Mashup: Hermione's Nightmare

This week's mashup assignment is inspired by my eleven year old daughter who is actually typical tomboy by day and clearly a mad scientist by night.  She received her owl letter as expected on her eleventh birthday and caught the train on track 9 3/4 just recently to attend Hogwarts.

By the looks of it, she's giving Hermione a run for her money especially in potions class where Willow clearly understands the need for protective eyewear and a smock to cover her robes.  Maybe Willow's parents are not the muggles they appear to be?  Maybe Willow has latent powers which are only now being nurtured.  Whatever it is, clearly Hermione is jealous and more than a little half-blood peeved that Willow is at Hogwarts and excelling!

What provoked this mashup?  We revel in all things Harry Potter and really are kind of nerdy.  As I was playing with the mashup assignment, Willow was lurking and playing around with it too.  As happens so often with digital media, this assignment quickly became a family affair.  And it occurred to me that as I work through this class, I am really also demonstrating how powerful risk-taking can be for my young daughters.  They watch me work through using programs I am unfamiliar with.  They hear me cussing at regular intervals--and then cheering myself on when I manage to pull off something new and satisfying.  They are learning with me that trying something new is important and a way of growing even when it is difficult.

And, it can be fun.  It can be amusing.  It embodies a sense of satisfaction and learning new things can make us laugh even if the process is frustrating at first.  There is something to be said for humor and being silly in our creativity.  That makes it worth it.

This took some work--but it was not impossible.  I used a photo of Willow taken at a science museum.  She was dressed for the part as she was working on an experiment which had the potential to be explosive.  In Pixlr, I uploaded this photo.  Then, I found a transparent photo of Hermione facing in the right direction and looking suitably menacing.  With a little work and practice, I managed to size it so that the proportions looked good and the two characters were placed at a distance from each other that worked well for the mashup.  The proportionality was the trickiest and required a lot of editing/re-editing to make the two characters appear to be sitting next to one another. I am not completely satisfied, but this works.

Best yet, Willow likes it!  She likes it well enough to want a poster of it for her room which means that as a mom, I scored!  So again, learning to loosen up and just have fun with the creative part of the course has been important.