Impressionistic Self Portrait

Just Me Being Me

When creating my impressionist self portrait I used filters on Photoshop as well as oil pastels which I added by hand. There really was not a great deal of experimenting, I had an idea of what I wanted and I went with it. I printed out the photograph from my computer and began adding markings with my oil pastels. Next I slowly added more details and markings with the pastels. I made large markings with the oil pastels to mimic the large dominate brush strokes painters used while creating their impressionistic art. Once I was happy with what I did by hand I scanned the photography back into my computer and opened the image in Photoshop. There I played around with the photo until I found the exact combination of color, tint and brightness to fit my vision.

I chose a starting photograph that shows more of my personality rather than my general appearance. I love that the picture shows me, truly happy. The picture was taken after playing soccer for hours, my hair is all messy, and I am sweaty and exhausted. Often in photographs I tend to have a “fake” looking smile, but in this photo you can tell I was laughing.

Overall I wouldn’t change my appearance, I am very happy with who I am, I may not be the prettiest or the skinniest girl, but I love me. I feel a portrait where my emotions are shown is better than any generic, “look here and say cheese” photograph. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, this picture in my opinion is worth so much more than that. Every time I look at this picture I remember that day, I remember the people, how much fun we had, and how incredibly happy I was. Nothing can replace that, not even a thousand words.