First concept art attempt. I decided to go with a sketchy, softly shaded sort of style. In hind sight, more dramatic, highly contrasted shading would’ve worked a lot better with my sketchiness.
“Bound by social norms”. Now, it’s so much that he makes an explicit effort to follow these norms. It’s more like he’s forced to abide by them hence being the metaphor of being tied up/trapped in them. Because of the ample normality around him, anything he does that’s a little off is seen as a BIG difference. For example, his fluidity. He himself is a CIS male, but, sometimes he acts more feminine and other times, he’s very masculine. Same with his dressing habits. It can go from baby pink flared skirts to leather black jeans or acid washed bottoms. People around him can’t pinpoint him- label him- so instead, they point a finger and ask questions like “Why are you dressing like a little girl? Don’t you think that’s creepy? How old are you again?” and say things like “Oh thank God. NOW you look like a dude. Why don’t you just stay like this?”. Not only that, but because he doesn’t identify as gender fluid or transsexual, some think he’s pushing it and feel like he thinks he’s too good to be either of the two.
As a result, the clique basically banished him. He’s struggled with it from Primary school up until University, only being pushed to hang out with other guys because he is male. But even so, he still doesn’t fit in with them, so he glazes over it and never really addresses it. No one would understand anyway. And with the addition of his bad laughter habit, he’ll never truly fit in.