self-portrait

Unfortunately I am not a very photogenic individual. Fortunately this illustration makes up for all of those horrible photos from my past. Ironically this illustration was based on a photo. For a wire frame view roll your mouse over the image.

inspiration

There are so many awesome artists that come up with the coolest ways to create portraits of other people. For example Jason Mecier who used breakfast cereal to create a portrait of Jerry Seinfield, www.jasonmecier.com. I have always been inspired by people with the ability to create realistic portraits, and decided to give it a try.

process

Starting with a photo of myself, I applied a Photoshop filter to more clearly define the shadows in my face. I then brought the filtered photo into Illustrator and began tracing the basic shapes of my face. I used the blend tool to blend darker and lighter shapes, which formed the shadows. I also used the blend tool for the lips and eyes. To give the eyes a bit more depth I added a white transparent shape to appear as a reflection. Lastly the hair was created from different linear gradients.

challenges

The hair was definitely the biggest challenge for this illustration. I tried several different methods. I didn't want to have to draw every strand of hair, so I came up with a unique and abstract solution through the highlights.