Modern Society's Caloric Intake

Earlier this month, Indiana University's Counseling and Psychological Services sponsored "Celebrate Your Body Week," an annual event consisting of activities that promote positive body image and educate students about the dangers of eating disorders and over-exercise. Students were invited to submit work related to the event for a gallery. Unfortunately, I was too busy to get my idea realized and printed before the deadline date, but it did inspire me to address this issue through art. I created this triptych to show the extremes of an eating disorder in a straightforward, simple way, without incorporating a person.

I have unfortunately witnessed the destructive nature of eating disorders in friends and peers from high school until now. I have heard many women (and men) my age become visibly distressed over the pressures of being thin in today's society. We have all felt these same pressures at some point, but it is truly tragic to see them take over the human mind and transform negative thoughts into self-destructive behavior. It is painful to watch a friend chew gum for lunch, and eat a few crackers for dinner, but it's nothing compared to the pain felt by those with the disorder. It is important to raise awareness for eating disorders, and educate people about their dangerous consequences so that we can combat the causes.

Advertisements depicting unrealistic Photoshopped bodies on actual healthy and beautiful women are certainly not helping the problem (see link below). Nor are the general requirements for editorial and fashion modeling, which are (according to my internet research), between 5'8"-6'0" in height and 90-120 lbs. Those are nearing Barbie's unnatural and slightly emaciated proportions, and create unrealistic ideals for young women, not to mention the low self-esteem women feel when they see these magazines and wonder why they can't look the same way.

A huge mistake by Ralph Lauren's advertisers shows the odd desire for disproportionaly skeletal women in the fashion world: http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2009/10/ralph-lauren-photoshop-filippa-anorexiea-eating-disorder-bulimina.html

Campaigns for real beauty and fashion shows incorporating more "plus size" models are starting to appear, and I can only hope that they continue to push the emphasis towards a healthy body, rather than one that is unnaturally thin. V Magazine is starting to help, by showing that women larger than a size 4 are just as beautiful.

This is an issue that I will continue to follow, and I will do my best to use my photography and art to propel modern society's image of the ideal body away from where it currently resides and towards something more realistic, and less dangerous. I urge others to do the same.

The Beauty of Duotone Images

Because I am lacking in photographic inspiration, and can't think of anything new to shoot, I'm going to play with old images. I love monochromatic images; black and white will never go out of style...but sometimes I want something more. I recently discovered the beauty of duotone images. Duotone refers to a halftone reproduction of an image, where one color is superimposed over another. When one of these tones is black (as in grayscale/black & white imagery) and one tone is a specific color, you can get some really fantastic subtle effects. I'll manipulate one of my images for the sake of comparison:

Here is the original monochromatic photo        

This is an obvious duotone photograph, where the superimposed color is an red-orange (specifically PANTONE 166 C) I rarely see duotones with this intense of a bright color...it seems more common to use extreme colors when they are cooler tones, like the example below.

So...yep that's blue (PANTONE 2915 C to be exact). Pretty extreme for a portrait, but it can be really dynamic for cold landscapes and the like. Now, for subtlety.

Now this one also has a blue tone (PANTONE 544 C), but it is a lot more subtle. It just gives the image a cool feel, rather than screaming HEY LOOK I'M BLUE. Anyway...I like it. There are places where it can really enhance a photo in a quiet way.

This effect is perhaps my favorite. The superimposed color is a light beige/brown, called PANTONE 5835 C. It is a subtle warmth added to the photo. Not immediately noticeable or bothersome, but it adds a nice effect to the portrait.

You might think you see this all the time, with sepia and hue-adjusted photos, but it is a different effect. Hue adjustments change all the tones of the photo (shadows, midtones, highlights) to reflect that color. A duotone is a combination of two tones, that create a more natural effect. The highlights generally remain white, and the darkest shadows stay more or less black. Hue adjustments and sepia of course have their place in photography and digital manipulation, but I am a huge duotone advocate. It works within an image rather than overlaying an obvious effect on top of it. 

So, if you're wondering how to do this:

1. Open an image in Photoshop

2. Change the color mode to grayscale, to make the Duotone option available  (Image>Mode>Grayscale)

3. Change the color mode to duotone (Image>Mode>Duotone)

4. A box will pop up where you will choose your color

5. In the "Type" box, change the selection from Monotone to Duotone (Yes, there are other options there...you can do Tritone and Quadtone too!)

6. Click on the white box for Ink 2, and choose your color. (You can change your color options under the "Book" tab. I stick to PANTONE Solid Coated, because it is a common system used among professional printers)

7. Press OK, and you have yourself a fancy Duotone image! You can always go back and change your color in the .psd file, by getting back to the Duotone menu.

In the box that comes up after clicking on "Duotone," you'll see a small box next to your ink selections with a diagonal line through it. If you click on it, you can adjust the curve of a particular tone. If you know how to use the Curves adjustment, you might want to try this out. You can adjust specifically where you would like to see the most color (midtones, highlights, etc) with this feature. It gives you a lot more control over the use of color in your image.

Three cheers for duotone!! Hopefully I'll have some NEW images up soon that showcase this technique in all its glory.

Pencils suck

Since I'm always talking about how much I dislike pencils, I figured I should explain why. I guess it's not that I dislike them, I just think that pens are 2000% better for certain things, where pencils are normally used. I am a strict ink advocate. I only voluntarily use pencils for marking measurements and where I'm doing actual representational drawing (which is rare anyway). The rest of my drawing/sketching/writing is done with pen. And because I love lists oh so much.... this is why pencils suck:

1. Pencils aren't permanent. Yes, I understand, the whole point of pencils is to erase your mistakes. But I don't think we should be doing that. "Learn from your mistakes," is a very common philosophy, which I think most people agree to be true. Shouldn't this apply to art and design as well? When I'm sketching out an idea, I don't try to make it perfect. If I make a mistake, I try again. Keeping screw-ups in my sketchbook shows me what doesn't work in a particular design, and on occasion the mess-ups can turn into a final design element (ex: a rounded corner that was supposed to be sharp).

2. Ink is quicker. When I try to sketch with pencils, it takes me forever, because I get caught up in shading, detail and shadows. Pens generally have one line width and weight. With a pencil, by the time I make everything perfect and pretty, I've lost the idea. Pens allow me to ignore the detail and just get a rough idea on paper, ignoring the small mistakes and focusing on the big picture (literally).

3. Ink is bold. With pens and other permanent mediums, you get bright, bold colors. I think that it's easier to see what colors work in your design when you have the extreme versions.  Color can be adjusted later, so the easiest way to immediately choose what might work is to have the quick, yet bold color right in your sketch. With colored pencils, it's easy to get wrapped up in all the choices, and blending of color. My favorite colored pens to sketch with are the Staedtler triplus Fineliner (http://twitpic.com/11a9uw). They have a wonderful line, great colors, and are very fun to sketch with. I've also incorporated them into the final product of mixed media art pieces.

4. Pens are more aesthetically pleasing. Writing in ink is definitely more beautiful than writing with pencil. Ink can create smooth lines, and fantastic letterforms. The typography geek in me gets so excited to see how certain letters looks with different types of ink...in pencil they are just boring.

5. The flow of a pen somehow makes it easier to get my ideas onto a page. This might be more of a personal preference, but I find it easier in every possible way to get words and images onto a piece of paper with ink rather than a pencil. I'm not sure how exactly to explain this preference, but that's just how I roll.

Think in ink!