[OCtober] recall
sobbing I wrote a couple of paragraphs for this caption today and then accidentally backed out and lost it all... </4Welp, alright-
The text in the image reads:
Do you think about her much? <
Yeah, that's fair enough. <
... Do you think she was nice? <
> I don't-... "Nice"?
Kind, then. I bet she was kind. <
> ... Maybe.
> Maybe she was.
- - -
Anyway before it all got deleted I was rambling a bit about age and Althea. She's the oldest character in the story -- on a technicality, immortal, but visually I imagine her to be in her mid-40s. I drew her older than that in the sketch though -- it's more 60s-ish above, I think.
Someone once told me, in regards to looking at an early design of Althea, that she didn't look old. And while I agree, I also think that people in their 40s don't look that old?
Then I started rambling about living in a culture with this very present fear of aging, and how maybe that makes us think of people past their "prime" in the same way as those in their 80s and 90s, exaggerating the way in which time leaves its marks on us when, truly, it's a much subtler process. Like water slowly eroding rocks or sumn.
But also maybe I just imagined people to look older than they do bahaha- I feel like I've only just opened my eyes recently and started seeing people a bit more as they truly are.
And the take-away of all this for me is that I should write more old characters in TheSoS because they're fun to draw, while simultaneously figuring out a way to depict Althea as the older, more mature and experienced figure in the story without defaulting to making her look two decades older than I intend-Oct 5, 2026
#octoberchallenge
#thesos
#sleepwalkerthesos
Comments
Age and perceived age is so so so culturally determined! Love your thought patterns here and how the text interacts with the portrait. It feels a lot like chapter heading image. It's evocative!
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•I love how she looks!! 
the whole conversation about aging really gets me thinking; I think media tends to shy away from showing the process that it is, especially for women. Women are either young, smooth 20-somethings or old, grandmotherly types and there’s not very much inbetween. Producers seem to think age lines, gray hairs, or any other visible signs of aging are “unattractive” so they just skip the entire inbetween and go straight to the opposite end of the age spectrum. Especially with the prevalence of Botox nowadays, I’m worried about all these young actors who are sacrificing their acting abilities just to functionally preserve their youth and beauty in amber 
especially since more and more ways of “aging” yourself seem to be invented every day? We evolved all these muscles specifically for communicating with each other, I’m going to use them
But yeah awesome art! I’d love to see more old people OCs, it’s an underrated niche tbh
the whole conversation about aging really gets me thinking; I think media tends to shy away from showing the process that it is, especially for women. Women are either young, smooth 20-somethings or old, grandmotherly types and there’s not very much inbetween. Producers seem to think age lines, gray hairs, or any other visible signs of aging are “unattractive” so they just skip the entire inbetween and go straight to the opposite end of the age spectrum. Especially with the prevalence of Botox nowadays, I’m worried about all these young actors who are sacrificing their acting abilities just to functionally preserve their youth and beauty in amber especially since more and more ways of “aging” yourself seem to be invented every day? We evolved all these muscles specifically for communicating with each other, I’m going to use them But yeah awesome art! I’d love to see more old people OCs, it’s an underrated niche tbh
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