Dual Self Portrait.

This is a Dual Self Portrait. The task here was to create a portrait composed of two contrasting sides of myself. This good be simply 'good and bad' sides, or something deeper, such as 'the inner unicorn' or something like that, as long as the piece had deep meaning and unity!

We had SO much freedom with this piece, I had no idea where the heck to even try and begin! We had freedom of medium, as well, so it was just mind boggling. Eventually, I settled for a stretched and primed 16" x 20" canvas, and acrylic paint.

After creating too many pages of visual brainstorms, thumbnails and jot notes in my sketchbook, I finally came up with a concept. I would do the person who I am and the person who I wish to be.



In the above photo, you can see a figure of what looks to be a puppet. This is me, currently, the person who I am. And sure enough, she is a puppet! Right now in my life I feel like I am constantly being controlled by strings. Like somebody is pulling me in every direction.

Portraying myself as a puppet came surprisingly easily to my self esteem, actually, and I thought I would absolutely hate myself later on for painting this, but I don't. Because it is a pretty accurate way of how I feel at the moment, and have been feeling like for a long while now. Stitched together, easily able to be picked up and tossed somewhere. Fragile and weak.



This above photo shows the person who I want to be. She is whole, strong, and the apple suggests fertility or wealth. Because, hey, I would love to have a family some day. Money, too, but a family would probably come to me first. (Yay!)

She is wearing lighter colours than her puppet self, so that she is standing out, a shining star against the pale background that my puppet self has seemingly created around her. I found this future self hardest to paint, because I wanted it to look absolutely and utterly perfect, without any stray marks and all smooth edges. However, nothing can be perfect and I love the finished product, especially since I was not gunning for any specific style. (Though I do so love her and the puppet's hair.)



Above is the finished product of my hard labour. I hope you enjoy it! Lately I've been finding I've been trying to gain control of my life, and trying to break free of that puppet-like stitching. We shall see, I suppose, how far I get into my future self!!

Hugs,
The Night Angel.