Beckinsale Graceling

While working on my overlay project and making my face a lion, I was working on my culminating for English. The culminating was we had to read a book and take a character from the book and make an essay on them. I read the book Graceling. Of coarse, I read this book before and absolutely loved it, and there is also a prequel/sequel. You can make it both. A graceling is someone with two different coloured eyes and they have a special talent. This talent could include mind reading, seeing the future, fighting, etc, but no two gracelings are the same. Katsa is special, she has the grace of killing. She has one blue eye and one green eye, and she was the inspiration for me. Due to the fact this isn't a real person, I got inspired while watching the movie Underworld ( I'm a big fantasy freak ) and thought about using Kate Beckinsale. She does a lot of kick-a** movies and I think she would be the person Katsa. Though the age difference might be a little bit of a problem, considering Katsa is supposed to be 18, and Kate Beckinsale is 30-40. Anyways, here is how I made my Katsa.

Firstly, I had to change the eyes, so I took the lasso and drew around the eye, then used a bright blue colour and painted over the area with the paint brush. I changed the eyes by changing their normal, and having it react with the original colour of her eyes. (The button around the opacity) This is how I created her dynamic different coloured eyes. Then, using the burn brush, I shadowed all around her face, making her features more prominent. Then, I used the Enhancing button to change the contrast and brightness of the picture, to also make it more dynamic. After, I found a texture that was cracked and added it to her face but overlaying it. I wanted the scars to look more raw so I took the paintbrush and painted over the lines in red, then overlayed it. I think this gives the picture more of an edge, and shows all her battles she has been through and her strength. Lastly, the blood. That was the trickiest part because I had to make it look somewhat real and not so much painted on. I used different layers and different shades of red and changed the opacity and layer. (Again, using the button around the opacity) I am not so sure about the blood but I think overall I am happy with what I did, in only 10 minutes.

- Gorecki.