It varies. Usually it goes in the order of; I get inspiration from a song/scene in an animation or game/random niche idea, I think on what species would best fit the idea I've now formed, I think on how they would go about fitting into their idea, I think the name, character then design that fits into all of it.

Ooo this is a good one. I will admit, lately I’ve been having trouble coming up with ideas from scratch. But I always think of a personality type that I wanna add or something I feel is needed to flesh out a part of my story. I think of what they would like, who they would be. And from there I brainstorm ideas for species.

It usually starts as a role I need filled. The best friend, the rival, enemy. From there I go for a species, which usually I try to fit within those roles (for example, if a villain I’ll go for either a predator animal such as a fox or hawk) and then i usually try to go from there. If they’re meant to be in drawings with another character i try to color match or do the opposites so they look good. When creating a roommate for Lunaria, she was originally gonna be a possum due to being a rodent like Lunaria, but when Berry was put up for adoption, and i saw how compatible their color palettes were I couldn’t resist. :)

Honestly, it's pretty slap-dash. Usually, I just get the idea of "hey what if I have this type of character," and then I just go from there.

Developing them from there is a gradual thing, pretty much. And I roll with whatever I come up with.