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I call this image Lady Macbeth because she famously said: Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't. Here the serpent is a snake crawling out of a gaping crack in this evil-looking head. The blackness of the crack and of the eye areas signifies a hollow head. The devilishly red eyes peering out of those eye areas signify a lost soul within. The snake crawling out of the crack suggest a dead body that is now food for serpents.
I started with this image that I created previously. You can see how I made it here.
In iColorama, using Effect/Blend, I blended the image with itself in Multiply mode, to get a symmetrical result that also blackens the eye areas. This creates a mask-like result.
I cropped in Form/Crop. I will use this as the basis for creating this new image. I will take mostly the color and shape and haunting tone variations from this image, as my processing steps will lose the texture and create a new texture for the face.
I want to smooth the face to prepare it for a new texture. I start by applying Style/Tensor preset 1.
Now I applied a Style/Simplify preset to further soften the face. Then in Effect/Blend, in two separate blend steps, I blended in eyes from another image. For each eye, in Effect/Blend, I set opacity to 50%, and I used my fingers to resize and reposition the eye where I wanted it. Then I put opacity back to 100% and used an inverted brush mask to paint in the eye.
I will use this photo from Pixabay, a source of copyright-free images, to blend in for texture. I like the crisscrossing wavy lines.
I blended water on top of the face in Effect/Blend.
I applied Effect/Raise to emphasize the wavy lines from the water.
Using an inverted brush mask, I used Style/Coherence to soften the eyes. Keeping the mask in place, I used Tone/Tint to add color to them.
For added texture, I applied Style/ET-Flow, then applied Effect/Raise again. In Style/ET-Flow, I experimented with all the sliders. There is a lot of variability possible.
To add another texture, I applied Style/Flat preset 18, then applied Effect/Raise. In Flat 18, I experimented with all the sliders.
I do want a dark image, but this image is too dark. I brightened the image using Adjust/Levels.
In Brush/Paint, I painted in a long, jagged cut that completely severs her face. I used a hard triangular brush with black paint.
I increased contrast a bit using Adjust/Levels.
I will blend in this snake from Pixabay.
Using Effect/Blend, I blended the snake onto the woman to appear as if it is crawling out from inside her head. In Effect/Blend, I set opacity to 50%, and I used my fingers to resize and reposition the snake where I wanted it. Then I put opacity back to 100% and used an inverted brush mask to paint in the snake.
Keeping the brush mask in place, I used Tone/Enhance to tone down the yellow stripes on the snake.
Using Brush/Paint and a small round brush with gray paint, I painted a drop-shadow along the lower edges of the snake. Before applying, I used the opacity slider to adjust the shadow.
Using Tone/Tint, I changed the eye color to fit better with the other colors in the image.
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