Lillica: A Narrative Character Portrait by Kendra Evans (2015)

My character is Lillica Edwards, a teenager who comes from an extremely rich family in England. All through her life Lillica's mother has been training her to be a proper young lady, and expects Lillica to marry a rich young man and have many children. However, she is anything but a lady, and would rather move to the United States and become a graphics designer for fantasy movies. For my portrait, I chose to photograph the scene where Lillica is deciding whether she should follow her mother's wishes, or chase her own dreams.

For the portrait, I wanted the scene to look like a teenager's bedroom, so I used furniture from my bedroom as well as a lot of props in the background to give it a slightly cluttered feeling. On the left side of the portrait is many gift boxes, ribbons, and accessories a lady would have. These items resemble what Lillica's mother wants her to be. On the right is books, a pillow, and a box from Star Trek, a popular science-fiction series. These are to resemble Lillica's nerdy personality and dreams. I positioned my model between the two sides so that it looks like she has to pick one way of life or the other. She is looking at the flowers in her hand to show her contemplating which side to chose. Her dress, makeup, and flowers show that she has just met with another suitor her mother picked out. Her bracelets, nail polish, and hair show that she is not a much of a lady, but a typical, modern day teenager. I photographed the model straight on so that she is portrayed like a human being, as opposed to being looked down on or up to. The viewer is able to see what she is going through and see her as an equal. Some problems I encountered while shooting was getting the lighting right and focusing the camera properly. In Photoshop, I made the photo lighter and got rid of a few shadows. I also added a vignette so that the viewer's eye is drawn to the middle of the portrait and to the model's face.