Prompt: Reflect on the interviews you have with your partner for Seminar. Find a resonant moments that key in to your partner’s character and life story within your dialogue. For Seminar you have been asked to inquire about a tool or an object that elicits comfort, and to describe it. In Studio, you are asked to design a PAGE that is a portrait of your peer based on your Seminar interview. Your design should incorporate a portrait-image, words/phrases based on your conversations, and an image of the tool which you describe in Seminar. Your portrait representation and the object you incorporate should be based on your practice of drawing investigations. The layout and choice of placement, style, and scale will be an important aspect of your design. You can use two colors in addition to the page surface.
In the conversation Paolo focused on how he feels comfort in cloudy weather so I took that and based my color scheme for this piece around it. I wanted to use shades of blue to reflect the cloudy gloomy setting of his comfort. The quote he chose “under constant cover of cloud and rain” further adds to the comforting weather aspect I was going for. I knew I wanted it to read like a book but also open up into a complete portrait with the main color palette being blues, black and white. Since I knew the portrait was going to be naturally divided due to the creases it required for the book, I decided to make each panel a different style and medium. In deciding how to manipulate each panel I explored positive and negative space, seeing how basic flat colors could be used to represent a complex face. The panels I’m most proud of are the eye ones because I was able to stretch what I could do and explore a medium I had never used before. For the right side specifically, I learned how to screenprint which was really fun and rewarding. I chose to place some of the portrait on book pages to further add to the book element of the piece, and reflect Paolo’s love of reading. Overall I like how the portrait came together, I think the portrait came together really nicely. In my opinion the piece represents the multifaceted, complex elements that make up Paolo while also representing him through a medium he identifies with. It has a coherent theme in the quote and color scheme and it came out how I intended so I am proud of it.