How I created my blog header

When we were told that we would be creating a blog as our final 1st year project, one idea immediately came to mind with the blog's design, the header. I feel like the header or front page of a blog really sets the tone for the rest of the website. If you have a strong image to begin with, people will more likely progress through the rest of your blog as they were interested by the initial image. I wanted to immediately showcase the types of work I do most often, and I debated for a rather long time what kind of image would best represent me. I eventually came to the idea of drawing a self portrait in a semi-realistic, soft shading style so I could showcase my digital style.

I started by finding a reference picture that I was happy with and began to sketch out my basic facial features. Once I'd gotten the main structure down, I went into a lot more detail with the sketch, keeping it in a brown/red tone so it wasn't too harsh. After sketching, I applied the base colours of my hair, face, eyes and other features on a separate layer, once finished with this I merged the colour and sketch layer together so I could have a soft-shaded effect on the portrait. I used the sketch to help define certain shapes in the image and to show me where I might want some of the shadows in the drawing to be.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the final outcome, I was able to clearly show y passion for illustration through the header, and it also gave a quick insight into my personality. I feel that by being real open with the header, those who visit my blog will see that it's rather personal.