Portrait Painting

Avery Speas "Adalynn and I"

8x10, Acrylic Paint, 2025

When thinking about an idea for my portrait painting, I wanted to find an image where I felt like my best self. I had to leave my best friend when I quit gymnastics and I was always happiest when I was around her. I wanted to create a piece of artwork that had the both of us together. She had recently came over and we took a couple of pictures together so I selected the one that was my favorite. 

I started by getting the background shade to be a subtle shade of pink. The original photo had a door and trim in the background but I decided that both of those were insignificant to the painting so I decided not to paint them in my self-portrait artwork. It took a couple layers of paint to get an even shade across the canvas. I then used tracing paper to trace the original photo onto the canvas. After that, I just wanted to get the paint on the canvas so I had a baseline and then I could go back and refine it. I started with the t-shirts, and then I moved onto the skin, the hair, and then eventually the phone. After that, I added some highlights and shadows the portrait before readjusting some skin tones. My final step was asking for Ms. Garrity for some help with finishing details and then calling the painting complete. I used lots of different shades of paint to complete to looks. 

To me, this artwork means finding enjoyment in what life gives you. I was given someone who I cannot imagine my life without so it meant getting to put how I feel on a canvas. I think that my audience will see that we are really close and that our smiles are not forced, they simply just appear when we are around each other. There isn’t too much symbolical imagery; its more of an appreciation artwork and one of self reflection for someone that I’m truly grateful for. 

The most difficult part of the artwork was getting the color of skin to match. I remixed the skin color at least 10 times before I thought that it was perfect enough. I had to be very patient and ask for help to get the results that I finished with. It got easier the more that I did it but at first it was very challenging. If I could restart, I would have gotten help sooner so that the painting could have been done sooner and I would have been less hesitant about mixing and remaking colors. 

This is a realistic style of art. I think that it makes it unique to my own style because I really enjoy making realistic artwork and I feel that that is a majority of what I decide to paint. I like being able to attempt to replicate an artwork and see how similar I’ve made it to the original artwork. I love that I can look at the artwork and instantly feel happy and joyful. I think that the painting accurately portrays both me and Adalynn and I’m extremely proud of that.