long time TL lurker and sc2 fan here. i'm jake, i love creating things, anything really. i write, draw, take photos, design, whatever strikes me. i also live with a mild mental illness called dysthymia, it essentially keeps you in a state of feeling peripheral in life, and keeps you teetering between feeling monotone or borderline depressed. i'm not ashamed of this, nor would i describe myself as suffering. this condition is a part of what makes me a person that i want to be. this is because staying on top of my negative traits requires constant work towards viewing myself as productive and important. creativity is a way of showing myself that i am those things. my art is for myself, however it's also a great way to cut through my monotone demeanor and build connections with others, through social media, or having a friend model for something. creativity might be the most accessible form of self-fulfillment in my life.

recently i started a 30 day challenge for myself to complete a variety of daily tasks like exercising, creating, dieting. etc. one task is to create something everyday. portraiture is my drawing subject of choice, so i've been filling my sketchbook with portraits of figures i like. as a fan of starcraft, i drew some portraits of a few of my favorite players.

these were made in about 40 minutes each using brush tipped markers on 70lb sketchbook paper

stephano:


HerO:


scarlett:


the most challenging aspect of these portraits was defining what facial features to skew in order to fit the style i was going for. without a complete range of value, going for perfect likeness wouldn't have worked for me, i imagine some people can do realism in 4 colors, but that's not where my head is at. i like drawing with a graphic quality a lot right now anyway. i think stephano was my most successful portrait, HerO being my least so. but i'd like to hear more thoughts and opinions if anyone has any.

thanks for reading! if you like my art, you can find more at: www.instagram.com, i have some other projects uploaded there as well.

jake.