I chose to capture my partner, Anna, using two different graphite sketches, then scanning them on photoshop to add paint streaks. Before making her portrait, I asked her several interview questions. One question was, “Favorite physical trait about yourself and why?”. She answered with her nose, because she used to hate it but after making a self portrait and spending so much time on it, she came to love that a part about herself. I wanted to accentuate her nose, so I chose to do one portrait of her profile view. I used a candid photo as the reference for the second portrait. The two portraits contrast each other, one is where she knows she is being watched, the other she did not. Not looking at the viewer also ties in to how she is a shy person. I felt like I needed to ask questions to get to know her, rather than her tell me things on her. To represent her tendency to keep to herself, and not be outgoing initially, I drew her looking away or down. I chose the blue and green colors because she said if she were a color wit would be blue, which also happens to be her favorite color. I added the red paint streak to act like a divider between the two portraits, but they are still linked because they overlap. Red is also one of her favorite colors and symbolizes the way she comes off on social media, bold and creative. I wanted the abstract paint designs to be the first thing people saw, then take a closer look to notice the portraits on top. It parallels to how people need to get to know Anna, and take a closer look to know who she is, and not just go by what they see physically. I wanted the portrait to be surrounded with a lot of white space to represent how as an individual in the world, she may seem small, but up close and personal she’s intricate and unique.
