An evolution of my self portraits from 2004 (and probably prior to that) to 2020…
2004
These were made sometime between 2000 and 2004, during high school. I didn't keep track of exactly when I made them.
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I did a lot of school activities: volleyball, winter track, spring track, concert band, and marching band. This drawing of me throwing javelin must have been drawn sometime after my freshman year. I realized I was too slow and had little stamina for running mid-distance, so one day, I jokingly said I would switch to throwing. My agility from volleyball turned out to actually be helpful in javelin. |
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This is another one from my track and field days. I still remember this moment. My now sister-in-law braided my hair and so we took a good old disposable Kodak picture while I was sitting in the stands. I felt cute (might delete later). I used the grid method to lay this out. |
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I made this acrylic painting in an art class. It was one of those classes where they give you the supplies, but don't actually teach you how to paint or draw. I sat on the floor while looking at a mirror. This was embarassing at the time, but I appreciate looking back to see how much I've improved. It kind of reminds me of the botched restoration of a Jesus Christ painting. |
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This is a bigger version of the sitting in the bleachers self portrait. It's the same grid method. |
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This linoleom block print was also from an art class. It uses a linoleom block that's carved out for each color gradation. We printed out a photo with three levels of gradation. You carve out one of the levels at a time, slap on some paint, and then stamp it on the paper. Rinse and repeat. |
2008
During college, I was taking Electronic Imaging. People kept associating it with medical equipment though, so it was renamed to Digital Media. I got to learn about 3d modeling and animation. I think I created this 3d model of my bust with Lightwave.
I had a version with hair but lost the source file when I was staying with my mom in Las Vegas. Our apartment was burgled. My entire portfolio and source files were in an old Macbook that was barely hanging on by a thread. The fan was so loud, it always sounded like it was about to take off. I only lost my laptop while my mom lost all her electronics and cash, but that laptop had everything. So lesson learned. Save everything in multiple places! Even though the Cloud didn't exist at the time, I could've saved it on CDs, external hard drives, etc.
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I did this acrylic painting when I had some figure and structure drawing classes under my belt, so I knew about “capturing the essence,” “drawing what you see, not what you know,” and how to mix paint. I used a paintbrush, rather than a palette knife, which is what I've been painting with at the time time. Apparently, you're supposed to mix acrylic paint before it's on the canvas. Instead, I would try mixing the paint on the canvas, as if it was oil paint. Whoops!
2010
Right after college, I was living in an apartment with a friend from high school and was working at Lindt Chocolate Factory. The store had a mirror behind the register. It made the space seem bigger. I drew this during a particularly slow night. That time in my life was probably one of my lowest points. Money was tight and I had impending school loans. I definitely couldn't afford being on my own, so I moved to Las Vegas to live with my mom.
2011
In 2011, I moved back to MA. I was still financially struggling so I was staying at my dad's condo and was working at Victoria's Secret. My day to day consisted of working my minimum wage job and then locking myself up in my room to play hours and hours of World of Warcraft. I somehow managed to draw these, but my motivation to be artsy was at an all time low.
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2012
I met my now wife in 2012. I think I was living with a couple in Melrose when I drew this. They were huge nerds. Katie helped me get back into enjoying making art. I was either still working at Victoria's Secret or waitressing at Turner's Seafood Grill and Market, and not making bank. However, this was still a big turning point in my life. I was starting to feel autonomous and happy again.
2013
I played World of Warcraft from Lich King (2008) to Legion (2018). My main character was a restoration, night elf druid name Pagong, which means “turtle” in tagalog. I came up with the name since I started playing on my Macbook that was later stolen. That computer was so slow that I'd lag and freeze every time I entered a city. I tried starting out as a human but couldn't even handle going into Goldshire, so I went with the druid instead. Druids start out in a middle-of-nowhere tree. The first city is usually empty but it still had access to trade chat and the bank.
I drew my face on my game avatar. I did it on an iPad mini that my friends had gifted me. It was the first time I had access to any type of vector drawing program since college.
2016
I got engaged so I drew this chibi version of me and my fiancee for our save the date postcard. I think I was still using the iPad mini to do any type of vector drawing. My wife and our coworkers planned a surprise wedding shower for me. They took this drawing and had it printed on a couple of mugs. One of them is currently in the office in this time of covid. They're letting us stop in to pick up our stuff, but I haven't justified my need to go in.
2020
It's 2020 now and we're in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. I've taken up lots of other artistic hobbies, such as sewing, embroidery, pepakura, and jewelry crafting. I've been busy working on those until I found a fountain pen that I bought while we were on our honeymoon in Japan. It had a dried up cartridge inside so I cleaned it out and bought some ink and a converter.
As a lefty, writing with a fountain pen challenging. I'm working on being a better overwriter, where my hand rests above the line so I don't smudge the ink and allows me to use more of a pull instead of push writing technique. I've also gone back to drawing again. I'm enjoying creating the harder outlines on my pencil drawings. I haven't quite mastered cross hatching with it. Good thing I took a photo of this drawing before I ruined it with my poor cross hatching skills.
