Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: color, color correction, color management, color profiles
Alternative Thought on Color Calibration
So I’ve been thinking and teaching about color management and color calibration in my Desktop Publishing, Web Design and Vector Graphics classes at Central Penn and last night I had an alternative though about the process.
To color calibrate your monitor the current thought process in the photography field is that you calibrate your monitor so that your prints match your display. You buy a color calibrations tool like the Spyder or the EyeOne, which you then place on your monitor and it reads the levels and colors of light being projected to your eyes.
However, this doesn’t always work. It will help, but it is never perfect. Invariably the prints that you create will be slightly darker, or contain less saturation, or whatever. They will be closer to what you see on your monitor, but never perfect.
At John Paul Caponigro’s workshop he teaches a method that results in beautiful prints through trial and error and careful minute changes to observed hardproofs. He sets up a file in Photoshop that looks just so, then he duplicates it and turns on softproofing in Photoshop and selects the printer and paper to print to on the duplicate image. Caponigro then makes color corrections as adjustment layers to the soft proofed version comparing it to the on screen original. Finally he prints a 8.5 x 11 sheet with the softproofed image and its adjustments along with any accompanying printer information as a reference.
Once the image is printed he observes the printer softproof, which is now a hard proof, under 6500K lighting or natural sunlight. He looks for color casts, loss of detail in the shadows or highlights, or other inconsistencies with the original (ie desired) image. He then goes back and makes changes to the adjustment layers and prints it again. And again, and again, and again…
When I inquired as to how many times he commonly prints he stated that it can be anywhere upwards of 15 times!
What a waste of paper. Makes me feel bad killing all those trees. And then if your anything like me you end up with prints, that are close to what you want, and you don’t half mind or want to keep as a reference of process, but can’t be used in a show, so they just take up work space. Sometimes you even end up with a print that later on down the road you might return to and think, wow, I like that one better. So I end up storing all these not quite prints hating to throw them out.
Then last night after discussing this process and the whole conundrum of color calibration and proofing in class, it occurred to me that perhaps instead of calibrating the monitor so that your prints match the display, perhaps you could calibrate the monitor to match the prints.
This would require a tool that has long been used by the graphic design and print industry. The Pantone swatch book. (Although you could create a swatch book or a color wheel on your own printer that might accomplish the same thing.) I’m not entirely sure as of yet how you would accomplish calibrating your monitor to look like the physical pantone swatches, but my Spyder came with 2 other CDs, so my next step is to read up on the content and tools on these CDs. It seems to me there aught to be a way to create adjust your monitor to display that colors based on Pantone swatches.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beauty, ideal form, jeans, models, modern beauty, modern trends, skinny models
So I’m working on a instructors supplementary materials for Understanding Art. I’ve been creating PowerPoint Presentations and JoinIn content for each and every chapter and let me just say that its taking forever! But in that process of forever I have had some interesting thoughts on oil painting, the ideal beauty and the implications of art history for our society.
In Classical Greece sculpture they attempted to portray the ideal human form.
During the Renaissance they revitalized the ideals of Classical art. The idea of the ideal human figure, realism in art, heightened storytelling. Then right after the Renaissance, Mannerism started using elongated figure and distortion to create emotionalism in religious painting.
The images of a time depict the idealized beauty of the era. These images reflect on the idea of the culture and the society. If this is the case, what will/do our portrayals of 5’10” 100lb supermodels say about us?
During the Renaissance, Tintoretto used small dolls on a stage or hung from a string to set up his composition and get the perspective right. Taken together with Tintoretto’s technique, one could use Barbie to create paintings that speak about the modern perception of beauty. Is Barbie a form of Mannerism? Obviously we are attempting to portray and idealized beauty. But who’s idealized beauty is it? Certainly not the average 5’8” 190lb man. Certainly not the 5’4” 140 lb average woman.
I once postulated that the modern concept of beauty was being created by the male homosexual population that dominates the fashion industry. For isn’t this what our current supermodels are portraying; the adolescent male body?
If you were to do a study of the measurements of jeans what would you find? Would you find that the majority of pants considered fashionable would fit the 18 -22 male body better then a woman? Would you find that this was confirmed not by any scientific study calculating the average measurements of the jean industry’s sizing charts but instead by the current trend of teenage boys purchasing and comfortably wearing woman’s jeans!?
So, have been thinking a lot about a comment that John Paul Caponigro made to me at the end of the digital fine art print workshop. I don’t remember the entire context, but the phrase that keeps ringing in my head is, “…when you decide to brand yourself.”
For quite some time now I have been thinking about a voice. Artists are often encouraged to develop a signature style or “voice”. This is essentially a form of branding for artists. It is a way for people to quickly recognize your work. It is a way for galleries to know if they want to showcase your work, it your work will appeal to their clientèle tastes. It’s a way for people in the art world to categorize an artist’ work into a nice little tidy box. Although I understand the importance of a voice in marketing, I’m not sure how I feel about the need for a voice in an artist’s work. I wonder sometimes if its not just a way to label an artist and their work. Although this may help a collector locate work that they enjoy does it not also stifle an artist’s creativity? After an artist has worked in this particular genre or style for a prolonged period of time doesn’t this voice essentially become a stereotype? Or if utilized in the correct way does a voice really help an artist to focus and develop a progressive style? Humm…. Thoughts anyone?
Filed under: life | Tags: cleaning house, funny, garbage, Perry Country, redneck
…you use a snow shovel, a garbage bag, and a second story window to clean house.
So I bought a house in Perry Country. Now everyone likes to joke that Perry Country is redneck country, but I just laughed at them ’til last night.
Last night as I’m sitting in my art room working on my portfolio, I hear this loud crash and the sound of glass breaking. Its garbage night and so I just figure someone took out the recycling bin. Well about 5 minutes later, I hear a second loud crash. This time it sounds like a old metal garbage can tilling over. From the bedroom, E (who was sleeping) yells, “What was that? Are you alright?”
I yell back, “That wasn’t me, I think there is a raccoon in the garbage!”
Well, two minutes later there comes a third crash. E gets up to go look. He comes back a minute or two later to say, “You’re not going to believe this but, the neighbors are cleaning with a snow shovel, a broom, and a garbage bag! And I guess they’re too lazy to carry it downstairs cause they are throwing it out second floor window!”
I guess when you have 7 kids living in just 2 stories, its just easier to shovel it all right out the window.
Filed under: life | Tags: art, artist, blob, erin Sparler, erinsparler.com, life, why blog, writing
Welcome to my newest addition to my web site, Erin Sparler’s blog.
I know its strange, why in heavens would I want to contribute to this weird craze of putting your entire life on-line? My friend C asked me if I felt the need to “self express”. No not really. Am I self centered? Am I an exhibitionist? Do I think my thoughts are so very special that the whole world will sit up and take notice of my thoughts? No, not really. In fact I don’t really expect anyone but my closest friends and the occasional curious student to read this blog.
So why am I doing this? Well one to save paper. I have lots of thoughts throughout the day, and some days they just will not go away until I write them down. (I have WAY too many journals filled with random thoughts and sketches lining the walls of my art room. ) So this is a way to save paper, while emptying my head of these bothersome 
thoughts. And two I also plan to use this blog to illustrate so of the points I cover in classes and provide an example for students on creating art and living as an artist every day.
