The Compass

PLEASE FULL VIEW!

I have been agonizing over this manipulation for days; I don't think I've ever put so much time into a photomanipulation before. Maybe I should.

Here's the message behind it . . .

We all get caught up in the murky, dark waters of conformity at some point in our lives, and these waters mute our brilliant colors until they are dull and gray. But, if we follow our inner compass, we can find the way out. Often, the only way out is through the mire. And it's not easy to get out; the door on the other side may be too small, but we can find a way to follow where our heart is guiding us and find our colors once again.

No premade stock used. The room was created from [link] by ~Banana-Workshop using perspective distortions in Photoshop. I improvised from vague memories of a tutorial written by the artist formerly known as ~Lady-Dementia several years ago. I don't think it's up anymore.

The water was mostly painted. For the top and bottom, I used a bit of texture from ~strwberrystk's [link] . Tips from *kuschelirmel-stock's "flood" tutorial here: [link] helped get it just right!

Other stock:

Woman: ~dazzle-stock [link]
Amulet: ~demoncherrystock [link]
Door: ~Jantiff-Stocks [link]

Brushes:
[link] (for the compass' ribbon)
[link] (for a bit of bokeh from the door)
[link] (for some help with the ripples)

Thanks to all for sharing resources and for viewing. I'm not explicitly requesting critiques, but I always welcome them.

Special thanks to my new friend, ~sponkey, who put up with me agonizing over this deviation for DAYS.

Love to all.