S.I. #2

This is a mixed-media portrait of a good friend of mine: Sara Cigri. She is depicted here as happy and peaceful against a linear background that represents the conformity America pushes on minorities, which Sara's family has dealt with and is influential in her life. Her happiness and good energy show her strength and confidence in who she is. She treats everyone with kindness and respect even if that isn't always what she is served. The pink represents her uniqueness and light that contrasts the black bars (social norms) of American society. The evil eye lucky symbols are floating around her because they have been an influential belief in her everyday life. I chose to portray Sara because I think she has a beautiful heart and always brings positivity and laughs to any situation.

To create this portrait I used, graphite, Prismacolor markers and colored pencils, a white gel pen, and a black Sharpie gel pen. I started with a 4B pencil to lightly sketch out her features, the evil eyes, and the background lines. I used the markers to put down my base colors for all components of the portrait, then used colored pencils to add detail and layer colors. The black gel pen helped clean up lines and increase the black point, while the white one was used to create highlights and to also clean up lines.

I began by sketching out her head by observing her form from a photograph— I eyeballed it and aimed for accuracy by focusing on the negative space and how each form looked when in contact with each other, such as her hand and her face. I then drew in the evil eyes and background. I chose to have the middle bars coming up only a portion of the way in front of her while the others connect border to border to represent the idea that she is breaking through the barrier. I added the base layer of marker to the entire portrait, starting with the bars, then the eyes, then her figure, because the ink lays down vibrant, opaque colors. I then layered color pencil on top of the marker to add shadowing, multi-tones, and texture. Her face required the most layering because skin has so many different tones and shades. I created texture in her by overlapping and crisscrossing lines and used hatching to mimic the fabric of her shirt. The pink of her lips is the same shade as the background which creates unity between the two and helps show that the color is connected to who she is. The white gel pen was the finishing touch: it allowed me to add highlights which was a major component in making her hair look like separate strands and creating natural highlights on her face. My next steps for this project could be incorporating rays of light stretching from the pink across the bars to convey the idea that the color is shining through, rather than simply being a backdrop.