What is Trashpanda.to?
When I was working in a street level shop we got a large number of walk-in tattoos for popular cartoons —mostly anime. To me that’s almost like getting a sports team or band logo. I’m not a huge fan of fan tattoos so I decided to create my own character for flash. I new I wanted it to be a raccoon because I feel like the raccoon is the Toronto mascot.
So than I instantly thought of that super cute asian raccoon character…what was it called…PUSHEEN!!!
…opps, Pusheen is a cat. A cat that looks like a raccoon.
Also, I learned that Pusheen isn’t asian, it’s created by a New York based artist. And then I started to think… “omg I there is an endless source of inspiration here!” It only takes me 30 minutes to draw Racheen, which I thought would subtract from the stress of having to come up with a story for my instagram everyday.
I really enjoyed drawing Racheen which, somehow is still not as cute as Pusheen even though it started out as an almost direct rip-off. Before I knew it I had variations of Racheen, and then I started to make a few small web comics as well, and figured out how to animalité oUnlike the Pusheen comics, they aren’t based off of cat behaviour but the behaviour of Torontonians, and Toronto hotspots.
I never ended up using Racheen for flash, as I have a direction I want to take my tattooing. I still use Racheen for extra content and infographics so I created @trashpanda.to on instagram. There’s not much there right now but eventually I want Racheen to be an instagram tour guide —where every cartoon is tagged at a different Toronto location.
