wise_mommy

Earnest Illustration - Sketch + Rough

Published: April 30th 2021, 7:52:41 pm

Here's the first process for this illustration! 

For a while, I planned on setting this story in a fantasy parallel to Italy, even tho the perspective I keep wanting to write from is a specifically Italian-American one. I felt like "fantasy Campania" was more believable than "fantasy New Jersey" but...I've decided that this story really can't take place anywhere BUT a fantasy 30s/40s NJ with a second gen Italian-American protagonist.  

I have a lot of feelings about how women function in Italian-American families and especially within Italian-American media (you know what I mean). I want to explore that space through a transmasculine character, who was forced into womanhood/motherhood at a very young age (in this pic, Earnest would be 16). What kind of language would he use to describe himself, after growing up devoutly religious into a deeply patriarchal family setting? What parts of womanhood would he want to reject, and what would he want to hold onto? This is a fantasy setting, but I do want to think about these things in a meaningful way. I think a lot about wives and mothers who had feelings like this and were not able to explore them. 

Anyway, I want to try and have the inks for this up by sometime next week, along with April's sketchbook. As a reminder -- there won't be a May sketchbook, as I'm having surgery and won't be able to draw for a bit! Thank you for understanding <3