Martyred Root directions and hair (project stack = 2)

 Early morning thoughts(!) for the hair... Interesting one because you could do it in any of three tools that I currently have in my toolbox:

• GIMP would be easiest as it's where everything else is, and it has b-curves, BUT I'd have to draw each strand, and I'd need to work out the right 'fall' without computer assistance
• Inkscape/Pycairo would allow me to position a few 'key' strands and generate a bunch more procedurally, but would mean extending my current pycairo code to allow a layer to be completely image based (i.e. to allow layers to be 'imported' in effect)
• Blender wouldn't be a natural choice, but I've used it to extend 2D art before, plus I could model the head crudely and let Blender do some of the work of calculating 'fall', and the emitter would mean I wouldn't need to code... but it would give me less control, and would mean faffing about with Holdout shaders and swapping between Blender and GIMP

Plan - try Blender first as it gives me the most control and assistance to start... Especially as I don't even know if I want the hair...

Future directions... It's just a bit of fun, with no 'a priori meaning' that I can discern (although it does remind me of my 'sinking into the earth' metaphor for grief in 'Awaiting Spring')... So I could:

• Keep it open by just posting it as it is as a slightly sad, slightly spooky, picture for Halloween, playing on the fact that our 'fears' and sometimes just pieces of root...
• Lean into the environmental vibes I get - after the Anthropocene - with perhaps a smashed phone (or some other consumer trinket) and some animal tracks positions in a sort of f**k-you-your-time-is-over way
• Lean into the grief theme above in some way e.g. pick out the (now largely hidden) wedding ring that's on my hand in the photo I graphed on to the arm

I'll probably play with the environmental theme first and see if it looks moving, thought-provoking, or just cheesy!

First thing in the morning as I'm waking up is a very productive time to ponder this stuff and generate ideas.