Just because I can

I am posting this now because I hope to post something similar in about a year to see whether or not I have progressed!  Bizarre??? Probably, but I tend to lose things you see, so this is as good a place to store it as any!  So, honestly, if you don't want to, you don't need to read any further.  Class dismissed!!!

This might not be a terribly exciting piece (sorry!) but for me, it is exciting in what it represents: my first pic that is a total compilation of bits and pieces.  I still have such a long way to go, but I feel as if this might represent the first few steps.  It will be a long journey I expect!  But it's a fun one, to be sure and one that has already brought me so much pleasure, here at my kitchen table.

This post represents a lot of studying, a lot of pondering, and a lot of experimenting.  I watch the videos that come with the various classes I am taking (at the moment, mostly classes falling under the umbrella of Sebastian Michael's classes, link below) and then I watch them again!  Trying to remember what steps to follow (my logical brain kicking in) I wake up early, too early, but then I HAVE to get up to see if I can figure out something that is bothering me about a piece.  In the above piece, for instance, I was trying to figure out how to darken just that little bit behind the model's head:  just a dark brush?, a curves adjustment on a black layer?, a 50% grey layer to selectively darken?, or (and this one often seems perfect) tossing the whole lot in the bin!  So I slept on it (sort of, I got up at three a.m. again, the problem nagging at my brain) and tried all of these (except the bin part), and I now know how to do all of them, without having to look it all up.  That's what I'm after.  I'm sure there are lots of other ways but it's a start!

The above pic contains purchased content and content provided for free with the course.

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