Warpaint Visions

Continuing my experiments with the human face, this time I chose a photo that felt perfect for the project. Due to licensing restrictions, I can't share here the raw, unedited photo in its original state—only as part of my modified and enhanced composition.

The idea was to create a kind of war paint using textures. The wooden shutter texture I used in my previous project turned out to be a pleasant surprise—each change in layer order and blending modes revealed unexpected and interesting possibilities. That’s why I wanted to use it again. To complement it, I added a texture of an old red wooden door from my "8 Free Grunge Rural Textures 2024" pack, along with a blue wall texture.

The variety of results I got still amazes me. Even after exporting seven different versions, I decided to try something new that I thought would be worth it. It had been a while since I last used filters in my projects, and I wondered if a distortion or wave effect on the shutter texture might make its pattern interact more fluidly with the photo and other textures.
I ended up choosing GIMP’s Whirl and Pinch filter, and it confirmed my instincts—the composition took on a more organic feel.

In the end, I had fourteen versions of the piece: the original seven, plus an alternate version of each with the filter applied to the shutter texture. But the most surprising part? Even after finishing, I kept experimenting, adding a few elements that took the project in a completely different direction. That version will be shared in a new post.