I was a bit apprehensive starting Nikita's portait; firstly, because she is the only one of my project participants who I have never met in-person (we worked remotely together on the AI and You podcast last year) and secondly because she didn't give me a clear choice of colours when I was making the design (sending me a selection of photographs instead) and didn't decide on the final colour scheme until we discussed it during her interview. As such, the design is very different from the final portrait.
None of the colours she chose are particularly dark; the yellow of a flame, the orange of Hindu temples, the blue of a river, and turquoise and marroon to represent her personality. So, I found it difficult to create the impression of light and shadows in this portait and as a result, I'm worried it has come out looking a bit flat (which is one of my main critcisms of my Brexiles portraits).
Having said that, I do love the colours she has chosen, they really give me the sensation of a jewel sparkling on a hot Summer afternoon, even more so when the actual sunshine is illuminating the portrait....
Nikita really disliked the mis-matching eye-lashes which are a characteristic of some of my portraits (where I put eyelashes on the upper lid of one eye and lower lid of another), so I changed that for her final portrait.
Besides the lack of contrast between light and shadow, I'm relatively happy with how the portrait has turned out - I think it's captured her positive mentality and thoughtful expression.
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