CONCEPT:
For this assignment, I built a self-portrait entirely out of shapes in p5.js. I wasn’t trying to make something realistic, instead, I went for a cartoon version of myself: a round face, messy hair, glasses, and a simple smile. The idea was to see how much “me” I could get across with just ellipses, arcs, and lines. The output is far from realistic; come on, I am not trying to replace my passport photo with this. The portrait is simple, but I like how it balances between looking generic and still recognizably like me.
HIGHLIGHTED CODE:
The glasses ended up being my favorite part. Without them, the face felt empty, but adding two circles and a line suddenly made it feel right:
noFill();
stroke(0);
strokeWeight(3);
ellipse(167, 170, 60, 60);
ellipse(233, 170, 60, 60);
line(200, 170, 200, 170); // bridge
REFLECTION AND FUTURE WORK:
This was my first attempt at drawing myself, and that too using code; and it showed me how powerful even basic shapes can be. It doesn’t need shading or complex details to read as a face, and luckily identify a person if the components are placed right.
However, if I had more time, I’d like to:
– Make the eyes blink or move with the cursor (saw many do that, i can’t just yet)
– Give the background more personality
– Fix the hair so it looks less like a helmet and more like actual messy hair (pretty doable with multiple ellipses but i reckon there are more efficient ways)
Even with its simplicity, I like how it turned out, it’s definitely not a mirror image, but it’s “me” enough.