Hello!
I don’t think we’ve ever personally interacted before (I’ll probably send this as anon), but I follow you, and I’ve been seeing some of your recent posts on my dash!
Not sure how appropriate this actually is, since we’re complete strangers, but, like I said, I’ve been seeing some of your posts that mention, y’know, suicidal ideation & thoughts of/references to self-harm. (Pls keep reading: I’m not like, yelling at you or anything 😭)
I don’t know how you feel right now, nor do I know if this alone will help you feel any better, but you’re not alone (which, I know, from experience, can sound like bullshit or like it doesn’t matter), but really what that means is that other people have felt the way you do, and they’ve lived (that doesn’t mean they’re better than you, it means there’s hope for things to get so much better for you). I’m not gonna pretend you don’t know that suicide is an ending, not a solution, because I figure you know that. I have no idea what’s going on in your life, and it probably doesn’t mean much coming from a stranger on the Internet, but every human life has an intrinsic value, yours included. You matter, deeply. Even if you don’t feel that way (again, I don’t know how you feel, and, since we’re strangers, I’m doing some guesswork based off of personal experience here, sorry!!)
However you’re feeling right now (even if you’ve felt it for a while), I’ll say what everybody says (because despite it all, it is true): life will get better. It can feel like you’re spiraling out of control, or like everything is off balance, or like you’re completely alone and battling everything by yourself, but it won’t always be like that. People care about other people. It’s how shit works. With that, people do care about you. And they should! Which means that people can be there for you when you’re suffering, if you’re able to clue them in as to how you’re doing.
I don’t mean to offend you, or cause you any further harm, but, if you’re able to, I sincerely recommend reaching out to a friend or somebody you trust or love or care about regarding how you’re doing. I know it’s terrifying to do that for so many reasons, and I don’t have all the answers as to how to make that any less terrifying, but I will say this: If I were to find out somebody I loved and cared about (or even just kinda knew) was dealing with something along the lines of thoughts of or patterns of self harm or suicidal ideation, I’d want to know, if only because I wouldn’t want them to suffer in silence, or feel like they were alone.
If you already have talked to somebody and it hasn’t gone over well - sometimes that happens. But (excuse this example, hopefully you’ll appreciate it rather than hate it) Thomas the tank engine didn’t get up that hill by giving it just one go (I have no clue if that was a good analogy for this…)
I just mean, like, idk. I’ve been in what i imagine to be your place before (the whole nine yards), and I’ve had friends who’ve both been suicidal, had suicidal ideation, and actually passed away by way of suicide, and it’s devastating no matter what. Because they matter to me so much. And you matter. A lot. So please try to ask for help. A support system, no matter how small, can go a long way.
The cherry on top for me is that you run a really cool blog, and I’d love for you to keep kicking around. You seem like a pretty awesome stranger to me.
Keep yourself safe! Long live the car crash hearts, and all that (idk if that was cringey, but hopefully you appreciate it)!
wow thank u.. this is the closest i’ve felt to being cared about in a long time.. i do wish i had someone to talk to my dad says i can tell him anything and he loves me but it always feels hollow because i know it isn’t really true and if i told him the reason i’ve been depressed for close to a decade he’d go straight to my mother and they will both do everything in their power to kill me faster.. my closest human relationship is probably with the counsellor i saw once and due to the waiting list i cant see him again til next year.. i don’t have friends irl or online no one really enjoys talking to me which i get i’m not good at it + this is so lame sorry. thanks for this it’s really appreciated <3
7 notes
·
View notes
I was wondering why you draw Lewis’ hair as just squiggles coming out of his forehead and not in any defined pattern. Because typically IRL his hair is parted in places and you erase a lot of detail.
Honestly, part of it is a stylistic choice and part of it is cutting corners on detail to create a recognisable shape when too much detailing ended up making him look bald. Rather than it being a perfect copy of one of his haircuts it’s a blended slightly fictional version of several- which is an approach I took to most haircuts of real folk.
I also started drawing Lewis around Brazil/qatar 2021 when his partings were a lot closer, and I believe these are partially faux locs rather than the twists he usually has now- so you’re right that there’s absolutely lost detail there because I’m still working off an old style
Once you get past the recognisable hairline, the layers of parting became really hard to define without looking overly detailed, so I went for a shape of his hair rather than detail that layering
It’s sort of the same reason I don’t draw more realistic detail in georges hair either, it’s more of a cartoon shape than a real visual copy of his hair, because when too much focus is on mirroring the real look 1:1, it becomes more striking how the rest of his face isn’t exactly right. Instead, like with Lewis, the hairline and overall shape is priority, and layering lost to that shaping, it is admittedly hard to make a 3D shape fit a 2D style, and I won’t pretend I’m great at it.
That being said, I’ve never been super happy with how I draw lewis’ hair, and I’ve been making an effort with some recent unfinished art to experiment with new detail and some textured hair brushes I picked up from black artists on IG. I haven’t found something that works with my blocky blunt line art quite yet, which is why I’m still working on it, and as you can see below I still haven’t found something that helps with the layering
I’m in a very filtered corner of f1 where I don’t see much outside of real photos and gewis, so if anyone has favourite examples of how creators they like have stylised lewis’ hair, drop them in my inbox! I could use extra inspiration, and I would love to see any other examples of how people have cartoonised twists vs braids in a cell shady style to make it clear they are different patterns bc I’ve been struggling!
Tldr: it’s partially a style choice and partially a lack of skill, I’m working on it, would appreciate inspiration from other artists!
5 notes
·
View notes