sinking shirls

2011 - 2015/2017

Oliver’s first concept was him as a Supa Strikas player, not a player for his own team. This was when I first found out about the series, and it was my immediate thought at the time.

However, the idea changed around 2015, as I felt a lot of fans, in the community that I was in, were making a lot of ocs for the Supa Strikas team. So this is when I decided to make a new team for the Super League, and have Oliver be the captain for it. I also changed his position from striker to midfielder at that time.

I had also wanted to give him tattoos as well but as you can see at the time, graphic design is not my passion WHEEZE. Still, he had a love for snakes then but I actually changed it to him hating them when I drew him again in 2020. Just cause I knew he needed to have some sort of fear and dislike.

May 2020 - Sep 2020 - July 2021 - July 2021

Now around this time, during the pandemic, this was when I had a chance to flesh out my characters and the Silver Lions team. Especially as this was around the time that we got Season 7.

At the time, Oliver had a much different personality. He was more outgoing, charming, witty and sociable. He still did have his burn scars back then, but my reason for why it’s not shown in the colored photos is because when the Lions first rejoined the Super League, Oliver covered up his scars with makeup and arm sleeves made by his dad. He was self-conscious about his injuries, and being the sole captain for his team made his anxiety much higher around that time.

But honestly, the reason back then was because I was inexperienced in drawing such burn scars, I basically made up an excuse until I could learn how to draw them. My own fear of getting the burns done right held me back, so it’s been a process of learning them while juggling work during a pandemic.

This was also the time that I was debating who Oliver should be romantically involved with. Back in 2010, he was dating a Canadian Gymnast named Snow, and then in 2015/2017, a photographer by the name of Mason. They’re both his exes now in his current iteration, but around the time of the pandemic was when I decided to have him and Trent be romantically involved, as in 2015/2017, I had a few drabbles where I wrote interactions between them and it felt natural for the two of them to be together. Now they weren’t captains together at this time, but Trent would have been a co-captain alongside Gerald, as Gerald was sort of mentoring Oliver on being a captain alongside his dad.

Sep 2022 - Nov 2022

Now during this time, I don't think much had changed for Oliver except for a part of his design and his personality.

I started adding a beanie to his design because I thought he would look cool/cute with it. It took a bit of time actually getting used to drawing it, and I was flip-flopping on how to put the damn thing on his head. In the end, I decided he would wear when he would want to wear it.

And then for his personality, it slowly shifted from being loud and being open to being more closed off, but in a more awkward way. I had started making Oliver more quiet and more thoughtful, always choosing to observe first before he acted. I think I chose this change while I was trying to flesh out his backstory more, especially with the fire. After the fire, he barely had anybody to really talk to aside from his family and Gerald and Fritz. He had isolated from his friends even before the fire, so when he needed someone to talk to, going to said friends was awkward enough for him. But he would eventually overcome that fear and make a call out to Nathaniel and Fergus, on separate occasions. Those stories I will write out another day.

Jan 2023 - Jan 2023 - Mar 2023 - Nov 2023

Now for a quick fandom jump, I went from Supa Strikas to The Henry Stickmin fandom as I believe December 2022 was when Rookie Season released and uh, oh-boy that caused some controversy, so I ended up taking a break. I did still watch Rookie Season an engaged with some others on the episodes, but I put my main focus on THSC.

And honestly, this was kind of a boon for me because being in the THSC fandom helped me developed Oliver and Trent some more, including the fact that I also put Trent through a similar fire incident like Oliver. The reason for this was because I had Oliver and Trent join The Toppat Clan, a clan filled with criminals and basically anybody wanted by The Government. A lot of fans like the Toppats, including its chief, Reginald, and his right-hand man, uh...Right Hand Man. So both Oliver and Trent ended up joining the Toppat clan as an enforcer duo, sometimes being bodyguards when needed, with magic powers called Music Magic. Their nicknames were Accordion and Violin.

Now of course Henry Stickmin is filled with stick figure guys running around, and the main man himself making poor choices in order to get rich (albeit funny ones), but a lot of us did draw the stick characters and our own stick ocs as mostly humans, well human-ish in a way. Although it's more work, I enjoyed drawing them as human-ish characters since I got to design new outfits for them. It helped give me an idea of their colour palettes and what not, but it also helped me developed more of their personalities.

In the case of Oliver, while his main colour was red, he was more quiet and looked stoic but he was kind and caring to his fellow Toppats. And with Trent's colour being mainly blue, he was the one who spoke for both himself and Oliver, unless Trent ran out of energy from either using too much of his magic or just doing too much. Then Oliver would take on the speaking role for both of them. Oliver wasn't that expressive around all of the Toppats, but mainly to those he was very close to and his husband. This was also the year I decided to give them kids, twins to be exact! Aurelia and Florence are Oliver and Trent's kids, with Trent being the one to give birth to his kids.

As you can see, this was definitely the year that I did a lot of colored digital art, but I think that definitely burnt me out in a way as you'll see for the next few photos. And I did try to give Oliver his beanie back, and it went great since he was in a clan that needed you to wear a top hat. He just shoved his beanie on top of one and called it a day.

Oct 2024 - Nov 2024

I don't have much to say for this year, but only that I stuck to sketching in my sketchbook rather than set up my tablet for digital drawing. It is both a pain and a hassle to do so, but I am trying again to get back into it.

This was the year that I did solidify a few more things for Oliver. Mainly that he would be Moon-Coded and Trent would be Sun-Coded. It started with me drawing his scar a bit like a crescent moon, then that gave me the idea to give Trent tiny scars that look like the Sun's rays. This also meant that in the future, Oliver's main colour would change to blue and Trent's would change to red. I'm keeping it like that for the Supa Strikas fandom, but I'll keep their old palettes as is for the THSC fandom. I did also get better with drawing their top hats thanks to a friend's sketches of them too.

Feb 2025 - Nov 2025 - March 2026 - July 2026

And now we come to the most recent years of me being back in the Supa Strikas fandom, and making it so that both Oliver and Trent would be captains for The Silver Lions. I like the idea of them being captains together, to make them not only stand out from the other teams in the Super League, but to also maybe show them working together as a team within their own team. I don't know if that makes sense but I do want to work on that more.

In regards to style, I did also try to move towards a more simple but maybe cartoony look. I could do it, but I think I'm so used to drawing them as I usually do, so the cartoon look will happen sometimes.

But this is also the time that I got a bit more confident in actually drawing burn scars. I am practising it more in the background and I hope one day to show you all his reference with those burn scars done properly. I want to do him and Trent justice, I just don't want to wing it anymore.

If you got this far and actually read through the whole thing, thank you so much. I know it's a lot and my brain is still kind of foggy after my nap, but if you have any questions about him, I would love to answer them.