First Design Draft — February 21 2022.
GOD these first few images are gonna be a rough ride for me. Anyway. The principle idea I had with eir first few designs was basically just "make this man a phone" lots of very bulky square-y futuristic stuff. Early on eir clairvoyance was presented in a far less mystical and as a much more tech-y asset, that kind of drove eir silhouette and stark monochrome color scheme. It's funny seeing some aspects of eir design already set in, though — the stupid haircut, the teeth and the loose tie especially. I don't think it would've meshed too well with eir "modern" design, ultimately, but sometimes I do regret not giving em very tall angular heels haha.


Second Design Draft — February 21 2022.
E was also meant to be like way younger at first. Like in eir early 20s-ish. I feel like this design better portrays that intention and is thus very jarring now. Also around this time eir glasses were just meant to be LED displays instead of the weird outline enchantment e's got now.


Third Design Draft — February 27 2022.
The gloves were much stupider.


Early Colored Sketch — February 28 2022.
Introduction of purple. I'm also humored by the bracelet e's got here because iirc it was fully inspired by me seeing the one dril tweet about a necklace-making club and I wanted that to be a really important part of eir characterisation. This did not happen.

Early Sketches — March 4 2022.
I established the divorce with Isel very early on. It was much more of a joke back then.


Early Sketch — March 4 2022.


Early Reference — March 5 2022.
Closer to normalcy!


"idk olzhas isel.png" — March 7 2022.
Always wild to me how quickly I figured out the shtick between these two.


"idk.png" — March 7 2022.
I was very "idk" about it all, apparently.


"Make Good Choices" — March 11 2022.
The song Make Good Choices by Sean Nelson supplied a lot of these two's early characterisation, actually. Wild to think of chimes as a motif spanning back to March 22.


With Valerie — March 12 2022.
I decided they were friends quite early on. I remember thinking it'd be cute if e mimicked Val's claw powers.


"olzhaaaaas" — March 18 2022.
Lasso tool coloring mischief.


Dance Sketches — March 18 2022.


"blahhh bah" — March 22 2022.
I think the file name for this one's funny.


"Default" — March 22 2022.
Named after the Django Django song. First real drawing of the three together, I think… wah.

Dance Sketches — March 18 2022.


"Initiate" — March 26 2022.
Really sentimental picture for me. Marked the start of me really thinking about Olzhas and Freya's friendship, and also the start of me putting the Affinity circle in any fucking image ever.


"mhm girlies" — March 28 2022.
Still true.

"who cares" — April 2 2022.
Cool.


Early 2108 design sketch — April 4 2022.
I don't think this ever saw the light of day, it was more of a brainstorm thing… Some things from here came back in other designs like the partly tied hair, though there's some things I regret not emphasising! For one I think the glasses having chains was a cool idea.


Alternate outfits — April 9 2022.
A keystone (heh) image — this marked the start of me messing about with leisurely situational garments for my characters, all whilst maintaining motifs and iterating on color schemes. I know I started this practice after observing some King Of Fighters art that presented the characters' casual styles… I can link the image actually. It's this one. Doing this kind of stuff eventually led to me actually considering motifs and outfit consistency in a worldbuilding sense… It's funny how things culminate.
To talk about the actual image though. I think this Olzhas outfit is fucking stupid but it did establish eir preference for wearing jackets like capes more often than not. Honestly I feel like Freya's outfit is much cooler but this isn't Freya's gallery page so I can't talk about it. Eh, in general I feel like Freya's much cooler than anyone.


Portraits Test — April 9 2022.
I like eir stupid smile here.


ooooooh olz — April 13 2022.
I remember drawing this very late at night.


seepy.png — April 15 2022.
It is seepy.png!


Smiles — April 15 2022.
Cutes thing I established early on. This is still maintained :+).


Winter/Spring Lineup — April 19 2022.
Still hadn't gotten down the inverse wineglass shape of eir dress yet. I think that's the most striking unrealised detail to me yet, beyond just old art weirdness making em look odd.


stupid shirts image — April 20 2022.
Still funny to me.


"theyre funnyyyy" — April 23 2022.
Yeah :+).


Isel and Olzhas 2108 designs — April 26 2022.
I don't know what I was attempting with Olzhas' color scheme back then. I'm so glad I regulated it over to a blue, with time…

Isel and Olzhas — May 1 2022.


"Dune Opinions" — May 4 2022.
Seminal image.


Reference — May 4 2022.


"olja time" — May 8 2022.


Fighting game moves sketches — May 10 2022.
Someday I'll post all the notes I made about hypothetical CCS fighting game LOL. I think I pinned down Olzhas as like… a rushdown grappler type character.


"olzhas again" — May 13 2022.
Already self-aware.


"Under A Glass Moon" — May 14 2022.
And yet the lyrics typed out here are adapted from Haken's Visions. Heh. Anyway I remember being very proud of how eir expression and gesturing turned out I thought e looked cute.


Expressions sheet — May 16 2022.
Quick sketches. Pointing out the bottom left one because its the first display of my favorite "wide eyes mouth open" type countenance of eirs. It charms me.


Portrait — May 16 2022.
Really odd detail of eir nail polish not being black or purple for once. I never do that nowadays, for whatever reason…


"Bad Friday" — May 21 2022.
Never finished this one. Kind of wish I did.


"alt outfits thing" — May 25 2022.
Another outfits exercise. Prior to this I was still sooo shy about drawing em with eir chest out. And nowadays I do it every day of my life. Not really though. But I do lack shame these days. Anyway for eir outfit here I remember referencing the outfits of Vice and Mature from KOF, I still think the weird suit and pseudo-skirt outfits they've got are very Olzhasesque.

Thoughts — June 1 2022.
Heh.


"big shoe fans" — Early June 2022.
Experiments in nonpixelated drawings. I don't do this often. Every time I do I have to intentionally fuck up the coloring and make things very rough.


With Faris — June 2 2022.
Still basically true.


Icons Test — June 13 2022.


"they are friends for a very specific reason" — June 18 2022.


"Veil" — June 21 2022.
Based on the Haken song. The lyrics about compound eyes have always reminded me of Olzhas…


Summer 22 Icons — June 25 2022.


Animation — June 30 2022.
I'm so sad I never finished this one! The aim was to have a fighting game win pose-ish sprite of em…

"olja and also a freya" — July 2 2022.


"We Built This City" — July 7 2022.
First incarnation of Cassiopeia band! It was just a one-off joke drawing that, midway through, I began to consider as a genuine epilogue to their story. It was literally a Singing Cows joke.


Expressions Sketches — July 8 2022.
Ahhh the tiny sketch in the corner is cutes.


2110 design sketches — July 11 2022.
Not much changed.


With Freya — July 12 2022.


Olzhas — July 12 2022.
Drawn by SCREAMINGSKULL.


"Make Good Choices" — July 15 2022.
My frown.


"who knows" — July 20 2022.
Messing around with seasonal outfits and stupid interactions.


"I call this Cassiopeia" — July 20 2022.
The title for this was the first time I started referring to them as "Cassiopeia" instead of just "the mutiny", their old betilting… It was literally just a random word my mind latched on to for no reason! And I decided to trust my gut about it being cool! And now its so important to them and now Cas exists… ahh.


2108 design sketches — July 21 2022.


"Fun fact !" — July 22 2022.
Drawn by Flobi.


"Aquarium" — July 23 2022.
I redrew this one in early 2023 so I'll comment more on the idea there cause I think I executed it better later on, but… General gist of this image was to depict them on like an awkward early date where they're both dressed terribly and dancing jovially. And the color scheme was very CMYK centric, for whatever reason.


"OLZHAS im drawing olja yay yippee" — July 30 2022.
And the month's done.

"Ouroborous" — August 3 2022.
Lyrics originating from the Mars Volta song, which has always reminded me of Cassiopeia… Basically everything about this image was fun as fuck to conduct. Really really fond of the colors and the weird shapely style to this day.


Reference — August 3 2022.


"time flies" — August 3 2022.
I don't know why the crop is so abysmal but I'm too lazy to open up Medibang to fix it. Anyway early post-train deliberation, I wanted to draw something nice…


Alternate Outfits — August 7 2022.
One on the left is funny in retrospect, considering Sezim's existence. E would not fucking wear a cards deck outfit nowadays.


"Eye for an eye" — August 10 2022.
It was around now that I was starting to cement eir nervous system motif.


"Cassiopeia Experimenting" — August 11 2022.
I wanted to draw them all small!


"whatever this is" — August 17 2022.


Alternate Outfits — August 19 2022.
First deliberate visual association of em with Kandinsky's works, on the right there.


"Freesia" — August 21 2022.
Sneef. All I have to say.


"hell on earth" — August 23 2022.
I wanted them to be mean to each other.


Train departure sketches — August 25 2022.


"olja time" — August 29 2022.

Pre-story sketches — September 1 2022.


"hallway.png" — September 2 2022.
A depiction of an old written scene — Olzhas leading Dalisay all the way to Isel's train room and traversing his ghoulish extended hallway. I do wish I finished this one off…


"Eye draw" — September 3 2022.
A more fervent Kandinsky homage present here in the background.


"cassiopeia fursonas smile" — September 11 2022.
Debut of eir association with deer! When I design fursonas for human characters I usually pick animals that are close to like, the region the character is from, and doing research led me to find out about all those Moschidae guys… their teeth reminded me of Olzhas as did their chest stripes. Something something also fun fact within this "AU" e would've used eir clairvoyance to shapeshift those teeth in manually 👍


"Red Giant" — September 12 2022.
Titled after the Haken song. I need to partake in inverting color schemes more, it makes for fun images…


With Isel — September 13 2022.


"Savior" — September 13 2022.
Divorce image. WOO!


Playing the bass — September 16 2022.
Man I can't fucking wait until I get to the images of em where e's actually got a decently designed bass.


"cassiopeia madness mode" — September 18 2022.


Expressions Run — September 24 2022.
E has a lot of funny faces here. Respect!

"olja freya funny time" — October 1 2022.
Based on some old SNK art of Nakoruru and Kyo, vaguely. I'm too lazy to find it.


"Post post-modern man" — October 7 2022.
Titled after the DEVO song which I decided was a very Iselesque one, and simialrly the background's based on the album cover for Smooth Noodle Maps.


Cassiopeia outfits — October 12 2022.
Had a funny thought about them all resembling Team CYS from KOF in terms of dynamic, vaguely, so I drew this as like. An early Halloween type image of sorts. Also threw in some tiny Guilty Gear outfit doodles for good measure.


"Divorce Discussions" — October 15 2022.
Featuring some drafts of Isel and Olzhas dialogues. I just really wanted to get across the body language and gesture composition these two guys have around Dalisay and how it contrasts. I'm still fond of the messy, meandering sketchy comic style I used here…


"Feel the lightning" — October 16 2022.
Named after the Dan Deacon song. I like the flowiness of eir pose here.


"pepsi max" — October 19 2022.
Maybe the most important Olzhas image.


"help im drawing olja again" — October 20 2022.
And now I establish the ninch nails connection.


"i dont know what to do with the colors here" — October 22 2022.
I guess I figured it out. Badly.


"New Millennium" — October 24 2022.
This image is funny to me on a personal level because it marks the night I first listened to the Dream Theater song of the same title. For the record that's one of my favorite songs ever and its mid as fuck!!!! Anyway this image is cute. I love the sketch on the upper right in paricular.


Post-train sketches — October 28 2022.
Sorry to this Italian man for the epilogual choices I've made.

Pass the yaoi — November 5 2022.
Heritage IselOlja image honestly.


"playing the fucking bass oh yeah" — November 7 2022.
GOOD BASS EXISTS NOW! Also the image on the right was a very noncommittal study of a Trent Reznor image haha.


Icons test — November 12 2022.
Fun shapes in here.


Sketches — November 19 2022.
Draws on the phone whilst my laptop was out of commission.


Sketch — November 21 2022.
This one too. Still love the shapes here.


"Pretty Hate Machine" — November 22 2022.


Sketch — November 21 2022.
Classic fucking image. Origin of the argument lies in a WDWB conversation.


Tiny Drawing — November 27 2022.
Back to the computer. My man is like a pillar!


Sketch — November 30 2022.
Wanted an image of them playing tunes on stage.

"Shirts fun" — December 2 2022.


"Innervision" — December 9 2022.
Titled after the SOAD song. I looooove drawing nerves.


"i love olzhas from trainstory" — December 10 2022.
I do! The lyrics here come from Final Form by Everything Everything. Song that makes me sad about em.


Cassiopeia band — December 12 2022.
Smiles serenely.


"olja bass time once moreeee" — December 12 2022.
My favorite part of eir epilogue design — beyond just getting to draw eir diamond bass — is eir haircut, which is even stupider than usual.


Icon — December 16 2022.


Icon sketches — December 16 2022.
Apologies for the dogshit crop AGAIN. Early iterations of the above, I was messing about with the art style a bit. I kind of like how the one on the right looks better than the final one, just because its more flowy…


Height Difference Demonstration — December 17 2022.
Get em.


"fursonas again" — December 21 2022.
Back to deer!


"The Dance of Eternity" — December 22 2022.
Part of a series of sketches where I imposed a limit of "I have to finish this image in the span of one song". The thing about The Dance of Eternity is that it is 6 minutes and 13 seconds long, which is quite a bit.


With Freya — December 25 2022.
Drawn by Flobi.


With Isel — December 25 2022.


Pre-train sketches — December 26 2022.
Frown. I like eir shapes here and the broken undersketch gaps in the coloring.


Whiteboard Sketches — December 27 2022.


Whiteboard Sketch — December 29 2022.


Whiteboard Sketch — December 29 2022.


Whiteboard Sketch — December 29 2022.


Whiteboard Sketch — December 29 2022.
Drawn by Flobi.


"yay funny sketches" — December 30 2022.
Still soooo cutes to me. I love the tiny sketch with em and Freya and the one where they're scheming…


With Freya — December 31 2022.
Most darling sketch of these two to finish off the year. They make me cryyyyyy sometimes.