I took the original photos that were taken and opened them up in GIMP. I changed all three images to grayscale by changing the image mode to grayscale. Finally, I changed to the brightness to -25 and the contrast to 5.
I took the original photos that were taken and opened them up in GIMP. I changed all three images to grayscale by changing the images saturation to 0. Finally, I changed to the brightness to -58 and the contrast to 26.
I changed the brightness to -27 and the contrast to 20 after I cut out the background and replaced it with a white colour.
In the images below, I made a 2 inspiration boards out of the images I have collected. This will be a guide to what I want and how I would change it to fit more to my personality.
The collage below inspired me to achieve my final Mix Media Portrait.
In my image, I achieved asymmetrical balance through the vertical axis. My self-portrait is a bit set off the center but is fulfilled with the images added around my face to find balance.
In the background images, I added 2 images, one sunset and one textured image (merging them through color picker), and added a gradient over the image that carries both the image use. The sunset gives a more clean feeling and represents how life could be but life is a ticking clock and it keeps on being busy.
With my self-portrait, photo, I cut a piece out of my face, added an ocean image in the background (representing how I as a person sometimes feel thrown by life), the images around me add to things I like more and this brings asymmetrical balance to the image to the small butterfly icons to the top. (the scribbles on the vinyl indicated rough patches - scratches - but still wanting to listen to them). The flowers indicate growth as a person, from the inside to the outside. Also, the pineapple pieces on the bottom left-hand corner represent the sweetness of life that will always be there on the sideline.
With every layer added, I lowered the saturation by -10 to fit with the background's pastel color. This formed unity between the background merge and the images that had more of a pop in color. It also supports the greyscale self-portrait.
The cut out of my face I made into a 3D form to let it stand out more. I achieved this by adding one of the lighter shades of my face to the cut-out on the edges.
