photoshop doodle

This is a picture of my neighbor Amy. Basically I followed instructions on the assignment. We took a picture on a digital camera and opened it in photoshop. I used the magnetic lasso tool to select the background and then applied a gausian blur. I don't really know the difference between a gausian blur and a regular blur, but the gausian blur seemed to make more sense to me somehow. Or more to the point, achieve the effect i wanted. We were then instructed to use the tools in the toolbar and experiment. I originally gave Amy big eyebrows. She in turn turned me into a drag queen that had gotten beaten up. I used the dodge tool on her lips which seemed to smear the image as if you were running your fingers through paint. (I like that tool.) Then I used the smudge tool on her eyes which made her look like she had cataracts. Both those tools seem to have similar effects with slight differences. Photoshop is fun!