Originally posted on: February 2, 2018, 1:05 PM UTC

The Evolution of Roy
Hello people,
Aside from sketches, I haven't been uploading much personal lately and even though I can't really afford to currently change that by uploading full pieces of my own characters, I did want to upload something personal. So here is a little walk through the evolution of my "OC" Roy. Who is probably my oldest character who I still frequently draw, he's been with me from the beginning of my art-journey, when I started seriously drawing about 7 years ago. He's very dear to my heart, and as my watchers and friends I wanted to re-introduce you all to him and what he has meant to me over the years. This is a little embarrassing for me to open up about but I think it's fair that you guys also know this part of me.
We start at 2011:
I was about 13-14 years old when I started drawing more as a way to express myself, I always have, but around this age I started focussing on it, wanting a future in art. Around this time I also met one of my Best friends Daanu, who has been mentioned more often haha, and as another artist, she inspired me to start drawing more as well.
2011-2013
Roy was officially born from the "Manself Meme" by Cagali as "Ray/Rayen"* (I can't seem to find my very first attempt at the full meme) but I started to feel more and more inspired to draw him because Daanu and I started Rp-ing with our "Manselves" as a super stereotypical Yoai-ish Gay-couple. Roy started out as the antagonist in the Roleplay, creepy and stalker-ish (haha..)* but that quickly changed to him becoming the dorky, somewhat socially awkward nice guy he still is to this day. He used to be married to "Daniel" Daanu's OC and had 3 kids, "Damien","Lucius" and "Adrien" https://romyvdhel-art.deviantart.com/art/The-man-self-family-447021703romyvdhel-art.deviantart.com/a…
We stopped roleplaying somewhere in 2013 (and both look back at those years we did uncomfortably lol), but I had found a safe space in roleplaying Roy/ Having Roy as a character. I have always had issues; gender-related, self-loathing, depression etc. and as Roy, I didn't have to worry about those, he was who I wanted to be, a guy who was comfortable with himself, accepted by others and loved by many and aside from that, he was a form of stability something I definitely craved.
2014
I'm not completely sure why I didn't draw Roy much this year...
2015
At the end of this year, I actually tried saying goodbye to Roy as a character and a part of me. At that time I had a boyfriend, who was not a bad bf, but not one supporting of who I would like to be and it made me have to push away a lot of my problems by trying to deal with them by ignoring them. Roy was a safe-space, and I thought I shouldn't need something like that...
2016
A year filled with self-loathing, depression and a lot more mental issues, friends got me through it, but it eventually almost ended with me going into a full depression. However, at the end of that year, I broke up with my ex and started working on myself, also finding my current bf that same year, who is still a really great with helping me deal with the worst parts of myself, and not my shoving them away, but actually dealing with them step by step.
2017
In the begin of this year, while I started to learn how to deal with my issues I also learned that it's okay to have a safe space and that it's okay to give yourself a break from your own bull-sht if you need it. Roy came back in my life again, at first as a joke, in a new fantasy setting/theme, but quickly turned back into the support he had always been to me mentally. He and my other characters now inspire me, to improve, go on and make Art in general.
He is now a DnD character, both a retired adventurer who did it all and now has it all, and a character who is at the begin of his journey, still having to get and deserve it all.
romyvdhel-art.deviantart.com/a…
I'm still learning how to deal with myself, but he and my friends and family are inspiring me to keep trying. I understand it's quite silly to be so attached to something "not real", but to me, he is in a way, and he'll always be 🙂 and yes that's silly too, but fuck it, if silly works for me, than fck it <3
So this wasn't just a character development, but also my development as a person, a development I'm thankful for ❤️