A Face on Mars

[ffutures]

Is this at all convincing?

2nd version of this image - not sure yet if it will be black and white or colour, whichever I go with, it will probably be reduced in size considerably. I should also mention that Photobucket seems to have created some compression artifacts in hosting this one.

Comments

[ggreig]

My critical faculties are paralysed with fear.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Okay...

[ggreig]

I wasn't trying to be snarky (though I was trying to be funny). It's genuinely difficult to give a dispassionate reaction to that face. I tried and kept getting distracted by the associations.

Edit: So it's a really good choice, at least for an audience old enough to have those associations. Any flaws there may be very much take second place.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

She's Mad Empress Margaret, ruler of the Anglo-Saxon Empire for part of the 20th century. I'm writing her as having an interest in BIG monuments - this is actually a bit too small, apart from other problems, so I'm going to have to redo it.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

The hair on the "head" looks wrong, distracting. The shadow on the left under the chin is too sharply defined for the ground it lies on.

The foreground characters should be faded in to the background a bit better -- they're obviously higher-resolution than the landscape which makes them look pasted-in. Their blacks are blacker than the landscape around them, higher in contrast.

It is an elegant conceit nevertheless.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - This reinforces my opinion that it doesn't quite work as is. I think the head needs to be bigger and further in the background, which will make it easier to blend it in. I'll make the hair into stone.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Much better.

She looks too smooth compared to the background though. What happens if you run a sharpen brush across her a bit?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Looks a bit too pixelated for some reason. I've been trying various textures, nothing seems quite right so far.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Actually you're right, tried a different setting and it did a better job, looks a bit rougher.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

What about some sort of softening then?

If you'll forgive my rough fiddling:





Or the sharpening effect: