🦂 ITCH 🦂 i get asked a lot about how i come up with the characters i draw/whether i use references... i think it’s safe to say everyone can, by this point, tell i use myself as reference. to begin with it was just efficient and useful- take a picture of myself doing the thing i envision my character doing so i can get the anatomy/poses/clothing folds down. but over the last few months i’ve noticed that this practice has evolved into something more. it’s still the most efficient way to acquire a reference, yes, but now there’s also joy in it. the more i draw characters based off of my own body, the more comfortable i become with how i look. as a non-binary trans person i personally still experience dysphoria with regard to my body, but drawing my body type over and over again makes me see it outside of the cis-het male gaze, and that’s where the comfort for me lies. i have learnt to be much more at home in my softness, my roundness, my stretch marks, my big nose, my body hair, my wobbly bits, and everything an AFAB (assigned female at birth) person is actively conditioned to hate about themselves. the act of examining pictures of myself closely has become powerful, glorious, because when i do so i’m looking at myself objectively, through the eyes of an artist, not through the lens of the patriarchy. it’s so easy to look at yourself with judgement, disgust, sadness, fury- it’s encouraged by the patriarchy and by capitalism (how can they sell you things you don’t need unless they make you feel incomplete as you are without them?) but there’s so much profound beauty in observing yourself just as you are, as a whole person, not just your softness, your roundness, your stretch marks, your big nose, your body hair, and your wobbly bits as separate entities to be dissected and scrutinised. take a minute this week to look at yourself objectively - without the judgement you would usually bring to the mirror - and look at yourself kindly, through the eyes of an artist, of a friend, of family. see yourself as a whole human being, with empathy and compassion, a person who has good days and bad, a person whose history and ancestry shapes their body. let yourself love you. ❤️(instagram)
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