Self Portrait and Creative Practitioner

My creative identity really begins at the start of my Bachelor Degree when I began to understand what it is that I wanted to do. I have a close relationship with my creative practice as it has allowed me to express who I am as a person.

My creative outlet is both photography and film. Going further into film, I spend a lot of my time writing. Writing allows me to capture stories that I want to tell or tell stories that I feel need to be told.

My aim for my self portrait was to capture who I am and how I have changed. The black and white is supposed to represent how shy I am, while the colours represent the confidence I have inside me and all the ideas I have to create something new.

I created my image using Pixlr, I’ve used it a handful of times but never to edit a photo. I mostly use it to create mood/style boards. It was interesting to use this rather than Photoshop. They may be quite similar but there are still a few differences, nothing major though. I didn't know how to effectively create the chosen colour effect properly so I just experimented with copying the photo, erasing the background and changing the colour of the image using curves, and then erased part of myself to make it seem like the coloured image was behind me. It was fun experimenting with this since I had never done an image like this, and I think I was able to achieve the finished product that I was trying to.

I tend to get inspiration from people around me, not just people I know but the people I know nothing about. I am a quiet person and usually found alone, so I spend a lot of time in my mind just creating stories from the things I see and hear.

I am also inspired by other works, whether they are art or books or film. I try to look at work from female directors or writers, because you don’t see many females taking up these roles.