The reason I chose this self portrait project as my best project is because of the different factors surrounding its creation. When I illustrated this piece, I had literally just gotten familiar with the photoshop illustration technique. I really hadn't begun to even enjoy photoshop illustrations. When I started illustrating this, I just sat there and went at it without really thinking too much of it. In the process, I happened to stumble upon my own individual technique within photoshop utilizing specific steps and specific layers that I would continue to use on all of my photoshop illustrations throughout the rest of the semester. And when I was finished, I realized I had enjoyed the process of its creation, just as much as the final product.
This project marks the beginning of me taking to photoshop over all the other mediums we worked with in class. Because photoshop illustration is much more forgiving than gouache or watercolor, both of which I continuously struggled with all semester, I was very fond of spending the time to put in little details. I obviously hadn't yet mastered my technique so there were many instances when I found myself illustrating in the wrong layer, which is still one of my more common mistakes. But the restarting doesn't involve completely starting over like hand-illustrated art does. It's also convenient because I didn't need to scan my artwork into the computer, then mess around with color balancing just to make it resemble the original. Photoshop illustration gives so much more freedom, it's sort of a no brainer to use it.
So overall, I am really glad photoshop illustration was touched on in class. I know I was supposed to be doing more of the hand-made work since that's mostly of what the coursework calls for. But I wouldn't have been able to discover the style of illustration that came most naturally to me. Photoshop illustration has changed my perspective and added a very helpful, not to mention marketable, aspect to my style as a designer.
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