While trying to put together a better avatar for this blog, I began experimenting with the stock filters in Photoshop and thought I might try my hand at recreating the now famous Obama "Hope" poster. Naturally, I am not the first person to co-opt this now historic design for my own use. Far from it. The web is actually rife with enough of these rip-offs to classify any such effort as passe. Fortunately for me, not only do I not have any high resolution photographs of myself, but I have a short attention span, and became distracted by a flying insect above my desk and lost interest in the avatar project.In the past, I've used an image of Marlon Brando in the role of Colonel Kurtz as a chat avatar and thought why not give that image a shot with a filter or two and see what could be done. The result from the filter alone didn't quite provide the same effect and I had to make a number of adjustments by hand to smooth out the details. About mid-way through the process, Mary wandered up behind me, placed a hand on my shoulder and, as gently as she could, told me that there was in fact a website where you can simply "Obama-ize" the photograph of your choice. I don't mind saying that I was slightly annoyed to learn of this and begrudgingly Googled the site to see what's what. I did a quick test run using the automated interface, but the images that the site cranked out didn't employ the light blue and beige gradient used to create the transitional shade I feel is essential for a more authentic look and thereby resulting in an image that fell well short of what I had envisioned. If you want something done right, by gawd, you gotta do it yourself. So I went back to the virtual drawing board and rattled off the attached image. I wish to give Mary credit for suggesting the inclusion of "horror" where I was stupidly going to use "Kurtz". As always, she was instrumental in helping to give a piece the proper impact.
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