“Everything starts with a drawing” says digital artist Mike Barret (aka Emelbi). Produced as part of the DrawAble project, Mike shares with us what inspires him, and how we can make our own, individual work, either digitally or physically. Each resource is free to access, and the videos and text are appropriate for children to access directly.
Mike starts by sharing his passion for making digital portraits. He then takes us through a three-part process: draw a portrait, build a background, and combine the two images to make a layered narrative (autobiographical) portrait.
Let Me Inspire You by Mike Barrett
Mike shares his love of making digital portraits
Making Layered Portraits Part One by Mike Barrett
In Part One Mike creates the portrait head and talks about using symbols and marks which resonate with the artist
Making Layered Portraits Part Two by Mike Barrett
Mike shows us how to create backgrounds layered with symbols, marks, colours and textures
Making Layered Portraits Part Three by Mike Barrett
Finally Mike shows us how we might combine portrait and background into one autobiographical portrait