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.