Just so people from DA/FA know it's not some art thief attempting to pass themselves off as me ;)
This is Vee-Jay Hedgehog, the leader of the Downunda Star Fleet; a team of seven (sometimes ten or eleven depending on the situation) young men and women sworn to protect the people. She's most known in the collaborative project I have going with Base Hedgehog on DeviantART, and as such, is a prominant character in my fanfics and various other projects. She's my muse and as such, she demands the most attention, attributing to the vast majority of the images in my DA gallery. She's my go-to character when I'm stuck or suffering artist's block. She is also the longest-running personal character I have in my repetoire, Vee-Jay's been around since I was seven years old (I'm turning 30 in February 2012), giving her a good run of nearly 23 years.
She didn't always look like this either; this is the end result of 23 years of both my love of anthro and furry, and of Sonic The Hedgehog. She is to some degree a good departure from the "Sonic Style" I used to fall back upon. She's more influenced by the nerd culture I usually immerse myself in today, but still retains a little of her original roots in the fandom. She is also, now, a partial fursuit based on this look, I'll eventually upload photos of my dorky, fat self attempting to pass myself off as her lean, slim self <3
Vee-Jay is normally depicted as a year younger than I myself am, this would make her 28 years old. She's pretty brash, outspoken, takes no prisoners and isn't afraid to plant a sneaker up someone's ass if they decide to play the idiot card around her. She's loyal to those she knows are friends, and backstabbers need not apply.
Why "Star Fleet"? Contrary to popular belief it is NOT related to Star Trek (their version is "Starfleet", all one word), despite my fangirling for the sci-fi series.
No, "Star Fleet" refers to the Star Tugs, from the oldschool UK TV Show, "TUGS". Long ago as a kid of seven, the show first aired and I latched onto it like a gator in a feeding frenzy. Flash forward 20 years, and it's still a big part of me, so much so, VJ and her team adopted the name, and the fleet's colours and insignias (with their own twist on them, of course). Vee-Jay is often referred to as "Ten Cents" by her team, my love for the original character shining through like a beacon there <3
The jacket displayed here is more or less the original first version of it, very simple two-colour version. In earlier/later pieces located on my DA Gallery, and as drawn by Base, it turned into a full-flown, detailed Star Fleet-based jacket, and it is what I've drawn Vee-Jay wearing ever since then. Pants-wise, black jeans with the twin white insignia lines on either side, denoting the lead Star Switcher of the series (Ten Cents). Depending on the version of Vee-Jay (and there's quite a few notable examples...), she'll always be wearing a bandana of some kind - either medium blue (as above), dark blue, dark blue with a silver eagle decal, or the Star Tug flag. Sneakers are always red Converse All-Stars, I have a boner for those sneakers in real life <3
Vee-Jay is a hedgehog, no two ways about it, so why the echidna-type quills and rings? A tribute to the echidnas, of whom Knuckles The Echidna is one of my all-time favourite characters. She was primarily tributing Julie-Su, Knuckles's significant other in the Archie Knuckles Mini-Series. In my stories with Base, she made this tribute to a displaced tribe of Downundan echidnas that took her in. She's had the quill-style ever since, and I have always liked the various adornments the female echidnas have in the comics. Apart from Julie-Su, probably Lien-Da also inspired a good chunk of her quill-style, just minus the use of the technocracy.
Long-windedness aside, this is my main personage, this is who I am inside, and of whom continues to be my ever-resourceful muse and the basis of my hobby/failed career ever since I was a kid. She's also the Chaotic Good side of the invariable split between good and evil in my head <3
