Soraya

Shadow Hero

In my portrait, I bought an outfit to wear at school that represented the character Itachi Uchiha. I was trying to dress up and participate in the book and show dress-up. On my outfit, there are black cartoon-like clouds that caught the attention of people walking by. I wore a ring on one of my fingers, and I wore a headband that represents the Hidden Leaf Village, which the character used to be from—but the headband is not really noticeable in the portrait. The cartoon-like clouds were all over the cloak just like real clouds are all over the sky on a cloudy day. I had so much fun wearing the costume and feeling like the character.

One thing that was hard for me while I was making the portrait was the skin tone because it's hard to mix colors to get the exact match. I want people to notice the cartoon-like cloud because it represents the “rain of blood” that fell on the Amegakure (The Hidden Rain Village in the show Naruto) during the wars it had. I am proud of how my portrait turned out because it took me a long time to finish, which is why I’m proud of my successful work. What I love about Gio Swaby’s portraits is that they remind me of my family and the people who are close to me.

This portrait is dedicated to myself because it’s a way of expressing myself through art.