What's Next for Miserable Beasts?

Hey guys!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog post or given any real updates with what’s going on with Miserable Beasts at the minute as I have been fairly quiet on the making front.  Just a bit of background, I have been working as a freelance model maker, creating models for various industries alongside having Miserable Beasts as my main personal creative outlet for a few years now. Over time the imposter syndrome, loneliness and general sense of isolation I felt from trying to juggle these things and make it all work has really started to get on top of me.   I have always felt a lot of pressure to ‘succeed’ within my career and my sense of self when it comes to work is really fractured.  I have a lot of insecurity tied into my identity as a ‘professional’ or whatever weird words you want to call someone who makes money doing a thing, and it’s not something I’ve ever felt comfortable with.  I had hoped as time went on, every paid invoice and happy client would give me more confidence but for some reason the opposite ended up happening and I just  started to feel more and more out of my depth and like a total fraud.

  I decided it was time for me to scrap a few things and find something new to do to give me a reset so I could start creating again from a fresh perspective and I  landed a job at the comic book shop in town.  I was hoping to build my self confidence in social situations which felt like had kinda spiralled and hit rock bottom, and meet some cool people that I had shared interests with, that would both inspire me and also remind me that I actually exist outside of my own bubble.   This has really paid off for me and I have met some really great people and I get to see a bunch of cool stuff while I’m working, so I genuinely couldn’t be happier with how this has turned out!  I am super grateful for the people at work for giving me the chance to feel like a real person again and they probably have no idea what a massive impact they’ve had on my life.

  So where does that leave Miserable Beasts?  To be honest right now I’m not quite sure.  Despite feeling like I’ve fallen out of love with it with it,  I still feel incredibly proud of what I have achieved since I made my first puppet, and this makes it really hard for me to move on from.  We all know instagram is a total shit show right now and despite it being my only real platform for this, I honestly I don’t want to just keep making what I feel is expected from me or ‘fits the grid’ when the majority of people who followed me for my puppets or dolls just don’t see it anyway.

  I have had an idea buzzing around my mind for the past year or so about creating something narrative based, which would either eventually be a game or a comic.  This is super scary for me ‘cos it means I’m gonna have to call on some much deeper and more personal ideas than I explore in my work right now, but I’m determined to battle my way through the cringe and humiliation for this.  I am super passionate about characters which I hope has shown in my work already, but I would like to spend much more time working on my character design projects and developing these skills.  Over the next few months you will see a noticeable shift in the kind of content I’m creating and sharing and I’m not sure how that will be received or how people will feel about it but I really wanna give myself a good shot at doing something new and different.  I considered starting fresh and making a whole new account and identity but I feel for this to work, it has to be about me accepting myself and moving forward instead of just giving myself another plate to spin, so I will be staying as Miserable Beasts for now.  As always,  thank you all for all your support 💖

Amy