Characters of the pond

When reading blogs and articles, I always loved the little characters they'd add to their writting. I found it adorable and endearing, and really made the text more relaxing to read. So I decided to incorporate that element into my own writing. My main inspirations were xeiaso.net and fasterthanli.me.

The characters here are supposed to be caricatures of what audience members might be. They should represent the stereotypes of what other people in the tech world might think, such as the curious and unknowledgeable student, the knowledgeable but arrogant know-it-all, and the wise but stagnated old-timer.

Their art was made by me in Gimp. I'm a horrible graphic designer, so I traced them over pictures of their real life counterparts. Their project files can be found in the blog's git repository. All animals go by they/them, as animals have no gender

Cala, the Curious Capybara

Cala is supposed to represent the reader that is learning something new. They know just enough to follow allong, but not enough so the article is useless for them. Their personality is pretty generic, mostly just interested in learning more and understanding the article. Their art was traced over this image

Nelly, the Nerdy Newt

Nelly already know a lot about everything. They spend their time reading and studying about every single detail of every single system. This means Nelly will usually recognize problems before the article even points them out, and will suggest tools outside of the scope of the current narrative. Their art was traced over this image