Light in the Dark: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Melisa Jones (2011)

For my Self-Portrait Illustration, I chose to depict my perfectionist side. I love to draw, but I end up throwing away many of my projects because I feel like they are not good enough to continue. The lightbulb represents my imagination and the ball and chain weighing it down is my sense of perfectionism. The papers lying on the floor and against the wall are meant to represent all of the projects I have thrown out. The pencils are scattered around the floor as if they were thrown in a fit of anger to convey a sense of frustration at not being able to finish because of my perfectionism. The gray background helps get across the feeling of depression at not being good enough, but the shining of the lightbulb adds a little bit of a hopeful feeling that someday I will get there.