I was browsing photoshop tutorials today, and I came across an interesting page entitled “Curves Are an Abomination”. The author, Jay Arraich (who hosts some wonderul photoshop tips) is passonate in his belief that curve manipulation bastardizes natural photography.

I don’t agree with all Jay’s points, but I think there’s some truth there. When I read Dan Margulis’s color correction book some time back, I remember thinking that many color casts are not only beautiful, they are natural. Removing them serves no goal, at least not beauty nor accuracy. And there is much beauty in accuracy. Jay goes on to defend traditional darkroom practices such as burning and dodging, presumably because Ansel Adams employed them.

But I would argue that many professionals (Mr. Margulis included) preach global color correction over local (selected) corrections for a reason. Sure, making such adjustments messes with the relative tonal values. But how is that worse than making local adjustments, which further fragment the original image data? Making slight color adjustments preserves detail and (when done well) enhances the original color information. To me, this is not as destructive as say, cloning, burning or even dodging.

Everyone knows that cameras lie, and many corrected photos give a better sense of what the viewer actually experienced than the original photo. Yes- making adjustments to a photograph can serve shallow, superficial ends. But it can also help captivate the viewer, move a photo into the realm of illustration, and bind an image into a larger design.

Here’s my retouched photo of the day- Jilly and I in Middletown last year. Probably a perfect complement to Jay’s argument, but hey- I’m still learning. Cloning, painting, local & global adjustments, median, various blending modes… you name it.

My good friend Thayer loved this! I got him a stein with this image on it. Buy your very own here: www.cafepress.com/graficsworkshop Or, contact me for a stein with your own 19^th century self on the front.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, to one and to all. Here’s a picture I made for Jill’s wonderful children’s story-in-progress, “Fatiee and the Finding of the Snug”.

Just one more day, and then a glorious 3-day holiday weekend extravaganza! I haven’t posted here in ages, but soon I’ll be showcasing a couple of cool personalized gifts I got from cafepress.com. Creating some personalized gifts and this blog have tied me up for a while- hopefully I can actually update this whole site after New Year’s Day. OK, here we go; New Years Resolution Time:

• Update Sign Shop page. Push the whole signmaking enterprise in general. Experiment with Airbrush on vinyl, HDU carving, and gilding.
• Start a series of realistic portrait drawings.
• Learn to screenprint. (I know, this one’s ambitious. Sadly, there are only so many hours in the day.)
• Create a 2-color comic book. If it comes out well, have it printed. Oh yeah,
• Learn to ink.
• Update portfolio page with fine art, flash stuff, newer design, etc.
• Get a nice apartment with enough room to work.
• Paint the Vespa. Go to at least one rally this summer.
• Exercise, eat right, blah blah blah…
• Take a great trip this summer, when my vacation time kicks in. Leading ideas: England, Hawaii, Australia…

Know what? I think that’s it. Probably enough to keep me occupied.

Peace on Earth, good will toward men! Lofty ideals both. But they needn’t be. I believe everyone’s basically good and desirous of peace and happiness for all. (Naive, aren’t I?) Unfortunately, selfishness gets in the way of this intrinsic goodness. In any case, here’s my contribution to Young’s Printing’s annual calendar.

The theme was “peace”, and I chose Sept. (I’m a Virgo). Thought the theme (if not the month) was fitting for the season. There’s a contest for the best design, so get yourself down to Middletown CT, bug them for a calendar, and vote for me!

Unbelievable! It is currently 63 degrees here in sunny CT. I keep procrastinating when it comes to winterizing my scooter, and thank God for that! Unless the 5 PM darkness drops the temperature more than 10 degrees (and it may well), I’ll soon be enjoying a December ride.

Well, it’s that time of year again. For anyone who didn’t get a card from me (yet), here’s the e-version:

I really discovered the joy of smart objects with this one. Working back and forth between Photoshop and Illustrator is so much friendlier with these things- you can scale endlessly without degradation (it’s like having a little .eps embedded in your .psd). And get this: edit a smart object in its native program, and it automatically updates in photoshop!

Another sort-of-cool experiment here: I cut a mask for “Christmas” and the star, then sprayed the cards with clear coat for a poor-man’s spot varnish. A lot of work, but it was lotsa fun.

Many thanks to Ericka & Alex for the Wordpress tip. Setting it up was humbling- so much for the “famous 5-minute installation”. And I design websites… But all’s well that ends well; I am now officially hosting a blog. Jill asked me why, but I didn’t have a great answer for her. It’ll be nice to write a bit, communicate with the outside world and lend the ol’ site some seo juice. Beyond that, it just seems like the thing to do today. It’s interesting how these cultural trends develop. All of a sudden everyone has a public journal, and where did that come from? It doesn’t replace any preexisting thing, so far as I can tell.

I hope people enjoy this theme. I cranked it out right quick…I think I need to photograph some wood textures though. These look really fake.

So this is blogging.