Imaginative Self Portrait

Reflection:

In my imaginative self-portrait I used a variety of symbols and images to represent what makes me who I am. At the top of my head I drew a moon and stars with dust coming off of them. I was trying to represent the dreams that fill my head as I sleep and also my imagination. The moon represents me sleeping at night through the shut eyes the moon has on his face. The dust bouncing off of the moon is supposed to represent my dreams I have at night but most importantly my imagination I have. Not only does this represent my imagination and my dreams but it also represents the dreams I have about my life and things I want to accomplish. The stars are supposed to represent different goals I have and how they are spotlights into my dream future. The dust surrounding is supposed to represent the connection between the two and how they both influence me. Moving down to the left side of my head there are two girls playing soccer and basketball along with a lacrosse stick to represent the sports I play. The lines connecting them are supposed to be the bond I have with the sports I play and my teammates. Sports are something that is constantly going on in my life and in my mind but I also created a connection with my teammates that I will always take with me. To the right I drew a sunset where my eye would be and this is supposed to represent the number of sunsets I have watched with my friends and family and the great feeling they give me. Below the sunset is the ocean and a person surfing a wave. This represents the connection I have with the ocean and how much it means to me. I spend the majority of my time around the ocean and all of my memories of the ocean are joyfilled. The surfer is supposed to show my love for surfing and how happy it makes me feel when I catch a wave. It brings me to a place of peace and where I just have on the water. Below that are mountains with trees surrounding them. The mountains are there to show my love for hiking, and snowboarding. I have a house at Sunday River so throughout the year I am surrounded by mountains. I have a lot of memories with my family through the house and the mountains in that area. The trees surrounding the mountains fill my nose and are there to show the scent of pine trees while I’m outside hiking and exploring. When I was a kid I would always be outside in the woods and come back home smelling like the trees and sap filled hair. Below that is a honeycomb filled with the words family. It is supposed to represent how close my family is to me and how without them my “structure” would collapse. To the right of that are the notes to the verse in dancing queen. I was trying to show the connection I have towards the movie and the song. I would also sing and dance to it with my sister and grandma and it was a way for us to connect. To the right of that I have a whale shark that is my favorite animal surrounded by a diver and coral reefs. They are supposed to show my love for marine life and my dream of diving in the ocean. Lastly the van below it represents the everlasting dream I have with my friend to travel the world in a volkswagon van. We’ve always wanted to do this and explore the world together. It’s also supposed to represent my love for traveling. These were only just 10 of the symbols and images but there are many more throughout my imaginative self-portrait.

Throughout this project I came across some strengths and challenges. Something that I was challenged with was only using a black ink. It was challenging for me to show depth and shadow without making it too dark because I was using a pen. I had to be very careful with how much pressure and how much I was putting on the paper. I also found that a strength I had was my planning for this project. I spent a lot of time figuring out where everything needed to go and how to incorporate things that meant a lot to me. This helped me a lot to know where everything was going to go before I started. Although I came across many strengths and challenges throughout this project these are the two that stood out the most to me.