[Design Basics Course] Two portraits

Yesterday I started a design basics course with iversity. It’s online, it’s free and I love it. I intend to post the assignments here.

Homework #2

We were asked to beg, threaten or kindly ask a friend to take a portrait of us, then take a portrait of ourselves. Here are my two, with their respective story.

I have recently moved to a new country. Other than my husband’s family, who lives more than an hour’s drive away, I know only two other people. They both live more than 30 km away.

My husband is at work and he is the only one who could take a picture of me today. But I didn’t feel the need for him to do that. I decided to post a portrait photo he took of me about a month and a half ago. It has become my “face to the world”. I am a writer (at all times) and illustrator (sometimes) and needed it for websites, book jackets etc. Here it is:

!["Official" Portrait. We prepared the shot - I wore a flattering color, make-up and no glasses. The day was sunny and I was in our hallway, light reflecting from the shiny floor (like in one of those round light reflectors you see in professional photo shoots... it was fun!).]

“Official” portrait

For my self portrait I decided to use my laptop’s camera. I don’t know where we keep the other one. I thought about taking a shower and putting day clothes on but in the end decided on a different kind of photo shoot: me in the morning, still in my pajamas, wearing no make-up, glasses and messy hair. Oh and my bathrobe, which is about the only thing I have that can contain my seven-and-a-half-months-pregnant belly, to keep me warm. I am in the same place, in our hallway, but the autumn day is too dark for taking photos so I turned on the lights. I tried to keep the pose though… hair flipped on my side, hand to my chin… you know, the “uniform”. No face for the world. But it is a portrait.

![Un-retouched and unscripted: a portrait of me at home, in the morning, in my pj's and bathrobe ]

Self-portrait at home