Light Textures: The Take Over

For those of you that don't yet know what a light texture is, it can be a few things. The ones i'm speaking of particularly today are called "dotty light textures." Here's an example.

See how there are spots, and how they look all...spotty. Well, set that to "lighten" or "screen" and all of the black will disappear - the color, however, will stay resolutely present and what you get is a great way to cover almost anything up. Lighten is a great function and Light textures are fun. I use them a lot - particularly in icons. Hell, this one is exploding with them. Course, it's of a 12 year old girl in a pink sweater, so, ya know, she's pretty sparkely in and of herself. For the most part, however, I prefer a different variety of light texture - subtle. Take this desktop as an example - there is a light texture that I made applied to that - it's dark red and barely visible. It's an accent, not the focus.

Why did I choose two different kinds of light texture for two different kinds of graphics? Well, I did it because they had a different feel. In the icon, I was working with a young female who had a great big smile and a generally bubbly disposition. In the desktop, I was working with an adult male pulling a total James Bond with the jacket and the pinstripes and the fedora and it was like the 1940's on a canvas - using sparkles would have been a smidge inappropriate, not to mention cluttered.

So what am I saying - when you use something, consider your audience, consider your subject and consider your desired effect.

Why am I saying this? Well, because today, ladies and gents, I saw this. Now, to spare this person any embarassment, i'm certainly not going to pick out names, but - oh man - did i laugh....then blog.
Okay, first - these are men. Men don't like dots unless they're kissing girls. At least the dots aren't pink, though. Second, I don't know if you know what show these men are on or from whence this image came but it's from a show called Prison Break (FOX) and they play ex-cons breaking out of prison. The show is about stress, death, guns and beer. Things explode all of the time. It's a show on FOX. Third, these are their wanted posters. What about any of that says sparkles to you?

Normally, a single graphic wouldn't make me gripe like that. Sometimes people do crazy things but, of late, light textures have taken over the world at The Dark Arts and it seems to have started at Pandora's Closet and I must put a stop to it! I must! I must!

Or, at least I have to go on record begging for the cessation of hostilities toward my brain.

Ranting Brought To You By Kay

OH MY GOD.

For as many sloppy sweatshirts and semi-generic character/text t-shirts as I am apt to wear on any given day, I have a style and it has nothing to do with any of that, so I have a few things to say about a few things but today I saw something absolutely horrific. Now, I don't intend for this to sound like technical critique on the graphic, but the obsession with fashion photography has gone way way way too far.

It's always been annoying to log on and see 88000423352 different models living in people's signatures for no reason other than that they thing they may have finally caught the most ridiculous pose/outfit and captured it in a signature. This, however - this is just going too far.

Now I Don't Mean To Be Mean, But...

I saw this today and literally almost choked on my own saliva.

What you're looking at is the result sheet from a tutorial posted on a website. This tutorial is designed to teach people how to 'shed pounds' using photoshop. Now, I haven't tried the tutorial but, looking at the result, the poster did a bang up job of it. What you're also looking at, however, is a Dove ad.

I don't know how many of you know this, but if you've accidently turned on the TV some time in the last six months, particularly during the day, you've probably seen a Campaign for Real Beauty ad from Dove. Their latest marketting gig has teamed up with Oprah, it seems, and is designed to use real people - not runway models - to market their product. Now, don't get me wrong, I've yet to see a housewive in her oatmeal stained bathrobe, but they have at least embraced the fat chick.

If you can't see the irony by now, i'll hit you over the head with it - they've taken someone who was embracing her outer fat chick on tv and in print and made her into a skinny chick, ya know, so she feels better about herself. They airbrushed an ad campaign based on not airbrushing.

Dove, I think you have more work to do.