Earlier this week, I saw this meme that’s stuck with me, because it seems so sad. It was the Jane Lynch Glee meme, with a caption like “POV people who don’t use burner accounts for memes” and altered the quote to say, “I’m going to create an online presence that’s so chaotic.” And like…what? I don’t know anyone who uses alt accounts in the first place, and on its face it seems like a huge waste of time and energy. Are more people than I think doing that? Making their “main” social media face an impossibly perfect and boring nonsense page and then using an alt account to be themselves? For who? Employers, or other people using alt accounts, who know it’s all a facade but would still be mad at you for breaking kayfabe? Do you see your normal human emotions and interests as dangerous, abnormal chaos that you have to hide from the world? It’s so sad to think anyone is living their lives that way. Screw personal branding and the grindset, screw weird morality tests, screw fitting in.
That was a lot. Anyway, this week, I mostly spent my time figuring out how to draw that sitting pose I started on at the end of last week. I took a break for a headshot one day, and did some problem solving on an upturned head model. Today, I’ll be finishing up the dancing WIP I started yesterday. I like to post WIPs and examples of mistakes I’ve made. I want to show how learning and growing looks. There’s so much focus on the magic and inspiration of art, and that’s like 20% of it. Most of your time is on problem solving and craft; even the format of “watch me draw/paint” videos use montage effects to make it seem more magic than work when showing the work. As someone who grew up not understanding the myths we wrap our lives in, I much prefer the reality of the work and what it achieves.
I’m also thinking about the story for these characters in a different way now. The cast they came from is much bigger than this, and I haven’t been focusing on them all because I don’t have as much to do with a lot of them. At the time, I had an idea of the kinds of characters that would be there, and I kept pumping them out with no specific plan or idea of what the story would be. I’ve since learned that doesn’t work for me. I need an assignment. I have something with Frankie, FC, Renee, and Brooke, and I’ve put off the temptation of pulling in more than them. In doing so, I’ve also started to flip their relationships as I’ve been thinking of them on their heads, and that will reshape the story I’m planning for them. It’s a good time. I’ll probably start on that story in some earnest form soon, because I’ve gone too long without a project. I’m getting itchy.
Life in the Gutters 