(Aimee Self Portrait, Photoshop, 2014)

In a world of amateur selfie enthusiasts a handful of interesting or inspiring photos do occasionally make it onto the various social media websites. Every now and then when a friend of mine posts a particularly nice facebook photo, I ask for their permission to use it as a reference for a sketch or portrait piece. When my friend Aimee posted a photo of her holding a small puppy, I thought it might be fun to draw her holding something more ridiculous.

Portraiture is not my greatest strength and I spent a few days making sketches of the face until I had it right. After that it was a matter of taping the face to a piece of cardboard, placing some tracing paper over it, and sketching various backgrounds, bodies, and scenarios. I knew I wanted to draw her holding something ridiculous and I liked this version the best, so I scanned it onto my mac book and got to work.

It was a fun little side project, and good practice for portraiture, which is a handy skill to have. Aimee was very please with how it came out, as was I =)