"those who point fingers have two fingers pointing back at them" she'd always tell me. Well, I'm pointing with my hand and the pointer I'm holding. So I've BECOME the two fingers pointing, what are you gonna do about that?

this is a re-remake of a drawing of Ica pointing. I thought I was satisfied with his design last time until I decided to give him an emo sweep. Before this he used to have this heavily stylized three swoop hair which would stay the same at every angle, I thought that design wouldn't work in a 3D space so I really tried to find a way to make him more believable. Which lead to this design for him, which started as a one-off in my pfp art, but I liked it so much I decided to keep it. I wonder if people will ever think of his emo hair as a signature design trait of him, and be suprised to find out that the majority of art of this guy that exist is of him without it, lol.

I like how his design has changed, it really does feel like he's gotten older. How I used to draw him was someone who was a positive, happy loser, now I still like drawing him as a loser, but he tries to give himself an edge lol. He's a fun, cute character to draw.

He used to wear these tight boxers exclusively, a lot of my oc's had that, but I decided to give him baggy shorts but with an open crop top jacket, now, question for you furries, would this count as a revealing outfit? Since he has lots of fur to cover himself up anyways, and whether or not furries consistently wear clothes is up to the artist, hm....

absolutely adore his little pointer finger, its very nostalgic, and reaffirms that despite how I depict him, he's not actually an edge lord. "Think toys" is my general character design philosophy, since, for toy lines, they're the ultimatum of making interesting character designs that audiences can relate to. When you're a kid, you go to the toy store and you probably want a couple of characters in specific, either because you like the show or whatever they're from and are invested, or you think they look cool. When I was hyperfixated on Skylanders, I watched a lot of interviews, and they talked a few times about having the consumer in mind, walking into a store, finding some figures, pointing, and going "That one! I want that one!" because you, for whatever reason are able to relate yourself to that character, even in very abstract ways. I think about that a lot with my character designs, and how people, from a distance can want to learn more about my characters through their designs. I've gotten quite a few comments on my badass, pure-evil villain oc's talking about how they'd want to redeem them, to be their friend.

I think about this a lot for Ica, and I like to think that he himself is some kind of doll. I don't quite know what that means. But do you remember, if anyone grew up in the late 2000's-early 2010's, when each toy line had its own website, or mmo with specific locations laid out? I imagine Ica would live in a place like that. Everything is vibrant, and inanimate objects are given lots more character. (I imagine cars in particular having these really specific deigns, as if they were built to resemble animals, the cars from Sonic & SEGA all stars racing is a big inspiration for this, where cars resemble bananas, maraca's, or anthro characters) I like to think he, and everyone else in his little world would live in a place that is basically its own playset, which I imagine he would hate since he wants to be cool XD maybe, for a furry world this would have some practicality to it? Do note this isn't some series or lore or anything, just a mental image whenever I try to contextualize him. I've hardly ever drawn any of the "world building" I've talked about. If I ever did I'd want it to be for some spoof of those DS licensed shovelware games as toy-tie-ins XD

So Ica himself is some kind of toy, and I mean that also in how I like to take liberties with his design. I've mentioned this once before but I treat him like a fashion doll I make slight adjustments to each time. This also influences how I draw him, with his vibrant features and focus on fashion.

Ica being the catalyst for my "think toys" philosophy is mainly because, on DeviantArt I noticed how disproportionately, post involving Ica would do better than my post of other oc's or even fanart of established franchises. It made me realize how much, at least with that audience that his design was able to catch peoples attention. This is a major part of why I treat him like a toy--he is the culmination of my influence from the philosophy behind toys.


Of course, toys from what I grew up with are different than how toys are now--well, not really. I was growing up in the very tail end of an era where toys stopped being about themselves and more accessories to established franchises. Even Ninjago's success is tied to a show, same with My Little Pony, Skylanders is the only one I can think of from that era where it was the toy line itself, but that was also because it was tied to a game. Currently, toys are either display items tied to popular IP, adaptations of popular IP, or things that are just cute and meant to be displayed in your room/used for fashion. I'm not complaining, necessary? It's just me stating--my whole "think toys" philosophy doesn't apply to that much anymore. With the exception of say, Sanrio and it's contemporaries. Yes, the individual characters have personalities, but you're mainly going to pick them based on which one you'd want to own a plushie of. And that's more of what I'm referring to over the rest of the modern toy market.

now, I'm not saying Ica is supposed to resemble something you'd find at a toy store, I can't really think of that many toy lines he'd fit in to, but the philosophy "think toys" is just referring to making characters people with no prior connection to would take sudden interest in. And you, reading this essay because you saw the character and wanted to know more context about him so you read the description, are proof of the "think toys" mentality in effect. You saw the character, and without any context wanted to know more.