@ SadZombee: High praises! ^___^
The symbols are actually astrological symbols and norse runes. The brilliant minds over at Obsidian Dawn took a bunch and incorporated them into a existing brush set of "magic circles" (that are just various shapes set into overlap and then accented with the symbols).
I never actually mod the doll itself; I do any doll work inside of its' respective maker; the mod work is all on the background, and sometimes on the overall picture, like when I bring the Gaussian blur tool into play. ^__^
If you want, I can write a tutorial or something in the forum.
@ ShaolinLyra: I've been playing around with the mask tool on GIMP. Once you lift the doll out of the original picture (a lot easier than you'd think), throw a layer mask on it, find a pattern/gradient/background you like and get to work. The mask tool lets you work behind the doll, and then you can set a transparent layer on top to get a complete effect. From there, just play with various effects and shading tools until you get a look you like.
