The Glass Eye: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Lora Maslenitsyna (2012)

My self-portrait illustration is meant to represent two contrasting characteristics of myself. I am attentive but have an inability to trust. I notice details about the people around me and try to be considerate towards them. At the same time, I find it difficult to trust people and thus, do not open up easily to everyone. To show my attentiveness, I drew an eye, which in general terms is supposed to show watchfulness. I added a darker shadow underneath the eye to demonstrate that this characteristic is ongoing. Inside the pupil is a flower underneath a glass case, or my hindered trust. I represented trust as a flower to show that it is more delicate and easy to break or abuse. The glass case is the protective wall.

I originally tried tracing an image of an eye with the pen tool, but found that tedious and unnecessary so, I just drew my illustration. I did not want there to be many details in the image because I like the simplicity of the drawing, but I added the shadow under the eye with the paintbrush tool and used a gradient in the iris to give it more dimension.