Self Portrait: Final Image and Overview.

This is the final edited image used for my self portrait project.
"Attack of Wires" as I 'seemed' to have called it, is the portrayal of Mr Welldone's technophobia, a trait both me and my version of this character both share. We both seem to simultaneously hate and fear the rapid growth of technology and how its engulfing humankind and earth 'like a fungus'.

The image is a very surreal, dream-like image. It shows Mr Welldone sleeping under a willow tree, which is the pagan symbol and embodiment of wisdom. As he sleeps, a hydra-like creature made from a mass of cables, power converters and wires, with digital screens as "heads", protrude from behind the tree and spy on Mr Welldone as they surround him.

I'm really pleased with this image, being this my first real attempt at Photoshop. No doubt I may need help the next time I try this again, simply to just remember the steps I took in more detail, but i did get quite into it surprisingly once I got the hang of it.

However there are somethings I wasn't particularly pleased with once the image was finished and I looked over it again:

-The leaves and trigs on the ground were suppose to be more of a reddish-orange tint to contrast with the blue wires and cables, as well as the colour of the green pines to be more prominent. But as a result of an oversight of this and after seeing what it looks like on print, the colours look vastly muted. I suppose this could be excused perhaps, since the setting is very natural, and I guess in that sense it can still contrast with blue cables and flashy screen monitors.

-The wires themselves are not edited in the image very well. They stand out too much and are not well shaded, especially on the tree trunk. I do have trouble with shading images in general, but even I could have noticed something wasn't right, yet I didn't notice this mistake somehow and as a result left it.

I suppose, though, again this could be excused since the image itself is supposed to be surreal, but then without the stand-out colours of the surrounding environment to compliment the strange imagery, it just looks like a poor attempt to make the setting look more 'realistic', given the circumstances of the situation depicted in the image.

There was a positive aspect to this, however, in that I gained a considerable amount of knowledge, experience and possibly even confidence in how to use Photoshop. I had written down some notes, but I may need help in future projects.