



Shiba
[Shee-bah]
At first, I tried out the name 'Spirit' for this guy, but it seemed a bit too cliche for such a beautiful design. While reading a newspaper article afterwards out of boredom, I saw an ad for some Shiba Inu puppies and wondered what the word actually meant. When I googled it, 'Shiba' came up as brushwood and I was reminded of this guy. Because of his colors and the Asian origin, I thought it would be a perfect name for this beauty. He is now Shiba in my mind. <3 I believe that it really fits his character, and the sound of the word is nice- simple but beautiful.

Male
I promised myself that I HAD to go for a female for my next Jellybean dragon, but... there's always that last slot, and this guy is just too amazing. He's one of those dragons that you look at and -BAM!- a character starts unfolding in your mind. I just... he's so much luff. <3 I'd be happy; honored, even, to use up one of my two remaining slots for this guy.

Shiba's birthday is September 3, 1990, making him 22 years old.
His star sign is Virgo, and his Chinese zodiac is the horse.
He is about the size of an average pony, but is a bit thinner and has longer legs than the average of his species. However, his long fur makes this almost impossible to see unless you're actually looking for it.
He is also quite light for his size, although strong.

Vegetable Egg Rolls
Vegetable egg rolls seemed somehow to fit Shiba a lot. It continues along with the Oriental theme, and of course, I love the taste so he should too. ^^ Seeing as he's a JBD, he should be a vegetarian, but even if they were omnivores I think he'd be a vegetarian- he just seems like he would be.
In case somehow you're unfamiliar with egg rolls, they look like
this.
He usually snacks on them throughout his day in the library, and sometimes even takes them with him on his little ventures. He doesn't actually know that they have eggs in them, and definitely wouldn't eat them if he knew. Since he's a bit obsessed with them, the villagers have a bit of an unsaid rule not to tell him. x3

Shiba is a very happy guy who can always keep his cool. He's very modest, and doesn't talk unless he needs to. However, he loves to be around people and revels in helping others. He doesn't like to have many possessions on him at one time, except for the needed lantern to see in the dark, and his precious scarf because he likes it. While he does enjoy being with other people, he needs to balance it with being alone and enjoys nothing more than a walk along the rooftops in the middle of the night. He loves heights, and climbing, jumping, and... well, basically anything ninja-y. Jinx can get annoyed by this, because Shiba is very naturally talented at what Jinx considers his 'official job', which he has spent his whole life on. Whereas, Shiba physically surpasses Jinx without even trying, and he's not proud of it; in fact, he's obsessively self-conscious over it.
Shiba loves night more than any time of day. He can be himself without anyone judging him (he absolutely HATES when people compliment him on his physical skills, and loses virtually all self-confidence when people compliment him, for some reason). Also, at night the lanterns create a beautiful scene, in addition to the stars. He'll often go out and run along the rooftops for hours.

Shiba was born incredibly strong, agile, and flexible. He's able to easily do most physical feats, whether it be running, jumping, or navigating over incredible heights. However, he is incredibly self-conscious of this, as none of his family has ever had this talent, and he is expected to follow his family's tradition and become more of a scholarly figure. Somehow, he got so worked up about this that he considers his talent a 'dark secret', and is a bit overdramatic and protective over it.

Shiba lives in a large but completely isolated village near China. Completely oblivious to the outside world, the village was created from a mixture of Oriental cultures and countries, so it has a variety of Asian cultures all blended together in a traditional village. Another thing that is unique about the village is that Jellybean Dragons and humans are treated one and the same there, as equals, and can fluently talk to each other in a unique mixed language, made up of mostly Japanese. Jellybean dragons are referred to as Ryuu in the village (the Japanese word for dragon) and the people Otoko (the Japanese word for man). The village is named Chouwana, a variation of the word for harmony.

Shiba spends the day following family tradition, working as a history scholar in the library, constantly reading, writing down, and otherwise using the tidbits of the history from the scrolls on stock. However, he has pretty major dyslexia and is absolutely terrible at this, despite his good-hearted efforts. He is often considered by some of the meaner scholars as a hopeless case, and is only really kept around because of his parent's talents in the hope that he will someday grow into them.
In the early evening, he leaves to either go explore the village and meet with his friends, or sleep. Since he spends most of his night outside, the latter is almost always what he chooses to do (most of his friends he makes in the library). When the stars finally come out and most are in bed, he'll clamber up to the rooftops, or one of the nearby trails, and wear himself out. He'll sometimes just go for strolls along the rooftops, although he'll also go for runs, climbs along the mountainsides, or on nights when he isn't feeling up to stuff, he'll simply sit outside and look at the beautiful glow from the lanterns and the stars. He loves the glow so much, he wears one on his tail.

Shiba's accessories are simple- a scarf and a lantern. The lantern is a tradition in the village. When a citizen reaches adulthood, they are given a small lantern to keep as a symbol of becoming a full citizen. Shiba got more into this than most, and instead of hanging it up in his house like his family and friends, he bought a small chain and wears it around his tail to brighten up the dark, musty library and to light his path at night.
Shiba also wears a scarf, made of a very light fabric especially for him. He's always worn
a scarf, due to a bit of an ugly scar from a fall when he was younger. As a child, he wore an ugly, scratchy white scarf that he never liked and only wore out of habit and due to the scar. At the ceremony when he received the lantern, he also received a matching scarf that was light, comfortable and beautiful. He absolutely loves both of his accessories and rarely takes them off.

Oh gosh... this guy is just so beautiful. <3 True, I will admit I often see amazing JBDs around, but the whole theme and the color scheme of this guy is just... I have no words. It's rare that a character idea pops out of my head almost instantly after looking at a design, but it happened with this guy. I could go writing on and on and on about this guy's lifestyle, personality, and, well, everything, but I don't want to scare you with an uber long form. x3 I'm really hoping for the best with Shiba, and can't wait to see the results.


I have a version of the above piece with a background, but I really didn't like the result so I'm just posting a transparent version for now. c:

A quicker traditional piece. I did it while waiting at a restaurant (and took a picture of it), so I couldn't get the markings on there.

A drawing of Shiba as his favorite food. The scarf was meant to be sauce, and the markings are a bit messy due to the fact that it's a vegetable roll. x3