The Cyclops In The Dryer

What happens when a cyclops decides to go to the beauty salon? It's a question that has always intrigued me and caused more than one sleepless night. Well, jokes aside, I had this photo of an old hood dryer and wondered what I could do with it.

The object itself was already against a dirty wall with some moss, and it had quite dim natural lighting because, even though it was only 3 PM, it was under a porch surrounded by a wall on one side and tall trees right where the sunlight was coming from.

I wanted to maintain that gloomy atmosphere, so I opted to preserve the photo's low contrast. To enhance the atmosphere, I then started overlaying textures. One was a wood texture I had never used before, with a floral decoration on two of the edges that gave it a vintage feel, and several textures of walls and rusty, stained metal, to add a touch of decay.

It was turning out as dark and somber as I wanted, and lacking a better model to star in the scene, I once again resorted to self-sacrifice, using a botched selfie I still had on my phone to transform it into the specter of a cyclops. And job done.