#though i did post this on instagram first and am therefore missing the soundtrack in this silent video

[cjgladback]

New icon/pfp/avatar/pictorial representation alert!

I think it's fair to say my icon self-portraits are improving. And it's not just because I have and use Pureref now. (Though I'm not showing you my reference to compare because it was a combination of a terribly lit photo and a horrific empty-eyed husk, aka the 3D model I abandoned this winter, but lit dramatically.)

Video and image descriptions under the cut.

[Video ID: A sped up recording of digitally painting a portrait in Photoshop. It starts with an orange background, sketching over it with dark brown. The sketch is refined, flipping horizontally once for the details before flipping back to lay in a green background, then shadows, then colors over the lines but under the shadows. When nearly everything has been colored, the contrast is lowered for legibility of the lines that return over the top. Painting resumes, combining the color and shadows, correcting the shapes back to those sketched. The painting is refined without the sketch or adjustment layer but the final piece includes some of those sketched lines in lowered opacity.

Image ID: The resulting digitally painted portrait, surrounded by four smaller ones, in each corner. Handwritten text in pale green reads, "Have you seen this woman?" The subject is the same woman, with pale skin, brown hair, downward slanted eyes, and a prominent nose, eyebrows, and jaw. The upper left is a vector drawing with simplified shapes that portrays her with an asymmetrical bob haircut and glasses, labeled '17. Upper right is a blotchy digital painting that shows the same haircut but from an awkwardly high angle; her head is too large for her torso and arms, her nose and eyes still larger. It's labeled '19. Lower left is more realistic proportions but still somewhat uneven perspective and intensity of lighting, labeled '20. Lower right has stylized proportions emphasizing her eyes and the length of her nose, with intense lines and defined planes that make her face look less soft than the other images and her hair almost greasy but the colors are more playful and saturated with highlights of magenta and lime; it's labeled '21. The central image is in portrait orientation (as opposed to the four squares) and shows the subject close to straight on, minimizing the protruding bridge of her nose as only the vector illustration did before. She's lit dramatically with golden orange from her left, her hair loose over that shoulder and, along with her profile, casting sharp shadows over her face. The color palette and dynamic range are narrow but include purple and green dimensions to her mostly orange-hued hair and skin, and a few pale lines imply silver strands of hair in the front. Her signature, a stylized CJG, accompanies the label '23. End ID]