I was searching CC images of Ganesha, the Hindu deity with elephant head , strictly related to wisdom and prosperity , and i was quite deluded of what i could find , most were just photos of posters or sculptures , almost everything at little size and really low res , some with washed out colours or pixelled

So shortly i tried to somehow restore , pump it up , the most interesting i found , basically only using gmic

In the series are included a few "renders"

As far for the credit i found all them on "Wikimedia" page for "Ganesh" here
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ganesha ( note the subfolders too ) , alas still i can't see how to give more exact credit for each image without spending hours to trace and copy





in the western world there are anecdote about Elephants scared by little rats,
Ganesha instead has a very good relation with rats, and one in particular that often play also as his horse.
(Rat here is also a symbol of the "lower instincts" while Ganesh of the Higher, and i found so nice that that Ganesha "rules" over the lower instincts not by force not by imposing but naturally , joyfully ...

The rat is also a dear friend not a demon to control or a brute to force






ALAS ,there are exception also here, also because every Artist could not avoid to colour and interpret , consciously or not, the myth according to his point of view ...his own or that of the client

And so dualistic mind can't only image a fight, have to rule with force and severity over the Lower instincts even using pain, even using a whip

As here were the rat looks as a stupid brute to convince with a whip
( in all the series this is what i like less, but is good to show 2 very different paths and school of thinking )



But even more interpretations are possible as in those renders
(feel free to use the render,...in case just let me see for what ...)







Then there is a very nice young Ganesh .... even animated in 3D , here the English version
https://www.youtube.com/show/balganeshh ... rid&view=7

And on the opposite a old Ganesha



Younger



Again riding different creatures





About what i did this is the original ( scaled down for GC )



With a umbrella (also this is a render BG is transparent )



Well this last is apparently out of topic but somehow ended with the other and i like it so much so
here as last ...a worshipper



ORIGINAL

Find how to automatically save page image links to credit the author is my bigger problem
If to find 1 i need 10 minutes find for 20 would be 200 minutes more about 3 and half hours of the most boring and tedious repetitive work ...just a nightmare , it should be possible find a solution

BUT



YES ! this i much easier !:bigthup

And not only that, in many case i did a sort of batch, not literally but i used very similar technique and setting for several

So i may include also several xcf , where 1 (or 2) of the layers are always copy of the originals , and HERE ANOTHER GOOD NEW the edited layers embed in their layers names the parameters of the Gmic command used (May look complex retrieve the setting from that BUT may be used( almost ) as it is from GMIC> Various> Local code :

a example to clear, if layer name is [G'MIC] Graphic Novel : -gimp_graphic_novelfxl 0,2,6,5,20,0,0.699301,6.99301,0,1,0.727273,0.804196,1.32867,0,1,6,0.314685,1,1,0.447552,0.881119,0.699301

Just remove the part in red that till and including the ":", the rest is the equivalent command for Gmic
(all that decimals are not strictly needed but are saved anyway )
And if you found a "Local Code" useful, you may "fav" it, so you may recall at wish

Anyway allow me a few minutes to pack originals and edited image (i hope the zip will be in the limit for GC attachment , if not i had to search a host
I fear that i should use my DA sta.sh , the xcf are always heavy.

Well i will be back later but first another before/after :

this was one of the better originals





Another that i did not posted before because the different subject

BEFORE





(here in the original photos it was even a error of parallax , that i lazily solved with a slight crop .. )

Some of the images included that i did not submit before (because there is not Ganesha )

Lakshmi



original



Again Visnu with Garuda



Original used





One of the "bad guys "



From