My Hero is My Cousin Ellie
| Ellie Saronamihardja is my hero. She has been a positive influence on my life and she inspires me to always put my best foot forward and always do my best. She has gone through many trials and tribulations throughout her life, and seeing all the obstacles that she has overcome encourages me to also keep going and do my best. Her kind demeanor and unceasing honesty has gotten me through many situations. Ellie currently resides in Ontario, California. Exploring four portrait techniques, I tried the ones below:  #2 is a smudged paint effect with fire-styled brushes #3 is a vintage photo effect with black and white and leaf brushes #4 is a paint splatter and watercolor effect done with brushes with outer glow The tutorial I found challenging was the paint splatter effect with outer glow, #4. It was very difficult working with all the layers and achieving the desired look I wanted. I had to use many brushes and explore various rotation and sizing techniques in order for it to look both nice and realistic. I eventually figured things out by looking up youtube tutorials and simply playing around with photoshop. The tutorial I enjoyed best was #3, the vintage photo effect with leaf brushes. I enjoyed this because it made my photos blend in with the texture of my paper background, and the leaves allowed the whole picture to have a splash of color added to it. The brushes really completed the whole look. In designing my Hero portrait, I finally decided on using the watercolor effect tutorial for the basis of my project because I felt that it best reflected my hero. I could use watercolor and paint smudges around her to exemplify her glow, and by using the watercolor filter on her, it became more aesthetically pleasing.  |
