Question: 

How would the abstract colors "represent the individual" that was being captured? 

Quote: 

"In order to represent such subjective and symbolic aspects of their subjects, artists often paid less attention to capturing precise facial features than to developing new compositional devices"

Challenge/Response: 

It is very interesting how at first Portraits would be very abstract with their use of colors and shapes. This is very fascinating because now  I feel like it is completely different. We focus more on different ways to compose a photo to make it look realistic and representative of the subject.