My Self-Portrait | Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2025
- Oct 17, 2025
- 3 min read
In my first post discussing the application to Portrait Artist of the Year 2025, I mentioned that I wanted to dedicate a separate entry to talk about the self-portrait I created and submitted for this year's competition.
I've spent many years developing my practice, thinking about how and why I work as a creative and individual and what this means for my art. I am a process lead person and during the last 10+ years, I've trialled different mediums and styles - from digital cartoony illustrations to traditional oil painting. But time and time again, I returned to and fell in love with monoprinting.
Over the years, I have made many self-portraits from a mirror. I make them during times when I feel lost, at an emotional point in my life or struggling a bit with my mental health; the process is cathartic and therapeutic, and it is a way to reconnect with my practice and ground myself through times of uncertainty. I do receive comments from friends about how these portraits differ from my typical "smiley" exterior... but through each self-portrait I paint and print, I can see, reflect and learn something new about myself.
This leads me to my submitted self-portrait, titled 'In the Days That Followed' and made in June 2024. Hinted by the title, I created this portrait days following the end of a long-term relationship. Out of respect for that relationship and holding care for this person, I'm not going into details. But I will say that he is also an amazing artist in his own right, and knowing that emotion holds so much power in my work, he suggested that I produce a series of self-portraits and portraits of him from life to document the break-up. With the need for space to heal, I only created three portraits, but I am still immensely grateful to him and our time together.
Painted sketch and the final painted plate for my self-portrait
The final self-portrait I made channels feelings surrounding a loss of identity, sadness and grief. I use a lot of prussian blue in my work - to me, it is an emotional colour with a broad range of tonal values - and for the context of this portrait, it felt like the right colour to use. Just looking at the timestamp of my photos, I painted my plate within 3 hours before printing. The time frame in which I work, coupled with my mark-making tools and the potential for unpredictable distortion, helps me to express (rather than define) emotions.
After the plate was printed, I used a bit of black chalk on top of the monotype to emphasise certain lines and features. In this case, it added a bit of subtle depth to the image and allowed me to pull focus on certain features of my face, particularly the eyes.
At the end of February, I was in the gym with a couple of my housemates when I received a call that I had been selected to take part in this year's PAOTY competition. It was fair to say that waves of excitement, realisation, and apprehension hit me like a ton of bricks... it did make for a buzzing remainder of my workout, so I couldn't complain. It turned out that I had about a month to prepare before my heats kicked off in April, which is airing on the 22nd October at 8 pm GMT. Make sure you subscribe to my mailing list to stay up to date with my account of the experience!
As a final note, this self-portrait means a lot to me. Whilst it marked the end of a relationship and the heavy emotions surrounding it, it also represented the beginning of a new chapter in my life as I joined a house share with the most amazing group of people and friends. And now, it's also symbolic of this crazy opportunity.
Creating a self-portrait is a deeply personal journey, allowing artists to explore identity, emotion, and self-expression. In Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2025, participants showcase their unique styles while capturing their inner world on canvas. Each portrait reflects not just appearance but personality and life experience. The process requires patience, creativity, and attention to detail—similar to designing a Keomono Fursuit, where every feature represents character and individuality. Through color, texture, and form, artists bring their vision to life, turning a simple self-portrait into a powerful artistic statement.