Lisa Hanawalt (@lisadraws) is an artist based in Los Angeles. Hanawalt is a coproducer and production designer on the Netflix animated series Bojack Horseman, whose second season comes out this summer. She also co-hosts the podcast Baby Geniuses with Emily Heller on the Maximum Fun network, wrote and illustrated the book My Dirty Dumb Eyes published by Drawn & Quarterly, and contributes to Lucky Peach magazine. On Twitter, Hanawalt gives followers an inside look at her sketchbook as well as [a slightly altered version of] her personality. This week Hanawalt talked to me about three of her favorite tweets, plus butts, Friends, and anxiety.
Hanawalt: Sometimes I like to troll brands with dumb slogans! They fill up valuable brain space with their ad campaigns, so this is my revenge.
How often would you say you do a drawing solely to post it on Twitter, and what’s the most effort you’ve spent on an illustration meant exclusively for Twitter?
When I post stuff on Twitter, I’m usually testing a joke idea (which might become part of a book or longer comic, if it’s still funny to me a month later), or I’m just sharing a page of my sketchbook or process. Making art can be so solitary, it helps to get the instant feedback and encouragement. I don’t need audience approval on every single thing I do, but if enough people respond to a dumb drawing it reassures me that the idea is good/funny.
What’s your favorite image-based tweet that you’ve ever seen?
Funny animal pics are my weakness (although those horse masks never do it for me, sorry everyone!). This one made me laugh so hard I actually started choking.
Thinking of extremely sexual, violent imagery is my coping mechanism for having to do banal things like find housing and pay taxes. I’m pretty shy until I get to know people well, so Twitter has been a fun way of showing this brash/vulgar side of my personality. I mean, I have to be somewhat careful since my account is public, but sometimes Twitter feels like a playground I can go run amok in.
Besides showing off your brash side, are there other kinds of jokes that Twitter has made you feel more comfortable with or willing to try?
It’s not only good for jokes, but for typing out any kind of nonsense that helps me feel connected with people. It’s an anxiety reliever. I like that I can tweet something silly about watching Friends and people will fave and respond because they’re also watching Friends.
What are other ways that the way you talk on Twitter and in real life are different?
I’m mostly quiet in person and have trouble making eye contact! I’m more uptight, I give lots of fucks. I feel like my twitter persona is loud and all up in people’s faces and doesn’t care about proper punctuation. She’s a fun bitch!
I love pop music, and butts are really popular lately. I got teased for having a bubble butt in middle school, but look at me now! Sitting comfortably!
I like that this list is somewhere in between a drawing and a text-only tweet. Are you interested in exploring the area between those? How do you find a balance between illustration and text in your tweets?
I love writing, even though it’s difficult and feels bad, because it gives me a break from drawing, which feels equally hard and bad. My sketchbook is equally split between text and images.
Photo by Mindy Tucker
Jenny Nelson writes and lives in Brooklyn and works at Funny or Die.