About the Twelve...

How they came into existence?
I wanted a group of human characters for a scenario I was writing. I designed a group of girls first. And then I figured that I wanted to balance it out, so designed six boys afterwards. I remember, almost vividly, drawing these in my old house's living room one evening.

Zodiac associations?
The Twelve are each inspired by a sign of the zodiac (astrology). A long time ago, I had this children's address book where you'd write down the contact details of your "COOL FRIENDS". I didn't have friends during the time, so I'd use it to write down the details of my characters (AKA the Twelve). One of the details you'd write is your friend's zodiac sign. I had no idea what a zodiac sign was, so I looked into them. Then, one day, after school I thought to myself, "Hey... I have twelve characters... There are twelve signs... What if I gave them each a different sign?" The ways doing this changed their personalities from their first ones to their final ones... Man... I mean, I did have an astrology phase, but not necessarily because I was into the art, but more because I saw each sign as a "character", which I'd inflict onto my own characters. While I don't believe in it as much anymore, I still do find astrology (as an art & divination), and so I gave that interest to Barley.

FELIX

How his name came to be?
I'm pretty sure he was the last character in this group to be given a name. I was running out of ideas, so I asked one of my younger brothers. He came up with the name "Felix" and I just took it. No idea where he got the idea from, but props to him.

"Felix is always first!"
This comes from the fact that his Zodiac sign is Aries. That was huge during my little astrology phase, and it just stuck with me up until now.

His first iteration.
The difference between his first iteration and his current one is pretty surprising. He was actually quite mature and quiet. (THAT'S CRAZY!) Maybe that explains the association with being the eldest, wearing glasses, and the colour light green. Now, he subverts those descriptions COMPLETELY.

DUSTINE

She's the first I drew
In reality, she's the first character I actually drew/designed. Originally a one-off drawing of an emo kid, but I brought her in because I wanted to add in another girl when designing the first half of the Twelve.

GRACE

"Kill Grace Day"
This was an idea that one of my closest friends suggested to me back in high school. Because Grace is huge on pranks and jokes, she dominates April Fool's Day, and the following day (1st of May) is the day everyone has a chance to get her back.

Her association with hell & demons
I remember, back in the mid 2010s, there were these jokes on the astrology side of Tumblr about how Geminis were devil incarnates, or "Satan himself". I felt like that'd be fun to implement into Grace at the time, and it just stuck with me.

FRENCH

About her strange name...
Literally 'French' is a language and a demonym... However, there's an actual story as to how her name came to be. I was brought to this one church-related thing when I was really young, maybe 8-9 years old. It was mainly some kind of seminar for the adults, so the kids that came along just hung around. I sat on the floor at the back alone, and there were these two girls my age who were talking amongst themselves, writing in a diary & some sticky notes. I'm guessing because we were all on the same boat, they decided to approach me, and they wanted to talk to me.
We knew we had to be quiet, so they decided that we spoke to each other by passing around her sticky notes. We started to introduce ourselves... One of them sent me a note which said something along the lines of, "I'm French". I responded, "Like from France?" And then she, "No, that's my name." And that was when I found out that 'French' was a name. Probably not a common name, but still, it existed.
Years later, one day, I decided to come up with designs for some new characters, I remembered that one moment in my life where I met a girl named French, and then, my character, French, came into existence. Thank you random girl named French, I'll never forget you, haha.

A mysterious bag of scissors?
A one of my closest friends just came up with that idea in the middle of one class we shared together in Year 9, probably. No reason, in particular.

How much she meant to one of my friends
One of my friends had a small crush on her in high school, haha. (Evidence will come)

LEON

His first iteration
His first iteration was a bit of a bully. Suppose his arrogance and brutality were the main things that stuck.

His influence
It was because of this guy that I decided to associate him and his friends with a zodiac sign. Of course, I started by making him a Leo

The Cat
One of the inspirations for how I depict him now is the Cat from Red Dwarf.

His nickname, "Ugleon"
This came from one time my youngest brother made an original Eveelution named 'Bugleon' when he was a little kid. My middle brother, who would pick on him every now and then, gave his OC the nickname "Ugleon" and I found it so hilarious that I had to give it to Leon, too.

His nickname, "Leon Limbo Lumbo Dimbo Dumbo"
This came from my middle brother picking on my youngest brother again. My youngest brother's name is James, which continues to "Jimbo Jumbo Bimbo Bumbo Himbo Humbo", and I also found so hilarious that I had to give that to Leon, as well.

MELANIE

Her first iteration
She was a total sweetheart.To the point where she'd never refer to anyone she spoke to with sweet foods or just sweet things in general (i.e. sweetie, cupcake, dumb cute stuff like that)

MARINA

The first!
The first character I designed specifically for this group was Marina!I have no idea how she became the first, but that's a fun fact.

Her hair
Her hair was inspired by the tail of Zoza/Zaza from Spectrobes. You can especially see this in my earliest drawings of her.

Her first iteration
There is actually very little difference between her first iteration and her current one. Interestingly, in her second iteration (2015-2016), she was extremely passive, even though, that seems totally out-of-character for her now

ERIC

His first iteration...
The difference between his first iteration and his current one will BLOW YOUR MIND. He was described as happy-go-lucky. He was the group's optimist, and was VERY extroverted. That's hilarious!

How much he meant to one of my closest friends
Fun fact! This guy made it to being one of my closest friend's childhood fictional crushes back in highschool, hahaha! Thinking about it in retrospect, that's an achievement. Congratulations, Eric!

BEN 2.0

His first iteration
His personality was more akin to Ben (1)'s current iteration. 2.0 was serious, always grouchy and drank a ton of coffee.

BARLEY

His name?
I took from that one farm cat from Warriors, haha. He was my favourite side-character. (Fun fact: I never made it past book 3 when my cousin's friend lent me a LOAD of books from the series. Suppose I felt overwhelmed, but I let one of my closest friends the series little by little during our time in Yr 8, haha)

BEN & BEN 2.0

Two characters with the same name
At one point in my life (during my final couple primary school years) I took drama/theatre classes on Wednesday afternoons. New students would come in every now and then, and one of the new guys that came in was named Oscar. One of the already existing students also was named Oscar, and immediately the two formed a friendly sort of rivalry. The newer guy was recognised in the class as "Oscar 2.0" and was always joking around about it with the other Oscar. They were always making jabs at each other, which I found hilarious. And so, that inspired me to find a name common enough for two characters to share, haha.

ERIC & LEON

Dust Storm!
One of my closest friends watched a bunch of Improvaganza & Whose Line Is It Anyway back in high school. They saw the clip of 'Dust Storm' and told me it reminded them of Leon & Eric. I actually made a sort of animation/animatic of it.

"Leon x Eric"
One of my closest friends shipped these two like CRAZY back when we were in high school. She'd always tease me about it, especially since I favoured rivalries over romance. Little did I know that their rivaly was the exact reason she like them together, haha. Sometimes we joke now about how Leon & Eric were the "framework" or "blueprints" for a pair she liked later in high school (which was Keith & Lance from Voltron: Legendary Defender).

ERIC & MARINA

"Eric x Marina"
In their earliest iterations, Eric and Marina were supposed to have some kind of "romantic subplot". Originally, Eric had a mad crush on Marina, which I thought was cute. I don't really do romance anymore with these guys. I guess, it's because if shipping were ever to happen, I'd prefer a "free-for-all" without any bias from canon.

JAQUI & MELANIE

Red Dwarf
One of the inspirations for their dynamic is Lister & Rimmer from Red Dwarf. Jaqui as Lister and Melanie as Rimmer, of course.