OCtober Day #1 -Your Favourite OC

OCtober Day #1 -Your Favourite OC

This is Shimamura!

Like most of my OCs, I've had her for a long time- about since I was 14 or 15 I think. That being said, these drawings are from when I was about 18 ✨️

Her whole deal has always been that she's a steel wall- cold, calculating, unmovable, flawless, strong. I always cast her in roles of leadership where other characters look up to her, whether she's a gang leader or the captain of a netball team. She has her moments of genuine leadership, but she's also a manipulator, selfish, and will remorselessly ruin lives to serve her own ambitions. Notably, she maintains and actively feeds a toxic best-friendship with another OC of mine named Gummy (who I'll definitely post about at some point too!).

Since Gummy is usually my main protag, Shimamura usually ends up the main villain or similar✌️

Its remarkable how consistent her personality and design have been over the years. She's one of those characters who doesn't feel like a character to me, its almost like a real person just sprung into my brain fully formed one day as a teen. I could've picked a few different OCs that I'm obsessed with here, but she felt the most iconic tbh. We love an evil girlboss moment <3

OCtober Day #6 - Past

This weeks prompts are going to mostly be written prompts for me. I'm not particularly skilled with words but I still wanted to participate!

I took this prompt a bit differently and decided to talk more about where my OCs came from and why, rather than the OCs themselves. It was a good exercise in self reflection. I don't except anyone to read it, but its fairly short if you feel like it :)

Like a lot of undiagnosed autistic girls, I was a mimic. Everything about my personality, even the way I talked, was copied from somewhere else.

I liked pretending to be into fashion and boys and barbies, because thats what I saw other girls doing (and holy shit was I desperate to be friends with them). I liked 'writing stories' that were more or less recaps of books I'd already read with the serial numbers filed off. I used fancy words and metaphors I'd heard but didn't actually understand so that the adults would tell me I was 'smart'.

I was so good at mimicry that it prevented me from becoming my own person for a really long time.

My perchant for copying naturally extended to the 'art' I'd create. I mentioned Gummy in a previous post, and that in her first iteration, Gummy had panda ears. Well- fun fact- this is because when I was 12, my older cousin showed me a song some furry artist had made about a NSFW dating sim. That artist's OC was a busty panda, so I straight up copied her.

Also, Gummy was named after the vocaloid Gumi, but specifically the way I used to mispronounce her name as Gummy. I thought my OC being named Gummy like the Gummy bear song was funny, because I was 13 and that was a meme at the time. Also, Gummy was originally a god-like being, because I was reading Noragami at the time and I was obsessed with Yato and Hiyori's dynamic (with Gummy being Yato, and Kendall Hiyori). I didnt have anything original to say about it. I wasn't doing a take. I just gender swapped them, really.

I had these characters but was never able to come up with a story that 'stuck'. What ended up happening, usually, was that the genre they were in would change depending on what media I was into at the time. For eg, Gummy became a gang criminal with psychic powers when I was watching Mob Psycho and Banana Fish.

I'm sure my mimicry was obvious to others at the time, but it wasn't to me. I truly thought I was being original and cool.

I don't think its bad to copy things in art, especially when you're a kid who's still learning. But I also think that, if you want to make something really good, you should at least have an opinion on what you're copying.

I've realised recently that I haven't had my own opinions for most of my life- just copied thoughts and mimicry, like my OCs, like my personality, like my various attempts at identity. In terms of my work, I think this has long been one of the many things holding me back.

I'm grateful to be 25 now. I hope by reflecting on where my OCs came from, I can chart a path to a version where I finally have something of my own to say.

my Etsy is offically open!!! Thank you again to everyone who donated to my ko-fi to make this possible :)

You'll still be able to get most of these designs for cheap or for free on my kofi 👍

Etsy

SquidbianInk - Etsy Australia

Shop https://ko-fi.com/squidbian by SquidbianInk located in Sydney, New South Wales.

🧡🤍💖 Happy International Lesbian Day!!! 🧡🤍💖

You can support your local lesbian (me) on this most holy day by checking out my Etsy!

I have a variety of pride and non-pride related stickers for you to download, including a few different Zelda and Splatoon ones 🥰

I also have a tip jar where I'm currently taking $1 sketch requests!

made a bluesky. not because i'm leaving twitter or tumblr (already left twt in 2023 lmao) but because i'm seeing a lot of cool people make account this week :P

add me if you feel like it 👍

OCtober Day #4- Under appreciated OC

Giving ya'll two for today's prompt!

Left is Toady, right is Sameera. Both of them are players on Shimamura's netball team. Toady always plays Center (since she's the shortest on the team by far) and Sameera is usually a defensive player.

I've drawn Sameera digitally twice, and Toady only once. These two deserve a lot more love from me lol