Corruption of a Youthful Mind

Introducing...Corruption of the Youthful Mind! (Updated)

This is a photomanipulation I did for University, using Photoshop CS5 - I still prefer Gimp, although CS5 does have a really neat tool called the Puppet Warp that Gimp really should invest in

Anyways, we had to create a scene using images clipped together from the internet (which leads me to understand how why so many people don't credit stock...) with an underlying theme and meaning.
Hence this is made of a bunch of small parts stuck together. Initally I was going to make everything out of candy, but there seems to be a limited number of candy resources on DA, so I added a more realistic-style character.

Corruption of the Youthful Mind represents the loss of imagination, joy, freedom and ignorance that is a Child. In our youth, we believe (and enjoy) things like a person made of candy -
I can remember playing with gummybears and erasers as though they were the most captivating videogame in existance They are simple and in many ways, meaningless, but our youthful and innocent mind, the most exciting thing in the world.
Details mean nothing to us - who cares if a character has no nose, or if the sky is unnaturally blue and the clouds look almost...shiny. We don't care if the 'effects' in a movie look totally fake, or if the sound-effects are made from musical instruments.
We just love them anyways! Even simple things like feathers, twirly spaghetti noodles and pancakes are so mindlessly captivating that we have no choice but to pick them up and giggle. We just love them anyways.

But (and yes, there is always a 'but'), as we grow up and 'mature', as it's called, we lose that ignorance and carefree joy as our head gets in the way (sometimes literally uch.
As we get older, we begin to look at things from a more critical point of view... Why does everyone laugh at me when I play with gummybears? Shouldn't the strawberries be washed first, there might be scary germs all over them?
However the biggest factor is our look on life - we see advertisements and movies and stuff on the internet and start to wonder. Start to question. Start to imagine a different 'Imaginary World'.
This new world is bigger, darker and usually more violent (sorry, did I say violence? I meant action... ). We also begin to experience visual effects differently... We all remember the first time we saw a movie and said "Pfft...Like that looks real...!"
Okay maybe you didn't say the 'pfft' part, but you know what I mean Visual and sound effects start to sound...what's the word? Ah...corny. Monsters start to invade our dreams as we see things more realisticly and with more 'action'.
As we grow older, we begin looking at objects and scenes and effects from a critical point of view. We have to make sure the highlights and shadows look proper, and decide whether or not strawberries really look good as eyes or not...

Now, admitedly not all the parts of growing up are bad - you can now see yourself in the mirror without climbing into the sink, and that cookie jar get easier and easier to reach.
But sometimes we just have to look back on our youth and laugh. Partly from just how silly we were, but also partly on how much we wish being able to sit under a tree for 2 hours and play with toy cars, without a care in the world.
This is what this photomanip represents - that loss of youth. The older, more experienced and realistic monster from our imagination on the right is battling the innocent collective of gummybears, strawberries pancakes twirly noodles and feathers.
Our innocence is losing ground and is backed against a cliff. He is battered, but not defeated.
Mine is still battling. Is yours?


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Well, this has the be the most exciting photomanip I've ever made. I'm amazed what I managed to put together even though my initial concept didn't work out as I had hoped (there was a castle involved )

My most sincere thanks to the stock providers who made this piece happen - without you I would have made a much less exciting artwork

Stock Used...

First and foremost, this scene is based on the Iberian Shaman Fight scene from Thankyou

Candy-Man:
Feet - [link] by
Face - [link] by
Head - [link] by
Arms - [link] by
Gummyworm Leg - [link] by
Gummybears - [link] and [link] by
Pancake - [link] by
Hand - [link] by
Feather-sword - [link] by
Strawberry - [link] by
Other Strawberry - [link] by

Monster-Man:
Staff - [link] by
Clawed Hand - [link] by
Other Hand - [link] by
Arms - [link] (yes, they are made of hotdogs) by
Helmet - [link] by
Body - [link] by
Tunic - [link] by
Legs - [link] by
Hooves - [link] and [link] by
Ammo Pouch - [link] by

Fireball - [link] by and

Background - [link] by
Sky - [link] by

Everything else is either painted or blended

Creation Time: 8 hours (+4, but I had to redo it because I lost the file - stupid Uni computers...)
Program Used: Photoshop CS5 Extended, Gimp (used for about half an hour to redo everything I lost from the Uni computers - stupid Uni computers...)
Layers: 40

This is Not Stock. Do not Copy or Redistribute - if you really want it, ask me how I did it and I'll tell you.

----- Update -----

~Lordvraider Suggested adding something to the background (it was very simple) so I've tweaked it a bit