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Description
It's been a while since I posted art, huh?

I'm doing these right now because these are a lot of fun and I wanna mark my progress.
See, I've been on DA for seven years now.
My first post that you can still find (the first few were too large and had to be deleted) was February 23rd, 2013.

I wanted to look back on how one of my oldest characters has changed since I first conceptualized her.

Also, for the drama of it all, I'll be referring to these as "eras".
Because I'm a theatre student.

2013 - The Har-me-lia Era
This version of the character, Jade Harmelia, was conceptualized when I was 15 years old.
Also her surname was pronounced "Harm-ell-ee-ya", the title is just a shitty mispronunciation pun because this character was based off of me (or at least I pretended she was).
Jade was created to be a self insert, she looks like me if you gave me red yes and slapped me on a grown up body and also made my eyes look less tired. She was a teenager, but how a teenager looks to a younger teenager.
Even her name is meant to be like mine -- my first name is Jane, and that sounds like Jade. Wow, what a twist, who coulda seen that coming??
Jade came at a time where I wanted to be literally anybody else but me, but I was also horny on main an denying it. That's gonna be a trend until 2019.
Jade had no real flaws and was loved by everybody but there was no real reason to like her aside from "she's nice" and "she's pretty".
But she was a good character for me to escape in to at the time, as many Mary Sue characters are for writers that age.
She went through a lot of horny redesigns at the time.

2014 - The Convoluted Era
This version of Emil has many of the same character flaws as the 2013 version (as in she was bland and not very compelling), but she ended up turning into a figurehead within her universe. Due to weird time shenanigans and dimension-hopping story lines getting absolutely ridiculous, I had her the center of a human of unrelated stories because... I could? Nobody said I can't, why did nobody say I shouldn't do that. It's like if you tried connecting the Final Fantasy games through the same complicated storytelling as Kingdom Hearts. It's a recipe for a brain aneurysm.
This does mark the beginning of this character's major shift -- she became Emil, and her design was drastically different from how I looked (I mean, even moreso). She was less the character I thought I was, and now more consciously became the character I'd like to be.
I was also figuring out a lot about the LGBTQ community at this time -- naturally I handled it poorly in her story, but at the end of this era I considered making her bisexual.

2017 - The Re-visitation Era
This version of Emil marks the beginning of an actual character, while also marking an important step in my own development when it comes to representation.
Emil got a more realistic last name and a more grounded design, and she's older, now 20 years old. She got her trademark scars and her more sporty attire. By this point, I had already made a lot of actual LGBTQ characters, including Maki Seo, Lazarus Trabae, and Cleo Marks, all characters I am still holding onto in different versions. This version of Emil is confirmed bisexual, and I even decided to not make her white. However, at this point, my perspctive on how race can relate to character was severely limited, and I made her ethnicity ambiguous, which was something I evered the following year by committing to making her Native American, but I also hadn't chosen what band.
This Emil also changed power sets, going from a dual-wielding swordswoman to a hand-to-hand brawler with legitimate super strength.
Emil began floating further and further away from being anything like me.
Her story shifted to being more of an adventure story through fantasy worlds, but with no real plot despite being in a story that demanded one.
I also introduced an important trait -- she wasn't the smartest person in the room, not by a long shot.
I started giving her flaws and character quirks, but she was still a bit bland in terms of wants and needs, more acting as a tragic figure whose backstory was there to make her tragic rather than explain her motivations. Not to mention her quirks were less pronounced and her role in the story, though she was a protagonist, was still unclear.
And the biggest problem was I was uncomfortable with making a fool out her, genuinely.

2020 - The Atlas Era
This brings us to current day Emil. The optimal Emil right now.
I changed her last name to Armstrong because it is ridiculously on-the-nose and very on-brand for her, and she's now 22 years old instead of 20.
Emil has been expanded upon and has been thrust into a crazy Gintama-esque story with a more episodic approach.
Her backstory has been more fleshed out to explain her personality, which has more flaws, and her band has been selected based on the education I've sought out in order to properly portray an Indigenous character without defining her whole personality around it or stereotyping her. She was originally from the Cahuilla Indian Band in California, but information on their customs and culture is limited, and I know less about how to portray an American, so she is now of Secwepemc heritage from the West Coast of Canada, which I'm far more familiar with.
What's more, Emil's tendencies and quirks have been cranked up to 11. Her naive personality has been switched to make her emotionally intelligent with certain fields of academic intelligence, but mostly? She's dumb as a sack of rocks. She's like a dumb puppy. She's sweet and genuine and so so so stupid. A lot of people still find her immensely attractive and many people fall for her, but she has a personality that explains why people flock to her. It's because she's a fucking moron who loves with all her heart. Like a golden retriever.
Also, you can't see it well in this picture, but I stopped being a coward and gave her actual muscles. She's shredded. Not ridiculously so, but her physique is actually pretty standard for heavy-weight martial artists.
She also actually uses real martial arts (because I have martial arts training now and feel more comfortable with how it works).
And she has real flaws -- endearing ones, but ones that effect how she goes about life. Emil has an Atlas-like personality, where she essentially feels responsible for those around her and that it's her responsibility to be there for them regardless of how she's doing. She puts the world on her back.
Despite being the Truth character in her story, she believes a lot of lies and also believes there was a genuine purpose to the emotional neglect and physical abuse she suffered when her body was being augmented to handle the immense bone-shattering strength she possesses.
But, though it has aged poorly in some areas, Gintama has taught me that the best characters are the ones who can be made fools of.
And Emil is a fool, through and through.
The kind of idiot who asks you what kind of animal Toucan Sam is.

Emil is no longer a self-insert -- she's a character I want to be at the best of times, the character I try not to be in the worst of times. More importantly, Emil has moved away from being an idealized

As I've learned and grown, I've come to lots of realizations about writing characters, specifically about doing research and consulting others, as well as reminding yourself that characters are made compelling by their flaws. Also that reworking characters isn't a bad thing. It's actually necessary? Is that a controversial stance?
I've done the most research for Emil than I have any other character, and she's one of my favourites to think about now.

I'm excited to do this with the other three, maybe four.
See, this story now has 5 protagonists instead of 4:
Emil, Donovan, Kaiva, Nova and Esther, who was previously a supporting role.

NEXT UP is probably Kaiva, my longest-standing OC.

Description
It's been a while since I posted art, huh?

I'm doing these right now because these are a lot of fun and I wanna mark my progress.
See, I've been on DA for seven years now.
My first post that you can still find (the first few were too large and had to be deleted) was February 23rd, 2013.

I wanted to look back on how one of my oldest characters has changed since I first conceptualized her.

Also, for the drama of it all, I'll be referring to these as "eras".
Because I'm a theatre student.

2013 - The Har-me-lia Era
This version of the character, Jade Harmelia, was conceptualized when I was 15 years old.
Also her surname was pronounced "Harm-ell-ee-ya", the title is just a shitty mispronunciation pun because this character was based off of me (or at least I pretended she was).
Jade was created to be a self insert, she looks like me if you gave me red yes and slapped me on a grown up body and also made my eyes look less tired. She was a teenager, but how a teenager looks to a younger teenager.
Even her name is meant to be like mine -- my first name is Jane, and that sounds like Jade. Wow, what a twist, who coulda seen that coming??
Jade came at a time where I wanted to be literally anybody else but me, but I was also horny on main an denying it. That's gonna be a trend until 2019.
Jade had no real flaws and was loved by everybody but there was no real reason to like her aside from "she's nice" and "she's pretty".
But she was a good character for me to escape in to at the time, as many Mary Sue characters are for writers that age.
She went through a lot of horny redesigns at the time.

2014 - The Convoluted Era
This version of Emil has many of the same character flaws as the 2013 version (as in she was bland and not very compelling), but she ended up turning into a figurehead within her universe. Due to weird time shenanigans and dimension-hopping story lines getting absolutely ridiculous, I had her the center of a human of unrelated stories because... I could? Nobody said I can't, why did nobody say I shouldn't do that. It's like if you tried connecting the Final Fantasy games through the same complicated storytelling as Kingdom Hearts. It's a recipe for a brain aneurysm.
This does mark the beginning of this character's major shift -- she became Emil, and her design was drastically different from how I looked (I mean, even moreso). She was less the character I thought I was, and now more consciously became the character I'd like to be.
I was also figuring out a lot about the LGBTQ community at this time -- naturally I handled it poorly in her story, but at the end of this era I considered making her bisexual.

2017 - The Re-visitation Era
This version of Emil marks the beginning of an actual character, while also marking an important step in my own development when it comes to representation.
Emil got a more realistic last name and a more grounded design, and she's older, now 20 years old. She got her trademark scars and her more sporty attire. By this point, I had already made a lot of actual LGBTQ characters, including Maki Seo, Lazarus Trabae, and Cleo Marks, all characters I am still holding onto in different versions. This version of Emil is confirmed bisexual, and I even decided to not make her white. However, at this point, my perspctive on how race can relate to character was severely limited, and I made her ethnicity ambiguous, which was something I evered the following year by committing to making her Native American, but I also hadn't chosen what band.
This Emil also changed power sets, going from a dual-wielding swordswoman to a hand-to-hand brawler with legitimate super strength.
Emil began floating further and further away from being anything like me.
Her story shifted to being more of an adventure story through fantasy worlds, but with no real plot despite being in a story that demanded one.
I also introduced an important trait -- she wasn't the smartest person in the room, not by a long shot.
I started giving her flaws and character quirks, but she was still a bit bland in terms of wants and needs, more acting as a tragic figure whose backstory was there to make her tragic rather than explain her motivations. Not to mention her quirks were less pronounced and her role in the story, though she was a protagonist, was still unclear.
And the biggest problem was I was uncomfortable with making a fool out her, genuinely.

2020 - The Atlas Era
This brings us to current day Emil. The optimal Emil right now.
I changed her last name to Armstrong because it is ridiculously on-the-nose and very on-brand for her, and she's now 22 years old instead of 20.
Emil has been expanded upon and has been thrust into a crazy Gintama-esque story with a more episodic approach.
Her backstory has been more fleshed out to explain her personality, which has more flaws, and her band has been selected based on the education I've sought out in order to properly portray an Indigenous character without defining her whole personality around it or stereotyping her. She was originally from the Cahuilla Indian Band in California, but information on their customs and culture is limited, and I know less about how to portray an American, so she is now of Secwepemc heritage from the West Coast of Canada, which I'm far more familiar with.
What's more, Emil's tendencies and quirks have been cranked up to 11. Her naive personality has been switched to make her emotionally intelligent with certain fields of academic intelligence, but mostly? She's dumb as a sack of rocks. She's like a dumb puppy. She's sweet and genuine and so so so stupid. A lot of people still find her immensely attractive and many people fall for her, but she has a personality that explains why people flock to her. It's because she's a fucking moron who loves with all her heart. Like a golden retriever.
Also, you can't see it well in this picture, but I stopped being a coward and gave her actual muscles. She's shredded. Not ridiculously so, but her physique is actually pretty standard for heavy-weight martial artists.
She also actually uses real martial arts (because I have martial arts training now and feel more comfortable with how it works).
And she has real flaws -- endearing ones, but ones that effect how she goes about life. Emil has an Atlas-like personality, where she essentially feels responsible for those around her and that it's her responsibility to be there for them regardless of how she's doing. She puts the world on her back.
Despite being the Truth character in her story, she believes a lot of lies and also believes there was a genuine purpose to the emotional neglect and physical abuse she suffered when her body was being augmented to handle the immense bone-shattering strength she possesses.
But, though it has aged poorly in some areas, Gintama has taught me that the best characters are the ones who can be made fools of.
And Emil is a fool, through and through.
The kind of idiot who asks you what kind of animal Toucan Sam is.

Emil is no longer a self-insert -- she's a character I want to be at the best of times, the character I try not to be in the worst of times. More importantly, Emil has moved away from being an idealized

As I've learned and grown, I've come to lots of realizations about writing characters, specifically about doing research and consulting others, as well as reminding yourself that characters are made compelling by their flaws. Also that reworking characters isn't a bad thing. It's actually necessary? Is that a controversial stance?
I've done the most research for Emil than I have any other character, and she's one of my favourites to think about now.

I'm excited to do this with the other three, maybe four.
See, this story now has 5 protagonists instead of 4:
Emil, Donovan, Kaiva, Nova and Esther, who was previously a supporting role.

NEXT UP is probably Kaiva, my longest-standing OC.