Portrait Project

My portrait contains a side image of me smiling with hijab on. Next to my face is a dark red patches up heart. In the background is a drawing of a track with a hurdle on it and a city skyline of Philadelphia. Beneath the drawing of me is a cluster of clouds with a yellow rose and an irritated eye with a tear falling. Each of these drawings in my portrait represent something in my life. The side portrait of me represents two things. One which is Islam, my religion, this is showed through the hijab I am wearing. Another thing it represents is my positivity and happiness. The dark patches up heart shows the heartaches and heartbreaks that I’ve been through but also how I have healed and how important forgiveness is to me, which is shown through the patches and band-aids on my heart. The drawing of the track and the hurdle is to incorporate how much I love the sport and that it is a big part of my life. The city skyline is there to show how the city I live in has influenced to the way I was raised and the person I am today. The yellow rose is there to represent joy, happiness, and friendship. This is shown through the bright color of the rose. The clouds in my portrait are there to represent memories, thoughts and family. Lastly the irritating eye represents baggage and regret that takes on in my life.
The materials I used in my work were mostly pencil and color pencil. I used pastels to whiten the clouds and color in the heart and the rose to show emphasis on the colors I used. With the same color used to color in each different object in my portrait, I darkly outlined the object in color pencil to make it “pop” more. The reason I did this was because color pencil did not bring out the image how I wanted, however I had to use the color pencils because there are very fine lines and details that would not be correctly shown through another material. In my previous work I was content on only using pencil for my drawing because I felt that the details would be shown way better this way. In my current work I used more color to create better imagery of the story and meaning behind the drawings.
 The first step I took into creating my portrait was listing out what I wanted to show or represent in my drawing that has an impact in my life. Next I sketched out how I would want to represent these things through my portrait. After this I drew a box based on the required measurements the portrait had to be on and I started to sketch my portrait. I started off my drawing the side image of my face then drawing the hijab. This took a few trials because I wanted to show every detail with the scarf. Then I started to draw the other objects in my portrait such as the track, then the heart, next the skyline and the rose. The clouds came after the rose and then finally the eye. All the white spots in my portrait was filled in with a gray color pencil.  There is no particular Artist, which I know of, that inspired my work or does art similar to mine.
A technique that is important in my work is my use of outlining. For each of my drawings I darkly outlined the shape do bring every detail of my portrait. I used this for every part of the drawing to bring more definition to the objects. I am most proud of my ability to express the many aspects of my life, and give them meaning through my use of colors. If I could change one thing, it would be to make more use of the materials our class has to offer. From this project I learned how to bring more life to my work through my techniques and color use.​

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