Elvira Duives

Dutch designer and illustrator Elvira Duives has embarked on a project to create one thousand mini portraits, the subjects of which are often based on old passport photos or invented in her own mind. Here’s an excerpt of the feature.

“At first, I drew the portraits from my own imagination, but I got stuck after a while, because I found the faces were all starting to look the same. For inspiration, I started collecting pictures off the Internet, particularly passport photos, because they are really focused on a person’s face, and really basic. Now, I have quite a collection, which I refer to for ideas for hairstyles, clothes and expressions. I don’t always copy a photo precisely; sometimes only a collar will remain recognizable from the original. And I invent the names of the subjects later on, purely by feeling. I might find that a girl is a typical Kate or that a man is a real Henry.”

  • You can find the full article in Issue 15, which is available in our web shop.

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