A few weeks ago I felt hopeless and sad, got the idea of doing a dual self portrait of myself like the tragedy/comedy masks. Trying to see the beauty of my unwanted emotions through art has always been helpful to me. I took two horrifically unflattering snapshots of myself in the bathroom mirror and used them for references. (Note to self: the bathroom at night has the worst, flattest lighting ever.)

10-12 hours in PhotoShop, no paintovers or texture, just the default Wacom brushes. I was originally going for photorealism but lost patience so scribbled in some manic contour lines and fleshed it out with rough chalk. Stuck in a background of downtown L.A., as I have such a tumultuous relationship with this city and it puts the emotion a little more into context. The bottom right corner looks to busy and accidental so I may rework it. Learned a lot about color and painting techniques in this one!