A Work in Progress: Masked

This guide was made for entry:
Masked
In Contest:
wings

Original image

step 1 of 15

First what I did was cut bits of pieces of wings from the contest entry source...

I cut around 4 types of piece... If one is going for this type of composition, you can choose any number of pieces...

step 2 of 15

Now lets the face source... Actually for this image, it's more advisable to choose a image where the face is straight and symmetrical...

Of course no face is perfectly symmetrical...

step 3 of 15

Now tilting the photo and making it upright...

Now I put a guide in the middle of her face... Now selecting the half side of her face( i choose her right side here)...

step 4 of 15

Now coping and pasting that selected half... And flipping it horizontally...

Also arranging it, I get this...

step 5 of 15

Now cutting out the unnessecary parts( don't need hair too)...

This is what I get...

step 6 of 15

Now making some retouching over the face... Made a duplicate layer of it and gave that layer a smart of threshold 23...

Now masking and hiding the top layer... Brushed over the face to reveal the blur avoiding the eyes and lips...

Also added a brightness contrast and hue/sat adj. layer...

step 7 of 15

Now I started adding the cut wings part to the face...

I added a part, rotated it and adjusted bits of it... Then I made a duplicate of it, flipped it horizontally and positioned it...

This is what I got for the side of the eye section...

step 8 of 15

Now adding bits of the wing all over her face...

I get this...

step 9 of 15

Now adding a layer between every wing part...

With an 100% soft and 20% opacity black brush... painted shadow...

step 10 of 15

Now finishing all the shadow... This is the result...

Actually this was my original entry... But GolemAura pointed out that my mask would be better if spherized a bit... Also neverlander pointed out that it lacked a lil depth...