Self Care

Thoughts

This is a self portrait. 

I created this piece during the summer holidays, just before returning to full-time work after a long career break. It was a time of change and hope, I had just coloured my hair and was completely in love with the bright, happy look. That joy inspired me to pick up my pencils and capture myself as I truly was in that moment.

Too often, I only draw when I’m feeling low, using art as a space to process negativity. This time, I made a conscious choice to document a positive mood, to try to anchor that feeling of hope and confidence in something tangible. I didn’t want to hide behind stylisation or fantasy: no surreal creatures, no softening of wrinkles or moles. Just me, authentically bold, vibrant, and present. This piece is a reminder that I can feel this way, and that those moments, no matter how fleeting, are worth celebrating and remembering.

Process

I began by sketching out the portrait, focusing on proportion and laying in some initial values. Knowing that refining the skin tones with pencil would be time-consuming and include all final touches, I concentrated first on blocking in all other colours.

For the hair, I used Copic markers, layering multiple shades of purple to create depth and dimension. I wanted it to feel vivid and textured, with a richness that echoed the joy I felt at the time. The clothing wasn’t central to the piece, so I simplified it—using Posca acrylic markers to suggest just hints of fabric and form, inspired by what I was actually wearing.

When I returned to the face, I began working carefully around it, adding warm tones first to preserve the grey values from the pencil underdrawing without dulling the overall colour. I built up subtle layers with coloured pencils, using blending pencils to smooth transitions and unify the tones. To balance the warmth in the skin, I revisited the hair with cooler pencil shades, adding proximity shadows and enhancing contrast to tie the portrait together.