Basic gist of it, Murdoc is a mercreature who gets entranced by 2D's singing because it's similar to his kind's calling/singing.
It is set in a small seaside village where 2D lives with dreams of moving to a city to make it as a singer. Here I thought maybe I can include Russel and Noodle as bandmates so it's actually that they all want to make it as a band.
There are these special rare pearls in the water that are worth alot of money and the village is a fishing one so besides fishing everyone is after these pearls too. They're kinda known for it. So to get by 2D goes out to fish regularly and sings on the boat.
Unbeknownst to him a creature gets quite attached underwater and follows him around but never shows itself.
One night there's a huge storm and 2D wasn't prepared well and falls into the water. He almost drowns but it saved by the creature. For days he's trying to get him to reappear with offering food and stuff (even coins because dragons hoard that in fantasy stories 2D thinks), the others start thinking he's gone mad. But one day while out by the spot 2D was saved at he starts singing which actually gets Murdoc to appear.
And then story happend aaah idk, I don't have a solid story idea here. Just bonding with a mythical creature you didn't know existed. But the main thing that happens is that it turns out those special pearls are something Murdoc can spit up. Think of it like a cat coughing up hairballs! Mercreatures are the ones who create the pearls and the reason it's so rare is because not many of them are left alive. So essentially 2D finds a money printing machine lol. In exchange Murdoc asks him to keep singing for him.
Now 2D can't really leave to the city because Murdoc would be left alone and they bond overtime, 2D would feel too shitty to just get as many pearls out of him as possible then dip. But neither 2D nor the others would want to be stuck in this village forever. That's where the conflict would be because you can't exactly take a mythical fish-creature with you like a pet.
Murdoc is more inspired by eels rather than typical mermaids. He's slimey, smells bad and disgusting in general. You don't really want to touch him haha. I thought there could be different type of creatures and his type doesn't have a nice voice so he can't sing because of it. That's why he's so entranced by 2D's voice, he hasn't heard singing in decades. I dabbled in the thought that 2D could have mercreature hybrids in the family tree so he's lowkey a mercreature descendent which would explain Murdoc's fascination but that idea is not solid rn
You lit a lightbulb in my head I’m not joking I did that movie cliche with the lights appearing above my head.
I WILL ANIMATE TINY 2D. Sorry not the angy part but I will draw him clinging to Noodle’s hand and swinging around like a gorillaz all happy and jolly. Will stream it too
When drawing, how does one feel consistent and satisfied with the result/style and go "aha!" Without immediately feeling like it sucks and want to change it all?
This might be a long blogpost but I really want to go deep and try to explain how I personally overcame this mentality in case it might help somebody else struggling too.
Warning tho, I've been battling depression for years so my method might be a little pessimistic. It's a very tiring experience that makes many things feel hopeless.
However, I managed to turn this particular feeling of hopelessness into something that helps me with my artist mentality:
"Nothing matters in life so if nothing matters why should I worry about my art sucking or not?"
I just repeat this in my head really. It was an eye opener once this really clicked in my brain. Cuz why sould I care? I might drop dead tomorrow for whatever fucking reason so why would I not do something I love today? I love creating and I love practicing art! I love the feeling of improvement even if it's small. And that's what you should really cling to. That feeling of joy when you're doing the activity itself. Who cares about the outcome, you are literally creating something INTO EXISTENCE with your own two hands. Take your time to enjoy the journey because that's what it's about. Life is short and meaningless by itself and you can use art to give it meaning or just make life suck less xd
I had a serious problem with comparing myself to better artists in the past. I would get so discouraged from drawing because "I'm not as good as them" that I would stop for months. This is so so so damaging, you should never compare yourself to others because there will always be someone better than you. Art doesn't have a "goal", you can improve forever so you will never fully "catch up" because by the time you do reach that particular person's level you will find someone else who's ahead of you again, and it restarts the cycle.
So then what? You will stop doing something you like because someone else does it differently than you? Bs my friend, who cares!
That is a whole other human being. You don't know their life. One of my favourite artists ever, who I look up to immensly struggles with drawing because of their own personal circumstances. That's someone who's a better artist than me struggling too. We're all human and that's what I love about art.
Instead of putting yourself down you should use this as an opportunity to improve. You see that artist who's so better than you? Study their work and try to understand what appeals to you so much and WHY it feels like it's "better" than yours. You can learn something from them that you can integrate into your own art.
Now all this will not magically make you feel satisfied with ALL of your artwork, but you can mitigate the dissatisfaction very well. Like hell, I sometimes feel like what I draw is pretty shit and I could do better, but instead of letting that thought fester in my head I just remind myself that it doesn't matter, it can be corrected later or I will see it differently tomorrow. I will create something different or even better the next time. Our eyes work against us anyways, I fully believe an artist can never see their own work objectively, you will never see it how someone else sees it. Like my most recent Noodle I drew I struggled with the face cuz for me it didn't feel right. Posted it anyways, "doesn't matter so I might as well", and boom, surprise, people liked it. If I scrap it because the outcome is not perfect then that would have tainted the whole experience and fun I had while working on it.
I don't know if any of my rambling makes any sense or if it's actually helpful lol but yeah here is my opinion on all this. Genuinely just be so incredibly delusional that you believe these things and stop caring about being "good enough" and just do it because it makes you happy.
I think in today's day and age people tend to look at art from a more capitalistic pov. Likes/followers/being famous/creating content for the algorythm. I think that's very harmful and we should all remember art is really about human expression. If you focus on that aspect, I think you can achive greater things because people connect with humanity stronger.
Since I'm currently in the Gorillaz fandom alot of you guys are also interested in that so I will share my favourite interview moment ever. We should all try to internalize this way of looking at art to achive happiness with it.
2D about being a creative entity. ignore Murdoc's infinite wisdom at the end lmfao
I can never pick just 1 favourite like it's impossible for me ToT Best I can do is give my top 10 in no particular order (and this still pains me cuz there's many others I also really love):
Feel Good Inc
Désolé
Pink Phantom
Rhinestone Eyes
Empire Ants
Little Pink Plastic Bags
Saturnz Barz
To Binge
Souk Eye
Skinny Ape
However, there is 1 song that is my LEAST favourite, I could say even hated song 💀
It's Glitter Freeze 😭 FOR ME it's too "digital noise"-y if that makes sense... I think it's mostly that annoying high sound throughout it that makes it unlistenable for me. It's the only song that makes me go out of my way to skip.
jacobvanloon
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass
prguitarman
dailybridgerton
gummygunk
