I tried to create some rough self-portraits using automation, just drawing anything I felt, most of these illustrations felt quite gimmicky, the least surreal one with the leaves felt the most honest, and it reminded me of a Hawaiian shirt I am known for in my friend group, Hawaiian shirts always make me happy because they are the perfect balance of good and bad, they are bright and colorful, crude and poorly designed comfortable yet formal, perfection in my eyes…

I am partially joking of course but it is something associated with my identity in a pretty big way, so I decided to continue with this self-portrait idea but wanted to explore a new medium.

when I was younger I really enjoyed painting. While looking through some of my old work I found a self-portrait I had painted on my foundation, it made me feel strange how much time had past and how different I am now and I wanted to create something to mark this moment in time, as the old painting marked that era of my life. I had already been doing some small landscape paintings inspired by where I live in the outskirts of Peterborough so had a small space set up in my garage for that, I converted this into my mini studio by buying a wallpaper pasting table, an easel, and a Bluetooth speaker, all the essentials.