in Assignment 1 – Gallery, Assignment 1 – Research & Process, My Work

self-portrait #2: progress & final work

KEYWORDS

not really in any particular order or category/theme, but really whatever came to my head:

bubble tea (addict) / cat lady / aquarius / coffee / crafty (scissors?) / procrastinator / indecisive  / awkward / cultural / hoarder / flowers! (chrysanthemums/peonies) / sea / spectacles / kitsch / messy / boooooksssss / death cab for cutie + postal service (all time favourite bands) / thrift shopping / hands / moths (shyness)

I found it really difficult to describe myself with words, possibly because I (still) really don’t know who I am or how to choose a defining quality. As such, I decided to pick a few words that I resonated with and represent them in the portrait.

INITIAL SKETCH

Here’s the earliest version of the portrait, done really roughly in graphite pencil:

DIGITIZING (WORK IN PROGRESS)

I then photographed and imported it into Photoshop, tracing and editing it along the way.

 

I added a paper texture in the background and did some colour swatches. Also went over the outline with a thicker brush and duplicated some of the chrysanthemums. Decided to keep the original sketch visible to add some texture and interest. 

Here it’s nearly done, but the flatness of the colours really bugged me. I also found the background lacking, and the shadows also needed to be blended.

Final piece (can be accessed here)

So a few more additions, a lot of noise layers, and one RGB separation later: here’s the final! I liked the way the portrait turned out, although it really doesn’t look very much like me (wish I had hair like that :'( ). It was really enjoyable working on it though, made for a welcome change from all the other schoolwork.