True Cyan

This optical illusion is called "True Cyan." By focusing on the white dot within the red circle for an extended period of time, it allows you to see a blue otherwise unachievable on a normal tv or computer screen. This inability due to the heavy dilution from color pollution. 

If you stare at the circle's core long enough (the longer the better) and stay focused on the white dot you will start seeing a rim of light around the red circle. After a minute or so, feel free to pull your head back slowly while continuing to focus on the white point. The rim will appear to grow in size and will show you the most incredible blue: True Cyan!

More Than Meets the Ppi

This week we are starting on a project that will allow us to encapsulate the progression of time. After mulling over several different proposals, I encountered an idea that would be both agreeable to myself and our requirements.

My hair.

If there's one thing that never stays the same for very long, it's my mane. I'll even go as far as calling myself the Ramona Flowers of hair changes. Some days, my inner being simply requires a change in my life and the locks are always the first to go. Working at a hair salon makes this a very accessible to me because I can work with any hair I desire. (I'm basically a walking/talking/breathing advertisement)

My biggest challenge here is that many pictures of my hair over the past few years were taken on less-than-desirable resolutions. I'm worried that the portrait will turn out pixelated, especially since we will be making this on a canvas of 300ppi. I'm not sure how this will affect my project and I have yet to create a plan B if this is the case, but I'm definitely banking on this idea coming to fruition.

If not, I'll just cut it short and dye.

Dark Side of the Moon

If there's one thing I learned from taking chemistry, it's that the primary colors are not as basic as red, yellow, and blue. In order to attain a true color palette that isn't muddied, you must begin with magenta, yellow, and cyan.
Color physics are so interesting to me. Everything is an illusion created by the mind. Color is simply a refraction of light, a particular electromagnetic wavelength. Understanding how color works and how it becomes intensified and diminished for particular results is a skill necessary in order to capture your viewer's attention in a piece. Knowing how the eye responds and reads color can allow you to create something even more beautiful.

Figure 2.5 in Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination is reminiscent of the cover to a Pink Floyd album and something out of Magic School Bus episode. Different colors refract more than others, red refracting the least. That's why the colors always refract in the same order and how rainbows aren't seen with blue on top! (Unless you're upside-down.)

Siren's Song

"A mermaid found a swimming lad,

Picked him up for her own,

Pressed her body to his body,

Laughed; and plunging down

Forgot in cruel happiness

That even lovers drown."

-W.B. Yeats

My self-portrait consists of an implication of my current Photoshop abilities. I painted a gradient background to which I added layers of waves and colors. I found a stamp tool that allowed me to paint an oceanic floor as well as give bubbles to my undersea adventure. I took on the form as a siren for I have been known for my strong dolphin (or mermaid) kick which allows me to swim my favorite and strongest stroke, butterfly. In my hand you will find the Zora's Sapphire, an important artifact from the Legend of Zelda series, Ocarina of Time. This image encompasses my affinity for video games as well as water and if you listen closely, you can hear the sounds of drowning men.

What's a blog to a nonbeliever?

Writing down my thoughts in a public, concise manner has me feeling like a modern day Carrie Bradshaw, but the last thing that will motivate me to keep typing is feeling like I'm in an episode of Sex and the City. In order to feel like I'm producing something worth reading I may have to consider what's required of my fickle fingers.

Two posts a week is perfectly reasonable but how many of my thoughts will be screened before I am comfortable expressing them to the eyes of the world? How many edits, recitations, and revisions will each post endure before I finally deem them worthy of finally selecting the ever-daunting publish button? If I had a dollar, I would bet that this isn't the first time I've rewritten this post. 

(Do not take me up on this bet because you will owe me a dollar.)

I suppose now that I've gotten this initial thought out of the way I can commence my scheduled programming. 


Let the blogging begin.