#2: I made this for a friend’s birthday
My Year of Making Things That Matter
For 2015, I’m spending 365 days making things that matter. Things that matter to me. Things that matter to the people who matter to me. Things that matter to the world. For behind the scenes email updates, sign up here. For background on the entire project, click here. My first project designing greeting card templates can be found here. This is my second project of the year.
[What]
A portrait made of words as a birthday gift for a friend of mine, Mandy.
[Why]
Because her birthday is coming up, and she never remembers to celebrate it.
Because she is beautiful inside and out—but I’m not sure she has ever really, truly believed any compliment that I have ever given her.
Because I believe that happiness, self-love, confidence are created by the love and kindness of other people—and I’ve been blessed to have an innumerable number of people love me while I learned to love myself.
So I wanted to give her written proof.
And I wanted to show her that I’m not the only one who thinks she’s awesome.
So I was originally going to use inspirational quotes as the text. But then I found this on Pinterest:
And a light bulb went off. I decided I’ll give her a portrait made of words that people have actually used to describe her. So I asked friends of ours and my mailing list to send me birthday messages and/or adjectives they would use to describe her.
I chose this portrait as reference:
Here’s how it turned out:
And here’s how I did it.
[How]
Here we go
12 days total, 8 days of designing in Photoshop, excluding an initial false start on pencil and paper.
Day 1
Strategize. Find inspiration. 2.22.15
As always, my planning doc is public if you want to see the raw, unedited version of this post. ☺
Day 2
Turn original photo black and white. Increase saturation. Add grids. Put text on photo to see how it looks. Identify parameters (Text should be readable. Don’t use just a text overlay — text should replace the content/shapes of the photo). Find quotes to use. Print photo. Sketch contours. 2.22.15
I originally wanted to do this entirely on pen and paper, to see that the drawing skills I’d learned last year did not completely atrophy. At this point, I’d also thought I would use inspirational quotes as the text.
Day 3
Fill in the face. Realize that my proportions are ALL WRONG. Consider switching to the computer tomorrow to meet the deadline of Saturday birthday drinks. Will it make this less meaningful though? Decide to do it (I’m much more comfortable on the computer). 2.23.15
Day 3.5
Also realize that it would be much more personal to use messages and adjectives rather than quotes. Ask friends and strangers alike to share birthday messages and descriptive adjectives with me. 2.24.15
Shoutouts to Ellen, Nina, Michelle, Cindy, Will, Chang, Raymond, Sand, William, Valentino, Teebla, Amy, Spencer, Anna, Emon, Brian. Thank you!
And a special hat tip to Chris, who sent in a poem:
bright like a diamond,
classy like v2359, // (the only class I took w her at columbia lol)
u always make me laugh,
with your beautiful mind,
to the best Wingman, my mei mei,
best wishes and happy bday
Day 4
Start in on this YouTube tutorial. Re-learn how to use the Pen tool in Photoshop. Do two lines. 2.25.15
Day 5
DO THREE MORE LINES. ☹ REALIZE I WILL NEVER FINISH. 2.26.15
Day 6
Get to 80% of the left side. 2.27.15
Day 7
Do all of left side. Start on right side. 3.1.15
Day 8
Finish right side. Get started on sweater. Test in color following this tutorial. 3.2.15
Day 9
Fix a curl on the left side. 3.3.15
Day 10
Finish sweater. Turn entire face into text. Decide it looks weird. Fade portrait into background to show eyes and mouth. Play around with different coloring options and background options. 3.4.15
Day 11
Fill in sweater with lower opacity text. Play with background and coloring options. 3.5.15
Day 12
Print it to test how it looks on paper. Get it printed at Staples and order a photo frame off of Amazon Prime Now (1 hour delivery — amazing, by the way!). Find typo (thanks Spencer!). Go back to Staples and print again. 3.6.15
[Her Reaction]
She said it was “The most wonderful, thoughtful and beautiful gift I have ever received.” ❤ ☺
[My Next Project]
It’ll have something to do with dimsum. Sign up for my mailing list here to be the first to hear about it. ;)
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