One of the assignments we were given in our Drawing class this semester was to create a self portrait using just the greyscale. This was accomplished by employing various techniques such as stippling or hatching, leaving more or less space between points to create a deeper or lesser value. I wanted to do something that captured my interests as well as myself, so I created a mashup of my avatar in Final Fantasy XIV and myself.

Some of the thumbnails I created. We had to create twenty thumbs in total, but I felt only three or four of them were good enough to use. After discussing with my teacher, we settled on one and I started to work.

Step one was to create a rough and try out the greyscale techniques we had been learning. As much as I dislike it, I found stippling created a very nice effect and can transition between light and dark fairly easily, so I used it on a large majority. I wasn't too keen on the scales, and decided not to use that for the final.

After the rough, I drew out the image on a piece of illustration board and set to work. After this project, it will be too soon before I stipple again. 

Getting there! this was at the 6 hour mark or so, spread over a few days. Frequent breaks were necessary from all those tiny dots. I did manage to create a nice weave pattern in the hood though!

 

The final image!