So, my good friend Angi Sullins comes to me the other day and asks if I want to take part in a "Digital Smackdown". She creates a collage the "old fashioned" way scans and sends it to a bunch of us graphic designer type geeks and we see what we can come up with by digitally altering the image. The challenge is on to create the most appealing result - and may the best guy or gal win. The rules are that there are no rules except that each design must be completed in one day, we can do whatever we want to the image as long as you can tell in the end that we did use Angi's original image as our starting point. Sounds like fun, so I'm in! Here's what happened on day one:

This is Angi's collage, the starting image for everyone in the challenge. I was really drawn to the youthful sweetness of the face and the whimsy of the hat, so here's what I came up with:

This piece I call "Destiny at the End of a Branch". The green background is infused with pastels and greenery indicative of spring and therefore the beginnings of life and youth. Our young friend here wears a whimsical hat indicative of the folly of youth and has several butterflies in their airy spirit to represent the different possibilities and paths that may yet be chosen. The body is a symbolic cage, or simply a home for the spirit or soul that takes refuge here for now; the cage is monochromatic, while the soul is full of light, life and colour. At the end of the branch is the gilded cage, where one butterfly is feeling things out. The door is still open, all things are still possible.