Author Montage picture...

[seawasp]

Here's a pic of me that I Photoshopped together with stuff relevant to my writing, etc.







(Click on the picture for a full-size version)

I put this together for Genericon, but I think it's just overall a pretty good pic of me too.

Comments

Re[2]: Photographic critiques

[lexomatic.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delay.

:::A decade ago I had more hair.

Curse you, testosterone receptors on follicular cells, curse you! Indeed, I can sympathize. I look just fine from the front, but have recently had cause to find that I respond well to Minoxidil. I also have an alarming (i.e., nonzero) amount of grey at the temples; if I'm lucky, I'll end up looking like Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.

:::Remember, this was just a photoshop mosaic to show a theme. I can do decent Visio sketches, but a professional -- or even semiprofessional -- at artwork I ain't.

That's no reason not to use it as a learning experience. And basic compositional theory is applicable to everything from vacation photos to written report layouts.

:::I'm not sure I *OWN* a solid-color collared shirt, if by "collared" you mean "something that could take a tie".

No, a polo shirt would work just fine.

Alternatively, you could go with a vest, jacket, cape -- you've got a fondness for capes, right? -- or rakishly-wound scarf. Anything to add some detail to the shoulders and the shoulder-neck junction.

###Also, there's no energy to that pose. The asymmetry is bland.

:::At this point you've passed into the "what the heck are you talking about" phase -- where the layman is hearing jargon that means nothing to him.

Basic composition: an image acquires visual interest through dynamic imbalance: value (light/dark), color, line weight, position, size, foreground/background. Exact bilateral symmetry is boring. Asymmetry, done right, isn't. If Aspect X is unbalanced to the left, and Aspect Y to the right, the net effect is balanced.

This is especially important (and tricky) in montage, when you're working with multiple elements. You can probably think of movie posters that have done it badly.

For the "energy" of a figural pose, freeze-frame any anime, or take a look at the "how to draw comics" section of your local bookstore. If you're just sitting or slouching, that's not it. The parts of your body will add up, visually, to a boring pile. (Mirror neurons are probably involved, too: see a fellow human in a pose, and you feel that pose.)

:::Why would I "bare my teeth in challenge"?

Because life itself is a challenge! The universe is no friend of ours. It wants to squash us! To squash us like the tiny, squashable things we refuse to admit we are! To crush our cosmically irrelevant hopes and aspirations against the cold and uncaring rocks of the gravity well on which we live our tiny, laughable lives!

Or it could be a reaction to the intimidating swords-akimbo chap in the upper-right. But that may just be me.

###And the yellow tint gives a jaundiced [cast]

:::Yeah, apparently the tint on my screen is off.

Ah, the perils of color reproduction, and the mysteries of Photoshop's color-separation and Pantone features. The classic black-and-white portraitists didn't know what they were missing, but would be glad that they were.