Before creating this self portrait, I first drew myself realistically using pencil. I had been trying to find my own artistic style and decided to try using a mixture of hard and soft charcoal to create a more unique representation of myself. The result is a stylized version with certain aspects emphasized – at the time, I had been feeling consistently exhausted (likely due to a recent concussion), hence the dark circles under the eyes and sunken cheeks. Furthermore, as I had been recovering from said concussion, I wanted to depict the mess going on inside my head, with a miniature me (the one before the concussion) getting wrapped up in the mess.
The background only says one repeating line: “another day another headache. i ain’t got time to waste”. On my way to class one day, I had a massive headache, which annoyed me as I felt that I could not be productive and get anything done. I recognized the fragility of being human and was mad at myself for having a concussion due to my own carelessness.
Despite everything going on inside my head, my facial expression is calm. I have a tendency to hold in things that are bothering me so that I do not become a burden to others. Even when I had a concussion, I told all my friends that I was feeling fine and laughed about the situation. While that is my way of coping, I wanted to show the contrast between the two in my self portrait.