An Awesome Feeling · 7:00am Feb 24th, 2020
This is copy-and-pasted from my DeviantArt account, and was posted there on February 8, 2020.
First, a bit of music to set the mood.
As those who know me might recall, I've been creating characters for a very long time. My oldest creations, the Kittenoans, date back to 1st grade during the 1990-91 school year. The bulk of them first ended up on paper between then and the end of 5th grade, with a few outliers as late as 11th grade.
Thing is, if you've been through my gallery, you probably already know that my artistic ability isn't anything to write home about. I churned out hundreds of drawings while I was in school (still have a handful of them, actually), but any improvements in my skill were minor at best. The Kittenoans' bodies looked like ovals with legs, their heads looked like misshapen UFOs, their tails and faces tended to look the same... you name it. The only real difference between the cats and the dogs were whether their noses jutted outward or if they were just reduced to little triangles.
I've been grinning like a fool for the past few hours. You want to know why? Because now I finally have a definitive mental image for how their species is supposed to look. I've been writing stories about them and/or role-playing as them for much of my life, but it feels like I'm actually seeing them for the first time, and it's awesome.
How did this feeling come about? I'll do more than just talk about it. See below:
I commissioned this drawing of my character Aldonza Karate from one (name redacted) recently. Tails was my original inspiration for her, as I had created her back when Sonic 2 was first released for the Sega Genesis, so it made sense to get the artwork done from someone who specialized in that sort of thing. This sort of look suits her best, I think. Looking at her... well, has anyone out there ever been pen pals with someone for a real long time, discovered what they looked like, and decided that he/she was better than they'd imagined? Probably not the best analogy I could've used, but I think it pretty much drives home what I'm trying to say. You know how long my imagination's been active, and this is far better than anything I could've put to paper.
So thank you, (name redacted), for your work and giving me that awesome feeling. 
