I set out to make some new “hair landscape” images when I started this, similar to the image below:

Lately I’ve been much more open to using photographs of myself as references for drawings. The convenience of photographing myself on whatever angle I’d like to draw is massively helpful. I’m also growing to be more okay with exploring “self” in my art, which was something I had reservations about in the past (general feelings of grossness regarding narcissism/self obsession prevented me from really delving into it). I’m finding it to be a very therapeutic practice.

This piece however (at the top of this post) is more of a technical exploration than a “self” exploration. I was drawing from a photograph of myself to get a particular profile angle that I wanted to capture. After completing the drawing phase, I went looking through my library of landscape photos I’ve complied for the purpose of splicing/editing with my drawings. When I didn’t find any photos that jumped out at me, I layered the original reference photograph that I was drawing from with the drawing itself, and filled in the drawn hair area with the actual hair texture from the photograph. And I was… pleased. Actually, I was very excited. I haven’t felt this actively interested or exhilarated by drawing in a while. I can use this mixed media approach to explore further breaking down the drawn and photographed area/minimalism/how much information can I remove while still creating an engaging portrait? There will definitely be more work in this vein popping up soon.