No no, not my artist handle! I actually invented my handle in order to give a visual idea or a brand idea; this also let me escape the old name which no one could spell. 

This discussion is about the fictional characters we hold dear to our creativity. Who here has had a long-term character (We’ll say in continuous use for three or more years) that they’ve changed the name of? It can be a roleplay character, a character you use in art, or a character that features in creative writing. How long did you go before you changed their name? Has it happened multiple times?  Tell me about why you decided to change their name and what the impacts or repercussions were. How did others in your circles (Be they fans, friends, or both) react to the change? Have you ever gone back to the original name? What do you think is in a name?

In my case I’ve been slowly changing names and character designs in minor ways as I mature and get a better idea of the person, world, and story I’m trying to tell. For instance my names are becoming less exotic for my “core world” characters, where Sakara, Malachai, Luke, and others originate. “Iori” is the best example, who is now known as “Malachai”. I drew him much more often once upon a time and it’s caused most people to remember him by his old name, old art, and ‘old character’. Iori as a character shares the same early start of an emotionally abusive parent, finding solace in his best friend’s company and family. He also shares the early violent coscription. Iori however essentially went on to become a mentally broken rage-filled rapist warlord who turned the tables on the military. He became bent on doing whatever he felt like, even when it hurt the very few things he had left or cared for. Iori was essentially violently insane, lapsing into moments of lucidness around or for Sakara. As I grew up I began to find this both not very imaginative, not very kind to a character I sympathized with, and not very realistic either. Iori began to evolve and I began reimagining him. I kept the same general early life events though visualizing their outcome different. I saw “Malachai” as a “gentle giant” type character who had great potential for great destruction, but who despised doing so. This would largely explain why he allowed his father to treat him so poorly even though Malachai grew to a size and strength that could easily beat his father to death. Malachai was also forcefully conscripted into military service with a roving militia participating in the on-again-off-again civil war of the area. Whereas the Iori version was driven to insanity during this period, the Malachai version instead became an intensely emotionally broken and cold person. His temper wore thin and frequently lost the restraint a man of his stature needed. Whereas torture had been used to force “Iori” to fight, the torture did nothing except to make Malachai withdraw. In the new version of the story, the miltia made use of torturing fellow captives (One of whom was Luke who would later become Malachai’s closest friend) in order to control what they referrred to as “the big one”. Malachai however was perfectly sane, if suffering from PTSD and not coping with the events in his life. This second version of the character also turned the tables on the militia he was enslaved to, though instead of raping/murdering them all, he only killed a few top officers and took control. Iori never had a problem carelessly killing someone who was not immediately useful. Malachai would kill without hesitation if provoked, but he had to be provoked and was often disturbed by his own violent ability. I often compare Malachai as being much closer to an old-before-his-time war veteran, while his old incarnation was really nothing short of a monster. The new variation also allowed me to play out “beauty and the beast” themes while avoiding themes of “deliverance of a demon/monster”.

…why all this incredibly long explanation and discussion?

I’m contemplating changing Sakara’s name. I had tried to rename her in my mind back when I changed her counterpart’s name, but I couldn’t find a name that really sounded like her or stuck with her. She had begun as a “seeking perfection” character, someone who could be the savior of her greatest loves or her people in spite of the way she was viewed. This was really a childish fantasy more for myself as a troubled teen and the Sakara character has evolved quite a long way since then. She is a talented young woman in some ways and exceptionally inexperienced with a lot of everyday life. Sakara does not have any real confidence in herself, but places an enormous amount of confidence and sureness in others. She’s always encouraging and always trying, but very much imperfect and frequently stumbling along the way. She’s trying to step out into the wider world and has unintentionally found herself in the same city as Malachai, an old once-abandoned place that’s slowly being reassembled and fortified against the violence that sometimes spills on its doorsteps. I thought of naming her “Juno”, which is the Roman variation on the goddess Hera. Juno as a character actually held an enormous variety of roles over her cult’s time and is not solely a carbon copy of Hera. In addition to Hera’s typical concepts, Juno was also at various point a goddess of the community, a being of new beginnings, and also representing youthfulness, strength, and femininity. I especially like that while she is definitively feminine, Juno is a powerful sort of femininity not to be confused with meekness or weakness. I find this to be a good name for my main gray tigress to either aspire to or exhibit behaviors of during moments of sureness or strength.

Thoughts?

So! I got married on the 19th and am now wife to the wonderful man I’ve been with for the last six years. I treat it as society seeing my relationship finally the way I  do and don’t feel especially different.  I’m also not changing my name for various reasons. The two of us took a lovely trip to Walt Disney World as our honeymoon and spent a week at the resort. The crowds were great and we didn’t wait longer than 20 minutes on any given ride, with pretty much all rides either being walk-on or a ten minute wait. We stayed at the Riverside resort and now that I’m home, the queen bed looks hilariously small after staying in a king size bed. 

I go back to work this week at the museum studio, which also means at night I go back to work on my last small commission queue. Patrons know who they are and here are the last standing projects: octopi sculptures(Will be airbrushed at work), one last outstanding FWA piece, Red Wolf portrait (any style!), a couple of trades, and a mystery gift piece I’ve got lines laid out for on canvas. I also have one set of pens to be mailed out for free.

I have 262 DA messages and nearly 500 on another site. There’s god knows how many things I’ve missed on tumblr, livejournal, facebook, etc…so here’s the deal. I’m not checking those messages. I am ONLY going to respond/use direct messages. As far as catching up on art…I’m not going to. I’m just going to let it allllllll slide away. I’ll go back through my comics and maybe some of my top favorite artists I can easily name, but I’m going to let the rest pass me by. I spend a LOT of useless time on the internet when what I SHOULD be doing are productive things. They can be art, crafty things, gardening, reading fiction(Which I used to) and higher brow academic nonfiction, moving, marking items we need on our registry, or just going out and walking.

I spend too much time on the internet and I spend too much time bemoaning what I can’t or don’t do. So if there’s something important you’d like me to know or wish to ask, now is the time, as I intend to just…stop spending so much time here!

Blue: [blasts away at Gray with toy stormtrooper rifle]
Gray: [looking nonplussed] What’s wrong with you? You can’t hit anything with a stormtrooper’s blaster.

Two plates shrimp scampi + two chocolate peanut butter cakes + one Star Tours 3D Ride = One sick pair of newlyweds.

MagicKingdomMagicKingdom Downtown Disney MagicKingdomMagicKingdom WAIT-WHAT’S-THAT
It’s MagicKingdomMagicKingdom Downtown Disney

Magic Kingdom until 2AM? Why yes, I think I will.

Deity of the Universe (DoU): Gray, you’ve been in that bed for two hours. It’s really time to get up.

Gray: But… It’s COMFY.

DoU: Your reservation is in forty five minutes. It’s time to get up. Blue’s been waiting for twenty minutes.

Gray: …fine. In five minutes.

DoU: All right…

—ten minutes later—

Blue (the husband): I think the bus stop is right over—WHERE THAT ANIMAL KINGDOM BUS IS STOPPING RIGHT NOW OH GOD RUN

Gray: Oh noooooez! We… We missed it. [sniff]

DoU: Now what did I tell you?

Gray: …okay.

DoU: Well, you look sorry enough. Here’s another bus.

Gray: [sniff] Thank yoooou!

I’m typing this on my 3DS, so if my language is measured in tone that’s why. I want to give myself a summer project and while I haven’t committed to anything besides reading “Art and Fear” while learning to love my own work again, I still want to toss ideas out there. One thought I had tonight was creating tumblrs for some of my headspace worlds/future narrative projects. Afterworld is the primary one that comes to mind, although there’s also Sakara+Malachai’s world, the Makua project, and the prologue to a fairy tale based wolf gods story. I feel like having a dedicated way to organize material could be motivational, but I acknowledge they might gather dust just as easily as anything else. Thoughts?