I don't really remember exactly why or when I stopped that and started really fleshing out her character, giving her a real story. I do know it was High School, and that around that time I also got a Furnation account (it's still there, I haven't updated it in three years, I've been debating giving it an overhaul). That's really when I started being very active and meeting people online. I was very adept at finding new artists who were giving away free art. |D That's how I met Kai aka Slyferret.
She was instrumental in the creation of both Blaine and Aidan. Aidan came first, oddly enough. She had created this universe where small elf/fae creatures who were also part animals lived. They were called Talasiths, they had mostly elfin features (human-like, HUGE pointy ears), with a few animal characteristics (patches of fur, tails). There was a form you filled out with various info, and she drew Aidan for the first time from the info I gave her. Then she invited her friends and anyone she had created a Talasith for to join in a round-robin RPG (we'd each write a section of story and then pass it on to the next person). We were free to create our backstory within her rules and also to create NPCS. That's how Blaine came to be. Blaine's parents owned a bakery, his mother was a sloth talasith, his father was a jackal talasith (the story of how they met involves pirates, a ransom, and eloping |3). They adopted Aidan when his family was killed by a badger (they're very small, only a few inches high, so they could fall prey to larger animals and such).
Here's the first-ever drawings of both Aidan and Blaine: (done by me. Please, please, PLEASE keep in mind that these are at least a decade old ^^;;;;; )
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ndressedup.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ine/Blaine.jpg
Eventually the RPG died, and I tried taking the characters into other games that people from the old group were running, but none of them ever really took off, plus I was now in college and having an emotional/identity crisis. There was also a lot of weird drama, and since most of the people involved were a few years younger than me, I though it'd be for the best for me to cut out. Blaine and Aidan switched places too, because I was just so very drawn to Blaine, while Aidan is really very distant. I still consider Aidan to be something of an NPC.
I recycled them a couple times, first as humans, then I started playing Star Wars: Galaxies and wrote them as the two characters I was playing (they were both Twi'leks, there's an image in my gallery that I need to finish of the two of them). For kicks, here's human Blaine from 2002 (the pose could possibly be referenced from somewhere, but I don't remember. There are reasons why I don't post any really old shit in my gallery |D)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....necrateclr.jpg
At this point, I pretty much stopped drawing/writing anything for Felissa, since I've seen more than enough red-headed, green-eyed tigresses to last me a lifetime. She's been mostly shelved ever since, and if I do revamp my site, it's not going to revolve around her anymore. I use the name though, since it's fairly unique and variants of Blaine are often taken. If I'm not going by Felissa I'll go by BlaineMuffin.
The very first fully-furry Blaine appeared at the end of 2003. I had really missed him being a part of my life, so I drew a quick sketch on a post-it. I looked at it, and I was instantly just... well it felt right. Except I never really did anything with it because the guy I was dating at the time was just NOT open to the idea. So the first real reference sheet didn't show up until we broke up a few years later. Then the current ref sheet, the finished design I'm totally happy with, showed up mid-2006. I didn't create the ref sheet for Aidan until the beginning of 2007.
So while Blaine has been a character I've identified with for a decade, he didn't become my representation (or fursona, if you will) until fairly recently.
These are just my main/important characters, I've got an asston of lesser characters that I won't mention. I do have sort of an idea to draw a comic in which they all appear or at least make a cameo. It'd be alternate universe, mostly revolve around Blaine and Aidan, maybe a little porn but mostly story (that's usually how I roll). The likelihood of this happening is not good, though. I tend to have project ADD, so small ideas are so much more likely to be finished than big ones.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed my novel. 8D Feel free to share your experiences in a comment, or write your own novel/journal if you haven't already.
EDIT: You know I didn't really explain about the scar. Blaine has a fairly sizeable scar that runs from (his) right side of his face down his chest and ends on his stomach. This is a sort of symbolic extension of my scars. I scar VERY easily and I have some sort of anti-Wolverine-like healing, thus I am pretty much covered in them. Rather than him ending up looking like a Chinese crested in scar tissue, I just gave him one big one. Where it starts on his face actually matches a surgical scar on my own. I know a lot of people find scars to be cliche, but hey, tell that to my face. No, literally. I'd love for them go to away. :P
The very first character I created was Felissa. She first appeared in Jr High (a million years ago) as an anime-style tiger catgirl. Yes anime was, like many, my gateway drug into furry. I do have a few images from that time, but I won't bother sharing as they are highly referenced from artists I adored at the time (Robert DeJesus, Fred Perry, Kosuke Fujishima) I don't really remember exactly why or when I stopped that and started really fleshing out her character, giving her a real story. I do know it was High School, and that around that time I also got a Furnation account (it's still there, I haven't updated it in three years, I've been debating giving it an overhaul). That's really when I started being very active and meeting people online. I was very adept at finding new artists who were giving away free art. |D That's how I met Kai aka Slyferret.
She was instrumental in the creation of both Blaine and Aidan. Aidan came first, oddly enough. She had created this universe where small elf/fae creatures who were also part animals lived. They were called Talasiths, they had mostly elfin features (human-like, HUGE pointy ears), with a few animal characteristics (patches of fur, tails). There was a form you filled out with various info, and she drew Aidan for the first time from the info I gave her. Then she invited her friends and anyone she had created a Talasith for to join in a round-robin RPG (we'd each write a section of story and then pass it on to the next person). We were free to create our backstory within her rules and also to create NPCS. That's how Blaine came to be. Blaine's parents owned a bakery, his mother was a sloth talasith, his father was a jackal talasith (the story of how they met involves pirates, a ransom, and eloping |3). They adopted Aidan when his family was killed by a badger (they're very small, only a few inches high, so they could fall prey to larger animals and such).
Here's the first-ever drawings of both Aidan and Blaine: (done by me. Please, please, PLEASE keep in mind that these are at least a decade old ^^;;;;; )
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ndressedup.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ine/Blaine.jpg
Eventually the RPG died, and I tried taking the characters into other games that people from the old group were running, but none of them ever really took off, plus I was now in college and having an emotional/identity crisis. There was also a lot of weird drama, and since most of the people involved were a few years younger than me, I though it'd be for the best for me to cut out. Blaine and Aidan switched places too, because I was just so very drawn to Blaine, while Aidan is really very distant. I still consider Aidan to be something of an NPC.
I recycled them a couple times, first as humans, then I started playing Star Wars: Galaxies and wrote them as the two characters I was playing (they were both Twi'leks, there's an image in my gallery that I need to finish of the two of them). For kicks, here's human Blaine from 2002 (the pose could possibly be referenced from somewhere, but I don't remember. There are reasons why I don't post any really old shit in my gallery |D)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....necrateclr.jpg
At this point, I pretty much stopped drawing/writing anything for Felissa, since I've seen more than enough red-headed, green-eyed tigresses to last me a lifetime. She's been mostly shelved ever since, and if I do revamp my site, it's not going to revolve around her anymore. I use the name though, since it's fairly unique and variants of Blaine are often taken. If I'm not going by Felissa I'll go by BlaineMuffin.
The very first fully-furry Blaine appeared at the end of 2003. I had really missed him being a part of my life, so I drew a quick sketch on a post-it. I looked at it, and I was instantly just... well it felt right. Except I never really did anything with it because the guy I was dating at the time was just NOT open to the idea. So the first real reference sheet didn't show up until we broke up a few years later. Then the current ref sheet, the finished design I'm totally happy with, showed up mid-2006. I didn't create the ref sheet for Aidan until the beginning of 2007.
So while Blaine has been a character I've identified with for a decade, he didn't become my representation (or fursona, if you will) until fairly recently.
These are just my main/important characters, I've got an asston of lesser characters that I won't mention. I do have sort of an idea to draw a comic in which they all appear or at least make a cameo. It'd be alternate universe, mostly revolve around Blaine and Aidan, maybe a little porn but mostly story (that's usually how I roll). The likelihood of this happening is not good, though. I tend to have project ADD, so small ideas are so much more likely to be finished than big ones.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed my novel. 8D Feel free to share your experiences in a comment, or write your own novel/journal if you haven't already.
EDIT: You know I didn't really explain about the scar. Blaine has a fairly sizeable scar that runs from (his) right side of his face down his chest and ends on his stomach. This is a sort of symbolic extension of my scars. I scar VERY easily and I have some sort of anti-Wolverine-like healing, thus I am pretty much covered in them. Rather than him ending up looking like a Chinese crested in scar tissue, I just gave him one big one. Where it starts on his face actually matches a surgical scar on my own. I know a lot of people find scars to be cliche, but hey, tell that to my face. No, literally. I'd love for them go to away. :P
