Assignment 1: Self-Portrait

The first assignment for Intro to IM asked us to make a self-portrait of ourselves using p5.js. I was really excited to do this assignment, and I enjoyed playing around with the different shapes and colors.

I wanted to create a nice background for my portrait, so I began by making a sunset scene. I used multiple rectangles to simulate the effect of a gradient, and then experimented with the colors to create a cohesive color scheme. I then used circles to simulate clouds and added more rectangles to create a window frame.

However, it soon turned out that making the background was the easy part, as I then had to start making myself.

I started by making the body. I used two shades of gray for the jacket to give my portrait some depth. I then used a similar technique with the shades of blue to create my scarf.

Making the face was objectively the hardest part, as getting the proportions right was very difficult. I ended using the quad() function to create the shape of my glasses, then filled them in with a semi transparent white shape to simulate glass. Although making the face was challenging, it was the most satisfying part, as it was rewarding to see all the aspects come together.

Throughout the assignment, I was struggling when trying to get the x and y-coordinates precisely where I wanted them. In the end, I used console.log to track the coordinates I wanted when I clicked in a specific place. While it was still challenging nonetheless, using this function made it much faster to implement.

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of doing this assignment, as it was very interesting to see the way I could use basic shapes to create something meaningful.