Presenting the 13 Original Colonies! (Plus 2 bonus states.:P)
Wow! I can't believe I finished! Here's the pet project I've been working on for several weeks now, in which I attempt to personify all 13 of the original US colonies...
But first, a few notes.
-I'm not the best artist you'll ever meet, but I'm trying every day to get better! I definitely like the way some of these turned out better than others. I know there are some mistakes and anatomy errors, but I hope you'll like it anyway.:)
-Don't take the human names too seriously. I have reasons for most of them (founders, other famous people, places, etc.) but they're not set in stone, obviously.
-Speaking of reasoning, I have reasons for pretty much everything. If it's there, it's probably symbolic of something.
-If I got some facts wrong, please tell me!
-I'm always open to more ideas! If you think I should add something, just tell me!
-I'm from Maryland. This may have influenced my perspective a bit. Also, I'll admit that my fashion sense is extremely preppy and I think that probably comes through a bit, lol.
-More extensive notes are below each state, and 2 bonus states are at the bottom of the page!
Starting with Miss Virginny...
Other notes: She smokes like a chimney (Alfred tries to get her to quit 'for the kids,' but she's like, "I've been doing this for 400 years, screw you.") She's always had a bit of a rivalry with Alfred, and in my headcanon, in fact, she is considerably older than him (as Alfred didn't actually come around until the idea of a unifed nation did.)
She once had nation-like imperial ambitions (with territorial claims as far west as Chicago).
When she was really little, she traveled to England to see King James. She got her portrait painted there. I think it must have looked something like this...
Those are tobacco leaves/flowers in her hand. And it was the very first time she ever wore a dress that fancy!
Here's another picture of her as a kid, being annoyed (as usual) by the younger colonies.
Other notes: His governor explicitly forbids him giving American history lectures in the state's universities because he always ends up giving himself away. But he sneaks into classrooms and does it anyway.
Every New Years' Eve, he swears he won't get drunk and make a fool of himself, but guess what always happens, every year on New Years' Day. It's become a running joke among the others.
My mom thinks he looks like Harry Potter.X( FML
I'll probably redo his profile later and make it into something I can like better.
Thank you, autumnestuary!
Other notes: R.I.P. Old Man of the Mountain.
Other notes: Poor New Jersey. He's always getting the short end of the stick. The attitude that most New Jerseyans I've met have toward their state seems to me to be "it may be a dirty, crowded hellhole, but it's OUR dirty, crowded hellhole, so back off."
He's a ridiculously overprotective older brother; woe to the person who hurts his sisters.
Thanks, New Jerseyan zarephathcs.:)
Other notes: She loves to sing, and thinks that she's better at it than she actually is. NYC's not the only city in New York, you know. She's also got Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, etc, etc, plus vast regions of natural beauty (no, that is not a euphemism, what are you talking about?)
Occasionally she hangs out with the Netherlands, a.k.a. her "Cool Dad" and they spend hours together smoking pot doing very family-friendly father-daughter activities.
She's always been extremely trendy and dresses "to the nines" nearly every day. You can tell she's feeling especially down in the dumps when she dresses in stuff like sweatpants and t-shirts and doesn't care enough to do her hair.
She absolutely loves her job, and even with all its ups and downs and misfortunes she wouldn't trade it for anything.
Design inspired by a friend of mine, who is something of a rich Chicago socialite, fashionista, and real-life femme fatale.
Other Notes: My dear home state, where we've all got crabs.:P (Well, actually I'm from western MD, and crabs are more of a Bay thing, but whatever.) I grew up in the DC suburbs and spent every weekend in the mountains in a teeny old town called Wolfsville. Two different worlds, I'm telling you. Two completely different worlds.
Her flag is the only one based on a European coat of arms. And no, it wasn't designed on crack. At least, I don't think so...
Other notes: Yes, his shirt says, "I'm not short, I'm fun-size." Poor Rhode Island. Pretty much everyone (at least where I live) only knows him because he's the smallest. Most of this information comes from autumnestuary. :D Thanks for teaching me about RI!
Other notes: I've only been to CT once...and I think it's obvious that I don't remember much.:P I'd love to add more to his profile!
Other notes: Oh, Delaware, ily. When I was in high school, my hilarious APUSH teacher would never let anyone mention Delaware without being like, "Delaware? What's a Delaware?" :P
But yeah, Delaware's got really low taxes, but ridiculously high tolls.
Other notes: What did happen to Virginia Dare? Hmm, I wonder...
Picture her a bit like Melanie from Gone With the Wind.
Other Notes: North Carolina and South Carolina are fraternal twins; Carolina was a single colony until 1712, when North and South became separated. (South Carolina could give New Jersey a run for his money in the "overprotective brother" category when it comes to North Carolina.) Like many twins, they have tons of things in common, but they're different enough to be easily identified as individuals (although people do just tend to call them "the Carolinas").
Other notes: Pennsylvania used to be that chubby, nerdy kid who just couldn't keep up with the others physically (mentally, however...a different story). Something like...
A couple centuries of mining and factory-working does wonders to a physique, however.
He can speak German fluently, although most of the time Germany hasn't got a clue what he's saying.
Other notes: Savannah is probably the most gorgeous city I've ever been to, and I swear I'm not exaggerating.
Aaaand the bonuses:
Florida, of course! She's the oldest of them all, and everyone loves her just the way she is, even if she is a little odd. When the 13 colonies were doing their thing in 1776, she was just down there, chilling with the British.
Both my parents are from Florida; I don't feel bad about this at all.:P
Arizona was actually the very first one I colored.:P It's weird. I have absolutely no connection to AZ at all; I've never even been there. So first I drew this as a sort of "screw you" to the AZ state legislators who passed the immigration law. But I don't want to get too political now...(lol it's too late for that, isn't it?)
Thanks for looking!
But first, a few notes.
-I'm not the best artist you'll ever meet, but I'm trying every day to get better! I definitely like the way some of these turned out better than others. I know there are some mistakes and anatomy errors, but I hope you'll like it anyway.:)
-Don't take the human names too seriously. I have reasons for most of them (founders, other famous people, places, etc.) but they're not set in stone, obviously.
-Speaking of reasoning, I have reasons for pretty much everything. If it's there, it's probably symbolic of something.
-If I got some facts wrong, please tell me!
-I'm always open to more ideas! If you think I should add something, just tell me!
-I'm from Maryland. This may have influenced my perspective a bit. Also, I'll admit that my fashion sense is extremely preppy and I think that probably comes through a bit, lol.
-More extensive notes are below each state, and 2 bonus states are at the bottom of the page!
Starting with Miss Virginny...
Other notes: She smokes like a chimney (Alfred tries to get her to quit 'for the kids,' but she's like, "I've been doing this for 400 years, screw you.") She's always had a bit of a rivalry with Alfred, and in my headcanon, in fact, she is considerably older than him (as Alfred didn't actually come around until the idea of a unifed nation did.)
She once had nation-like imperial ambitions (with territorial claims as far west as Chicago).
When she was really little, she traveled to England to see King James. She got her portrait painted there. I think it must have looked something like this...
Those are tobacco leaves/flowers in her hand. And it was the very first time she ever wore a dress that fancy!
Here's another picture of her as a kid, being annoyed (as usual) by the younger colonies.
Other notes: His governor explicitly forbids him giving American history lectures in the state's universities because he always ends up giving himself away. But he sneaks into classrooms and does it anyway.
Every New Years' Eve, he swears he won't get drunk and make a fool of himself, but guess what always happens, every year on New Years' Day. It's become a running joke among the others.
My mom thinks he looks like Harry Potter.X( FML
I'll probably redo his profile later and make it into something I can like better.
Thank you, autumnestuary!
Other notes: R.I.P. Old Man of the Mountain.
Other notes: Poor New Jersey. He's always getting the short end of the stick. The attitude that most New Jerseyans I've met have toward their state seems to me to be "it may be a dirty, crowded hellhole, but it's OUR dirty, crowded hellhole, so back off."
He's a ridiculously overprotective older brother; woe to the person who hurts his sisters.
Thanks, New Jerseyan zarephathcs.:)
Other notes: She loves to sing, and thinks that she's better at it than she actually is. NYC's not the only city in New York, you know. She's also got Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, etc, etc, plus vast regions of natural beauty (no, that is not a euphemism, what are you talking about?)
Occasionally she hangs out with the Netherlands, a.k.a. her "Cool Dad" and they spend hours together smoking pot doing very family-friendly father-daughter activities.
She's always been extremely trendy and dresses "to the nines" nearly every day. You can tell she's feeling especially down in the dumps when she dresses in stuff like sweatpants and t-shirts and doesn't care enough to do her hair.
She absolutely loves her job, and even with all its ups and downs and misfortunes she wouldn't trade it for anything.
Design inspired by a friend of mine, who is something of a rich Chicago socialite, fashionista, and real-life femme fatale.
Other Notes: My dear home state, where we've all got crabs.:P (Well, actually I'm from western MD, and crabs are more of a Bay thing, but whatever.) I grew up in the DC suburbs and spent every weekend in the mountains in a teeny old town called Wolfsville. Two different worlds, I'm telling you. Two completely different worlds.
Her flag is the only one based on a European coat of arms. And no, it wasn't designed on crack. At least, I don't think so...
Other notes: Yes, his shirt says, "I'm not short, I'm fun-size." Poor Rhode Island. Pretty much everyone (at least where I live) only knows him because he's the smallest. Most of this information comes from autumnestuary. :D Thanks for teaching me about RI!
Other notes: I've only been to CT once...and I think it's obvious that I don't remember much.:P I'd love to add more to his profile!
Other notes: Oh, Delaware, ily. When I was in high school, my hilarious APUSH teacher would never let anyone mention Delaware without being like, "Delaware? What's a Delaware?" :P
But yeah, Delaware's got really low taxes, but ridiculously high tolls.
Other notes: What did happen to Virginia Dare? Hmm, I wonder...
Picture her a bit like Melanie from Gone With the Wind.
Other Notes: North Carolina and South Carolina are fraternal twins; Carolina was a single colony until 1712, when North and South became separated. (South Carolina could give New Jersey a run for his money in the "overprotective brother" category when it comes to North Carolina.) Like many twins, they have tons of things in common, but they're different enough to be easily identified as individuals (although people do just tend to call them "the Carolinas").
Other notes: Pennsylvania used to be that chubby, nerdy kid who just couldn't keep up with the others physically (mentally, however...a different story). Something like...
A couple centuries of mining and factory-working does wonders to a physique, however.
He can speak German fluently, although most of the time Germany hasn't got a clue what he's saying.
Other notes: Savannah is probably the most gorgeous city I've ever been to, and I swear I'm not exaggerating.
Aaaand the bonuses:
Florida, of course! She's the oldest of them all, and everyone loves her just the way she is, even if she is a little odd. When the 13 colonies were doing their thing in 1776, she was just down there, chilling with the British.
Both my parents are from Florida; I don't feel bad about this at all.:P
Arizona was actually the very first one I colored.:P It's weird. I have absolutely no connection to AZ at all; I've never even been there. So first I drew this as a sort of "screw you" to the AZ state legislators who passed the immigration law. But I don't want to get too political now...(lol it's too late for that, isn't it?)
Thanks for looking!