Self Portrait Risograph

When sketching and painting this portrait, I referenced a selfie for establishing proportions and establishing shadows and highlights. Because my head was tilted, and my face is already pretty unsymmetrical, it was challenging to get the proportions exact enough to capture likeness. I did a couple sketches and reworked the proportions until it resembled the photo. I painted in small sections, layering the watercolor to increase the opacity of the paint. With a bright and bold color story in mind, I did this layering to achieve a saturated, high contrast piece.  Using a surreal color scheme, I worked to establish a lively feel. Using color, the gesture, and facial expression I was able to paint myself with a relaxed, but still playful presence. I also like snakes, and thought painting myself holding one would make me look cool.

In photoshop, I split CMYK channels to create separate layers for the risograph machine to read. When using the risograph, I printed the lightest inks first and built the darker inks on top. The inks didn’t always perfectly align or print, but its the imperfect nature of the machine that gives prints their interesting graphic quality.