Twitter rolled out new look profiles last month, allowing higher resolution avatars than before. I opened my Photoshop file to export a larger copy, made sure the glasses resemble my current pair… then lopped off the quiff (as I no longer sport one).
The human self-portrait, displayed on my portfolio cover and in the top-right of this blog, has also been shorn and contemporised…
The hairline shortens and softens. The facial hair (also shorter now) lightens and the soul patch shrinks. To reflect weight gain, the cheeks are padded out slightly and the cheekbones are reduced. There are a few line tweaks, most noticeable on the nose.
Due to witnessing the follies of the new youth (and having to listen to their music), the “Dreamworks Face” smirk has been toned down towards a questioning sneer.
My glasses have a transparent edging all around the frames, as well as metallic detailing on the arms. Note the lens refraction by my right eye socket. Speaking of eyes, the irises get a little bump in detail, though for picture balance they’re still not the piercing blue of my real-world peepers.
There’s a reason this post’s header image is nothing but hair: I like that dappled effect. Version 1 was drawn on a tablet in Photoshop, which is why the hair shading contains translucent dabs. These were later recreated in Illustrator. Version 5, the latest iteration, mostly removes them.
I sneakily updated my photo on the About page and all, when I made all the social media icons the same colour. Even the favicon’s been to the barbers.
Give it 5 or 10 years and I’ll save time by using Walter White fanart.
