Sheen Within

Sunday evenings should be full of fun, with lots of binge TV watching and not so ‘failed ‘experimental cuisines. I mean this is how I like to spend my Sunday. Following a disciplined routine throughout the week, Sundays are like a treat for me. Last Sunday I tried my hands on the mushroom-spinach pasta. Encouraged with the outcome, I decided to bake some chocolate-oats cookies (Remember? – I am a die-hard Foodie).

Even before the cookies went into the oven, my mind started creating mirage for me. The chocolate started melting in my mouth, and I was able to sniff some vanilla too. Strange! But normal for me. And then suddenly the power went off! Oh, c’mon Please don’t ruin my Sunday evening! While everyone else was visibly having a gala time in our society; I felt like a dark island surrounded by lights! Desperately, I checked with neighbors who were completely untouched by the power outage; they had no idea about the issue. We called PG&E without keeping our hopes high – I mean who turns up on Sunday evenings.

Disheartened, I searched for candles and tried setting up cut short dinner. As I was laying down the plates and arranging the table, I realized how beautiful it looked. Bingo! We are having a candlelight dinner! I jumped out of joy. Just a moment ago I was upset, as things didn’t happen the way I planned. Soon, the thought of uncooked cookies went away, and we delightfully savored every bit of pasta. Within a short span, the PG&E guy arrived (a big thanks to him for coming on Sunday evening!), and the power was back in our home.

Incidents happen and they affect us sometimes directly or indirectly. The world is going through unprecedented times, many of us are falling prey to the pandemic – psychologically, physically, or financially. Among them are many whose primary problem is not at all related to pandemic but still, they are affected. I wish to address this emotional distress in my blog. There are things out there that are beyond our control, but thankfully we can control our thoughts. The World may appear to be in black and white today, but we can still protect our ‘colors’.

My draft design was lacking this feel of the ‘emptiness’. I wanted to make it look more appropriate to the message. That’s where I decided to bring in the mountains, night, and moon in the background(unsplash.com). In the earlier design, the monuments and the buildings looked like a random arrangement against a white background. Based on the feedback from peers and family, the first thing I decided was to change the background. Placing the monuments and statue of liberty on a dark background enhanced their details. I wanted to achieve visual and intellectual unity in my design. Earlier T.J., Alma, Heather, and Yasmin (my batchmates) suggested that the text lacked that ‘importance’ so this time I decided to place my message in the center and boldly.

I wanted to bring in ‘cohesiveness’ among the elements. I wanted buildings, monuments, and statues to go beyond the mountains. The idea was creating a kind of obstruction between the character and the world. Placing the cutouts simply over the mountains was not solving my purpose. There was no feeling of depth and distance which restricted me from applying any layer style to it. Initially, I juggled a lot with the cutouts and background. Then I decided to experiment and explore more photoshop-tools.

To be safe, I saved every cutout and background with the .psd extension. Then in the background, I started bringing in multiple layers. Then from the top menu bar, in the layer section, I chose the ‘Arrange’ function which helped me in arranging the elements the way I wanted them to be. Multiple options like ‘bring to front’, ‘bring forward’, ‘send to back’ and ‘send backward’ I rearranged my elements. Now, I was able to apply different adjustment layers and layer styles to my elements individually.

Burj Khalifa was shining out too loud, so I applied the layer style ‘Inner Glow’ to it. Keeping the opacity at 69 percent, choke at 88 and size at 210 percent, I applied the blend mode ‘color burn’ to it which brought its extra shine in control. Now to all the buildings and monuments, I wanted to give a dull look, so I added a new adjustment layer to the background elements and adjusted their saturation at -18 and lightness and -41. 

I didn’t want my mountains to be black & white; I wanted to retain the brown tone of the mountains, so I adjusted its color balance – keeping it more towards the yellow side. As I increased the yellow tone, I noticed that the ground grass which was pale yellow earlier was now on the brighter side. So again by selecting only the grass, I adjusted its color tone, now only this part of the image was black and white. Also to create a sense of distance between the mountains and monuments, I applied inner shadow to mountains, the blend mode which I liked was soft light and keeping the opacity at 35 percent, angle at 150, the distance at 20 and size at 142 I adjusted its contours. 

To the upper right corner, I wanted some fireworks to appear in black and white to give a sense of hope which may not be very far. For that, I used the firework image from unspalsh.com. As I placed it embedded I kept the blend mode at lightening, after it the image got merged into the layer. Lastly, I placed my female character with the mask on the left side with the message in the middle – in bold and dominating style – because I wanted to create a hierarchy for the text. I wanted the “message” to be the entry and focal point for my viewer.

Thanks for joining me in the journey of my final design project “Seize the Colors”. I hope I have been able to make this read enjoyable. I also hope that you are retaining your own colors as well. Do let me know your feedback in the comment section below.

I have a rose-bush in my garden – standing tall and guarded by two, not so huge cactus plants. Since January, when we moved to this house, I had been guessing the color of the roses which were going to be borne by it sooner or later. What  would that be – red, yellow, or actually white! After playing a lot with my patience, it bloomed in bubblegum pink! How cool is that! The solo performer of my garden and remarkably marking its territory. 

Such is the power of colors. How interestingly colors communicate with us! Colors are the lens through which we perceive the World. Doesn’t consuming that green smoothie makes you feel healthy? How about spotting your much-desired tangerine shoes? Or, the simple joy of flaunting newly purchased turquoise frames. Colors when tagged as a favorite, become powerful to uplift our mood. 

Now, what would you do if someone tries to snatch your special amber dress or somebody forcefully paints your room in mint and indigo? Well that is something unacceptable for me. If we can’t let others take away our dearest colors, then why are we losing them ourselves? Why are we letting this dull temporary phase dominate our emotions? I have no doubts when I say that the World will heal and get better, but only if we keep carrying the same zeal for life and humanity. This is what I am trying to convey in this blog.

Everybody has something to say in this era of Pandemic, but what is it that people like me want to listen to. I wanted to design a message which was sensitive yet strong! The idea of placing the world monuments, iconic buildings, and statues in black and white on a poster seemed intriguing to me. Here, I wanted to pinpoint the impact of the pandemic on our outlook of visualizing the World. These structures though looking deserted today, have witnessed numerous ebb and flows of the World. These marvels are a true reflection of human engineering, compassion, and dedication. Also, they are standing examples of perseverance. 

In contrast, placing the beautiful lady in all her colors adds a very different message. Wearing a mask with an optimistic look in her eyes, she is ready to accept the new normal, but not in a mood to surrender her confidence and determination to it. She hasn’t let the outside, change the inside of her. She is a strong girl who is utilizing this time to learn something new, develop a skill, and above all she is keeping her faith high! She is my sheenwithin!

Now comes, behind the scene story…as I perceived the concept, I looked for what was available with me. Having traveled to multiple countries, arranging images wasn’t that difficult. Only the image of The Statue of Liberty has been downloaded from unsplash.com.

As of now, I have used a white background to create a sort of collage. By using the default photoshop size, to begin with, I saved it with the .psd extension. Every time I inserted a new image, I used the place-embedded function which created a new layer – as explained in the first tutorial. I wanted my female lead to be really bright and vibrant, so I extracted her cut-out by using a pen and magic-eraser tool – enhanced her features by adding various adjustment layers to it. 

For placing the text message, I created a rectangle by using the rectangle tool and kept the inside fill for rectangle as black; also with the help of stroke option, created a white frame around it. Now, with the help of the horizontal type-tool, I typed my text message. The font which I used for this is ‘Marker Felt’ and the font size is around 18 pt. As you would have noticed that I have kept the words ‘colors’ and ‘Yours’ in my message colorful, that is where I wanted to be really specific about what I wanted to convey.

Last, I added a green frame to the whole collage, green is the color of Mother Earth, so all the elements are kept enclosed in it. It simply conveys  that as there is a dip in pollution the earth is actually repairing and healing herself which is the other side of reality.

Stay tuned to see the final version of this draft in the next few days. As I continue to work on improving the final collage, it is expected to have a better merge of these images with one another to signify a sense of ‘Unity in diversity’; As we all, across the globe, are in this together. As united, we continue to regain our ‘Sheen’.

Stay safe, Stay healthy!    

My Completed Tutorials

31st December 2019, Pune, India

Running around in my home, I was carefully inspecting all the arrangements for the new year celebration. Every year, I invite my friends and family home to embrace and welcome the new year together. This is more like a ritual for us since childhood. Welcoming “2020” was even more special. My husband got promoted, and he was preparing to handle bigger roles and responsibilities at the job. As the role required his ‘on-site’ presence, we were getting ready to relocate to the Bay area.

Leaving home is never easy. With all the comfort around and easy access to loved ones, it was really tough to take-off, but soon the excitement of being in a new country, the opportunity for soaking up in a global culture made us smile. We landed here on the 19th of January 2020, least bothered about the growing concerns for the new virus. By the end of January, I realized that the ‘New Year’ is turning to be actually a  ‘News Year’!

Wait for wisdom

From an epidemic to becoming a pandemic, COVID-19 challenged our freedom. As Shelter-in-place orders were announced, we confiscated ourselves inside our homes. Undoubtedly, this pandemic tested my mental endurance. My journalistic brain was getting into panic mode. Despite having experience of covering several epidemics before in my career, COVID-19’s global spread aroused the fear of the unknown in me too!

One fine day while speaking to my 86 year old Grandmother, back in India, I could not conceal my anxiety; she instantly judged my mental state like she always does. Then in a very calm tone, she said “Worry for only those things which are in your control and leave the rest to Baba (Lord Shiv, The Almighty)”. I got my enlightenment. At this age, being all alone and managing daily chores of her life all by herself, the wisdom and faith she showed me, changed my perspective forever.

“That day I had my awakening, I realized that a strong soul is independent of place, circumstances, or situation. With all the negativity around, it was the time for me to look for ‘Sheen’ within. Since then I am keeping up with my schedule – eating right, exercise, meditation, and chanting –  which has helped me to fix my thoughts. I started looking for positivity around. And this is when I realized there are many like me who are fighting this battle strongly in their own way. They refused to quit, they took a pause but didn’t let go of their dreams.”

Who are they?

What kept them going?

How they kept strong?

They could be anyone who chose to act! Who looked beyond the chaos and connect to their inner strength. Accepting the new normal is not easy, but there are lessons learned. To keep your hopes alive requires true mettle.

Sharing good vibes and keeping the world a happy place is what I aim for as I write this blog. In the weeks to come, I aim to craft these beautiful stories of hidden courage. I believe that choosing not to indulge in any negative talks at these times is a big contribution to humanity too. I want to acknowledge these ‘ordinary’ but ‘special heroes’ who looked for the wisdom inside during this unprecedented time. Let them be our lighthouses! Stay tuned…