I usually don't show my original photos, but I am going to make an exception... for Gollum! You may have spotted him in my latest picture: "One Ring to bind them, and into trouble get them".

Some persons were curious about how it was done. I am sure there are plenty of ways to get there, but here is what I did:

• First of all, it is very important to pose accordingly to the result you expect. I looked at various images of the character in the movies, and studied his postures and expressions. This is why I chose to cower myself, and make the biggest eyes I could. Yes, expect to look silly!
• Once you have a base you are happy with, you can start deforming the face and body.
• First, Gollum has big ears. Consequently, I duplicated the visible ear, made it bigger, and positioned it over the real one. I worked a bit on the transitions using masks and a smooth brush.
• The eyes are also much bigger: for that step, I used the enlargement tool in the 'Liquify' module.
• Then I had to remove my hair: I covered it with my own skin, duplicated from other parts of my body (arm and back). At this stage, some dodging and burning was necessary, in order to create a believable lighting on the upper part of the head.
• I also duplicated some wrinkles under the eyes, and made the teeth triangular.
• In order to finalize the face, I added some hair, thin, long and rare.
• Regarding the body, I used liquify again, this time to change the proportions of the arm, leg, and back. The goal here was of course to make them skinny, since Gollum has long and thing members (when compared to a standard man body).
• Finally, I did some colors adjustments: desaturated yellow and red tones, added some red around the eyes, nose, and arms, then added some muddy texture and a cold photo filter.

Not fully accurate of course, but quite entertaining to do! Here is a "before and after" comparison: can you guess which is which? ;-)