GallantServer

So my iPad, which I used to draw 90% of the stuff in my gallery, has been broken for a little over a year. (The charger port rarely ever works)

I sent it in about a week ago to be fixed. And I got it back today.

First thing I noticed: It had been wiped completely. You see, Apple said there may be a bit of data missing, but I couldn't back it up due to the charger port not working. So I decided to just deal with it.

Upon realizing that five and a half years of data was completely wiped from existence (including some pretty important stuff, like all of my presets on the drawing app and the chronicling of my allowance)- I got kinda ticked off.

But hold up, it's not over yet! I had a sneaking suspicion upon opening it- no, I don't know why I was suspicious, I just was- that this wasn't the same iPad. So I checked for the dents on the side from my dropping it on the pavement outside Hebrew School like four years ago, and they weren't there!

Finally, I checked the serial number. For some reason (but thank goodness for whatever it may have been), my mom saved the serial number from my old iPad.

*sidenote: I'm sure there's a good reason and have probably found out what it was since writing this.

Sure enough, it was not the same as the new one.

So why am I writing this? Well, because I don't know what to do with this information. I'm not mad or anything, just kinda confused... and maybe feeling a little cheated.

I mean, Apple was supposed to replace my charger port. Instead, they gave me an entirely new iPad.

There's nothing wrong with that, I'm sure there's a good reason, but the thing is that we weren't told this was, in fact, not the same one we sent in. The new one was made in the same year as the old one, and has the same capacities and whatnot- but this seems more like an attempt to cover up the fact it was different; than Apple deciding to be nice and sending me a completely new one.

Y'know what I mean? Also, sorry for all the confusing sentences.

Anyway, that's about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to trying to recreate 5 years of apps and notes and playlists and stuff.

None of which was backed up properly, by the way- which is almost certainly my fault.

This one's text will be much more fun facts and inspirations than differences between the pictures. (Ouf, I can't tell if that sentence makes sense. This is why I'm not a particularly confident writer.)<-- this problem will continue throughout the journal, btw. Sorry about that, and unless there's something completely nonsensical please don't feel the need to let me know.

Also, the format changes a bit throughout this, since I spent awhile making it.

Alex is a lot harder to find a starting point for than Trista, since technically every character representing me can be considered the same as her.

So for this I'll be using specifically Alex from LoM and LoMR.

Anyway, the first-ish digital picture I ever made of her is...:

Which was actually a drawing of Alex that I recoloured the eyes of and passed off as a drawing of myself. Note the sweatpants and "I Speak Fluent Sarcasm" T-shirt.

Also note the backwards-turning elbow. Ouch. And one more note: no eyebrows.

Anyway, the shirt is based off my real-life favourite T-shirt, which is so infamous (at least, inside my head) that I'm actually wearing it in most staged and scheduled pictures for the last four or five years.

The orange band on her right hand is based off the one I started wearing after Ponycon 2016, which is where I got it. (out of curiosity, does anyone else have one of those?) I would still be wearing it if I hadn't snapped it two years ago. I still have it, though. It's just sitting on a shelf. Currently I wear an orange band from the National Museum of Natural History in DC.

But I digress. In-universe (at that point, at least), the orange band is blank.

I'm honestly not sure why Alex had a blue band in this picture, but it does appear in some of my super early concept art, so I assume it was there for a reason.

The nondescript purple shoes may have just been coloured that way b/c purple was, and still is, my favourite colour.

Next up we have

this picture! *insert fanfare*

Please pardon the terrible anatomy and obviously traced Dr. Levi. Fun fact, also, I actually do run like that when I'm really panicked, or at least have in the past.

The colours are likely meant to be the same as the last picture, as I haven't actually given Alex many redesigns. However, she is wearing socks and sandals in this picture, unlike the former picture. This has always been a staple of my slightly exaggerated self-based characters.

As for the extra bracelets, I think I put those there to make her seem messy.

Weirdly enough, Alex is wearing shorts in this picture. (For anyone besides me and perhaps my nuclear family, this doesn't count as weird.) I actually really hate wearing shorts for some reason, and always have; so I'm not sure why I ever drew Alex with shorts.

Most likely I drew her that way because reasons and am now overthinking it.

Next up, the first full character ref I made for Alex!

Did I ever actually mention the White Angle (yes it's angle not angel) in LoM? idk.

Anyway, This one has grey sweatpants, despite the red sweatpants already being part of her design. My theory: I forgot. Makes sense for me.

But I digress. Once again, I drew her with quite a few bracelets for no apparent reason; and- on an unrelated note- this is actually the only record I have of Alex's height (I legit forgot she had an "official" height until I read the ref again).

MOVING ON!

This one's here b/c it's the debut of her slightly longer, poofier, messier, and more real-to-life hairstyle. It's not really a noticeable difference if not pointed out, tbh. This picture really shows off the bushy eyebrows I used to give to every character (except Alex- apparently, according to the first drawing in the journal), which was both part of my style and meant to represent- for Alex specifically- that she was messy and didn't care about how she looked.

Also, I'd like to take this moment to point out that The Planaria was actually the first deviantart picture to show Alex's classic red sweatpants with the word "MAPEL" on 'em. This was part of her design since right after the first picture in the journal (but I apparently ignored them for the running picture).

Fun fact: I wear sweatpants year-round as long as no-one makes me do otherwise. Alex does the same.

Next picture to be rabbled about....

THERE:

Alex of LoM (rather than Alex of LoMR)'s final ref sheet; AKA Alex's ref sheet feat. Devil Me, Angel Me, and Banana Shake.

Note the incorrect height. I'm not entirely sure why it's wrong.

This picture also includes some "alternate" shirts for Alex, including:

- long shirt used as stand-in for nightgown (the pink one with the YanSim/Lovesick heart)

- The Kazoo Kids shirt, a reference to the "band" I and my camp friends are in. I guess Alex is in it, too.

- a striped shirt with the colours of the Bandana King's then-new design.

- SWIMSHIRT! As debuted in LoM2: Electric Boogaloo (unfortunately unofficial title).

- D.I.A.W.S.F. or die. I'm not sure if DIAWSF was ever mentioned in LoM, but it's a poster that was up all around my school.

The band-aids on the arms are not due to self-harm, though I do see why one of my friends interpreted that way. They're because her dog bites her all the time.

Also, Heelys!

Finally, moving into the LoMR one(s)...

The first (finished) LoMR picture is this one:

It's got the red MAPEL sweatpants and a blue sweatshirt (another hallmark of my real-life wardrobe), and shows Alex's "new" hairstyle.

(I say "new" because it's actually been that way since the headshot earlier in this journal, but I hadn't quite been drawing it correctly.)

Also, LoMR Alex doesn't have bushy eyebrows. Partly b/c I stopped drawing eyebrows that way automatically, and partly b/c I wanted to make Alex seem less careless.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS/pictures that don't quite fit anywhere in the journal:

This picture from LoM2 is not only one of my favourite human drawings I've ever done, but the only record of what LoM Alex's orange band was meant to say in its final iteration: Vine isn't Dead.

I could be wrong, but I think this is actually the only LoM1 illustration that shows Alex's shirt.

Unfortunatley, My white gel pen was dead. At least, that's the excuse my memory's going with.

Some pretty early designs of Angel and Devil Me (renamed in LoMR to Essie[or SE, as in superego] and Id, respectively), along with Banana Shake and the Bandana King. If I remember correctly, I also wanted to put the White Angle's old design in this one, but I never drew it. :/

Also, apparently the Bandana King was heterochromic? Okay. Also also, this picture pretty well shows off the many versions of Alex's weird cowlick.

Also also also, I can't find the picture as of now, but Angel Me at one point had crayola-purple hair, and Devil Me had crayola-red hair at the same time. I distinctly remember hating these versions of them immediatley after creating them.

I thought it may be interesting to show the progression of a human OC of mine!

Trista, the second protagonist of the "novel" I've been working on for approx. a year and a half now that's still in the conceptual phase (RUN ON SENTENCE FOR THE WIN!); started as just a pale floating head and shoulders with dark purple hair that looked a bit too much like Hex Maniac's:

Later, I submitted this picture:

As you can see, with this picture she gained a body!

Next, THIS ONE!:

A new colour scheme, outfit, and hairstyle with this one!

(Also I was when drawing it and still am aware of the edginess. Edgy stuff is just fun to draw!)

(It's screenshotted off my instagram)

That picture was redrawn about a year and a half later, along with another tweaked design for Trista:

The clothes style remained mostly the same, but the colours changed. Here's a bigger picture of the design:

More recently (about a week and a half ago), I redesigned her yet again to fit her new backstory and character (which I won't be talking about, since they're far from set in stone):

This featured a slightly altered palette, different hairstyle, and entirely new outfit.

As of now, this design still remains!