Poppy Portrait

Just about every other traditional portrait I've ever tried has been a resounding failure, so I thought I'd break away from the accepted norm of a portrait and do things my own way. What is the point in having rules if your not going to smash them apart every now and then instead of doing things how everyone else does them or expects them to be done. It's a little different than the usual 'pose and render a girl then stick her on a premade portrait background'. I used a mixture of fractal brushes, my own home made paint splat brushes as well as my own vector swashes, and simply layered them over a gradiated background. I then used the same brush splats to chip in the the character using the eraser, then put some bit's back in using the clone tool, all very easy and not very time consuming as the photoshop elements only took about 20 mins or soo too complete. A few basic tools in PS can go a long way.