This is an Art Nouveau style portrait of my aunt Jackie that I did for an assignment in Beginning Illustration.

The guidelines were that we had to do a portrait of a living person who was not a parent, sibling, or close friend; prior to doing the portrait, we had to do an interview with the person to find out things about them--favorite colors, careers, interests, hobbies, etc. Using the information gathered from the interview, we had to pick a style that would be appropriate to the subject and incorporate elements that conveyed something about them as a person.

Jackie loves cats, flowers, nature, mountains, autumn, sunsets, and fishing, so I incorporated as much of those things as I could. She also loves delicate, feminine things, so I chose the Art Nouveau style to convey that, as well as to convey her love of nature (since Art Nouveau traditionally involves a lot of elements from nature).

Had I been able to do this in something other than watercolor, it would have been considerably better. Also, my camera ate the colors.

Watercolor, 15" x 22", October 2007.