Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Who is it?: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Rachel Michaels (2013)

My illustration was inspired by my personal essay that I crafted in English class. One of the themes of my essay was trying to solve a mystery, or in other words, find answers to unanswerable questions. The most common question we all ask is, ''why?'' I wanted to capture that curiosity and inquisitiveness in my illustration.

To represent this concept of revealing a hidden truth, I portrayed three young children eagerly trying to answer the door to see who their visitor was. Their ''hidden truth'' is locked away behind the door yet they are tenaciously trying to find answers, or in reality, merely open the door before the others. I began with a photograph of these children and then proceeded to trace the scene in Illustrator, giving the image a realistic yet cartoonistic vibe.
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