As one of my three things for crossing fingers was to create art everyday, I finally decided to do a project that I've been meaning to start: Portraits. The idea started a few years ago when I saw oval canvases in the local art store. The shape reminded me of those portraits you see for Victorian family trees. Perhaps something along the lines of an image you would see in a locket. The whole look of it just gave me goosebumps; I knew that I wanted to make portraits of my own.
Sadly I never saw those oval canvases again. The idea did resurface recently as I came across some old Disney Haunted Mansion buttons I got last year at D-Con. The portraits in the first hall of the ride were always haunting and beautiful. I knew I had to have my own version of these, oval canvases or not.
For this collection I decided to do portraits of characters that I love from my art and writing. Most of my creations revolve around a character that sparks from something I did that day and it spreads like wildfire. Next thing you know it I'm writing stories and sketching them. Most of these characters never get finished or see the end of their stories but the capture a piece of my heart. Call this project the rekindling of these haunts...
I'm so happy with how it came out! The whole process was exhausting but wonderful. I got to think of the character and really have alone time for my mind to brainstorm with every stroke. I will be using acrylic on canvas for these portraits. A portrait like this usually takes me about a collective of 4-6 hours to finish.
I decided that my first character would be Steffi. Steffi is a goth girl that represents a little bit of my teenage angst. I got her name from the German pronunciation of my name. I am a big part German and during my high school years I was big on discovering that side of my heritage. I remember vaguely my great grandmother who was straight from Germany and spoke nothing but. I even took German language classes my freshman year until the class was cancelled the next semester.
I'd like to think that Steffi's personality is much like my great grandmothers. She's adventurous and contemplative all the same. She started as a bubbly young girl without a care in the world and the biggest sweet tooth, but as her love came and left she became a bit grim in maturity. Steffi's first love was a stranger that was cold and had a raging temper. As they were opposites they were perfect for each other and her sweet love was something that could soothe a beast of a man as he was. The thing they had in common was their thirst for adventure and often they had them. Until sadly one day Steffi encountered the greatest adventure of them all: some things can never change. The stranger left her and she hasn't seen him since.
She got older and her contemplations grew. Her tastes got darker and soon she became the goth that she is now. If you look carefully she's smiling because she knows a secret; she'll never give up looking for that stranger, it's the chase that keeps her in love with him. Every time I see something with the symbol of a heart with wings I think of Steffi. Because of that I gave her the ribbon pendant in this portrait. A contemplative with girlish dreams: That's Steffi in a nutshell.
Next in my series: Celine Shields.
-Stef
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