PROCESS

In commencing work on my digital collage visually representing a chemically induced dream-state, I initially isolated the head of the central figure. I placed this onto a seperate layer, so as I could edit it to suit the needs of the images it would be replacing. I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool and the Eraser Tool in order to smoothly detach it from it's surroundings, as shown below. This also meant that I could reverse and rotate the head for use on the two upside down children in the top left corner.

I then worked on creating the background. This was done by selecting areas already noted within the work, for example, the grey background within the TV set on the bottom right-hand corner, the "BANG BANG" coming from the heart/lips, some skin on the repeated face, and the lips forming the heart. These little squares were enlarged (simply by pressing Ctrl+T and then holding the shift key and dragging) to exaggerate and demonstrate their texture. I changed each to grey-scale (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate) to make them homogenous in nature. I then placed each layer behind the main layer, and used the Eraser Tool to erase the white of the background. This resulted in the images showing through. This is demonstrated below:

I then selected and isolated the heart from the slogan "I Heart 90s" and used the paint bucket to transform the colour from white to red. This was done to comply with the overall colour scheme, and also a subtle reference to The Red Queen and the White Queen from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" (1871). I lined up a series of bullet-like hearts from the gun-head to the central figure's arm. Additionally, I incorporated the image of the heart into the "WILD AT HEART" text, providing another link. Finally, in an attempt to highlight the central figure, I selected it and went to Edit > Stroke and placed a black outline around it, as demonstated below: