Filip Peraić was in a rut. A freelance illustrator bored of his contract work, he had hoped to reignite his love of art through a long-term personal project.

It made sense that Peraić, 30, who is from the basketball-obsessed city of Zadar, Croatia, would come up with a project related to the N.B.A. But instead of taking a broad look at his favorite players, or honoring his country’s many N.B.A. stars, Peraić decided to do something more specific — remarkably so. His project would consist entirely of portraits of James Harden’s head in profile, from the right side of the Houston Rockets star’s face.

Suddenly Harden, who is known for his distinctive beard, existed in portrait form — as a tribute to Jackson Pollock in one of Peraić’s works and as a tribute to Wassily Kandinsky in another. There was one in the style of a medical illustration, and another that was a map of the fictional country of Hardenia. His beard became a giant whale, and it took on the distinctive curls of a Greek philosopher. In one particularly disturbing image, Harden’s face was replicated with human hair.

In all, Peraić’s project, which came to be known as James Harden Illustrated, had 26 images, each one seemingly more bizarre than the previous one.