More editing going on

Today I kept on editing the same picture of me. I find it interesting how many different feelings and effects you can have from one original picture. My first try was on Picnik, a website that really interested me yesterday. Although I still like it, I think it's quickly limited when you have a specific idea in mind. The number of premium functions for which you have to pay also frustrated me, but I still got something out of it.

My new image is really different as it uses cool colors only - I was wearing a winter coat, so I decided to be in the snow. This picture matches my basic design criteria (alone on the image, picture taken by myself) and I like how it's somewhat Christmas-y but not a very happy composition. Sometimes I feel like it's snowing inside of me , but no one really sees that - this is what I like about this picture, outside its appearance. But for my self portrait, I want to represent something a little happier. I also wanted to add some text but the fonts were too limited. Here goes:

Design specifications checklist - Design 3

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - ??
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - yes
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - ??
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

Using Picknik, I did another very different image where I used symbols. I'm the only person on the image, and I took this picture myself, so this matches the basic design criteria. However, I don't know if this picture really represents me. It took me a lot of time to do, and I like the result, but I can't really identify myself to it. The colors are too vibrant, too happy - it looks like some sort of advertisement. I asked a few of my friends and although they thought I can be really happy at times, and that the mysterious expression provides a nice contrast with the warm colors, they did agree this wasn't completely me.

Design specifications checklist - Design 4

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - not really
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - yes
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - ??
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

Finally, I went to an old photo editing website I have known for a very long time, PhotoFunia. When I first visited it, all it did was give you pictures with a hole somewhere so you could add your own photo. It's changed a lot - now all you have to do is upload the picture on the website and it gives you a wonderfully edited image. Now, the thing is that you tend to end up with tons of edited pictures, since it's so fast :)

I'll just upload a few of my favorites.

Design specifications checklist - Design 5

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - no
  
• The image must express who you are - yes
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - no
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - no
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

I really don't like it when other people take pictures of me without my knowledge, so this image is a little bit ironic - "No pictures" on a picture. I really liked that. I haven't taken the whole photograph, but the woman reading her newspaper is not really too important, so I think this still goes with my design specification. This tells a lot about me but I'm not all that happy about the fact there's words on the images. I'd like my self portrait to be more of a puzzle and writing like this feels a little obvious.

Design specifications checklist - Design 6

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - yes
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - no
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - ??
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

This one feels to me like it's saying there's an infinity of persons. Again, people in Mongolia only know one aspect of me - this picture reminds me of that aspect of my personality. I also just like the composition and the colors of the artwork. The problem is that one of my design specification is that it has to be a picture taken by me, and in this image what I really like is the surrounding photograph around my poster. This would be really hard to draw as well, so I think it's a nice edited picture but wouldn't really work as a self portrait.

Design specifications checklist - Design 7

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - no
  
• The image must express who you are - not really
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - not really
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - yes
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

Okay, I have no idea how this one could even represent me. But a graffiti? Come on. Maybe I like this picture because it kind of makes up for my lack of risk taking - I would never draw a graffiti in my life. That's what my friends said when I showed them the picture and I agree with them. One of my design specification is for my picture to say more about myself than I planned on saying myself, which is why I'm so fond of this picture. However, one of the very basic design specification of the self portrait is that I must be alone on the picture. This isn't really the case...I could always edit out the man and replace him by a simple wall, although that would make the image less interesting.

Design specifications checklist - Design 8

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - not really
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - yes
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - ??
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

Wanted - dead or alive. I wish I was worth $9999...this image looks really interesting and there's some irony behind it. I'm alone on the portrait and I really like this one. I would love to have a poster like that...Even though there's writing, the meaning of the picture is not obvious. I like the fact there's hidden meaning but I don't know if there's enough actual meaning to make this a successful self portrait.

Design specifications checklist - Design 9

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - yes
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - yes
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - ??
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

This image reflects a really important aspect of my life, traveling. I'm pretty sure I would've been a completely different person if I'd lived in different countries or in the same place all my life, but I 'm not quite sure of how I could represent that in my self portrait. Postage stamps look great and I love the colors and vintage look of this image. It goes with all of my design specifications (picture taken by myself with no one else on it, represents me, looks nice, hidden meanings) and my only concern is that I'm a little small on the picture, but that could easily be fixed. I'll look much bigger when painting from the overhead anyway.

Design specifications checklist - Design 10

• The original picture must be altered in a photo editing program - yes
  
• There can't be anyone else than yourself on the photograph - yes
  
• The image must express who you are - yes
  
• I must be able to recognize myself on the portrait - yes
  
• The photograph must be one I have taken myself - not really
  
• The final work should be neat and completely finished - yes
  
• It should be the result of me working at my hardest - yes
  
• I should be proud of the result - yes
  
• This image should show more about myself than I think it does - probably not
  
• It should be visually pleasant - yes

This last picture from Photofunia is my personal favorite, as I've always really been into books. It seems to me like I'm about to step into a new, magical world. Ever since I read Inkheart, one of my favorite books about a girl that can make characters come out of the books when she reads aloud, I've wished I could step into books. I used a different image for this one because it matched the whole crazy mood a lot more, and it really looks like I'm a ninja character from the old book. This design says a lot about my hobbies, but I'm not sure where I could put some more information about myself. There isn't much space and it might be really hard to draw from the overhead. It matches all of my other design specifications, though.

Which one should I do for my project?