Character fact no. 2

It's been... roughly 3,5 years since I posted the first character fact! Holy smokes, where does the time go? Anyway, I'm still willing to do them. I thought about them more than once but whenever I wanted to do another one, I was either very busy or felt completely uninspired. I still need to take care of my deserted charahub as well. I will! (at some point!)

This fact is going to be a bit more elaborate than the first one:

Click here to view it in higher resolution!

From now on, admiral owns a cat. I bought Taffy over a year ago from my friends, Sarah and Jim. Since then, I've been trying to draw her with little to no success - I like her in her original style so much that every single one of my attempts looked like a complete disgrace. Here she is, though! She's my first character that wasn't designed by me and probably the first female character too. Yay!

You definitely know how hard it was for me to part with my cat, Marcel. Thus far it was the most devastating death I've ever experienced (because I haven't lost a close relative yet). I still think about him almost every day and, regardless of the flow of time, it's hard for me to accept that he passed away so suddenly. He had an ENORMOUS impact on me throughout his life - without him, I'd certainly be a different person today! That's why I really wanted to pay proper tribute to him and "immortalize" him in one way or another. At first I thought about turning him into a cartoon character but I quickly abandoned this idea because I didn't want anyone to think that Marcel is only a fictional cat. Next thing I took into consideration was creating a completely new character from scratch but I was hesitant to do that.

And then I saw Taffy was on sale!

For every existing reason she was the best possible choice. I'm still super happy that I bought her! She has simple design, ideal personality traits and everything I need. She's even pudgy and it makes A LOT of sense for admiral's cat to be pudgy, hahaha. On top of that, she formerly belonged to one of my best friends! Perfect! I'm definitely going to keep her name, bow and timid nature. She will remain a silent character as well. I only gave her smaller ears and I might alter her colours a teensy bit - otherwise I don't want to change too much about her, I really like her the way she is. She has the same rights as my other characters and I'm excited to develop her and get to know her better. The adventure begins right now!

Taffy is going to affect admiral similarly to how Marcel affected me. Towards the end of his life, admiral is supposed to undergo a big change. He dies aged 51 by a shot to the chest, but, before that, he reconciles with the rest of the world. After a long streak of misfortune, he rediscovers happiness and even learns to laugh at his own mistakes. Once again, I imagine Taffy being the perfect reason for this to happen! You might remember that admiral was intended to be an antagonist - the reality, however, proved this plan to be a miss, not a hit. He quickly headed in different direction, steadily becoming less aggressive or evil. If I had to describe him in just one word, "disillusioned" would be the first thing to come to my mind. He seems pretty grim these days and I figured that out by the fact that I usually draw him when I'm in a bad mood. He represents my negative emotions.

I don't want him to be overly depressive, though. It all started when I moved out to Cracow and now it's time to stop that. He has always been a strong, independent and distinctive character, and I don't want that to be overshadowed by all the sadness. He and Taffy will probably need a while to adjust to each other and they both have a rocky road ahead of them. First impressions are hard to erase! But I'm sure they can be good friends - I have to say that the idea of giving a pet to admiral has been in my head for many years, even before Marcel's death. You see, he can't stand most people (and vice versa) but his approach towards pets varies from neutral to positive. He's driven by constant desire to prove himself useful and he enjoys being acknowledged for what he does. Pets are usually quick to appreciate you for every little thing you do for them, unlike many people. They make good companions for outsiders, and admiral is definitely one of them.

That's about it! I'm excited to draw more of these two. Taffy is still very mysterious to me and I want to find out what happens!