Ximaku

<sup>A few weeks ago I decided to go on a nostalgia trip and surf through the remainders of some Neopets petpages made over 6-8 years ago when I still played.
It was such a thriving, active, fun community of artists who shared their pet designs and drawings via the petpage feature on Neopets, and needless to say it's where I began my love of drawing on the computer and designing characters.

I found a few images of old pets that I remember drawing and admiring, but most of it has now disintegrated into the void of the internet.
My Neopets account was, sadly, erased one month ago, and so I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my favorite pets belonging to some of those community members at the time and try drawing them.

Of course, without a moment's doubt, the first one I had to draw was this lady here, Ximaku, the Faerie Ixi owned by Radeeku/Sooki, who is still active on DA here: ~etuix
Without going into a cheesy rant, I just have to say that Ximaku's beautiful petpage layout and character design greatly inspired me in my art, initially on Neopets and then carried on with my original art.
Maggie (as I knew here then, Sooki) was, and still is, such a kind-hearted, wonderful creative person and was very kind to little 10-12 year old me.
I remember that after putting much effort into a unique design for my Ixi, Xaiiro, and pushing her into semi-popular status across the petpage community, I was shocked and amazed when Sooki made Xaiiro a custom Ixi adoptable, using Ximaku's adoptable base.
Let me tell you, that was like a celebrity autograph and handshake for me, and I still remember how proud I was to receive it!</sup>

All gushing aside, I had to draw Ximaku, in part because there are incredibly few images of her still existing on the internet today, mostly in the form of adoptables made by other artists.
And so this, folks, is my little tribute to Ximaku, and to Maggie, who inspired me artistically more than she will ever know.
I hope you know how much you meant to a little Canadian girl, simply by doing what you do best: drawing!

Art (c)
Ximaku (c)
Ixi (c) Neopets.com