10 - Justine: Final project proposal & Imitation

I've had a really hard time narrowing down what I want to do for my final project. I have a few ideas and I would love feedback on what you guys think would be the most interesting.

First, I really liked doing my hair drawings for my self portrait and I was thinking of continuing with that theme by doing a series of portraits of people -- either my family members, friends, or strangers, including only of their hair. I think that hair is an interesting way to approach identity: it is the feature that frames the face, and I wonder how much of a sense of identity hair by itself can confer. How much can you pick up about somebody just by looking at their hair? How much can I suggest a face without drawing one? Will the hair be enough to recognize an individual? I would do these drawings in graphite.

My second idea is based off of something I used to do as a little kid. I never kept a diary because I was scared my older sister would read it (legitimate fear), so instead, I kept little sketchbooks where I would try to symbolically convey an event or how I was feeling by drawing figures with animal heads interacting with each other. I gave them animal heads because I needed some way to get across their identity in a sort of coded way...so my sister wouldn't know who I was referring to (obvi). Different people reminded me of different animals, and they would be depicted with that animal as their head. For example, I usually drew my friend Megan with a dog head, a friend Joaquin with a ram's head, I usually had a falcon head...etc. So I was thinking of maybe doing portraits of friends or family by combining them with the animals that they remind me of. Sort of like surreal, hybrid animal-people portraits. I would probably do these drawings in graphite. I may add in a little water color...haven't decided yet.
Both of these ideas are based in similar concepts--the idea of capturing the identities of people through uncommon means, pushing the definition of a portrait and what is included in a person's identity. Let me know if you have any feedback...or favorites...I would love the help.

ALSO: Looking back I realized that I'd done a post for my imitation project, but didn't actually include the image of my piece on it. So here is that: