For me, it is hard to think that it's been a whole year since I went to Paris. In this year I grew up professionally, I learned, I taught, I created and I succeeded. I can't wait to see what is on the next page to me.
November 24th is just around the corner and I'm starting to celebrate tomorrow.
The portrait for this year is obviously themed accordingly to my birthday trip, starting tomorrow. I am going to Morocco, a dream from my teenage years is finally coming true. I wanted it to be dark but soft, intriguing but strong. Of course, I inserted my favorite item on creative self-portraits - dust and smoke - but this time I wanted it to look more like sand. I had a hard time making that work but I am satisfied.
As usual, I made the Before/After, a little more detailed this time. It's almost the same procedure, actually... Some dodge and burn, clear imperfections. Adding creative details, in this case more hair. The hair I use is all mine, I have to take TONS of photos with the hair moving all over the place to get a few good shots. For this portrait, at this hair stage, I had 11 layers, only for hair. Then I dodge and burn the hair and makeup, for more depth and drama, and also blur some of the edges. 60% done, it was time to get to the texture part: smoke, dust, sand, more smoke, more effects on the hair. Time to step for coloring on Lightroom, with one of my favorite presets from VSCO for Lightroom, and then more contrast and blacks and that was pretty much it! Seems easy, huh? I wish =)
Excuse my hand writing, the digital pen was not cooperating with my for this.
