Joshua Lemley

​​I shrunk the pic to as big as I could keep it without going over the 100k limit.  That was difficult because I was using my home computer. I have built my own tower for gaming, and therefore I use my 42" HDTV as my monitor.  It made it a dream to edit and play with the tools, but everything looked so tiny and pixelated when I made it to the "acceptable" size. 

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I used the lasso tool to cut around and select only my shirt and give it a glow effect.  I did the same with my head and neck and gave it a "pixelated" filter.  I used to think that the lasso feature had to be used very precisely, but after first doing it with very rough borders around as a test, I was happy with the result and just left it.  I suppose it just depends on the effect whether you want a sharply cut lasso edge or not. 

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I also added a speech bubble (or more accurately a "thought bubble") just to see if I could and because I thought the top-left corner felt a little empty. Then, because I had nothing else to think about at the time, I put in a text box with "My Thoughts" written in it.

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I am a complete newbie to photomanipulation.  Having said that, the tools on GIMP were remarkably intuitive and easy to find and use. I remember fooling around with paint and stuff when I was a kid and this just seemed like a satisfyingly more complex tool. I have previously taken a class learning how to use auto-CAD (a 3D drafting device engineers, architects, and theater stage designers use), and although the tools are completely different in so many ways, I did learn one principle that carries across all editing software:

Start small and learn one tool at a time; you won't make the Cistine Chapel on your first day AND you're not expected to!

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