In my last post, I talked about the importance of online art trends in the art community. Following that theme, I wanted to put these trends into action! One of the trends I have really fallen in love with is “The Old Me” reel, where artists draw themselves at different ages. The different drawings are then put to the song “SKINNY” by Billie Eilish. I do not do these trends a lot, as I am usually too late to the trend. This time however, I have finished a lot of it and wanted to show you my work in progress!
Into the Archives
One of the reasons I love this trend so much is that it is a format I have already attempted to explore. When I graduated high school a year ago, I wanted to do something very similar. I had felt that there was so much growth through my years that showcasing it in art form would be a nice ‘culmination’ to my high school years. I had started a lot of the drawings and had hoped to put it to the song “Inertia” by AJR. However, I got busy with other art projects, graduation, and college planning — and the project was left unfinished. Some of the finished pieces are below.
While I had a nice start, I think a lot of these pieces lack detail and the monochrome palette just feels boring and unfinished. The shading looks very flat in places, and I did not have much of an understanding of how fabric looks. However, I took a lot of inspiration from this first attempt and you can see it in my current designs.
Current Progress
I chose to draw five versions of myself this time around: a version of me at three years old, six years old, twelve years old, 16 years old, and 19 years old. In this post, I will be showing my three year old, six year old, and 19 year old designs. Something about this project I really love is that it has allowed me to process who I was at each age, and really hone into what that might have looked like. While some parts remained the same, it was neat to experiment with posing and color to capture the mood of who I was and what I felt at the time.
Three-Year-Old Self
I started first with my three year old self. I knew that as a toddler, I had really short, really thin hair. I also knew that my parents put my hair in barettes a lot, so I incorporated that into my design. This is also where I established my color palette. For the most part, each ‘Rebecca’ has its own color palette, but the skin tone, eye color, and hair color is established in this version of Rebecca.
I also spent a lot of time looking at how my clothing fit at the time. I, like a lot of toddlers, had really baggy jeans. It was also very important to me that “Three-year-old Rebecca” wore purple, as my parents used to dress my twin sister and I in pink and purple so they could tell us apart in pictures. (Yes, my parents could tell us apart in person, but pictures stumped them if there was no color coding).
The final version of “Three-year-old-Rebecca” came out pretty nice. I am pretty proud of how the hair came out. I often struggle to draw my hair, as it has a cool tone to it in most lighting. I naturally gravitate towards warmer hair tones in my work, so forcing myself not to do that this time was definitely a nice exercise of willpower.
Six-Year-Old Self
Most noticeable about this version of myself, is the brightness and energy in her. As a young kid, I was a lot more energetic, sassy and loud. This has for the most part gone away but it was very characteristic of my elementary years. Trying to capture this in my work was a lot of fun. I took inspiration for the clothes from a particular set of clothing I had at that age. I was obsessed with these three-tiered skirts and tank top combos. This piece was particularly hard for me to work with color-wise, as I tend to draw in more muted tones. This time, I used a lot of saturated colors in the clothing especially to capture the high-energy kid I was. Finally, I really love this piece because it shows my improvement from last year. The archived version of this project from a year ago (see above) and this current version share a lot of similarities. This updated version definitely handles posing and color way better, and in general, looks more like little me.
Current Self
The version of myself at this current age has been the most fun for me to work on. Anatomically, I think this version is probably the strongest so far. I loved working on the sweatshirt and jeans outfit. My favorite part however, is that this is the only version I have created that stares directly at the viewer. My other designs do not look back at the viewer but I wanted this version to be aware. She is the only one who has the hindsight to see the fragments of her past selfs that make her who she is today, and I felt making her aware of the viewer subliminally represented this.
While I love working on this one, she is also the hardest to really accurately portray. I don’t yet have the hindsight to see who this current version is so in some ways, I had less to base this design on. Regardless, I am really happy with this design thus far and cannot wait to finish her!
What’s Next?
This project still has a lot of ground to cover! I have several more versions to finish, but soon I will have the project done. For now, I’m just happy to reflect on what a refreshing project this is. I do not often do a lot of art just for me as of late. Usually, there is a grade attached or a portfolio goal in mind. For this project, this is not the case. While I am showing an early work in progress, I plan on keeping the final piece offline and out of my portfolio. The concept of who I am, and who I was, is a theme that has resonated with me for years. This exploration of identity through art has been amazing in so many ways, and has helped me process the concept so well. I have left out a lot of what makes this piece so specifically personal for me, on purpose. The final reel with all of my ‘selfs’ is the culmination of a very personal journey, thus why I plan on keeping it offline. Regardless, I am so happy to have had the space to share this artistic process with everyone! I deeply encourage you to try it out too — you have no idea what you might discover about yourself!