Silly
Silly is the official mascot and manager of RayTayArt. While initially created in 2020 as a graphic design for a different oc, Silly became fully developed and evolved during the creation of this website in June of 2022.
Getting to know Silly
Silly is a nonverbal, plushie/ragdoll unicorn. Taking form similar to a sock puppet, Silly is full of stuffing and beanbag beans. Silly also has a squeaker inside of his stomach. Silly communicates through writing and often times drawings. His main source of communication, however, is squeaking or even growling like a puppy.
“Silly can’t speak, so I’ll be helping him type his bio.” -RayTayArt
“Squeak!” -Silly
As of his original creation and appearance, Silly is currently five years old. Silly can’t physcially speak, but he is able to write and type with assistance as needed. He loves to color with crayons and play with toys. Silly’s big and bright imagination allows for him to be playful and entertaining. He also has a great sense of humor. His personality reflects the mindset and behavior of both an average five year old child and a newborn puppy.
Inspiration and Headcanons
Silly’s original design came from an entirely different oc of mine! Back in 2020, I discovered the animated t.v. series, Invader Zim. I absolutely adored the show! This in turn led me to create one of the many versions of my oc, Red. Red in the Zim universe wore a long sleeve shirt with red sleeves and white center where the design could be seen.
Even back in 2020, Silly wasn’t known as “Silly.” The unicorn shirt design was intended to be merchandise for a children’s show that would exist in the Zim universe. The inspiration for this came from the canon pizza restaurant and Mascot in Invader Zim; Bloaty’s Pizza Hog.
Silly, formally known as a female unicorn named “Peanut Butter,” was the mascot and star of my fanon kid’s show in the Zim universe. Pretty soon, Peanut Butter was made into a full Invader Zim oc, based off of the iconic robot in a dog suit, Gir. Peanut Butter’s mascot role is also how Silly came to be the icon of RayTayArt!
Peanut Butter’s fanon t.v. show
The fanon children’s show never had an official name. The only details that ever came to be was that Peanut Butter was the main character. Her in show appearance took on a talking sock puppet unicorn. This was how Silly’s current ragdoll design came to be. The show was supposed to be intended for younger audiences, close to preschool age. Despite the trageted age range, Red never grew out of her admiration for the show, which is why she still wears the Peanut Butter shirt.
Sounds Silly, right?
During the initial process of creating RayTayArt as a brand and website back in 2022, I hit a major roadblock when trying to create a logo that would truly defy who and what RayTayArt is. This roadblock was a set rule I made for myself, “Leave the unicorns in the past.”
From elementary school all the way to adulthood, there was one thing I always loved, and that was cartoon horses! I never had an horses growing up, nor did I desire to partake in any realistic equestrian hobbies. One thing was for sure though, I adored the ones in the cartoons. My Little Pony, specifically, was a huge staple of my interests growing up. By middle school, I was drawing nothing but ponies! This followed into high school and college, leaving me with a colorful and cartoonish reputation for drawing ponies.
Although this seemed good in the surface, I noticed that ponies, specifically unicorns, were a huge hot topic in the overall pop culture market. I became worried that if I tried to capitilize on something so big and popular, I’d be completely lost and buried within the vast majority. Hence my “no unicorns” rule. With this rule in place, I unintentionally ran myself into my biggest obstacle; “Who would RayTayArt be?”
While in my illustrative marketing class one day, I sat and thought about what I could do to get passed my problem. I considered multiple types of aesthetics and ocs that could possibly become the first official face of RayTayArt. Yet, I kept coming up short. I had practically built an entire empire revolving around drawing ponies. How could I abandon that and start again?
And the winner is… Silly!
Well, I didn’t! After trying to rebrand my childhood reputation, I just couldn’t quite seem to figure out how to do it. So, in the end, I didn’t! I looked over Peanut Butter, the oc I had made all the way back in 2020. After careful consideration, I asked myself if there was a way to simplify Peanut Butter’s design in order to make her easier to read from a quick glance. That’s when I realized I didn’t have to! The shirt design with Peanut Butter’s sock puppet head would become the ideal candidate for this redesign. One complete body sketch later, and Silly the unicorn was officially created!
