A running series for the TAPAS blog. I wrote down names on little slips of paper, the names of everyone currently in the TAPAS Facebook group and Discord server, 41 people altogether, and will be drawing one name every so often to write about them and their history with the group.
Ugh, I've fallen behind on this. I fall behind on everything... it's really irritating. Anyway, today we're looking into Ziya, my oldest sister and a very quiet member of the TAPAS Discord group. I was almost 10 when Ziya was born, so this is someone I've spent a lot of time being a caretaker for, and then every year getting more and more equal, and now we're both adults. Which is weird to think about. Not that she's in her 20s now, it suits her, it's weird that I'm in my 30s. That doesn't suit me at all.
From what I've heard about her college experience, these days Ziya is into horticulture and Japanese studies. For TAPAS, I asked her to provide some concept art, and she did complete a piece for a background elf character but felt that it wasn't good enough... I thought it was perfectly fine, but respected her wishes and had Naty re-do the concept.
Honorable mention to our little sister Aramie, who's not on the official list of names to draw, but has participated in the group to a roughly equal extent as Ziya - Aramie finished her concept art piece, though, neither had time to do more. School stuff. And the concept art stage is all wrapped for now.
And of course they're both prominent voices in Keys & Kingdoms - we recorded the voices for the pilot, er, quite some time ago, a time measurable in years rather than months. Recently finished these character poses so I could finally put out this particular promo! Agh, this can be frustrating sometimes. I like making progress, but it's hard feeling like, if I had any ability to concentrate, the pilot would have been finished in 2020 and we'd be deep into the series by now. But that's probably not true. I'm probably doing the very best I can with the resources I have. We're getting there.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Ziya's contribution to my channel's Jackbox Party Pack gaming videos, always an MVP there, most memorably one particular Joke Boat punchline in our third anniversary special that left everyone else rolling on the floor. I'll always relish the sound of the collective crackup. We haven't done any such videos in quite some time, perhaps we'll jump back in someday.
