MANIPULATING REALITY
In the spirit of posting whatever I like, I have decided to share a number of the graphics that I have compiled over the past year. In the last two years, I have learnt more than I ever thought possible in Photoshop. To be certain, I haven't learnt everything that there is to know. However, I have learnt much more than I could have imagined in such a short space of time. In the past, my graphics have always been a kind of Macguyver situation; I did what I did but did it the long way or even the hard way. Thanks to the glorious learning site that is YouTube, I learnt about layers and layer masks. My best friend, who is a graphic designer (and who always wondered how I managed to do what I did), had always mentioned layer masks to me for years, but I never knew what she was talking about. I simply smiled and nodded.
I have previously shared some of my graphics - link here - around the time that I had first learned about these techniques. Since then, my creativity has soared. My imagination is able to take flight to new and exciting heights. With these techniques, I feel unleashed. Watch out, world. Though, I will say that inspiration is a fickle beast that likes to come and go as it very well pleases. Sometimes, an idea for a graphic will sprout at one o'clock in the morning when I am working at 6am (five hours away) and I do not have access to my laptop. It will insist on blooming and growing wings. Can sprouts grow wings? Nevertheless, when I get inspired, I stop at nothing to get that graphic out from my head and into Photoshop. I don't even think about eating when I get in the zone. Give me headphones, my Spotify playlist of cheesy music from the 80s and 90s and I can work away happily in Photoshop for hours.
By no means are any of these graphics deemed 'perfect'. Sometimes the perspective is off or the colouring in this one isn't just right or that I should have done this or done that instead. It's a learning curve. I'm forever learning new things every time I open Photoshop (and YouTube) and those lessons are what I look forward to. Mostly, I look forward to realising an image that it's my head (because I can never draw those so to finally seeing those images in real life is something special) and I always enjoy the experience.
In this post, I am sharing with you some of my favourite manipulations from the past while. All of them are fandom based. I won't even apologise because I am a fangirl and fangirling is what I do and what ultimately inspires me.
Here we go... Oh, and click on any of them to see the full image.
S A N C T U A R Y
Sanctuary is one of my favourite fandoms and one that has always inspired me. If you have looked at my previous graphics post, you may notice that Sanctuary has a heavy presence in it. What can I say? It inspires me. It is one of my favourite television shows and one with endless possibilities for creativity. Also, I talk about it a lot when referring to books that I have read.
"YOU'RE MY LIFE"
***SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NEVER WATCHED SANCTUARY***
I will forever be salty with the Sanctuary Powers That Be for killing Ashley Magnus at the beginning of the second season. Forever salty. This graphic combines two fandoms that I love; Sanctuary and Merlin. Merlin was a show on the BBC about the famous wizard. One of my favourite characters from it was Morgause (forever salty about that too). Morgause is a powerful sorceress and a High Priestess, ergo, powerful magic and coupled with the fact that Helen Magnus misses her daughter, I figured, why not merge the two.
Here, Magnus has made a blood offering to the High Priestess of the Old Religion to open the veil between the worlds in order to bring Ashley across the bridge and back to her. If Morgause can let Arthur see his dead mother, with enough incentive, she can bring someone back from the dead. That's the way I see it.
I cannot tell you how many layers this image was - that wall alone was about four separate images. I love how magical this turned out.
This one was fun to do because it's actually a design for a purely hypothetical book about Helen Magnus. Seriously, you could easily write a tome about Magnus's life and barely get to the end of the First World War. I was inspired by the book covers for the Stalking Jack the Ripper book series by Kerri Maniscalco. Those book covers are stunning! ↓
"WITCHSLAYER"
This one isn't Sanctuary but it's kind of related because it features Emilie Ullerup who played Ashley Magnus on Sanctuary. I know that the colouring of this one is not perfect. Since I made this graphic, I discovered a few new tricks and techniques that could have made Emilie blend in a bit better. In terms of techniques, this one was certainly a learning curve apart from the colouring aspect. This one brought together several separate images and blended them together to make a more cohesive and interesting image. I think anyway. The ivy on top of that obelisk wasn't there in the original image that I used. I learned how to add that. Those shadows of the stone and from Emilie were added in too. Yes, they could be more seamless but I wasn't necessarily going for realism when I created this one. I was simply playing around. I like it enough to post it. Do I think that Emilie Ullerup would get a kick out of it? I'd like to think so...
This was largely inspired by Emilie's character from the short-lived series on Syfy called 'Riese' in which she played the character called, "Aliza." She looked so badass. I never got the chance to watch this series as it wasn't easily accessed back when it first came out but I'd happily watch it now for Emilie. Fangirl priorities, am I right?
S T A R W A R S
Star Wars has always been a constant presence in my life. I first watched Episode IV A New Hope in a cinema in Scotland when it was re-released in the mid-90s. Yes, I'm that old. Since then, it has been a constant companion with television re-runs, DVDs and the new movies. I just love it all. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before I made some graphics.
"THE ROAD HOME"
Another fandom clash but I simply couldn't resist it. I was re-watching a lot of Voyager in 2018 alongside Star Wars on Sky Movies and the combination of the two just came to me; what if Voyager had have encountered the Death Star on their journey home? I'm thinking that Q would've had a hand in that... 'If the Continuum has told you once, it has told you a thousand times; Don't provoke the [Death Star].'
I know that the size ratio of Voyager to the Death Star is off but when I created it, Voyager was closer to the 'camera' and steering towards the Death Star. It looked right to me but probably doesn't look right to others. I still love it.
This graphic was inspired by a chapter in the book, "Leia; Princess of Alderaan" by Claudia Gray. It was one of my favourite moments in the entire book and it made my fangirl heart flutter like a hummingbird. I'm not kidding. I was a flailing fangirl.
↑ ACTUAL FOOTAGE OF ME!
That scene in the book truly cemented that Leia was the daughter of Padmé Amidala. I know that it has already established, but I had never before believed it. I never truly saw the connection. I hated how it was never alluded to beyond Revenge of the Sith. Every time I watched the movies and the prequel movies, I always wondered how nobody in the political realms of Alderaan and the Republic did not comment on Leia's looks or that she never encountered anyone that I previously known Queen/Senator Amidala. How was that possible when she travelled in the same circles as her late biological mother? This book answered my prayers with the most glorious encounter. It was simple but oh so beautiful.
I had recently marathoned all of the movies and finally saw a connection between Padmé and Leia. Not bad for taking nearly twenty years to see it. As a result, this graphic was born. I was simply playing around with images. I knew that I wanted to use the promotional shot from The Last Jedi. I didn't know what the end result was going to be but simply played around with images, adding here and there and taking from here and there and trying this here and there. VoilÃ
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"GODSPEED REBELS"
After watching Episode VII: The Last Jedi, I completely fell in love with Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo. Naturally, in the beginning, I was very distrusting of her, loved her hair, wanted her hair, but I didn't trust her. Then she jumped the cruiser to Light Speed and holy-millennium-falcon, did I fall in love with her. If you haven't watched that scene from The Last Jedi, watch it now!
The fact that Laura Dern plays her didn't hurt either. I mean, THAT'S ELLIE FROM JURASSIC PARK! ELLIE!
Her character is also featured in the book, Leia: Princess of Alderaan and is basically the Luna Lovegood of the Star Wars universe within that book. I was living for that! It dramatised the first meeting of a sixteen-year-old Leia with a teenaged Holdo - a friendship that I loved seeing develop. They were cutest BFFs ever. It really made me appreciate their friendship in The Last Jedi.
So, one day, I was on my laptop and I knew that I wanted to use the promotional image of Holdo. This image was born in a matter of minutes. This image was possibly the one that came to be the fastest out of all the images in this post. Most images take me a good three to five hours to create from start to finish. This one of Holdo was probably a solid two hours. It just flowed from me and I love how it turned out.
DC'S L E G E N D S O F T O M O R R O W
These graphics can't really be under the umbrella term of 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' since one is of Caity Lotz, the actress behind Sara Lance and the other of Leonard Snart, a character from Legends of Tomorrow.
"THE CANARY RETURNS"
I'm not sure why I entitled it, 'The Canary Returns' since it really has nothing to do with The Canary or White Canary. I saw this image of Caity Lotz and knew that I wanted to create something with it. I initially envisioned an ornate gate, the dress billowing and Caity looking like an HBIC on the warpath. The end result is pretty much the image that I had in my head. Just not the colouring that I wanted.
I guess that it made me think of Sara Lance's first appearance as the Canary in Arrow. She looked incredible and had a dark aura around her. Looking at it now, it reminds me of Thanos' transportation ability thanks a la the Infinity Gauntlet; as if she had just transported in front of the gate in a cloud of black smoke. If I changed it to purple, I could easily say that she's wearing the Infinity Gauntlet behind her back.
"THROW AWAY THE PLAN"
Another character that I'm salty about the treatment of by the Powers That Be; Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold.
One of my closest friends loved Leonard Snart and one day, I wanted to make a graphic for her of Snart. I really wanted to encapsulate his Captain Cold persona. I wanted to show the power of his gun and how magical (?) it could be. That's probably overreaching.
Okay, think of it like this, this is his 'show how powerful you are' moment. You know those moments in movies when the reluctant hero has to really unleash their powers but are afraid to let go in order to save the world. Or, the protagonist wants to impress a love interest and shows them something beautiful... It's like that. That works, right? Phew. I was struggling. Anyway, whatever the 'story' is, it looks pretty cool with a cool quote from the man himself.
M A R V E L
***SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR***
One of my most favourite fandoms. Scarlet Witch and Vision are my favourite characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Up until Age of Ultron, my favourite had been Hawkeye. Then Wanda Maximoff and Vision came onto the scene and the rest is history. Sorry, Hawkeye. After watching Infinity War, I was underwhelmed by the movie but lived for the blossoming relationship between Wanda and Vision. I affectionately refer to them as 'MAH BABIES' when talking about them in conversations. I recently watched Infinity War again and fell back in love with them all over again. It was only a matter of time before I was going to launch Photoshop and create something for 'mah babies.'
One thing that has annoyed me the most about the MCU's treatment of Wanda après Age of Ultron is that they seem to have put some shackles on Wanda. Yes, she's still epically powerful but they seem to have put some kind of dampener on her. That battle at the airport in Civil War could have been over in seconds had they simply turned to Wanda, "Sic 'em." She could've ended Iron Man like ended Ultron but instead, she threw cars at him. Still cool, but come on! She's more powerful than that. Same goes for Infinity War. Some people would call that 'having a conscience' or what it is to be an Avenger - thou shalt not harm or something like that. Nevertheless, I miss unleashed Wanda.
As a result, this graphic was born. In the aftermath of Vision's death in Infinity War (and she hasn't turned to dust or that he hasn't been restored), Wanda is out for blood. In her grief and anger, she's laying waste to the earth (this Earth or earth on another planet: either works) and exacting her revenge. Remember, Wanda has lived through the deaths of her parents, the death of her twin brother and now the love of her life. It would be enough to make anyone lose control. This is Wanda's 'Dark Phoenix' moment. Jean Grey would be proud.
"WE DON'T TRADE LIVES"
When I created the graphic for Wanda, I knew that I wanted to do something for Vision. Admittedly, this was not the vision (ha!) that I had in mind (ha! get it?) when I launched Photoshop. I initially envisioned something simple in grey, with the mind stone with fractal shapes and Vision's broken body from the end of Infinity War. One out of three isn't bad. It wasn't until I finished this graphic that I realised what I had created and in doing so, unconsciously took into account a fan theory for Avengers: Endgame.
For me, my graphics have never really had a story behind them until I started to blend fandoms and then the stories came thick and fast. If you've reached this far in this post and have actually read everything, this may be a bit late to mention because I've written stories for practically all of them - some more far-fetched than others.
Okay, Vision's story. his consciousness is in the Mind Stone. Since the Mind Stone gave him life, it makes sense that his consciousness would be imprinted in it. His consciousness is trapped and he is reliving parts of his life, such as the attack in Edinburgh and the Battle of Wakanda including seeing Wanda. I provided a textless version and one with a pivotal quote from the movie. Nevertheless, I love how this graphic turned out.
I surprised myself with how much I let myself be lead by my creativity. I didn't fight it to create what I wanted. I may still try to create that original idea, but I let myself simply create and I love the result. I love moments like that when I just let go and simply play. A lot of these graphics are results of that process. I haven't fought against my creativity in any of these (maybe 'Amidala Organa' but I still liked the result). I need to take that path more often when creating graphics. The only time when I really do find myself struggling is when I'm creating 'design' things for myself, e.g. watermarks, blog header etc. I struggle so much when creating 'professional' things for myself. I'm useless at it. Utterly useless.
I hope that you enjoyed seeing some of my graphics and the fandom clashes within them. I would love to know what you think of them. Did you like any of them? Did you dislike any? Do you have any constructive criticism of anything that I could perhaps improve upon? Let me know in the comments down below.
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