Final Self Portrait!

 

Final!

After the last in progress critique, I started thinking about my "why" a lot.  I decided that I wanted to represent the efforts I have been making to really find myself these past few months after really losing sight of myself through a toxic relationship as well as the toxic friendships I had had in my life for so long.  I tried to depict this through an abstract portrait where you can't really tell what you're looking at and you have to really look and find me in there. 

I then decided to use the repetition technique because I really like the way it looks and it can also contribute to the idea of the different versions of myself I have gone through while doing my soul searching. 

I wanted to have the effect of me almost shaking my past off as I move toward the future so I used the splatter brush tool a lot.  

 

I blended my background layers together then added the picture of myself. 

I always try to start with a background with some colors and patterns that I am drawn to so that I have a base layer and there are no white spots in my final piece.