Reference: Kiyoshi Paco

This is huge and if you want to read it or view the original, unfaded colours, I'm guessing that you'll probably have to download it. xD; Sorry.

I... don't really believe in references.

...Allow me to explain. I don't believe that any original character worth his or her salt can be summed up in a few pictures and a standard form. I am frequently annoyed when people insist that typing "arrogant-calm-handsome" on a pet lookup counts as giving your pet a personality. You just... no. xD Characters don't work that way. In order to put life into your characters, you need to put your characters in life. You need to draw them. Write them. Comic them. Know them. You can't build a character inside a chart. I've seen way too many people try.

So why, you ask, are you sitting there raising your eyebrow at a deviation that looks suspiciously like a reference?

Your guess is as good as mine. xD; I'd like to say it was just because I was bored. Or because I wanted to provide an easy resource for information about one of my most beloved Neopets characters in the hopes that it will encourage fanart to appease my greedy little soul. And those things are probably true, but really, I think the real reason is that I was curious to see if I could do it. I've never really tried. And let me tell you, taking a character that you've been writing about for six years without ever having written anything as clear-cut and succinct as a reference before, then attempting to find the words to fill in a list of "strengths" and "weaknesses" for him... it's hard.

Interestingly — even despite how familiar I already am with Kiyoshi — I think trying to wrap my head around this thing gave me some new perspective on his character. It was actually useful, and surprisingly fun. I'm somewhat happy with the results. <3 And hey. Learning experience!

...Took forever though. I'm going to skip right by the question of whether or not it was worth it.

And yes, it's a safe bet that there'll be similar things coming for my other Neopets characters. xD

Kiyoshi Paco is my character.
Shoyrus, Karrens, Haunted Woods, etc. are © Neopets.com