Final design

Looking back at my design specifications, I realized some of them were really hard to check and some that should have been included I hadn't thought about. My favorite designs were Design 11, 10 and 9. But when I looked at them, I realized a few things. First of all, it was very hard for me to tell if they matched the design specification "This image should show more about myself than I think it does", as the whole point of that specification is that I don't know if it's working. While I think that is an interesting thing to think about, it shouldn't be an actual design specification as it is really hard to tell.
The second problem with my specifications I realized when looking at my three favorite designs was that all of them were incredibly hard to draw. They had a myriad of little details such as lines, highlights, gradients, focused black and white, inner glow, etc. that I could just not draw by myself. One design specification I should've added is "Is it possible to draw this edited photograph?"
I asked my art teacher, Ms. Sudra, for advice, and she said her favorite was my very first design. I realized that it did match all of my design specifications, even the hidden meaning one, and the only thing that bothered me was that the right side of the image was really messy:

So I simply used Photoshop and made the whole right hand side completely black, which actually gives me more creativity with the mixed media as I can add a lot of things in that part, different materials, writing, etc.:

Design specifications checklist - Final design

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - yes
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - yes
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - yes
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes
• I can draw this edited photograph - yes

Overall, my final design is the only one that really matches all of the design specifications. I'm the only person on the image, which is a very simple photograph that gives me lots of freedom with the mixed media. It's easy to see that the picture has been altered in a photo editing program and the picture has been taken by myself. You can see me clearly as there is nothing else on the photograph.
I think that as it is, my final design represents me less than some other ones but that's because the edited picture is only the basis for my actual portraiture technology unit. A mistake I made in many of my designs is that I forgot which kind of mixed media I could use, thinking only of the image itself and how nice it looked. My final design will allow me to show a lot about myself through the mixed media rather than its composition, but it's still me. By going with a simple background and colors, I bring focus to my expression and clothes, which are a very important part of me. As I said earlier, my mom thought that represented the two sides of me, very shy or very open at times, something I didn't think of but have to agree with. It's even more obvious now that I blacked out the right side, so this image says things about myself I hadn't even thought of.
The final design is pleasant to look at: even though it's not a complete self portrait yet, it's neat and I'm proud of it, which are two more of my design specifications. Fixing the black zone improved it a lot. Finally, it's one of the only designs I can actually draw, which really plays in its favor. I think my final design will really work and I am sure about my decision.