I was so struck by the photo (see below) of Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar, when I saw it in the New York Times. She was being interviewed after she was arrested for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest at her university. The look on her face seemed to say so much.
After I sketched her (above) I had a dilemma. I loved the sketch but could see that I had gotten the dimensions very wrong. So do I paint from my sketch or try again to get the correct likeness? I decided to do another sketch, get it right and then do the painting.
As usual I got about halfway through the 12×9” painting, wasn’t happy with it and abandoned it, choosing to start over. I went for a smaller format since I was working from a screenshot of a tiny photo and was relatively happy with the results.
I used the Zorn palette to simplify things, but added a few other colors for her shirt.
Here’s the reference photo.
Here’s the original article in the New York Times.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
4 replies on “Portrait of Ilhan Omar’s Daughter”
Gre
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Fabulous! Fabulous! The sketch, the painting,
And above all, the woman I want to grow up to be.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Now I need
To track down that interview.
In solidarity,
Colleen Rose
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thanks for the wonderful comment. I will try and find the interview and link it in my post.
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Ok. I linked to the article at the bottom of the post.
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