The Two-Spirit Warrior

       I am Neptunite. I am the manifestation of the love between my masculinity and femininity. My anchor flail represents my strength, and my trident represents my style. With my masculinity and femininity comes my heroic side, and is mostly present in my digital art. Through my edits, I bring fantasy and reality closer to each other, letting my imagination create various effects and scenarios (some have meaning, some are just for visual appeal).

Neptunite is alias I came up with out of inspiration of the fusion concept of the show Steven Universe, my general interest in gemstones, because it sounds really cool, my zodiac (Pisces) and ruling planet (Neptune), and my progression to self love and empowerment. The concept of fusion in SU is that it’s the ultimate connection between gems. Some gems fuse for utility purposes (Like Amethyst and Pearl fusing into Opal), some for casual existence as one being, and others fuse as a result of love for one another. Along with their forms combining into a new gem, their personalities combine in the process, making the new being a blend of the two component gems. I relate to this concept because I am Two-Spirit, a blend of masculine and feminine. By representation/symbolism, I can see myself as a fusion between a totally masculine and a totally feminine version of myself. The result of the fusion is a man with a taste in both masculine and feminine clothing, and a strong sense of security and self love. I don’t fall on the far end of masculinity or femininity, placing me in the middle. Because of this (and a little bit of acting), I can be different levels of masculine or feminine depending on who I’m around. Knowing this, along with the fact that my Zodiac is a water sign ruled by a planet that is essentially frozen water and has a lot of metal in it, I chose the gemstone called Neptunite.

My former alias used to be Aurora-V, because the aurora part of the name represented my bright and colorful personality, and the V represented a pair of wings as a sign of rebirth (think Phoenix), which represents the times I’ve been knocked down by people who hate me, and the fact that I always “rise from the ashes” stronger than ever. The aforementioned meaning still stands even after changing my alias to Neptunite, because it’s a part of my past and how I became who I am today.

My style is very androgynous and futuristic. I love fusing masculine and feminine clothing into one outfit; I’ll love it even more if there’s some aquatic or futuristic design to it. My favorite outfit is one I put together around 4 years ago. It has the most balance between masculine and feminine out all of my other outfits and has that heroic, yet classy and professional appearance to it. I wore it for the first time in years with minor differences. The button up shirt and the heels were the only thing that changed (I still have the original button up, but it’s deodorant stained, which is annoying to walk around with).

I took the original photo by setting my phone camera on timer (10 seconds), and as it started snapping, I jumped into the shot. I then added the second set of arms by erasing the background of another photo of me. I erased everything except my arms, and then merged it with the image I worked on. After that I took my transparent image of water, metal, my trident and my anchor flail (which I turned silver and added gemstones to), blended them into my photo, and erased parts of it so that it looks like I’m holding my weapons and that the water overlaps and is overlapped by them. I used a different water transparent image on my Anchor to add an aquatic aura effect on it. The image used on my anchor was also used on my original set of arms. My second set of arms were turned silver using an image of twisting metal. I positioned it on the second set of arms and erased until it covered only my arms. I wasn’t intending to make the bottom left (your left) arm have the stripe pattern on it, but left it because it looks like some type of gauntlet. Also, the bit of metal under it looks like a metallic energy blade, which is perfect since my heroic persona has the power of hydrokinesis and ferrokinesis (metal manipulation). Finally, I added a filter to change the lighting a little, and my personal symbol (which now has my alias under it). This is my first image for the semester because I like to start and finish a semester with a bang. I also made this the first image of the semester because the outfit I have on is my absolute favorite out of my entire wardrobe.

Wave Breaker Neptunite

This has to be the most bad ass edit I’ve ever done of myself, and I’m extremely proud of it. It took me a while to find a name for these photos, because I wanted a title that sounds good to me. I call the photos “Wave Breaker Neptunite” because not only is my “signature ability” hydrokinesis, but I went ahead and gave myself a signature weapon (a blade) that has an appearance as malleable as water, and can split into multiple swords. It turns to steel once I finalize its appearance for the time being, and I summon two smaller blades from my gems (on my left and right forearm) and fuse them into the blades you see in two of my photos. Also, I decided to give the blade the ability to split tsunamis in half, because this is my imagination, and anything I say goes!  I found what I think is the best place to get transparent images, which is where I found the blade in the third photo, and the water silhouettes of the whale and the shark trailing off of it. The stones were also found from the said website, and I’ve downloaded so much more since then! Anyway, I made these images to play around with the new transparent images I got off of the website, and to play around with the motion blur effect. I recently got into making it look like the photo was caught as I was in motion, even though I was standing perfectly still. Aside from making the photo not believable, but in some sense, logical, I look like a character off of a movie, since my facial expression and pose matches the heroic theme. The musical notes from the first image were put based on my ability to sing. The lights bursting from the ground give ma a theatrical/grand entrance (like my favorite fusion, Sardonyx), and the waves that surround me give me that “from the sea” impression, because that image is supposed to make it look like two smaller versions of myself (my masculine and my feminine side) fusing into me, a combination of the two. Another representation of these images is of my discovery of my tastes, my personality, and me fighting against those who try to downplay my happiness and security in myself in favor of their own ideals. The placement of my second set of arms was inspired by Sardonyx from Steven Universe, because of how aesthetic she makes it look. The background in the second image represent my love of futuristic stuff, as well as the Steel type half of my fusion.

 

Ocean’s Posession

My obsession with elemental projections of animals/spirits hasn’t ended! I went to central park one day with two of my coworkers  because one of them (Jojo) wanted to explore NYC (she’s from Texas). We were enjoying the scenery when I realized that Aneesa (my other coworker) had a professional camera. I instantly lit up and told her that we should take photos. She agreed, and before you know it we took pictures in various parts of the park, including the Metropolitan Museum of  Art (which this photo was taken at). I noticed a water fountain nearby and became inspired. I struck various poses before finally using this photo for my next manipulation. I originally had my friend take this photo because I noticed the sun’s reflection in the water, and how it was reflecting off my eyes. When she sent me the photos, it wasn’t as clear; we could only see the white dot that was caused by the sun’s reflection. But because I liked my entranced facial expression, I chose to use this as my next piece. The concept of this photo is the idea of being controlled by a mystical force that takes the form of water, and can possess a certain race of aliens when an extremely bright light reflects off it. This causes the mystical water to hypnotize the being, allowing it to take over as it’s host. I wish I had a different outfit on at the time because I would’ve looked more badass, but sometimes you gotta live in the moment (in this case, the captured moment). I added the aqua dragon projections because it puts a face to what is “possessing” me. My blank face makes it look like i’m being used as a vessel by a hydra. I was originally going to use a different dragon, but the current one suited the photo better, since it could be more transparent than the other image without completely disappearing. I also turned my eyes blue with pupils because I was inspired by the eyes of the Jasper and Amethyst soldiers from Steven Universe. I found them to be aesthetically pleasing, so I made my own blue version from their purple (Amethyst) and yellow (Jasper).

Phase of Pisces

 

 

I made these two for two reasons. One, because it’s the Pisces phase (season)! And two, I felt like making a simple edit. I made this when my cousin (who is also a Pisces) reminded me of our birthday celebration coming soon. Then I remembered that our zodiac’s season is basically already here. I made this simply by downloading an image (not transparent) of ocean depths with air bubbles rising from it, filtered it to “screen” to fade the background off without actually having to erase it, tilted it to the side, and filtered it to blend the photo and make it look more believable, artistically speaking. For the one on the right, I just added the extra step of adding the transparent Pisces symbol and using the “darken” filter to make it see through. Now, while I don’t completely and totally rely on zodiac signs to determine how someone acts, it’s pretty fun to go loosely by one’s zodiac for observational purposes and see if there’s a pattern in people of the same zodiac signs. It’s also fun to read about the planet(s) that rule our signs, like how people under the Pisces Sign are ruled by planet Neptune. I find it pretty interesting how most Leos, for example, tend to be very extroverted and exude a formidable persona that allows them to lead the way. Or how an Aquarius or A Pisces can be so creative, making something either out of nothing, or out of someone else’s creation. So because I wanted to celebrate Pisces season and make it an annual tradition to make a special zodiac based edit, this simple, but bad ass piece was born from the ocean that is my mind to fulfill that desire. Last year, if I remember correctly, I took a selfie and added my sign’s symbol to it. The year before I turned myself into a person who possesses the spirit power of Poseidon (which I plan to remake as well). I uploaded one with and without the Pisces symbol because I think they both look great, and I want people to see that I don’t always have one final version of a photo manipulation. I also made this because it’s a reminder that I should be proud of being born under this sign, despite it being one of the most disliked signs in the zodiac. I would always hear about how others dislike how sensitive people of my zodiac can be. It’s always been about how emotional we can get. But what they don’t realize is that not all of us are the same kind of emotional, nor do they see any attributes past our emotions. Sure, I do admit that I get offended easily, and sometimes I let my emotions drive my decisions, but there’s levels to it. Because of generalization, Pisces people tend to be put under the same levels of sensitivity: the unstable sensitivity kind. In memes I’d see the zodiacs in the future, and when I’d see my sign, it says a Pisces would end up in an asylum. I’m like “Dude, I don’t know what kind of Pisces you be meeting, but I know damned well I’m not unstable”. I may have had loose emotions in my teens, but I grew up fast, and I have nearly full control of them. I don’t get offended easy, and when I do, I don’t usually act upon it. I think about it and decide whether it’s worth fighting for or not. But yeah, point is, I’m proud of being a Pisces, despite how much I be misunderstood. Now excuse me while I swim away into my thoughts and enjoy myself. ;;D

The Harp Twins: Burning Tempest Harp (Fire and Water)

Ok, so I’ve been holding back on my efforts as a photo manipulator. The last few edits I wrote about needed little effort from me, since I didn’t need to add much in the first place. But THIS (Not the first image, the second and third) THIS is the result of me putting my soul and effort. It took me over 3 hours to make, and it was mostly due to me playing around with the lighting of the harp and the twins (me and me, lol) to try and match it as close to the original image of snowy mountains during a sunset as possible. For this post I thought it would be great to remake an old edit I made around 2 years ago, considering my fro grew since then, my style has slightly evolved, and I learned more about manipulating photos using my phone. As I mentioned before, fire in my ideology can represent one’s confidence. Water in my eyes represents beauty and transparency, also known as truth. I went with transparency because it’s more literal to the element itself, and because water can be a beautiful sight when the circumstances are right. But anyway, the inspiration behind the Harp Twins, aside from my interpretation of fire and water, comes from my fascination with twins. I’ve always wanted to be a twin, or have twin daughters or sons. And knowing that I can’t be a twin (for obvious reasons), I decided to get creative, strike two poses, and use both photos in one art piece. The reason I use a harp in this edit is because I played this game called Brave Frontier. And there was this character called Archangel Aurelia. Her divine appearance drew me to use her in battle almost every time. And her harp drew me to her even more. She starts off as just Aurelia, evolving into Elegant Aurelia (her harp is exactly what’s in the photos in Elegant form, except it’s gold), then Statuesque Aurelia, and finally Archangel Aurelia. I was so inspired by her design and the fact that she really floats with that giant harp in her hands that I had to portray myself doing the same. I also love futuristic looking weapons, instruments and almost anything, so the harp’s design gave me so much life. Because I wanted to add my own style to the harp, I changed it’s hue using picsart after erasing Aurelia off the harp. I recently learned that when using picsart on a transparent image, it’ll stay transparent, no matter what edits you make to it. This had me excited because I didn’t have to erase the black background that appears when using pixlr. The difference can be seen in the harp in the first image, as it has a few dark dots where it’s strings are, and the harp in the second and third image, where the strings have no dark spots and the sparkles that it originally had can be seen clearer. Aside from Aurelia, I’ve always liked the sound of harps and plan to learn how to play it in the future for fun, and for photos (of course!). Nothing’s better than having an actual harp with your touch of elements or hue changes to it! The elements in all three photos were also inspired by the idea of having a harp or a musical instrument as a weapon. When the twins play their harp (which I hued blue and orange to match their elements), water and fire energy forms and can be launched like an arrow that’s launched from a bow. Basically, strumming the harp would launch flames and torrents of water. I didn’t add the launched effects to the photo because there’s already a lot going on in the background, so I also learned that sometimes, less is more. The reason these edits took so long to make is because I was spending time re-positioning both transparent photos of me to be closer or farther, as well as tilted a certain way so that when I add the harp it’ll be positioned the right way to make it look like both of me are playing the harp. Then I figured out that the best way to make the photos of me look closest to the lighting of the image I put myself in was to upload the same background again and positioning it to almost match the background, and then erasing everything off except the harp area and the photos of me. Fading the second image by choosing a blending filter (as well ass lowering it’s opacity) makes it much closer to the right lighting. The concept behind the image as a whole stems from the ideology that being confident brings out the beauty in someone, and vice-versa. I thought “what better way to represent that ideology by making two of myself and show us working together as a team?”.

Credit to: http://www.alynspiller.com For the second photo’s background image.

Also to Neil Omacharan, who took my photos.

All other backgrounds were found via google search.