Yair Shoshani is a portrait painter from Santa Monica, California. Watercolor is his main painting method. His subjects of portrait paintings are personalities of royalty, aristocracy, politics or culture.Shoshani indicates that a portrait is any work representing a person using a real model. The artist endeavors to reproduce or interpret its characteristic features and expressions. However, a portrait is not necessarily completely true to reality. It can be idealized in order to enhance the model.  A portrait like a self-portrait can be painted, sculpted, engraved, photographed or written. It can be done for political, social or personal reasons, and questions the role of image and representation. It can reflect the physical features of the model, testify to her social affiliation, or focus on conveying the psychological qualities of the person.    14th — 15th century: the birth of the portrait    Shoshani shares the fact that in painting, the representation of identifiable people appears late. In the 14th century, Italian painters, like Giotto di Bondone, began to individualize their characters. Gradually, the sponsors of religious works appear in the compositions.