This portrait came out of a month-long personal challenge. One digital portrait every day for thirty days. The point was to get faster and more accurate at likeness, proportion and expression, and to slowly wean off the grids and proportion overlays I'd been leaning on.
This specific painting was the breakthrough. It's the first one I finished without a grid or a proportion overlay. No training wheels. The improvement in confidence after this piece carried through the rest of the challenge.
Target Audience
Even though it's personal work, it's aimed at peers, art directors and clients hiring for illustrative or character-driven projects. The work shows growth in portraiture, which is directly relevant to editorial illustration, book covers and any branded character design that involves people on the page.
Touchpoints
The painting lives in the portfolio and on creative platforms. It's also a useful counterweight to the client-driven work in this collection, evidence I'm still pushing myself outside paid briefs.
Success Metrics
The whole challenge was about growth. By the end of the month, my portraits were less reliant on technical scaffolding and more expressive. This piece, in particular, was where it finally clicked. That's exactly what the challenge was supposed to deliver.
