Blast’s Art Gallery - Character Design, Drawings, Images, and Whatnots

[Pixey]

7 hours ago, BlastOfBN said:

Male Characters: 8
Female Characters: 10

 

Lucky guys 😉

[BlastOfBN]

Kyle, just like Jacob, is a character who always struggled to find his character.

Once upon a time, in the long-forgotten year of 2021 AD, a budding Paint.NET user with a year of experience, and little to no exposure to the outside world would create waves of characters. These waves of characters would mainly consist of characters who had no written lore, yet. A lot of their lore would have to wait until a year, later... sometimes even two.

And, true to the story's word, Jacob would end up becoming quite an artist of fun, and Kyle, true to his history (because I had no idea what he would be), is a guy who doesn't know what he wants to be, so he does everything he can to get something out of it!

Personality-wise, I was inspired by this bad, family-produced, direct-to-DVD, children-oriented movie (which I will not disclose to prevent any hate towards the movie's creators, which is something I absolutely do not condone) I watched with my brother (said movie was considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. Yes, it really was that bad). I was primarily inspired by the titular character of the film, and took the character's personality and voice, and brought it to the table for Heather & Shayla.

And this brings our story of a man's coming of age to a close. Thank you for listening. Good night. Good dawn. Good morning. Good day. Guten Tag.  Ohaōgozaimasu. Whatever floats your boat.

[BlastOfBN]

Just like the two previous male characters, Joshua was a part of the 'Identity Crisis Club' (both in character and appearance).

"What's a dragon doing in here?" you ask? Well, I made him during a time when Heather & Shayla itself was having an identity crisis. Seriously. I didn't know who I wanted to aim this whole series towards, and you'll see what I mean two characters later. And I have a whole, whole lot to say about this.

When I first created Heather & Shayla, I was heavily inspired by children's cartoons of the early 2010s, particularly ones aimed at female audiences. This means Heather & Shayla's target audience was once young girls from the ages of 4-12 (I'm a guy, FYI. Even so, I do struggle with what my thoughts are telling me what I am, though). If anything, it felt quite strange, uncanny, and even a little creepy that some middle school boy on his way to high school was trying to make a show for girls whose age range was off-center with the aforementioned age range by about a year or two.

This plan went on for a bit, but then, I wanted to aim Heather & Shayla towards furries at one point. Yeah, furries, and furries only (ever heard of them?). That idea didn't last very long. Why? I didn't want to restrict it to already-existing fandoms, or anything. I wish I could say the same thing about age, though.

Sometime around August of Heather & Shayla's debut year, I considered aiming for an early-late teenage audience, especially for teens who were just like me. I was very much into Newgrounds during this time, and I wanted to recreate that style. This kind of thought process would last on until the next year, where I would outgrow this edgy phase (though said phase was still lingering inside me for a little while after that).

After all of that, I would find myself going in the direction that we currently are, today. I went back to the roots of the original premise and inspiration of Heather & Shayla, albeit, with some new additions, such as the implementation of my own comedy style, as apposed to following the neo-slapstick, Looney Tunes-esque humor that was widespread during the time.

Eventually, I would aim the goal of wanting to aim Heather & Shayla towards everyone. All of those ideas of aiming it towards specific groups of people were just phases, I suppose. I wanted to create something that everyone can enjoy. Yeah, you don't see much surreal, satirical-style humor in G or PG-rated cartoons or media (you see it a lot more in shows oriented towards adults), but I wanted to put this style of humor in places it has never put on a show in (minus what's considered inappropriate for family-friendly audiences). If anything, it's my unique style of humor, and it's been my style of humor since my middle school days, and I want to format it in a way for everyone to enjoy.

[lynxster4]

@BlastOfBN You have really put a lot of thought into your characters! Kudos for your work in character-building. ☺️

[BlastOfBN]

The male characters of the main cast will stop there for now (because the next one in the chronological order they're always put in is a female). It's Amanda!

Her creation story is pretty simple. I wanted a nerd (just like me). That's it! 

About her outfit, I chose a combination of clothes that screams 'dork' loudly and proudly (like what I wear on a daily basis).

The idea of Amanda wearing purple sneakers wasn't my idea, but rather something I harvested from a friend, who had designed a few clothing ideas for several Heather & Shayla characters. The rest of the outfit was all designed by me.

[Pixey]

They are all wonderful characters @BlastOfBN You have done an exceptional job on all of them 😍

[BlastOfBN]

Kaiza! Sister of Joshua, a part of the highly-endangered dragon species, super-duper feisty, and whether she's a markswoman or not is up to debate.

My friends and fellow pioneers probably remember this, but... Kaiza had a gun! Yeah! A firearm!

I was previously talking about how I went through an edgy phase, and said edginess made its way to Heather & Shayla. Thus, Kaiza was created, with her gimmick being a bait-and-switch character, who looks sparkly and pretty at first, but is actually quite aggressive and bellicose. Even her new outfit is meant to look quite meek in appearance!

Now, I didn't want Kaiza to have this intimidating, edgy persona for the fun of it, but rather, I wanted to give her the status of a hero.

Therefore, Kaiza is also quite heroic whenever she knows the time to strike is at odds with her.

"But what about her gun?! Where is it?"

Her gun (which was modeled after the CZ 75, a semi-automatic, mechanical handgun, mostly common in the Czech Republic), which was a major part of Kaiza's character, doesn't appear much these days. I would phase out of my edgy days, as I would eventually remember Heather & Shayla's original purpose, and what it stands for. I figured that I didn't want a gun-wielding character in a show meant for everyone, so her firearm was eventually phased out. Kaiza is a fifteen-year-old, anyway, and I don't want upset parents knocking on my door for projecting this level of edginess to kids, or getting accused of promoting the idea of giving firearms to teenagers or younger. Instead, Kaiza displays her violent tendencies through more corporal means; her fists! If anything, it feels more feisty being more up close to a fist-fighter!

Edited July 11 by BlastOfBN
Removal of an unnecessary comma, extra specifications

[lynxster4]

Is she wearing wings??  🙂

[BlastOfBN]

Just now, lynxster4 said:

Is she wearing wings??

She’s a dragon; those are a part of her anatomy.

[lynxster4]

2 minutes ago, BlastOfBN said:

She’s a dragon; those are a part of her anatomy.

 

Oh, I see now. Maybe edit your description. If she's a dragon, she certainly doesn't need a gun! ☺️  Well done!

[BlastOfBN]

Xeno (pronounced 'ZEE-no')! Another nerd! He goes into the geek subcategory, and personality and hobby-wise, literally a parody of real-life self!

He's a bit of a member of the "Identity Crisis Club", though unlike others, he had an easier time trying to find what he is.

When I originally created Xeno, he was, well, a rich kid-type guy, with the except of not being super snobby like you'd expect. He even looked like this...!

(please excuse the more primitive-looking Heather & Shayla style, it was only my second year into PDN)
What he's wearing is a Protogen headpiece. Protogens are a popular cyborg-inspired species in the Furry Fandom. I'd show you some Protogen artwork, but I'd rather not, because I don't have the permission to do that from the artists that do so. Instead, glare at one of my Roblox avatars (I haven't logged into Roblox in about a year, and my avatar is currently dressed up like My Little Pony's Pinkie Pie) that's dressed as a Protogen, which would become the inspiration for Xeno.

The only exception to this is how Protogens are mostly cyborgs, while Xeno isn't. He's still an organic being, just with this high-tech hat he wears to up his fashion.
 

As I've stated before, I'd rather not show real artwork of Protogens, as not only do I not have permission to show them, but the whole Protogen concept was made by a fellow furry artist. That's all I know. There's not much information I know, as Protogen history isn't very well-documented.

In case if I'd start to become monetized from Heather & Shayla, I would soon after phase out the Protogen headpiece by early 2022.

Sometime around late 2022, I reconsidered his "rich kid" status, and also phased that out, too. I wanted another character who could live up to that original idea, instead. He won't be a part of the main cast, though. If anything, I wanted a rich kid who's more on the jerky side, not some geek like Xeno (no offense, geeks. I'm a geek, too).

Plus, he was supposed to be an only-child. I wanted to change that in recent times, as I don't want him to be this overly pampered snob that fits the stereotype seen in cartoons and children's literature. Like that one rich kid from Double Down, the eleventh installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series! He's a one-time appearance guy, so far! Except, I don't want my rich, snobby equivalent to appear once!

On the topic of Xeno's outfit, I went for something that I myself would wear on any casual day; a short-sleeved T-shirt, designed (like his is) or not, and basketball shorts (I don't play basketball, BTW. I'm more of a bowling guy. Why, there's a bowling alley near my house, right now! I'm not telling you the address, though, because someone's going to be knocking on people's doors in my hometown, looking for me, either wanting my autograph (this early into my publicity) or trying to locate a hitman towards me (house intruders were my biggest fear when I was eleven and twelve).

What does "NR" stand for, you ask? Well... I don't know. Never mind that, for now. We'll figure that out someday.

[BlastOfBN]

Linda! Basically just the trophy girl of the cast. Ever heard of those?

Linda is a pretty straightforward character; she's a huge fan of baseball (Go Dummies!), and wants to be the very best one day.

Her outfit essentially tries to capture an athletic vibe, while also looking casual at the same time. Somewhat like Ness' outfit from EarthBound. Ever heard of that game? No? Maybe it's called Mother 2 where you live. No? I mean, it is a pretty irrelevant game.

[lynxster4]

Very nice @BlastOfBN. Keep churning them out. 😊

[Pixey]

5 hours ago, BlastOfBN said:

she's a huge fan of baseball

 

Linda is guy's dream come true 😁