Quiet Meditation started out as a Tempura painting I had completed on paper.  After several frustrating shots, I finally got a clear digital photo of it.  I would have scanned it, but the painting is much larger than my scanner.

I wanted the face to be more symmetric, so in Paint Shop Pro,  I captured half of the face, cut it onto a new canvas for one side, then pasted the mirrored version of the same half to the other side.

Using Corel Photo Paint, I created a grunged image to use as my base background.

I rotated between Corel and Paint Shop for these next steps.  I would use the effects offered in Corel to distort the same face image, then use Paint Shop to layer the face images on top of each other. 

I actually ended up using five layers on top of the base layer just to get the face where I wanted it.

The next process involved adding the lettering and the third eye. Since I don't have a tablet (yet), the words were hand written then scanned.  Next I applied effects to the words and added the words as another layer onto the face.

The words above the face is my Buddhist name given to me when I sought refuge with the Dhongak Tharling Dharma Center under Venerable Lama Ngawang Tsultrim Rinpoche.  The symbol in her third eye is the symbol of my Buddhist  Center.  And the words on the bottom left read "Quiet Meditation" in Hindi.

The last steps involved placing the face onto a mottled black background to frame it out, then smoking out the edges to get the final result:

The final number of layers turned out to be seventeen.