orchard was initally a doodle i made of a girl in an underwater city in a sailor suit, with pink hair
later on, she became a fixture of the edges of my notes, my sketchbooks, really anything i could doodle on.
naming her peachgirl, because she was dreamed up at the end of peach season, and they're my favorite fruits.
on the subject of fruits i love, i started making little characters for my friends too-
appleboy was based off my friend tristan, strawberrygirl after my friend jordan.
orchard became my school project because i wanted to start working with oil paint, and then evolved into much more.
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i wanted to expand into multimedia after, peach's pink pigtails and cute sneakers poisioned my mind entirely.
peachgirl was a good way to work through aspects of myself, i made her a transgender lesbian because of that.
while she's become her own person disconnected from me, there's still a lot about her that's a part of me...
peachgirl being a trans girl is really important for her character i think-
there's a lot to be said about lesbian and transgender representation that exists in media.
there doesn't actually exist a deep reason for why she's trans. i just thought it would be fitting for her.
her idenity itself- it's not a joke, but rather something she's incredibly happy and proud about.
i now hope that she can be a beacon of joy and hope for trans girls and the trans community as a whole. i think she's a very lovely lady.
now this isn't to say i don't love appleboy and strawberrygirl just as much, no, no, not at all!
appleboy is really great, as i said, he's inspired by my dear tristan. tristan is a great dude.
i wanted appleboy to really contain his esscence.
i usually just scrape it off tristan's head in his sleep but that's not something that translates easily in comic form.
appleboy is witty, mean but kind, and charismatic.
(he's also vaugely inspired by wallace from scott pilgrim, but that's more a tristan thing.)
while he's not fleshed out very much in the comics, i feel he does harbor a deep sadness.
i don't want him to feel just like a sidekick. he's far more, and i truly am excited for people to see that.
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strawberrygirl is also really sentimental for me.
strawberrygirl started becoming a part of my paintings after appleboy, as a gift, really.
jordan really liked stars, and so i made her this painting where peachgirl and strawberrygirl were in space, just looking at the stars.
because i'm talking about scott pilgrim, i do think that she's orchard's ramona flowers.
strawberrygirl also exists as peachgirl's crush, someone who she knows, but is a bit too scared to approach.
(basically, the entire lesbian pining stereotype haha) i wanted peachgirl's kinda embarassing crush to be a running joke
(partially because srawberrygirl is appleboy's brother and i thought it would be funny.)
strawberrygirl doesn't just exist as a love interest or a sister, however. she's a singer and really smart.
iq-wise, she's the smartest character in the series.
home.