For the self portrait I decided to show not exactly my picture, but the picture of my inner animal.
Initially, I drew a sketch of myself, holding a camera, because photography is on of my favorite hobbies. However, I then thought of giving more meaning to my portrait, because I had a call with my mom and remembered how she always called me an owl when I was a child (reason being my sleep schedule that is still very bad). So I thought, if my sleep schedule harms my health, let me at least use it to benefit my academics.
my initial sketch
what I decided to create
Creation
It was a little challenging for me to get started on p5.js, because of my limited coding skills, but after some experiments I was able to actually create something using simple circles, triangles and lines. One of the most challenging parts was creating the feathers on my Owl’s body, so I used some help from AI. I tried not to simply copy the code, but learn how to do it on my own as well. And because this was one of the most confusing part for me, I am proud because I eventually created it.
Interactivity
I made my drawing clickable: the owl sleeps during the day but if you click it, night comes and it wakes up (just like me).
Improvements
There are a lot of things I would like to improve in my project, one of them being enhanced interactivity. I would love to add moving clouds, more complex shapes for the owl, stars at night, and many others things that could make my owl more “likable”.
For this assignment, I created an interactive self-portrait that represents me both visually and personally. The portrait includes:
My cartoonish face with long straight hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, and mouth.
Interactive eyes that follow the user’s mouse, which I am especially proud of.
A background of colorful circles that symbolize “yarn cakes,” reflecting my love for crocheting.
A small bunny plushie on the side, inspired by one of my crochet projects, including tiny stitched details to mimic real crochet stitches.
Visual Documentation
I started with an extremely rough sketch to plan what I wanted my self-portrait to look like and the placement of facial features, hair, and background elements. I also noted a couple of interactive elements I hoped to achieve.
I watched a YouTube tutorial to learn the mouse-following pupil technique, which became the most interactive and technically exciting part of my sketch:YouTube tutorial. Honestly, I struggled a lot with this part, but I was determined to get it right. I tried to make the pupils move without leaving the eyes, and after lots of trial and error, I finally figured it out.
The circles in the background represent yarn cakes, inspired by my hobby. Crocheting is similar to knitting, but instead of using two needles, I use a hook to create loops and form fabric.
The little bunny in the corner represents one of my actual crochet projects, and I tried to include stitch details to mimic crochet.
Interactive Features
The eyes follow the user’s mouse, giving the portrait a sense of life.
Users can move their mouse around the canvas to see how the pupils track it.
Technical Notes
Eyes: Pupil positions are calculated by taking the difference between the mouse coordinates and the center of each eye, multiplied by a scaling factor to keep pupils inside the eyeball. This took me some time to get the hang of.
Hair & Face: Used basic shapes (rectangles, ellipses, arcs).
Background Yarn Cakes: Multiple overlapping circles of different sizes and colors, inspired by real crochet yarn balls.
Bunny Plushie: Ellipses for the head and ears, with short lines to simulate crochet stitches.
Research, Tutorials, and Inspirations
YouTube tutorials helped with the eye-following technique.
Crocheting inspired the yarn cakes and bunny, making the project personal.
I was inspired by examples given in class and wanted to create cartoon-style self-portraits similar to them.
Coding I Am Proud Of
I am most proud of the eye-following interaction, which made the portrait feel alive. My code for this feature is well-commented and included below.
I am really proud of myself because this is my first time ever coding. I learned a lot of new things and hope to improve along the way.
I wish I could have animated the yarn cakes so they floated gently in the background while the eyes moved around, making the portrait even more dynamic. Linking the yarn cake movement to the eye-following interaction could create a more immersive experience, where the background reacts to the user.
This would enhance the interactive and playful feel of the portrait, connecting personal elements to user engagement.
For this first assignment, this was actually my very first time coding. Because of that, I wanted to keep things simple, but also try something that I thought was cool and interesting. I decided to make a portrait in a scene that could change from day to night. The feature I liked the most was being able to switch the background from morning to night with a single click, it felt like a big achievement for me and made the project more fun. Overall, I kept the shapes and details simple, but I made sure that I could still change and experiment with the code.
We started with a warm-up in class where we learned how to make a simple circle. That gave an idea on how to code for different shapes. We also learned how to make shapes change with a mouse click, and this inspired me to add the day and night feature. I watched the tutorial videos from YouTube, which helped me understand how to use shapes like ellipses, arcs, and triangles. From there, I built my project step by step, first the background, then the grass and sky, and finally the girl. I kept it simple, using a different shape and color for each feature, and added a night variable so everything could change between day and night.
Code Highlights
At first, I really struggled with the code because I didn’t fully understand how the night variable and the if (night) statements worked. It was confusing to me how to make something happen only in the day or only in the night. Slowly, I started to get the hang of it, and once I understood the logic, it became much easier. In the end, most of my code was just repeating the same pattern in different ways, for example, changing colors, showing the sun or the moon, or opening and closing the eyes.
I found it really interesting how I defined the night variable once and then kept repeating the if/else code for each feature of my self-portrait. I slowly got the hang of it and it helped me understand how coding logic works.
Another challenge I faced was figuring out where to place each shape. I had to keep adjusting the positions, running the code, and moving things again until I found the right spots. This took a lot of trial and error, but it also helped me learn how the coordinate system works.
At one point my code even stopped working completely and gave me errors I didn’t understand. I couldn’t figure out why, so I used AI to help me find the mistake. Once I fixed it, everything started working again, and I was able to continue building my portrait. Overall, I feel like I learned a lot about both the logic of coding and the patience it takes to position and test shapes.
I started the idea of pixel art with this piece of wooden pixel art that we mentioned in our first class(Wooden Segment Mirror). I’m also recently obsessed with Perler Beads(plastic fusible beads to form patterns and fuse together with an iron). So, I pixelated one of my self-portraits and created a canvas of 10 * 12 colored squares.
To make it more interactive, I also use the mouseClicked function to add a more immersive version to get rid of the pixel stroke.
Code Highlight
I’m particularly proud of the color list. When I just started, I wanted to do an automatic color picker program to create the list for me. However, after a few trials, all the available auto ones cannot handle many colors, either giving a fake hex code or a single palette with a maximum of 10. Then, I did some research on manual color pickers, and I found this one(https://colorpickerfromimage.com/) to be the best hex color picker shortcut among all. Since I had to manually picking up all the colors, it also pushes me to optimize other parts of my code to use less repeated manual calls but using the loop to create all the squares.
let colors = ["#9194a6","#7d7d8f","#c29c8e","#e8bc9e","#ebbe9e","#dcac8c","#a38572","#5b585a","#5b585a","#c0cc66","#767787","#736f79","#c19a88","#e7b691","#edbb93","#daa884","#a5846d","#5b5350","#685d56","#dfe1b5","#676672","#6c6266","#ab8273","#ab8273","#e5af83","#927466","#7c6258","#544944","#665a52","#bea7a9","#5c5258","#6c5554","#a17d68","#db9f7e","#e8b08a","#5e4540","#785145","#544139","#665c56","#cecccf","#5c4b4a","#b57b64","#de9b79","#e5aa8a","#e6a68d","#d09375","#c18067","#5c443a","#6a5c57","#ccc7c9","#674e46","#cd8e6a","#eaa67d","#e1a286","#e7ab93","#e6a880","#d8946e","#5c4035","#544b47","#cdcdd3","#543d36","#d7996a","#e9ae7e","#e0a17b","#d08b5d","#e0a46d","#d39560","#3b2922","#49423b","#ccc7c4","#372623","#c28b5c","#d5936e","#c6735c","#c67255","#d59761","#7f5535","#34231c","#3a2c23","#625c43","#33221e","#644430","#e4a976","#da8667","#da7c5e","#af794d","#341d13","#39261d","#3b281e","#3b281e","#39251e","#5d402d","#d29e74","#d59d6d","#a6754b","#2b1810","#2b1b14","#422c1e","#4c3626","#28190a","#4d372d","#694735","#d09c74","#d29d72","#7c593e","#362822","#3a2b24","#442f21","#78614d","#4d3b26","#4e382f","#6a4833","#d69a74","#c99874","#49362d","#2f221f","#3c2f2b","#402d20","#876e51","#83735c"]
I also think the way p5.js displays these hex codes is another piece of art that breaks down the color of me into hex code pieces.
Reflection
For my future works, this work reminded me the importance of planning before starting. Digital art is a more well-planned process compared to free-form drawing on papers. This time, I began by creating all the squares manually, but soon I realized how redundant that was. So, I turned back to a draft note to jot down the ratio calculations. Overall, the process of choosing colors and planning turned out to be quite meditative.
For this assignment, I made a self-portrait using p5.js, the online editor, with codes learned in class. I started by placing an ellipse at the center of the canvas and added smaller ellipses to make the eyes, circles for the irises, a rectangle and two circles for the nose, and thinned arcs for the eyebrows and eyelashes. Then, I used ellipses to make the shirt and a circle to show the flesh connecting the neck and shoulders, and two ellipses for the ears. After this, I created a series of arcs, all with different radians and sizes, to create the curls on the front and the rest of the hair in the back. At last, I used the “noStroke” code and added color to the background and all the shapes.
Favorite Codes
Although it isn’t the most creative or incredible code, I felt proud when I assembled the codes to create the structure of the face. I like the way the face, the neck, and the collarbone follow the founding shapes usually used for drawing sketches. While I am used to add more texture when I draw a person by hand or digitally, it is nice to see these shapes in a raw form, without any details or realism, and instead have a similar composition to a cartoon character. It was also fun to create the curls with the different variations of radians of the arcs.
One of the steps I struggled the most with was finding the right coordinates for the different shapes, especially when each shape had a different amount of values (for example, the circle only had three and the arc could have more than five). This was especially hard when I had to consider where in the canvas I wanted them and details such as height, width, etc. However, the more I practiced, the easier it became to mark said coordinates and sizes.
For the future I would like to learn how to further mold the different shapes to create more varied and distinct shapes. For example, instead of having to use the ellipses and the rectangle to make a neck and shoulders, I would like to understand how to create connected dots or merging shapes that can create this structure in a smoother, slightly more realistic way.
I had a few ideas of how I wanted to depict myself, none of which included a real depiction of my face, but more or less characters that I resonated with. I quickly scrapped that idea when I felt like it wouldn’t really be challenging me if I drew a depiction of an already existing illustration.
With my limited coding experience it would be certainly difficult to go from concept into actualization using just my keyboard and the funny colored words on screen, but I was committed to making something worth looking at.
One of the first things I tried to understand coming from a long photoshop/graphic design background was how layers would work on p5.js. Understanding this early gave me a lot of confidence that I wasn’t going to make something uncanny-looking. I made each body segment its own function and called it in the order from the lowest layer to the highest layer in draw()
function draw() { //draw runs on loop 60/sec
background(110,40,80);//change later?
//Draws Body Parts in Layers
drawHair();
drawTorso(90);
drawHead();
drawLeftEye(6.7);//parameter is for gap between lines
drawRightEye(6.7)
drawMouth();
drawHands();
drawBangs();
}
As I learned more about p5.js through tutorials, I wrote down lots of notes and reminders to myself. One tip that really helped me out initially was putting fill() before the shape I wanted to draw. When I was listening to the demonstration in class I thought it would make more sense for fill() to have parameters for what you wanted to fill, but after working with the shapes today I realized that would’ve caused a big confusing wall of text very quickly. Putting notes next to how many parameters and what each parameter did for each function was also really helpful in my learning process.
I wasn’t quite sure how to depict the face at first with just simple geometry but by removing the outline “strokes” and blending shapes I started sculpting some much nicer shapes.
I really wanted my avatar’s arms to be interactable with the user’s mouse values so I initially allowed the top Y-positions of the arm segments to be controlled using the mouse. I obviously didn’t want it to go out of bounds so I looked through the p5js reference until I found the constrain() function. This was a huge lifesaver for both this aspect of the self-portrait and some other aspects I worked on after this.
let armY = constrain(mouseY, 430, 500); //restricted value, min, max
let armX = constrain(mouseX, 200, 350);
//LEFT
quad(
armX-60, armY, //top left 220~
armX-10, armY+20, //top right 280~
220, 600, //bottom right
100, 600 //bottom left
);
//RIGHT ARM
quad(
armX+110, armY, //top left 380~
armX+60, armY+20, //top right 320~
width-220, 600, //bottom right
width-100, 600 //bottom left
);
This snippet was taken as I was working out the arm animation and tracking. Mini-me was very deprived of any type of hair back then. He was also very gray.
Fig 1. Snapshot Right After Figuring Out Arm Animations
I feel like the hand movements made the avatar feel so much more alive and responsive, making good use of p5.js in ways beyond just turning code into still images. This would go a step beyond when I added the cookie into mini-me’s hands then another step beyond when the mouth would respond to having a cookie in front of it.
//COOKIE
fill(210, 180, 140);
stroke(190, 160, 120);
cookieX = armX+25
//main cookie area
if (cookieEaten) {
arc(cookieX,armY,150,75,5.7,3.5) //cookie missing the top corner
console.log("Cookie was Eaten")
} else {
arc(cookieX,armY,150,75,0,2*PI) //a full cookie
}
//chocolate chips
fill(90, 60, 40);
noStroke();
//top left to bottom right
ellipse(cookieX-50,armY-10,19,14)
ellipse(cookieX-21,armY-2,16,10)
ellipse(cookieX-37,armY+10,12,7)
ellipse(cookieX+3,armY+8,17,12)
ellipse(cookieX+22,armY-6,12,8)
ellipse(cookieX+29,armY+20,15,10)
ellipse(cookieX+38,armY+2,18,13)
At first I didn’t have any chocolate chips on the cookie and my friend thought it was holding an empty plate so I decided to add some chocolate chips even though the way I did it was probably not very efficient. I considered using random variables like I’ve seen some previous projects utilize for their backgrounds but the choco chips needed to avoid a very specific area of the cookie that would be “bitten” into while looking well balanced.
One of my goals with the cookie in hand was to let the user be able to eat it by clicking on the mouth of mini-me, but I didn’t know how to program a bite mark into the ellipse so I decided to change it into an arc() halfway through and use the arc’s unique properties to cut out a portion of it near the mouth, making it appear like it had been bitten into. I was pretty proud of how I worked with my limited knowledge here.
cookieEaten = false
function mouseClicked() {
console.log(mouseX,mouseY)
if (mouseX > 280 && mouseX < 320 && mouseY > 330 && mouseY < 400){
cookieEaten = true;
console.log("clicked mouth");
}
}
//lots of stuff here in between in the real code...
if (cookieEaten) {
arc(cookieX,armY,150,75,5.7,3.5) //cookie missing the top corner
console.log("Cookie was Eaten")
} else {
arc(cookieX,armY,150,75,0,2*PI) //a full cookie
}
By far the most unsatisfying part to me was definitely the way I did my hair. There were just so little polygons to work with to properly express what type of hairstyle I wanted for mini-me. However, a lot of my friends said they actually really liked how I depicted the hair so perhaps I’m fixating on it too much.
My biggest regret was that I only learned after I was nearly done with my self-portrait that I could’ve changed the angleMode() to degrees the whole time… I spent so much time trying to remember middle school math just to work out the PI angles for certain arcs.
If I were to do this exercise again, I would probably create more variables to make certain parameters look a little more organized and efficient. I changed a few parts to stuff like “width-X” rather than calculating it myself but there was definitely more I could’ve done to make everything look cleaner.
Overall for my first experience with p5.js and my limited experience with JavaScript , I think I would be proud of myself even later down the line.
The moment a friend joked that I’m “basically a flower,” while I was brainstorming ideas for this task, I knew exactly what I wanted to draw! A happy, cartoon daisy standing in for my portrait. Instead of wrestling with a realistic self-portrait, I leaned into something more playful and honest, something that resembled me in being bright, a little goofy, and imperfect in the best way. That choice took the pressure off and made the assignment fun, I wasn’t proving I could render a realistic portrait, but rather show a bit of personality.
Color was deliberate in this portrait. I picked a soft pink background (`#fae`) because it feels light and friendly, like a page from a sketchbook. The petals are white with a clean black outline because daisies are my favorite and that crisp edge gives a bold, sticker-like cartoon look. The center is a warm yellow (classic daisy!), and the stem is a saturated green so it reads immediately even at a glance. Together, the palette stays simple, cheerful, and high-contrast, perfect for for clarity on screen.
There were two small decisions that made a big difference. First, was the draw order: I coded the petals before the center so the yellow circle sits neatly on top. p5.js applies fill and stroke at the exact moment you draw, so layering matters, getting that step right eliminated messy overlaps without extra code. Second, the smiley face: two tiny circle calls for eyes and a single arc for the smile gave the flower a personality however this was probably the hardest part. I watched a few YouTube videos about coordinates which is how I learned to use “cx” and “cy” so I wasn’t typing magic numbers everywhere (much easier to tweak).
The smiley face was the specific piece of code that I was proud of. I know it looks very simple but it definitely took me the longest time to get right without looking completely wonky!
What went well: I kept the geometry minimal (lines, ellipses, and circles). The result feels cohesive: the color palette, the outlines, and the proportions all read “cartoon daisy” immediately. What I could have done better: the petals aren’t perfectly placed since I originally wanted to do 5, and they look kind of odd, some spacing could be cleaner. I wish I had more time to work on this so I could adjust the shapes to my liking.
Looking ahead,I’d also like to add motion, a subtle stem sway maybe or a smile that reacts on hover/click. Or perhaps, adding clouds or a sun in the background. For now, I’m happy that it isn’t perfect, neither am I, and that’s kind of the point. I’m still getting into the rhythm of JavaScript, and this little daisy felt like the right way to bloom.
For my self-portrait, I decided to create a cartoon-esque representation of myself, with a background that evokes the feeling of entering another world in the viewer. The expanding circles in the background represent a portal, implying that the portrait is a view into another world. Aiming to give a sense of exploration, I wanted to add layers of interaction where the eyes follow the viewer’s cursor. The wandering of the eyes with the viewer are there to represent the curiosity of the character as they enter another world exploring their surroundings along with the viewer’s cursor. Combining the concept of dimensional portals, exaggerated cartoon features, and interactivity expresses my interest in making a portrait that feels alive and dynamic. The work aims to combine a static drawing with an experience where viewer becomes part of the artwork with their movement.
One of my priorities while coding is to keep my code clear and concise, as it ensures that later if there are any edits to be made I can easily identify the exact area that I need to modify and edit it with ease. While creating the circles for the necklace at the start I was creating one by one using the circle() function, which was taking a lot of time and was starting to look pretty repetitive, especially with all of them sharing the same size. At the start I decided to create a size variable to avoid having to change the size in every line if I wanted to change it. But then I realized that I was still repeating the circle() function, so I decided to create an array of the coordinates of each bead and creating a loop to place a circle in each of them. The resulting code was what I am particularly proud of off due to its efficiency and clarity.
Self-Portrait
Reflection
As my focus for this assignment was to get comfortable with the use of code for the purpose of drawing, I spent majority of my time experimenting with functions and made different stylistic choices without focusing too much on the concept and the story behind the work. For future assignments and projects I’d like to look into how to use the code to deliver a message or a story, which in turn would lead to me adding more interactivity and complexity to the piece as there would be a more clear path I am following while working. In particularly, I’d like to focus on adding an element of animation to a piece to give it life and create a more engaging feel to it.
As someone who grew up watching suspense, mystery, and thrillers, I have always had a love for the unknown . It is practically part of my personality at this point. So for my self-portrait, I wanted to bring in that sense of intrigue.
When the sketch first loads, you see an anonymous figure – a faceless, question-marked silhouette. But if you click anywhere on the canvas, the figure is replaced by a self-portrait. Click again, and it disappears back into anonymity.
On the surface, it is a fun interactive switch. But on a deeper level, I think it reflects something more personal: the idea that people can choose to know you or not. Maybe someone clicks, sees the portrait (a glimpse of who I am), and then clicks again to hide it. Maybe they don’t want to see me. Or maybe, like in real life, they’re unsure if they’re ready to know the full picture.
I guess that is the suspense in being known . Once someone sees you, they can never unsee you. But they can still choose to look away.
Here is my sketch.
The part of my code I am most proud of is the use of a boolean and if…else logic to toggle between the anonymous and self-portrait modes when the user clicks on the canvas.
function draw() {
textAlign(CENTER, TOP);
textSize(12);
noStroke();
if (showPortrait) {
background(255);
fill(0);
text('click to hide', 200, 50);
drawPortrait();
} else {
background(0);
fill(255);
text('click to reveal', 200, 50);
drawAnonymous();
}
}
function mousePressed() {
showPortrait = !showPortrait;
}
I am also quite proud that I managed to create a relatively expressive smile using just one line of code. It is simple, but adds a lot of personality in I think.
arc(200, 330, 30, 10, 0, PI, CHORD);
For future improvements, I would love to build on the toggle idea by introducing multiple personalities or moods instead of just a binary switch between anonymous and self-portrait. I believe everyone reveals different layers of themselves depending on the environment or the people around them. It would be really cool if the portrait could reflect that. For example, changing facial expressions, clothing, or color schemes to represent different sides of my personality: serious, playful, thoughtful etc. This would add both depth and relatability to the sketch.
A self-portrait should show that part of you that makes you who you are, right? My concept was to depict myself ‘normally’, but when the user clicks on the canvas, they are shown a side of me that not many people know about. I am actually a HUGE ocean nerd: marine life, ocean sustainability, deep exploration, I’m a sucker for it all. Consequently, I also love diving!
So, clicking transports me with my diving gear under the water! My eye shape changes to depict how happy I am and I think the bubbles bubbling upwards is a cute touch.
Code I’m proud of
// bubbles
noStroke();
fill(255, 255, 255);
for (let b of bubbles) {
ellipse(b.x, b.y, b.size);
b.y -= b.speed; // move bubble upward
if (b.y < -20) { // reset if off screen
b.y = 145;
}
}
I really like how I animated the bubbles to float upwards and out from the snorkel and continue to regenerate. I was already familiar to how to implement such a logic due to my previous coding experience, but it definitely took a bit of trial-and-error to figure out the initial placement, size, and speed of the bubbles.
My Sketch
Reflection
For future improvement, I would really love to add a kind of gradient of different shades of blue to enhance the underwater effect. I also think it would be pretty cool to have more animations, such as tiny fishes swimming in the background (and maybe a shark).
I think this assignment was particularly fun because I got to use JavaScript in a different creative manner compared to what I am used to. I was able to see my idea come to life just through simple shapes and colors! Overall, this self-portrait is an expression of a space I really care about and hope to get other people to care about too. Help keep our oceans clean, thank you!
