A Character Portrait is deisghned for a process by taking the overall theme of the story and putting the words into a picture. We were asked to take a picture of someone who is a lot like the main character in our stories, and use lighting and props to help the viewer understand the message at hand. Once we had taken the photo, we were asked to put it into Photoshop where we would then edit the photo to our liking. We used various tools to edit the photo which encluded brightness enhancers, color contrasters, shadow marks and lines, and the amplification of certain objects.

I learned while creating my Character Portrait that telling a story is all in the shadows. For example, if your story is about a man with no friends wandering through a world in search for hopeless dreams, you would use heavier shadows to show that this individual is depressed and in need of a friend. However, if your story is about a man who finds a girl that he loves, marries her, has multiple children and lives as the happiest man on the world, you should use brighter lighting to brighten the mood. Something that I lacked on in my photo, but something that would be extremely advantageous for you, is to use multiple props in your photo to show the main ideas in the story. Also, I added some swatches and overlays to brighten the photo to my liking, as after I took the photos, I noticed that I wanted the story/picture to be a little brighter and happier. I learned a lot over this photo shoot!

Artist Statement:

In my story, a young adult named Lunbridge wanted to get away from all his troubles and live in the forest for a weekend. However, while he was there he encountered a sweet smelling scent and followed it to a beautiful woman. Once he enters her house, he discovers the reason why this girl is all alone. There had been many previous men there before him, but none had come out alive (metaphorically). In the photo I took, I was trying to show his ignorance towards danger and his compassion for everyone in the world. I tried to set a sort of mellow yet depressing mood by giving the viewer the impression that the sun is slowly coming down.

In my picture, I had my friend relaxing as if he possessed no troubles, with a grin on his face to hint a bit of ignorance. I shined the lights on the right side brighter than the left in order to make the sun seem as if it were just coming down from the right side. My intent for this picture was to show a mellow yet depressing mood, so I used black wall paper to give off a depressing/anxiety building vibe. I had my model hold a newspaper while he was laying down to show how he’s not paying attention to any worries. The newspapers also played a huge role in the storyline, so it felt appropriate to incorporate it into my photo.