Everyone participating was asked to theme their piece around red. Either the literal colour, or something associated with the colour.
It's a portrait of a friend of mine, who very nicely posed for the reference photos. I had done similar make-up work for a fashion photoshoot a couple of weeks previously, except it was an iridescent turquoise, and I really wanted to do more of that sort of tribal style.
I wanted to make it have an impact, so I went with black, white and red, and I adore stippling, so that was the obvious choice for texture. I think the symbol in the corner means "a cooking fire by a river"...I think. I need to find my reference again to make sure, but either way, it balances the overall composition.