BEYOND THE SURFACE LEVEL

INTRODUCTION
Hello! I am Suchi or Pepper, and I’m 17 years old.
Ever since I could hold a pencil, I have been drawing. Art has always been a medium of expression for me and has always made me feel better after a bad day.
For Domestika’s pride contest, I wanted to combine my conventionally light hearted anime-esque art style with a much deeper message with many elements to the piece.
The piece features a ‘man’, with bright lipstick, eye shadow, blush and jewellery, looking into the mirror, and seeing who ‘he’ truly is- a woman.
My piece is titled BEYOND THE SURFACE LEVEL, and aims to provide a deeper perspective that what is seen on the surface.

In my country, transgender people are often judged and criticised for even so much as putting on makeup. Being an inherently generational prejudice, I, too, had to break free from its clutches and realise the selfishness of judging somebody for simply being themselves while having a generally accepted identity.
I wanted to look beyond the surface level of trans people being called ‘weird’ or ‘performative’ and try to understand what actually goes on in their minds. I will explain more about this piece on the way.

MATERIALS

For this piece, I used Procreate for the illustration, Notes app for the rough sketch and the idea board, and Pinterest for the reference images and colors.
I also talked to a trans friend. This truly helped me understand HER better. I also learned to have an open mind without judgement and prejudice because unless someone is being immoral, doing something unethical or illegal, they do NOT deserve to be judged.

I started off by writing what ‘pride’ meant to me, and hence figuring out the theme of this piece. You can see the jotted points here, it might not make sense at times because I was simply writing in a flow, gathering all my thoughts and ideas.
Like I mentioned, I talked to my trans friend too.
I started off by imagining what a stereotypical trans person looked like to me- the most commonly seen surface level view- a man dressed like a woman. And then I tried to look at WHY they appeared in ‘over- exaggerated’ makeup or clothes.
I will explain more about this as we move on.

I exported the rough sketch from Notes into procreate, then made a slightly lesser rough sketch, then the lineart and then I started the colouring. I will upload the entire process as a video at the end if I can.
I made the piece predominantly with the colours of the trans flag, light blue, pink and white.
The entire illustration is in the white, middle portion of the flag.

Some elements I’d like to be noticed are:
The entire illustration is in the white middle part of the pride flag.
The ‘man’ here, puts on excessive makeup and jewellery, just to look more like a woman. But in the mirror, the reflection of ‘him’ as a woman, is wearing barely any makeup or jewellery and still can clearly be identified as a woman. ‘He’ Is in tears, while his real self in the mirror- SHE, is smiling. The person and their reflection reach out to each other, but their hands don’t quite touch.
Another detail I’d like for you to notice is the room- it is dull, barely with any colour, except for the motivational posters. And in the transparent bag, you can see a bra- which indicates that ‘he’ wants to be a woman, even internally, through an under garment that won’t be seen.
‘He’ still has body hair and muscles, not uncommon for a woman, but shows that ‘he’ is afraid to let go of the identity that isn’t his, just yet, further shown by the cracks on the mirror.
Most of all, their hearts are connecting- a hook. Both versions- man and woman, belong to her, the past, present and future are all part of her and make up the person she is.

The caption seems to be slightly contradictory to the message, right?
YOU ONLY LOOK AT THE SURFACE AND JUDGE. BUT, DO YOU KNOW THE PAIN OF LOOKING INTO THE MIRROR AND SEEING SOMEONE ELSE?

this implies the inbuilt belief due to societal expectations that say who a person is supposed to be- and the pain of you seeing somebody else- your true self- in the mirror. The guilt, the pain, the fear of being someone you ‘are not supposed to be’.
I wanted to capture the inner monologue of a trans person and what they might be feeling when they look into the mirror.

Here is the finished piece- Thank you so much, Domestika for hosting!
In the beggining, I joined for the prize money, but ended up gaining something much more- a deeper understanding and learning of lessons about being accepting, non judgmental and loving everyone. At this point, I would say I have already won this contest because of the experience and values I learnt. I would also like to thank my friend, and my parents for motivating me with this.
Again, thank you and Happy Pride Month to the beautiful LGBTQ+ Community!!!