Simplified Summer Series (Last One)–Meet the inspiration.

I can’t believe summer is basically over. Even though it’s not “officially” over for a few more weeks, the beginning of September really marks the end for me. School has begun, and even if the air isn’t much cooler, it just feels different. Therefore, as the last post before September, this will be the last of my Simplified Summer Series, at least for this year. It worked well enough I may do it again.

While most of my characters aren’t exactly like any one I know in this world, there is one main character who’s mannerisms I borrowed from someone, or rather, somebird. Therefore, I want you to meet the inspiration behind Gwen.

Meet Dagio, the quaker parrot. His full name is Adagio, but since he is anything but calm and slow, we shortened it to Dagio. Although there are some distinct differences–Dagio is a small parrot, Gwen is a giant bird of prey; Dagio is (I’m fairly sure) a male, Gwen is a female; Dagio is green, Gwen is brown and tan with red and white markings around her eyes–I relied fairly heavily on my experiences with Dagio to create Gwen.

For one thing, they can both hold a grudge. It takes a little while for Dagio to forgive me if I leave him with someone else for a while. Like Gwen, he gets very attached to his person (me) and is very selective about who else he will let approach. He also gets very jealous of my attention. He thinks he is very fierce and had no problem chasing my then teenage brother and sister around the house. Though he can’t physically Cary me away like Gwen could with Ashlynn, he will sometimes get on my finger if I put it in his cage to pet him and refuse to get off so my finger is stuck.

I also borrowed Dagio’s preening for the way Gwen preens Ashlynn. (In fact, in all the pictures he is busy preening my hand.) He loves to nibble at my hair the way he would preen another bird’s feathers. You can see him trying to nibble my ring off in the above picture. It’s this reason I figured Ashlynn’s hair elastics would be in danger from Gwen. They also have some of the same places they like to be petted.

Though Gwen is definitely her own character, I couldn’t have written her nearly as well without the help of Dagio. Though small, this parrot is packed with personality–a perfect inspiration for a giant bird.

Do you know any animals you could base a character off?