My good friend Ernesto Nemesio inspired me to create a self portrait after seeing his own self portrait. I didn't have any preconceived idea other than to just start building an image up with shapes and color and hopefully at some point it would start to resemble me. No drawings or sketches. Just purely reacting to my natural instincts. I started with torn cardboard glued to a 16X20 masonite board. After that I started layering a variety of colored papers and tissue paper. It was a blast. So much so that I am working on a new one as we speak. I encourage everyone to create their own self portrait. It is a very liberating and self reflective process.