Sleepy Head

Well, it's not very good. I hate self portraits. Oh well, here's some contextualization!

As a self portrait, this piece has 3 different facets to represent three different levels of myself. The first is obvious; it looks like me. This represents my outer most level, that which interacts with a physical world. The second facet is the expression and the words, that which I desire to show the world in order to establish individuality. It is the only purpose of the first level's participation in that level. The personality shown here is exhaustion, denoting will power to go without sleep, to work hard, to have drive, while at the same time giving a very unappealing appearance.

The third facet, the one that ties the other two together, is in the process behind the piece. To create this portrait I first started with a digital picture of myself, edited it with various Photoshop effects, and then drew over it with the pain brush tool.

In much the same way, I attempt to draw over myself in every day life, as do most other people. We put on a face, desiring to show a positive side of ourselves, but only succeed in masking ourselves entirely, often creating a persona uglier than what we were trying to hide.

Thus, my otherwise decent picture of myself now looks tired, disheveled, and unattractive, a result of the exhaustion one experiences when working too hard for too long to put on a facade.

Whew, too long! XD