"S-elfportrait -- Holding the Stars" by Madeleine Gusdal

Since there are a few asking, I will tell the basic of how I drew this pic: I used a reference for me, to get the anatomy correct -- that is, this is not a taken picture that I've altered. I drew the whole pic in photoshop, using my wacom tablet. After a few selfportraits and hours in front of a mirror (gha!), I know what most of me look like ^_^.

The hair killed me (not visible in this, since this is only 16% of full size) as I can't find any shortcuts to drawing good-looking hair (I don't think I want to find them either ^_^). I start with a dark color for background and then draw every single hair one by one, in a darker or lighter color. I smudge very slighty at the ends so they blend nicely, and shade and highlight some more.

For the background, I started with darkness and added light with simple brush-strokes. The hedge is layer-manip, using the pattern of leaves, with some afterwork.

All in all, I started with this pic by midday, and was finished by midnight with a few pauses her and there not to go blind ^_^.