Portrait 2012

Portrait 2012

Portrait 2012 by Stefanie Kljucaric is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

—

After many weeks of working, mostly on weekends because that’s the only time I could get myself to do it, it’s done. Here is my completed self-portrait.

While I am happy with the finished product, I feel like this piece was more about process than anything. Taking a difficult subject (one I know so well that it was difficult anytime it slipped into uncanny valley) and drawing it from references and a mirror. Not saying that tracing in Illustrator doesn’t have its place if you’re new to the program or need to get something done fast, but I wanted to do this the right way. I did it, it just took a while. Designer’s block is no fun.

I had to cut some parts out (like when I wanted to shade it all in Photoshop) or else it would never get done. An important part of the artistic process is knowing when to say “It’s finished” and stop over thinking it.

Speaking of process, you can see the evolution of the drawing from the first version to the last in this video. The first versions are especially goofy because I was trying to illustrate on a touch pad while holding a hand mirror:

If you’re interested in any other parts of this process, here are all the progress posts I made while working:

• Portrait Progress No. 1
• Portrait Progress No. 2
• Portrait Progress No. 3
• Portrait Progress No. 4
• Portrait Progress No. 5
• Portrait Progress No. 6

So that is that for now. Like I said last week, I have a few new project ideas in my head that will be easier to do after work without getting so burnt out.

Thanks for looking.

Advertisement