this started out as just messing with a close-up of an eye (that was kind of watery because the person had been crying), but it ended up merging with some ideas i was having for the star wars campaign i'm in right now (yup, still the cathar jedi padawan ^_^; ). first, there was adding different layers with lowered opacities and altered blend modes (dodge, burn, soft light, etc.) to create a reflection effect of stars, planets, and a moon (the PSP tubes i used were "cosmos" and "stars"). then i started messing with the eyelashes and the eyeliner (which on the original were sort of smeared). for some reason i decided to try and change the colour of the skin, using smoothing, glow, and colourising techniques, which made it start to look like a twi'lek (c'mon, there's gotta be some star wars nerds here ;) hee). and THEN, while experimenting with glass, lacquer, and outer-bevel effects, it started to look like there were tears brimming on the edge of the bottom eyelid, like there were in the original picture. this is the finished product (or at least, the finished product without the really nifty shifty border...that one's being uploaded next...): a close-up of a turqoise twi'lek (very rare and so obviously uuuber'spensive high-class slaves), in this case the cathar caylyn barlee's best friend from her days training to be a jedi before the purge when the empire hunted down and killed most of the jedi. both cathar and twi'lek managed to escape the empire but were captured by the notorious crime syndicate, the black sun, and sold into slavery. caylyn escaped, but as far as she knows, her friend did not. displayed here, the twi'lek slave looks out into space, fearing she will never escape this life... well wasn't that lovely and depressing? we'll see if the GMs decide to let me find her alive or not. :P