Why Haven't I Been Blogging?

I'm aware that I've become rather absent around these parts. The only time that I post seem to be the times when I cross-post a YouTube video. It's not that I've fallen out of love with blogging. It's simply that I haven't found anything that I've found worth blogging about. I have many ideas but nothing that has my sparked my interest into converting idea into action. 

Over the past few weeks I have become smitten with the fandom of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. It first piqued my curiosity when I started seeing posters popping up in the cinema with Eva Green catching my eye. It wasn't until that I saw the books in Waterstone's and read the jacket that I become fully intrigued. I bought the first book that day. 

I devoured the book. I read it faster than I've read any book. I abandoned a really atrocious and stagnant book in favour of this and I'm thrilled that I did. The book captured my imagination and my attention. As soon as I finished reading the last page, I immediately wanted to continue on to the next book. I downloaded the next two books in eBook form and continued on with the same voracious appetite that the first book installed. I would read hundreds of pages in a day. I didn't read that quickly when I was reading books for my university course. 

The books reminded me of Sanctuary, Amanda Tapping's show about Abnormals, or in Miss Peregrine's world, peculiars. It reminded me so much of that show and I felt like the books were what the show could've been. 

A bonus that came with the books is that they sparked my imagination in a way that I never thought possible. For the better part of a decade (god, I feel old now), I have been teaching myself how to use Photoshop. Largely it was by trial and error. This was long before YouTube tutorials were a thing. I've only just discovered Photoshop tutorials on YouTube. 

I taught myself manipulations, colouring and editing through this process of trial and error. One of my bestest friends in the entire world is a phenomenal graphic designer and she once told me that she didn't know how I managed to do what I do because I did it all wrong. Haha. I didn't know what a Layer Mask was. Now I can't live without them. 

With this newly blossoming imagination, I've spent evenings with my laptop creating manipulations. Some have crossed Sanctuary over with Miss Peregrine or Miss Peregrine over with Merlin and then exploring what I can create. 

I've included them all in this post because I want to share them with you all. My first and foremost passion is fandom. Second is makeup. That is why I'm always so excited when I can cross over fandom with makeup. That's pretty much 90% of my YouTube channel. I love makeup. I love it. But my fandoms are what make me who I am. 

A lot of the images that I used of Eva Green as 'Miss Peregrine' are actually stills or behind the scenes photography from 'Penny Dreadful'. In the first image I managed to edit in Miss Peregrine's signature quiff from the movie. 

H. Magnus & A. L. Peregrine

Helen Magnus Original Image || Eva Green Original Image

Since reading the books, the idea that Helen Magnus and Miss Peregrine would be friends due to their line of work stayed with me. I wanted to create a manipulation that would show that. From the get-go I knew that I wanted it to be an aged action still, like some of ones that are known to be found on Helen Magnus's desk in the opening credits to Sanctuary.

In this image the story is that they are caught in the middle of a battle. They aren't looking in the exact same direction because different things have captured their attention. Perhaps Miss Peregrine was looking at something seconds before looking at where Magnus is staring. That's the beauty of action photography, right? Except, it's a manipulation.

Old Friends

Miss Peregrine Original Image || Helen Magnus Original Image

This image is another one inspired by the 'Photograph on Magnus's Desk' trope of Sanctuary. When I saw the original image of Miss Peregrine on the PeregrineMovie Instagram page, I knew that I wanted to create a graphic around it, whether or not it was a manipulation or something else. I knew that I wanted to do something. Hey presto, this manipulation was born.

It's not perfect. I could have made it appear a bit more seamless with the shading but this was one of the early attempts at manipulations, or rather returning to manipulations. I was and am still learning. It was something fun to make and an image that I had in my head.

Broken Wing

Eva Green Original Image || Helen Magnus Original Image

In the books, Miss Peregrine changes completely into a peregrine falcon, leaving her clothes behind. However, in the upcoming movie, it appears that her clothes morph with her. Not much of an issue to me. I had a story in my head that Magnus and Miss Peregrine were in a battle against the Hollows or the Cabal and they're both injured. In my head Miss Peregrine's wing is broken as she tries to morph back into human form. When she finishes, her wings remain and they're dealing with the aftermath.

This manipulation was a lot of fun to create. It was definitely a challenge because it was a behind-the-scenes photograph and I had to edit people and objects out and create more snow than was originally there. It isn't seamless but I still love how it turned out. As I said, it was a lot of fun to make and my Internet search history would have made interesting reading... Blood textures, blood brushes, blood scratches, blood streaks, wing brushes, broken wing, broken peregrine wing, how to add blood to an image..... Yep. Not kidding.

The Falcon & the Sorceresses

Eva Green Original Image || Morgause Original Image || Morgana Original Image || Forest Image

This manipulation was more of a struggle than any of the images featured in this post. I knew that I wanted to do something with a forest and Miss Peregrine but what? I worked on the base of the forest image, doing a little bit of colouring and adding in a few flames but I still did not know what image of Eva Green I wanted to use ro what the story was. I hummed and ha'd about a couple of photographs, going back and forth but could not settle on the story which would decide the photograph.

Then came the choice of who else to include. I originally wanted it to be another Peregrine and Sanctuary cross-over but nothing was sparking my imagination when it came to Magnus. Then suddenly the idea of Morgause and Morgana came into my head. I immediately fell in love with the idea and the manipulation took off from there. Morgana's surname is Le Fay and Le Fay is part of Miss Peregrine's name: Alma LeFay Peregrine. MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN! It was perfect!

The story of this is that Miss Peregrine is facing the destruction of the forest from fire, possibly threatening the home of peculiars. Morgause and Morgana come to the rescue as the water to the fire - they are sorceresses after all. 

Morgause

Morgause Original Image

This manipulation just came to me. I had been watching YouTube tutorials from Arun Kumar for about a week and was completely blown away by his work. They were incredible and right up my alley in terms of story. I watched several of his tutorials and took what I learnt from those and created this manipulation of Morgause, my favourite character from BBC's Merlin. 

I'm not going to lie, I am in love with how this turned out. I had no real end image in my head. I simply knew that I wanted Morgause and castles. I didn't know that I wanted a starry night involved or fire coming from her. That's what I love about creating a manipulation, I never know what is really going to happen. I get inspired as I work. For example, the castle I originally used was the one in the forefront. But that wasn't enough for me. So I added two more to the mix to create this citadel. Then came the starry night and then the sunset and then the fire. It all seemed to simply flow. 

That's my favourite part. That and the end result but I am so proud of each and every one of these manipulations. What's more is that I learned something from each of them be it composition, colour, shadows, highlights, perspective, tone or layer masks.

Morgana

Morgana Original Image

The thing that I love the most about this manipulation is that the ruins are edited from an image that I took myself. If you've visited my blog before, you may recognise the ruins are that of Inch Abbey from this post. Since I dedicated a manipulation to Morgause, my muse would not leave me be until I did one for Morgana. I wanted to use this promotional poster from season 4 because Katie looks amazing.


I hope that you like the manipulations that I've made so far. I want to post more and more to my blog as I learn more. It's something that I've fallen in love with and would love to expand upon.