Gang's All Here

Weird thing to draw on a whim, I think, but anyone that's seen my YouTube channel knows how much time I devote to re-exploring old memories (well, that or cheap licensed games, but whatever), so this isn't really all that out of line with what I do.  Have some Neopets.

Somehow, despite all the time I spent on that site on and off over the course of many years, I never actually managed to get any of these pets.  My xweetok, which I hoped to paint fire, remained yellow, and the only other pet I actually had at the time I stopped was a zafara that I hoped to make into an ice hissi, though he was a still a spotted zafara at that point from lab ray zaps (I think he was female because of the zaps, too, actually).  I've retained a hell of a lot of knowledge about the site for some reason, in part because Neopets has this weird policy of almost literally never updating anything (they still run almost the entire site on Flash), so you still get a bunch of early and mid 2000s art to gawk at, not to mention some incredibly strange things from old site events if you know the right URLs.  That's to say nothing of the comically messed up things that the site fully flaunted, like a game where your mission is to feed small sad animals to a creature in a cave while members of an organization modelled loosely off of PETA tries to stop you.  I'm not the oldest of Neopets veterans, but I do remember the days before the Viacom buyout and when they had a little sidebar instead of a fancy header, and I certainly can't forget the transition from the static images to the introduction of customizable pets with the still-controversial art makeover that came with it.

I actually learned tons of stuff from the site, though.  I've been incredibly comfortable with HTML ever since a young age because of it, which has translated reasonably well into being able to adapt into other similar languages (though never CSS for some reason, which I always thought of as that crazy thing even more complicated than HTML that only the most experienced knew how to use, though after years of fiddling with custom CSS addons in my browser, I'm reasonably familiar with it now).  It was also the origin of a few of my creative pursuits, most notably drawing stuff and trying to digitize it.  The site actually did wonders to foster creativity of all sorts with its plethora of contests and spotlights based around creating webpages (you basically got free reign with HTML and CSS on a blank document for every pet you had), writing stories (I've even gone back to read the Neopian Times a few times over the years), drawing stuff, and whatever else.  I got into trying to draw stuff on paper and convert it into digital format because of a webpage spotlight for a red hissi named H33lix (owned by someone whose main account name was Pacmanite - it's a wonder I still remember her name and lots of her comic strips), in which various ins and outs of drawing and submitting comics for the Neopian Times were discussed.  I can't help but wonder if that person, whatever she's doing now, has any idea that she's probably inspired a bunch of people like me to create stuff of their own.  I'd actually link to the webpage itself, but it's unfortunately in shambles due to Photobucket pulling the plug on all the images, so the text is all that's left.  A simple Google search will bring it up, though.

Anyways, I had a few dynamics in mind for these characters, not that I ever did anything with them.  Looking back, I'm kind of surprised that they were decent concepts, as vague as they were.  I figured that the xweetok (the firey one) and hissi (the ice one) would be the more extroverted of the four and spend most of their time doing whatever together, with the former usually liking hotter places (especially Moltara, a lava-themed location added towards the tail end of my years playing - if I ever figured out my lava pool time, actually, I would've had him turned magma) and the latter liking colder places like Terror Mountain.  In fact, I think the thing I liked about ice hissis the most was that they were clearly modelled after a creature from Terror Mountain, a giant ice serpent called the Snowager.  I imagined the hissi would be fond of the creature due to the similarity.  Amusingly enough, I'm not sure the dichotomy of one pet being fire and the other ice actually came to mind that often, so it was never integrated into their relationship, as far as I can recall.  The other two, the grey kyrii (the depressed looking one) and the Darigan eyrie (the gryphon type of thing) would be the more introverted two, with the former usually staying home because his appearance would generally elicit reactions from the more happy-looking population of Neopia.  Ever since I read some Neopian Times articles by users coming up with their own lore for the Grey Day issue (Neopets has tons of holidays and special editions of the Neopian Times to celebrate), I always found myself liking the grey pets.  People tended to insist that they just looked sad despite not actually being that way, and I found some kind of appeal in pets whose mood you had to be conscious of trying not to misinterpret.  There was also a story someone wrote of a grey pet that was totally colourblind, and it was actually pretty cute, but I haven't been able to find it despite brief efforts to look for it, sadly.  In any case, the eyrie would be the older and more aloof of the bunch, getting along a bit better with the kyrii due to the both of them being more reserved, and the eyrie being rather familiar with the abnormal expressiveness of the other due to them being in the same household.  I think I really just decided on a Darigan eyrie because they looked kinda badass, as much as anything that's bright purple can, though when you share a species and colour with a warlord (a character called Lord Kass), it's a little hard not to.  He was also the only one with an explicit connection to a specific location, the Darigan Citadel, so I figured that the four would always cheer for the Darigan Citadel's team during Yooyuball season (basically Neopets' version of association football).

I suppose that's all there is to it, though.  It was kinda satisfying to see that I could actually draw all four of these things that I had never drawn before on my first try.  The shading could have been more detailed, but I didn't really think it was worth the time, since this is just a little side project of mine.  I could always go back and pretty it up a bit if I wanted.  With all the explaining out of the way, I guess you could call this my tribute to Neopets, assuming I never make anything else like this.  I know I could've done more, but I'm happy with it anyways.  Just another little thing I'll always have fond memories of.