10k later
in my niche d tier micro celebrity (fka niche e tier micro celebrity) (fka guy on the train)
omg hiiii
hit 10k on instagram! what a time fr. I’m grateful for sure, but I see the work I put into this account, and the opportunities it gave me. I know social media isn’t everything, but as an artist focusing on video it definitely has its power. Its not only where I find my memes but its become a way for me to find new artists, opportunities, and connections globally. I get to share my art which is an added bonus lmao. I have pieces that flopped, and pieces that defined my career. and so many handhelds. I usually post them as trial reels and theres so many just locked in the trial vault still but i cant bring myself to drop them all. my output recently has been peak so thats something im happy about. since theres a lot of people here now, its time to do a runthrough of some of my old arts and mediums
This page actually started with a lot of vocal political illustrations - its stuff I’m still proud of, and definitely taps into a core aspect of my art now. I started this account during the summer of 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movements were starting across the country, and I wanted to do what I could to help the movement. So I turned to my art. Now, i think my politics are more subliminal in my pieces, but I am hoping that leftist themes still come out. or at least themes of freedom and liberation.
I’ve always loathed making backgrounds lmao. and it shows :) this is the first stopmotion I posted! im still using kneaded eraser (legit cant find a reason not to) but back then I was using two alligator clips to hold my phone up. Covid sent me home from college but I took the erasers with me. Since I was a sculptor there really wasn’t much I could do from home, but after watching some robot chicken (or southpark?) I figured I could try animation out too. fire decision fr. and omg frat dox
Na i been woke fr like I was rly in that mode. I finished my senior thesis project a few weeks early, and just had extra time, so I wanted to try out making comics. I ended up posting like 60 pages onto webtoons lmao. I liked manga and figured it would be similar vibes, but i knew I wasn’t going to be making full chapters ever. I just made one-sheet stories, mostly under political lenses as well. Political art was super interesting to me at the time - its hard to really grasp some political ideologies, and in my mind I could provide visuals to help people better understand it. Idk if I still believe in this idea now, but I’m glad I was able to explore art like this. But, starting comics was the start of my hiatus as a stopmotion animator. I didn’t know how I could get paid or being represented by doing stopmotions, so that actually put me off from the medium for a good few years
For some reason, after working on comics in the summer of 2021, I then found myself surrounded with wood shavings. I had moved to Salt Lake city for grad school - I thought I wanted to work in Game Design (horrible life choice for me). I ended up being incredibly isolated there. I couldn’t find my people, but thats when I entered a lot of online spaces, mainly twitter. From that, I met so many people, and many are friends I get to see very frequently both in and out of the city.
one of my first shows, thanks to my previously mentioned internet friends :)
at the time I was also doing a lot of process videos - it was a slow grind, sometimes it was just audio, other times I narrated over the reels. it was so brutal icl, i still had a few hundred followers at the time and growth was incredibly slow. I really hated it a lot of days, but it helped the days go by and it was a good way for me to be accountable. I was working on art for 6-8 hours a day, usually being up til 2am working on stuff (now I am tucked and cozy at 11pm doing my duolingo and reel posts lmao)
near the second half of my time in utah, i picked up animating again. I just wanted to do something easier lol. I missed 3d sculpting too, and i was starting to see how digital art can become a form of income. it sucks that money was a defining things for my craft, and I rly don’t think i can say I moved past these ideas. all i know is that regardless of what i use, as long as its real asf, good things happen
While my animations were steadily developing, I started my handheld series. I was working and had so little time to create. It was a waste to spend 2 hours of my day sitting on the train doing shit else. I brought some clay on the train and gave it a shot. Friend said I should do this every day. and here we are lmao. This was the main driver of my account as well - i think i had around 1k followers at the time (less, probably) and that rly pushed my account growth. it was something only i could do in the moment, and it helped connect with so many ppl. I went to an animators picnic recently and ppl recognized me from my work which was super sick lmao (leo moon)
Recently i kind of hit a crazy stride. I started leaning into glitch to make short looping animations. I didn’t have the time I wanted to make longer pieces. I wanted to just push out content, and I had a lot of emotions and ideas at the time. then I got laid off, and I had the time again. and I made longer pieces. probably some of my most personal and fully explored works as well. It’s been fun. these allowed me to explore different visual styles and the free time let me connect with a lot of people. I’ve been able to collaborate with more people, and I could make some good connections through it.
I’m happy to have 10k followers, and im excited to see what happens next. I want to know how my relationship to social media changes too, if it does at all. did you know substack has an email length limit? i j found out so ill see yall around lmao
bless,
faraz
ps im not adding pictures this time j look at the posts omg