Hare003

Clip Studio Paint 4 for most of the painting, Photoshop for colour adjustments and tweaks. Finally got PS back, but I'm still enjoying painting in CSP more, just for the colour blending honestly.

And my trusty Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, which, happy birthday to it, recently turned 16 years old. Amazing value tbh.

Took about 6-7 hours? I've been trying to do slightly rougher work, partly because I don't want to over-render everything, and partly because I have 5 unfinished works from the past few months. The ADHD problem of getting bored once I'm 90% done has really been kicking my ass, so I'm trying to find a way to finish things quicker and be less perfectionist.

Color & Styling

Billy's style at the Byers' house is his loud persona about which I speak regularly. Everything about this outfit is loud in that you almost can't look away from it. For more information on the color analysis of this shirt (and the implications of Billy looking exactly like his mother as a larger commentary on how they are both victims of abuse), read here and here. To summarize those posts, the red shirt is a vibrant and an antagonistic color. It can represent power, agitation, anger, rage, danger, warning, dominance, and sexual implications of desire and passion. The color symbolism of his shirt runs in stark contrast to Billy's reality. By wearing this shirt, Billy is projecting this image of control and power when he has no agency and control of his life, nor has he ever had agency over his body. Billy's shirt is also almost entirely unbuttoned, save for one button at the very bottom. Again, there are implications of Billy exuding confidence and power in this choice. We can also go quite literal here in that Billy is completely bare-chested, almost in a sense of baring himself to the world.

I've spoken regularly about how image and styling is important to Billy because it is the one moment of agency that he has over his body and what is done to his body. He chooses how he dresses and styles himself, and it is canonically something that Billy enjoys. And while this outfit is certainly projecting an image of control to the outside world when he has none, we must also remember the personal element to his choices. He's dressing for himself, too. And he's dressing in ways that make him feel good and make him feel that his body is his own to express and feel good in. And he leans into these things, and leans into them with full spirit (i.e. Billy Hargrove isn't just unbuttoning one button; he's going all out-- this is who he is).

Everything changes when Billy is at home in the epilogue of S2. This scene, of course, happens several weeks after the fight at the Byers' home. Instead of a vibrant red shirt, Billy is wearing a blue shirt. Blue is more subdued and can represent sadness. And when we understand the context of this scene, the color tells us this:

Billy has been, quite literally, beaten into submission and silence. This is not a happy moment. This is not a feel good moment. This is not a victory. This is a sad and sobering reality of the silencing and the alienation of abused victims. And it's saying a lot about the situational factors going on in an abusive home.

Billy is living at home where Neil abuses him, Susan has looked away while Billy is abused and, in this specific scene, doesn't even acknowledge Billy in the house, and Max has drugged him with an unknown drug and in such a way that should have killed him. He has been beaten into silence, and with no support system at home, withdraws into himself. At home, there is no point in projecting the loud image of his clothing style to others. Because at home, Billy has no control, and everyone knows it. Hence the color Billy is wearing...

And something else.

Note how many buttons Billy has buttoned up. Three. As opposed to one when he's out in public at the Byers' home. He is more buttoned up and more withdrawn in this shirt. This is an act of protecting himself and of hiding within the confines of an abusive household. Yes, he is still partially unbuttoned, but it's not as deeply pronounced and certainly not as loud in expression. His shirt collar is also mismatched. One side is turned up; the other side is turned down. It suggests a lack of balance. Without balance, there is instability. Billy is in a highly unstable home environment. With the amount of instability in his life, he is left in constant survival mode.

Hair Styling

Even his hair style is telling us something. At the Byers' home, Billy's hair is perfectly styled and curly. At home, his curls have gone flat. Less pronounced. Ratted. I spoke here about Billy's hair styling routine, delving deeper into the whys behind Billy having both mousse and hair setting lotion (for curlers) on his vanity. And the important thing to remember is that, though these two hair styling products aren't typically used at once, it lets us know that Billy's hair has changed because of: 1) the climate change from California to Indiana 2) the amount of stress going on in his life. Because Billy lives under extreme traumatic stress, fear, and control in an abusive household (and has also had a highly traumatic upbringing from witnessing abuse and being abused from a young age, being left by his mother with an abuser, being parentified, and being completely uprooted from his life), his hair texture has changed, which includes a flattening of his curls. He has to maintain and style his curls differently to get the curls he used to have. And the fact that Billy's hair is so flat at home tells us quite a bit about the stress going on in his life and the fact that the abusive situation in which he lives is preventing him from caring for himself via his curls in proper ways. In other words, the abuse prevents him from expressing himself in the ways that matter to him.

Body Language

Also, these two images show body language and expression that are NOT the same. In the red shirt, Billy's confident. He's taking OFF his leather jacket, revealing more of himself. His chin is tilted up, exuding more confidence and the sense of appearing larger than life. There's a brightening of his features. Billy is so outward here. There is no mistaking his presence.

In the blue shirt, Billy's buttoned up. He's biting his nails (a nervous habit). His head is down, implying a sense of being withdrawn and closed up. He looks smaller here, smaller in a way that implies a loss and implies the reality of Billy's situation: his world is unsafe.

Conclusions

Through clothing, styling, and body language, we see a different Billy. It reveals the effects of abuse and how that abuse and violence is perpetuated in such a way that beats him into a withdrawn silence. This is not a victory; this is an abuse victim silenced via more abuse and kept in an abusive environment where no help coming.