This drawing started as a quick portrait for an invitation to an upcoming show, but then I fell into a flow state and had myself a little gradient party at my desk at work. I became so consumed that even my students came over to watch, and one of them pointed out that I was drawing what it feels like to enter into an art coma.
Some progress shots below, from the initial photo references, to the iPad base drawing, followed by screencaps of the layers in the order that I made them in Illustrator.