Writeup on symbolic self portrait

Rrroight..... Here goes nothing, I suppose......

Investigation
I researched quite a bit on symbols before I started this, in particular colours. You can easily see this in the entirety of my painting - I have used quite vibrant colours in the foreground, and somewhat darker colours in the background. All the colours that I have used are colours that I like myself.
Not really much else to say, checked on how to draw a raven as well.

Design
Hopefully a bit more to say here.
*Ahem* There were a couple of things that I knew I was going to bring in right from the start: Gaming and Mythology. The mythology was incorporated using the raven in the background (Hugin, for Thought), the skull with the moon in its jaws (Hati, who hunts the moon), and the runes on the t-shirt, which was changed to look similar to a viking-style tunic I have at home.
The runes I chose (Berkano, Wunjo, Kenaz and Sowilo) each has a different meaning. Berkano stands for mental, physical and personal growth, as well as renewal. Wunjo means joy, comfort and fellowship, amongst other things. Kenaz is for creativity, knowledge and inspiration. Lastly, Sowilo stands for success, honour and health.
Now... The colours *Cracks knuckles*
The yellow is for joy and happiness (Of which I have a lot), the green for nature, life and learning. Blue can be for a couple of reasons, depending on the shade; The light blue is for a calm and youth, as well as helping with concentration and learning, whilst the darker blue is for truth.
Also, fun fact: the raven and the skull are not pure black, but a very, very dark brown. This is both because black is very hard to moderate and show various body parts with (i.e. the wings of the raven), as well as the fact that despite the two of them being the "dark" sides of their duo (Sköll and Hati, Hugin and Munin (Although its prolly just me)), they're not evil - they just do their job. I also gave them the brown intentionally, instead of, say, blue, because while they are the darker part of their duos, they are also the "warmer" parts - as opposed to their "twins", who would be colder.
Lastly, I also managed to incorporate the Halo 3 emblem on the helmet, to symbolise my love of gaming.

Creation
I didn't really have so many major problems with this; while time was an issue here (So many symbols, so little time.), I suppose I managed okay. I had some trouble with both the skin colour and the mouth (What colour is skin? ALL OF THEM!), I guess it turned out nice enough. Also, for the main part of the process (That is, until I had painted the mouth), my face was a complete creep.

'n' wi' that, Ah punt ye a' farewell!
June