Self Portrait Project Part 2

Last summer I wrote a blog post featuring the first 6 self-portraits from my year-long project, you can find those images here.

Here are the following six!

This image was easier to create than it looks. I shot the portrait in color and then used photoshop to turn it black and white. By adding a layer I was able to bring back the color in the areas I wanted it.

 

Audrey Hepburn was a suggestion I received from a couple of different people so I went with Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

You know I had to do something Halloween themed for October! I had had this in my mind for some time and knew it would be a little challenging to put together. My Mum managed to find the red jacket in a thrift store for me. I started out by taking the self portrait of me in the jacket. Then a makeup artist applied the first zombie’s makeup and I posed around her wearing the red jacket. She added more make up and we did it again with me in a different outfit / wig. Then she applied more makeup still and we posed again. This continued until we had the 6 different zombies, then it was a case of extracting me from the images and putting them all onto one image and making it look like I was gripping my own arm in the jacket etc. Here are a few of the zombie looks and then the final ‘Thriller’ themed composite.

For November I chose Day of The Dead. I love the beauty in the sugar skulls and the idea of celebrating and remembering our loved ones after they have passed.

My favorite Holiday movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and I just love Cousin Eddie. I bought a stock image of a camper to be able to extract myself from a studio photo and put the two together.

My final themed self portrait was in January. Since it was the beginning of the new year and I had recently completed a vision board and goal setting assignment that left me a little jittery about whether or not I could achieve my goals I chose to embody Rosie the Riveter. The neat thing about this portrait is that the background I used was actually a dark grey. I created the bright yellow by adding yellow gels to two lights that were aimed at the background.

Although the self portraits were a lot of fun to put together they took a fair amount of time and effort so I decided that after completing one a month for the year I would just continue to create them as and when I felt inspired, so watch this space.