I am often asked whether eating particular foods can enhance mood and treat the symptoms of depression. With very few exceptions, the answer is no. In contrast, our mood can be easily depressed by our diet. Why? For adults, the brain responds primarily to deficits, not surpluses, in the diet.

The post Can your diet make you feel depressed? appeared first on OUPblog.

Considerable evidence has linked an unhealthy diet to obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cancer. We now understand how chronic obesity ages us and then underlies the foundation of our death. Furthermore, obesity leads to body-wide chronic inflammation that predisposes us to depression and dementia. However, these are all the long-term consequences of our diet upon our body and brain.

The post How does food affect your mood? appeared first on OUPblog.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PB&J: Picture Books and All That Jazz: A Highlights Foundation Workshop

• "This conference was great! A perfect mix of learning and practicing our craft."�Peggy Campbell-Rush, 2014 attendee, Washington, NJ
• "Darcy and Leslie were extremely accessible for advice, critique and casual conversation."�Perri Hogan, 2014 attendee, Syracuse,NY

Opening a novel in an interesting way is crucial. I often see stories-in-progress with weak openings. This week, I happened to pick up a copy of the classic Jurassic Park, and I was stopped on the first page with the economy of language. In two brief paragraphs, Crichton sets a scene, introduces a character, puts us into the character’s life, and places us in a Costa Rica fishing village. He accomplishes so much in a brief passage. Let’s look at it to see if it gives us tips on starting our own stories.

Opening of Jurassic Park

The tropical rain fell in drenching sheets, hammering the corrugated roof of the clinic building, roaring down the metal gutters, splashing on the ground in a torrent. Roberta Carter sighed, and stared out the window. From the clinic, she could hardly see the beach or the ocean beyond, cloaked in low fog. This wasn’t what she had expected when she had come to the fishing village of Bahia Anasco, on the west side of Costa Rica, to spend two months as a visiting physician. Bobbie Carter had expected sun and relaxation, after two grueling years of residency in emergency medicine at Micheal Reese in Chicago.
She had been at Bahia Anasco for three weeks. And it had rained every day.
(First two paragraphs of Jurassic Park, Prologue, by Michael Crichton.)

Weak openings leave me confused, wondering where I am and what is going on. Crichton starts with a specific setting. The second word is “tropical,” which narrows down the location on the globe, while also explaining the type of rain. A “corrugated” roof probably indicates a lower income area where cheaper materials are used for construction.

Notice the great verbs which animate that first sentence: fell, hammering, roaring, splashing. And it ends with a strong descriptive word: torrent. This is masterful selection of language. After one sentence, I know approximately where I am and what is happening.

Next, Crichton focuses on the point-of-view character for this section. Because it’s a prologue, this character won’t be important in the story proper, but he takes the time to give us some of her background, which implies much about her state-of-mind.

She is an ER doctor, just finishing her residency in Chicago, and she thought this trip to Costa Rica would be a vacation. Notice that she’s an ER doc. The old sayings is that you should never put a gun in Chapter 1, if you don’t intend for it to go off sometime. Crichton put an ER doctor in the first paragraph because someone soon would require emergency medical attention. We know Roberta/Bobbie (Notice how he named her fully, then gave us a more casual nickname) is skilled in medicine, but she’s also tired and disappointed with this location.

As far as setting a mood, the torrential storm sets up the possibility of something happening. We’d expect that a “torrent” would bring other problems with it.

Finally, Crichton actually names the locale: Bahia Anasco on the western coast of Coast Rica.

Setting, mood, characterization, anticipation–Crichton sets up so much in just two short paragraphs!

Applying Crichton’s Lessons to Your Story

Setting. Readers need to be oriented immediately to the location of your story. While you describe the setting, use language to create a distinctive mood and set up anticipation. Don’t be afraid to name a location directly.

Mood. Choose language that sets up a distinctive mood. The torrential rain is described with evocative verbs and language. Strong, forceful, a force of nature–you expect something to happen, and soon.

Characterization. It’s important to know something about the character. Crichton gives us a name, place of origin (Chicago hospital), and something of her inner life. Bobbie is a strong-willed woman or she wouldn’t be an ER doctor; but she’s tired because of the “grueling” residency. Bone-weary, maybe. The impending emergency that will require her skills will challenge her, not because she’s not capable, but because she’s so tired. That’s great characterization for one paragraph!

Anticipation. How can you not turn the page? Crichton has set up an interesting enough scenario, and populated it with an interesting character that I’m hooked. I would read on! Wouldn’t you?

Avoid weak openings! Study Jurassic Park for hints on how to take your story’s opening to a new level.

Hi folks, I've been pressured this week. I have a deadline looming. It's a few months off, but it mocks me from the distance. A ton of work is between me and that deadline. My creative self is just not happy being forced to perform. The writing is feeling very mechanical, and I've been feeling edgy. I can do the ton of work ahead, but I have to have an infusion of fun or this is going to be a dismal project.

As a professional writer, I don't have the luxury of waiting for a muse or finding the right mood. That said, without the muse or the mood, I struggle to get anything on the page that is infused with awesomeness. Without finding my groove, my work is painful and generally worthless and uninspired.  To find my groove, I have to give myself time to play, a lot of time to play, This week I started up a project that is really for the fun of it. It's a silly project that is self-indulgent, silly, and sarcastic. No one wants this project. It's just for me. I delight in it.

Allowing myself to do something that lights me up, whether anyone else cares or not, fuels me with energy. The project has one targeted audience and that is myself. I am always working on projects like this. I doodle. I bake, I crochet, I knit, I sew, I sing, I play my flute, pluck on my dulcimer, weed my flowerbeds, chase with the cats or let them chase me, joke with my kids, write silly bits. I play. There are reasons for this creative play. One, I must be able to finish things because it makes me feel jazzed. Two, I must be free to complete something for my own self, something that sends a sense of accomplishment into my soul. Three,  I get to call the flaws in my work character.

Play is like taking a tub of olive oil and tumping it on my head. It a lubricant that cuts down resistance. I jump into my work and slide forward with a rush of speed. I'm ungummed from the commercialization and commodifying of imagination. I find that sweet place of the song bird, croaking frog, or shimmering cicadas.  I find what heart tells me to do. The dreaded deadline no longer looms. It's just a date on a calendar that happen to coincide with the marvelous creative journey I'm on. This dear readers, is the GROOVE.

I hope you have some fun and find your groove this week!  I will be back with more musing next week.

Here is a doodle.

By Anatoly Liberman

Beguines.
The origin of Beguine is bound to remain unknown, if “unknown” means that no answer exists that makes further discussion useless. No doubt, the color gray could give rise to the name. If it were not so, this etymology would not have been offered and defended by many scholars. But, as a rule, such names develop from terms of abuse (see also Stephen Goranson’ comment). I would also like to refer to pattern congruity, though in etymology it is a dangerous tool. The three words—beggar, bugger, and bigot, as well as bicker—sound alike and refer (at least the nouns do) to the same semantic sphere. To be sure, one can string together deceptively similar words that do not belong together and get wrong results. For example, the name of the protagonist in one of the most famous Icelandic sagas is Grettir. Several episodes in the saga (and even the wording) have unmistakable analogs in the Old English poem Beowulf. For this reason, Grettir and Grendel have sometimes been compared. Yet the comparison is not feasible. So to repeat, the question remains open; as usual, we are dealing with probabilities. I only hope that the picture I have drawn is not fanciful. As for the medieval Bulgarians, I think they are called Orthodox in the loosest sense of the word, that is, “not belonging to the Roman Church.” The word Beguine is Old French, and the chance of a German feminine suffix having been appended to it is vanishingly low.

Our cliché-ridden English.
Last month I touched on the buzzwords many people detest. Here (and in the next paragraph) are some more responses that I received and examples I found myself. For the reason unknown to me, I was invited to attend a demonstration of cutting edge hearing instruments. Do I need such devices in any part of my body? But unless you are, like, cutting-edge, innovative, competitive, interdisciplinary, and diverse, how can you assume the position of leadership in your branch and who will need you, you know? I have no idea, but, to quote an unrelated letter to the editor, “let’s you and I frame the discussion.”

Tongue-tied eloquence.
Nature, they say, does not tolerate void. The language of the young is full of empty holes, and it is amazing or, conversely, depressing or pathetic (chose your favorite buzzword) to observe how desperately kids try to fill them. In the capacity as a committee member I have recently looked through several hundred evaluations students at my university, from freshmen to seniors, write at the end of the courses they take (different departments, various majors, most diverse subjects). My colleagues have been praised in many ways, and it is the subtle (another buzzword) choice of epithets that impressed me most. Everybody around turned out to be awesome, just awesome. Those students who were truly overwhelmed and whose vocabulary was more nuanced wrote awesome! and awesome!! Even awesome!!! turned up once. A single fly in this awe-inspiring ointment was the writers’ predilection for calling their instructors “proffesors,” though perhaps, when one is in love, the overall number of letters in a word matters more than their distribution. The next most frequent words in the evaluations were passionate and fun. Students really enjoyed the passion for the subjects we profess and really found some of us to be helpful, especially those who are fun professors ~ proffesors, that is, the numerous “fabulous” teachers “who made it fun” or “super fun,” for, if you provide fun throughout the semester, along with occasional food and constant feedback, the students will really and “definately” miss your course “alot.” Not to be forgotten: If the assignments are clearly “layed out,” you may be called a fantastic dude or the coolest guy ever.

Foreigners complain that the vocabulary of English is almost impossible to master. They don’t realize how much can be said with very few words and that young native speakers of English find the best literature in their language so hard that they can no longer read it. Publishers cater to them and bring out books containing only the vocabulary they are able to understand, so that, to quote a perennial classic, there begins a regular competition for stupidity, with everyone trying to look even more stupid than they really are.

Gleanings in winter

Are toys “us” or “them”?
This question occurred to me when I read the following ad sent by Walter Turner:

“Another very good deed done by *** Service [no comma] which confirms their commitment to help all of us to do their family’s histories and honor them for their rich contributions to our lives.”

Of course we should do all we can to make their (= our) lives meaningful! When in trouble, always say they and their. The following excerpt will confirm the validity of this safety rule (from the Associated Press): 

“Some [students] said the police response was excessive, one person said their nose was broken by a beer bottle that someone threw and another said they were ‘teargassed’.”

A good title for a thriller in the spirit of Gogol: A Person and Their Nose. Their (the person’s, the Nose’s, and collectively) problems  are many.

The mood of the stories are gloomy.
Under this title, borrowed from a student paper, I occasionally quote examples of the ineradicable rule of American English that says: “Make the verb agree with the noun next to it.” In a story of the missing plane, the Associated Press informs its readers that “[a] string of previous clues have led nowhere.” Let no one tell me that string is a collective noun. Not in this case!

Language change.
I have noted in the past that the use of the agreement as in the mood of the stories are gloomy is so pervasive that one may state the rise of a new norm in American English (I don’t know how “new” it is). This is the way of language change. For example, at a certain moment, the people who have no trouble distinguishing between he and him feel at a loss when it comes to who and whom and begin to say the doctor whom we believe saved the patient. Editors and teachers fight the trend but soon they too forget what is right and what is wrong, and the more advanced (“popular”) usage takes over.

Here is an example of illogical syntax, which, if I am not mistaken, has won the day. “As a pediatrician, your editorial resonated with me,” “As an undergraduate, Prof. X showed me her handout,” and “As a valued ***customer, we have important news for you about….” I can stomach the first sentence (“I am a pediatrician, and the article has resonated with me”), but Nos. 2 and 3 strike me as nonsense: Professor X did not show the writer her handout when she, the professor, was an undergraduate. Nor is the company a valued customer. But as, among other things, means “when,” so that instead of saying “When I was an undergraduate, Professor X… showed me…,” people cut corners and say “As an undergraduate, Processor X….” Fortunately or unfortunately, the world goes its way without caring about teachers’ opinions. Change is natural (otherwise we would still be speaking Proto-Indo-European, which would be a catastrophe for historical linguists), but some sentences are so awkward that hardly anyone will like them: “I am an unwavering advocate of greater student participation in and control of student fees….” Well-meant but ugly.

My winter gleanings are over. I congratulate our readers on the coming of spring. Please send more questions and comments. In spring everybody and everything wakes up.

Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to him care of [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.” Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via email or RSS.

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Image credit: The Wolf and the Shepherds by Valentin Serov, 1898. Public domain via Wikipaintings.

The post Monthly etymology gleanings for March 2014 appeared first on OUPblog.

        

Related Stories

• Beggars, buggers, and bigots, part 4
• Beggars, buggers, and bigots, part 2
• Beggars, buggers, and bigots, part 3

 

START YOUR NOVEL

• 29 Plot Templates
• 2 Essential Writing Skills
• 100 Examples of Opening Lines
• 7 Weak Openings to Avoid
• 4 Strong Openings to Use
• 3 Assignments to Get Unstuck
• 7 Problems to Resolve

All those fiction techniques you’ve spent time mastering — dialogue, description, setting, mood, scenes, characterization, and plot — are equally useful in writing nonfiction. Yes, there is more leeway in nonfiction than in the last twenty-five years, but publishers still value creative nonfiction or fiction written with fiction techniques.

For example, I have a new nonfiction coming out next year, Kentucky Basketball: America’s Winningest Teams (Rosen, 2014). I searched and searched for an interesting opening to the story, until I found a scene that was worthy of describing.

It was Valentine’s Day, 1938. Packed into the University of Kentucky Alumni Gym were over 4000 people, some sitting in windows, others literally hanging from the rafters. The UK Wildcat basketball team led top-ranked Marquette University team by 10 points.

It’s an exciting rivalry game, early in the history of the basketball program at Kentucky. Fiction techniques dictated that I set the scene immediately. Then I use sensory details to fill in the scene to describe the fast-paced last few minutes. Joe “Red” Hagan shoots a long 49-foot field goal from near the half-court line. When Marquette missed three more times, it becomes the winning score. Then, the interesting part started. In the audience was “Happy” Chandler, governor of Kentucky. He was so excited by the win, and especially Red’s winning shot, that he called for a hammer and nail. He rushed onto the court and at the spot from which Red shot, Chandler hammered a nail into the floor to commemorate the moment.

It’s stuff of legends. And it deserved a full scene, which meant fiction techniques.

Research Details for NonFiction: Think Fiction

This means that while I was researching the nonfiction topic of Kentucky basketball, I was really looking for a certain type of information.

Scenes. I look specifically for scenes with a beginning, middle with conflict, and ending. It needs to be something fun and interesting, a specific event.

Details. Next, I look for details. Here’s a fact: the basketball arena was meant to seat 2500, but 4000 fans were in attendance. A newspaper article of the times specifically said that fans were literally sitting in windows and hanging from the rafters. I look for numbers, colors, sizes, shapes, extended descriptions, and other specific details. These will all help the story come alive.

Timelines. The timeline of the basketball game was important to lay out and newspaper reports were helpful. The details of the first half were important to understand, so I could focus on the last three minutes.

Personalities or Characters. This story is made richer by the presence of Happy Chandler, governor of Kentucky. What a happy thing that he was named Happy! It added to the appeal of the story that the governor with such a nickname was so Happy that he did something unexpected.

Unexpected. The story is interested because of the governor’s unexpected reaction. Stories of last-minute wins are commonplace, even if in the moment it feels like a miracle. By itself, Red Hagan’s shot isn’t remarkable enough to include in a book like this. But add to that the unexpected hammer and nail, and it becomes a remarkable story of a fan who wanted to acknowledge a miraculous shot. That’s why this story made it into the book’s introduction, surprise.

Research and document all your research; but while you’re researching, think fiction techniques. And your nonfiction article will become an interesting story that both informs and entertains.

I fully intended to write another blog post on character. Then Miss Footloose commented on my post Characterization and Location: What I Learned Watching Reruns. In part, she said, “Creating a background is a very useful subliminal technique, not only for characterization, but also for mood and contrast.” 


And she’s right. Just as you can use your setting to emphasize specific character traits, you can use it to emphasize the mood of a particular scene. 


I still remember the first time I discussed this with a fellow writer. She explained that when she wanted a creepy mood, she described a trees branches as claws. 


Most writers, at least in part, choose our settings based on the mood we need to create. Need a creepy mood? Then you set your scene in a cemetery. A cheery setting? Try a flower garden. But you can do so much more. As always, its in the details. 


One setting, such as a mansion, can be used for a variety of moods. Grim? Think dark wood, dimly lit rooms and dark upholstery, drapes and rugs. Sad? Add rain coursing down the windows. Romantic? Cut the rain and the dark colors. Lighten the place up with sunshine and throw in some flowers.The details we choose can do a lot toward creating a mood, but these examples still take the easy way out. 


Details can be used much more subtly than the above. Think about how to shift the mood given this setting: A drawing room with huge sun-filled windows, flowers and golden yellow upholstered furniture. Yet your heroine senses an undercurrent of foreboding, so you want the mood to be darker, threatening. What kinds of details could you add? Perhaps the scent of the flowers reminds your character of a funeral. Or she spots disturbing details in a portrait that hangs over the fireplace; visible in the painting’s distant background wolves have cornered a stag. Perhaps the pitcher of milk on the tea tray has soured or the butter is rancid. 


More difficult, for me, would be a scene that initially seems scary or ominous but is actually much lighter in tone. Perhaps your main character works at a funerary chapel. The building is old, grey stone. The pews are cushioned with somber maroon. What kinds of details could lighten things up? Birds singing outside. Early spring sunlight glimmering through the newly cleaned windows. Perhaps a cup of cheery mint tea. 


No matter where your story is set, you can emphasize the details that you need to match the current mood. Why not spend some time brainstorming today about your setting and how it might relat

By Michael Otto Dear First Lady Obama: I am writing this letter in support of your Let’s Move campaign against obesity. As you well know, traditional recommendations for physical activity and good nutrition have met with failure in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control, rates of adults who engage in no leisure time physical activity have been in the range of 20-30% for over 20 years. Moreover, over 75% of individuals do not

At CraftFest, the writing school component of ThrillerFest in New York City, novelist Gayle Lynds shared “The Seven Steps to Suspense” in fiction.

For one step, Lynds (pictured, via) focused on mood and description in a novel. She advised authors to always be aware of a story’s mood, warning that “writers sometimes ruin a book by adding a lighthearted mood at the wrong moment.”

Lynds also offered two pieces of advice for mastering the thriller mood. First, read and study 50 suspense novels. Then grab another twenty books from different genres (i.e. romance, historical, literary, etc.) and pay special attention to the opening scenes. You will soon recognize the specific mood of each genre.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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By Michael Otto

In the New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds posed the question, “Does exercise really boost your mood?” There is a clear, clean answer to this question – yes!  In fact, the evidence that regular, moderate exercise can boost your mood is overwhelming.  From population-based studies to well-controlled clinical trials – exercise is associated with better mood.  Specifically, exercise is linked with less depression and improved well-being, decreased anger, decreased anxiety, and greater feelings of social connectedness.  Exercise also improves brain functioning, and has dramatic effects on overall health. These findings have been documented repeatedly in both human and animal studies (in animal studies, depression and anxiety are assessed by behavioral responses to specific tasks).  So if the evidence is consistent, why question the effects exercise has on mood?

The motivation behind this question was a recent paper from German researchers that investigated the effects of a 3-week intense running schedule in mice.  The mice really were churning it out on the running wheel – pawing their way to an average of 12 kilometers (over 7 miles) each day.  But apparently they were not feeling cheery; the mice showed an increase rather than a decrease in anxiety behavior.  It is not clear what to make of these findings, and they don’t parallel findings in humans.  Even among marathon runners, who put in long distances similar to the mice in this study, the effects of exercise on mood appear to be positive.

This is not to say that exercise will always improve mood. For example, over-exertion and worries about physical appearance are great ways to sap motivation to continue exercise.  Also, feelings during exercise are highly variable, especially when the intensity of exercise is vigorous. The beauty of exercise for mood is that you don’t have to run yourself miserable to get the mood benefits.  Moderate exertion is enough to help you experience the desired mood benefits after exercise.

Yet the real challenge of exercise for most Americans is actually doing it.  Focusing directly on the immediate mood and stress-reducing effects of exercise can help with this challenge. Instead of drudgery directed at a distant goal of a fitter, slimmer you; exercise can be used to achieve the immediate goal of a happier, less-stressed you. But still people need to learn how to manage the thinking and procrastination patterns that can derail good exercise intentions. Motivation has been well researched, and there is an increasing role for psychologists in aiding the physical and mental health of Americans by helping them understand and change the many factors that can sap motivation.  It is now timely for Americans to take advantage of this accumulated wisdom for their own direct benefit, on or off the running wheel.

Michael Otto, Ph.D., and Jasper Smits, Ph.D., are behavior change experts and authors of Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being.

View more about this book on the

This piece was commissioned as a wedding present by a friend of mine, for his friends' wedding. I believe that he's kinda hit the trifecta of goodness with this gift. Let me explain, in one way he's strengthened our friendship by believing in me and my aims to support my life with my art (which feels great, I must say), next he's generated more positive energy by giving a totally unique and personal gift to his friends, which all kinda culminates in generating the reciprocal esteem from his circle of friends as well as from myself. It's like a win, win, win.

Technically speaking, this piece was a fun one to work on. I guess sometime here in the recent past I'd become aware of my problem with soft edges. The manner in which I work tends to favor crisp clear edges, which I really like. However, even too much of a good thing can be not so good. It was my intention with this piece to create a soft feel for it. Not only for the technical challenge of it, but more so, because of the subject matter. Toss in a little diaphanous light, and we're starting to set the stage for romance! To see the results of the initial intentions, I would urge you to check out the shadows across the ground as well as some of the passages in the dress, and the bride's shoulder, or the groom's shoe.

I don't suppose that I would've have guessed at the onset how this image would affect me. But I am glad to say that after putting myself in a mind set of affection and love, that my relationship with my own lovely wife got a little bit better. Funny how focusing your mind and energies on everything that this picture represents can change you. I said before that "sometimes even too much of a good thing can be not so good," I should amend that and add, "..unless it's love."

My best wishes and warm regards go out to my friend, and my friend's friends!

Now we've come to the end of week 4 of the 12 week challenge. Arguably, we've entered the "fun" part of illustration, making images!

Before I move on to the painting, I have to say that part of this challenge for me has been about zeroing in on what I want to do, who I'd like to purchase my works, and how I can make a business of doing this. After looking at some of the other challenger's works, I have to say that I am at once, both terrified and filled with the "I'm not worthy" thing and, greatly inspired. This, of course is part of the inner, personal challenge. To be able to find my own self worth in the presence of other talented artists may be one of my biggest obstacles. Illustration is unique in this way, where we can find ourselves cheering on our friends while challenging them, and in return to be challenged by their now stronger works.

Now, here's the story of the painting! As some of you may remember from the earlier post "Alien Moon Phases," recently a friend of mine finished writing a fantasy novel, "Velor" which is looking for a publisher. In order to create a more positive and appealing property he decided to commission a few pieces of work from me.

This is will be the cover image for the book, so we talked about some of the key concepts that he wanted to represent his story. High on the list were feelings of ambiguity, of being lost, and that kinda the main character in the story is the journey it's self. After discussing some key scenes in the book, we arrived at a moment wherein the band of travelers is lost in a mountain range and decide to take shelter in a cave.

After a few thumbnails, we liked this drawing. The characters were ambiguous, the mountain is big and they are small, and the cave is threatening while offering shelter. I wanted this to be a "frying pan to fire" scene.

Moving right along, this is the first image that I took after the first washes were laid down. As a technical note, I tried some new paper, an Arches 260lb hot press. In the store I liked the plate finish which seemed smoother than the 300lb paper, but not as slick as the Strathmore 500 series that I had been using. I thought I'd just give it a go. The paper was stretched, it was kind of attached to a board {wet paper and tape don't mix so well, I guess that's why everybody else uses thumbtacks... lesson learned,} and we're off to the races.

This post is the result of two different conversations with two different friends that I've had in the past few months. In conversation one; my friend said to me that one of the best ways to solve your own problems in life is to find somebody else, give them advice, and then follow it yourself. I don't doubt that he was talking about me to me.

In conversation two my friend and I were talking about our personal voice in illustration, I recommended to her that she take a closer look at the work that inspires and influences her, and examine them for all the qualities that she liked. In other words, the "why," as in "Why do you like that piece of art?" In doing this that she would be able to see the continuous thread that ran through all these disparate images, and that thread would be her personal preferences, her aspirations. Expanding out from there, she would be able to strengthen her own works by explicitly understanding her influences. Simple, right?

So, you see, this post is me, taking my own advice, and hauling some art into the light, expressing my perceptions of them in an effort to reveal qualities which I endeavor to imbue in future illustrations.

Mood and Tone; The concept

Two artists who are wonderful in the conveyance of Mood and Tone are John Jude Palencar and Alfred Hitchcock. Both of whom are able to create intense, and sometimes somber, moods in their works. I've been a fan of John Jude Palencar's work for quite some time, however it is rarely the subject matter he chooses which captivates me, but it is the way he portrays things, his technique, pallet, and composition. Which add up to the creation of specific moods through out his work. So, it is his use of the tools at hand which he chooses to express himself that I admire.

Because John Jude Palencar's expressions are often psychologically charged, that, I thought a nice companion artist would be Alfred Hitchcock. True, Alfred Hitchcock works in a different medium, but he incorporates many of the same tools to create the myriad of moods and tones in his work. He is a Master of composition, in the use of lights and darks, and also in his ability to imbue a psychological tension into his pieces. For this side by side comparison we'll be looking at a still image from Psycho that I pulled off the web, along with an image from John Jude Palencar's website. I should pause here to thank Mr. Palencar for his express permission to use his work here, as well as to credit the Opera Company of Philadelphia who originally commissioned the Madame Butterfly piece that we'll be looking at. Links to these sites can be found at the bottom of this post, please check them out after your done reading.**

"Put light colors next to light colors and dark colors next to darks, then where you want the viewer to descend, put dark next to light." ~ Harvey Dunn.

This succinct sentence holds the cornerstone to quality illustrations, and the nature of communicating with images. Part of what Harvey Dunn is talking about here is a strong value structure. A strong value structure is absolutely essential towards crafting and communicating with an image. If that structure isn't there, the picture will be confusing and ineffective. As artists we are communicators, and through the conscious use of the tools at hand it becomes possible to communicate those ineffable qualities of life, rendering visible the invisible.

Pretty heady stuff, but there is a simple way to view this as well:
Mood=Tone=Value

To start with let's open ourselves to the wholeness of these terms, as they encapsulate multifaceted concepts.

Mood can be a slippery idea to get our hands on. People talk about mood all the time, but what are they really saying, what is a mood? As a working definition let's agree that mood refers to an emotional state of mind. We can talk about moods like, Joy, Elation, or their counter

This is the second of the two book covers that I was asked to do for PM Press. Amazingly this piece was a great sounding board for the other piece The Chieu Hoi Saloon. Both pieces were a lot of fun to work on, and they provided a great point and counterpoint to work between. For instance this piece for Pike called for a cold harsh feeling, where as The Chieu Hoi Saloon required something warmer, although still gritty.

It was that "gritty" aspect that was one of the major challenges that I had to work with. Considering that often times watercolor, as a medium, tends to be softer and smoother. So, to build in some good ol' Noir Grit was a challenge. With this piece in particular you'll notice that I've spattered a lot of paint about, some to be the falling snow, and some to just be noisy on the picture plane.

Here is the progression from one of the initial concepts to final sketch. I was initially drawn to this concept for it's graphic quality. I liked the stark tree as an emblem of this character's family tree, that it would be desolate, broken, and dark, it's seen dormant during the wintertime. While the story's main character is actually Pike { for whom the book is named }, the character of the estranged grand-daughter, Wendy, is actually the epicenter of the story. She provides the touch stone between the main character and the mystery of his daughter's death. You can read more about my initial thoughts from the first blog post here.

Here is the expanded final sketch which shows both the front and back panels for the book. I had some fun putting that little wispy weed at the bottom of the spine. That's totally just for fun, I like books that have a tiny picture on the spine. Given the chance to do more book covers, I can see really pushing that tiny spine illustration.

When moving from here to the finish, I knew that one aspect that I wanted to show in both this and the other cover, was that the piece should be something that couldn't be created on the computer. I wanted it to be expressly "a painting." There just seems to be so many great up and coming artists working digitally that I don't even want to compete with them, so my answer is to create a something that is wholly original and difficult to do digitally. So, in this piece that is evident in the sky. The washes, upon washes are ripe with accidents and recoveries { I'll leave it to you to find those! } I found myself thinking a lot about the

The weather was the question yesterday—the cool, the sticky hot, the kicked-up breeze, the swamped, low air, rain that fell hard, then rain that came down against the curtain of near sunshine.

Who are you supposed to be, on a weather day like that, if you are a person like me, utterly suggestible, forever pacing, on the hunt?

At my house, we’re iced in today, with schools closed for the weather.

How Does the Weather Affect Your Story?

Have you ever included a snow or ice day in your story? Does your character sweat through a scorching day while mowing the lawn?

If not, you’re missing a great chance to include sensory details and bring your story to life!

• Character. Develop your POV character better by including thoughts and references about weather. Would this character describe a sunset in flowery terms or barely notice it? This is a great place to explore voice for a character. For a week, try stopping three times a day and writing a sentence or paragraph about the weather, trying out different voices.
• Plot. You can choose to support or contrast the weather and the plot events. If there’s a blow up between characters, will you also include a thunderstorm or a blizzard? Or will it be a beautiful spring day, by way of contrast?
• Setting. Of course, part of most settings is the weather. Where are we? In the Arctic tundra, or scuba diving in the Caribbean? Choose sensory details — not just what you see, but using all the senses — that evoke the setting in a unique way.
• Mood. Try writing about a playground, using lots of sensory details. Now write about a scary playground or a happy playground. You change the mood of the story by choosing different sensory details. The setting controls much of the mood of a piece and that definitely includes weather.

I'm new to Monday Artday and this is my first post, so thanks for giving me this opportunity! I call this entry "Colorful Moods".
1-Green With Envy
2-A Case of The Blues
3-Seeing Red
4-In the Pink
I'd also love for you to visit my blog, called J.B. Guess & Co. Chapter Two.

Thanks!
Jessie

Today we are excited to bring you Emily Martin a professor of anthropology at New York University. In her most recent book, Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture, (published by Princeton University Press), Martin guides us into the fascinating and sometimes disturbing worlds of mental-health support groups, mood charts, psychiatric rounds, the pharmaceutical industry, and psychotropic drugs. Charting how these worlds intersect with the wider popular culture, she reveals how people living with bipolar disorder are often denied the status of being fully human, even while contemporary America exhibits a powerful affinity for manic behavior. In the post below Martin look at how this is affecting American’s perception of mood disorders. Thanks to our friends at PUP for letting us know about this fascinating book!

What lies behind the recent explosion in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder among American children? There is much to wonder about, as we know from Time magazine’s 2002 cover, “Young and Bipolar;” and from a recent 60 Minutes segment, “What killed Rebecca Riley?” Four year old Rebecca is said to have died from an overdose of psychiatric medications given to her for her bipolar disorder. The New York Times had already reported the month before that the number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003. Not long afterward, under the headline “Your Child’s Disorder May be Yours, Too,” The Times reported that parents are struggling with whether to acknowledge aspects of their own behavior that are consistent with mood disorders in order to help their children feel they have “fellow travelers.” Behind these stories lie powerful cultural changes in how Americans regard their moods.

Bipolar disorder is becoming not only a disability but also an asset. Because of the creativity of their manic states, larger than life figures like Robin Williams and Ted Turner are frequently described as “bipolar.” Depression, at the other end of the mood spectrum carries a different load of associations. If mania comes to signal success in the competitive, sped-up global economy, depression signals the opposite: the failure to be productive. What interests me as an anthropologist is that cultural values very specific to our society are carried along with the diagnosis of a mood disorder.

For bipolar disorder, the our cultural fantasy is that as depression can be made to wither away altogether, the high energy of the manic phase can be tamed or optimized, so that individuals can succeed and economies grow. The growing numbers of psychopharmaceutical drugs are what allow contemporary doctors to give a patient a diagnosis of mood disorder and treat it, rather than (as in earlier historical periods) lay the patient’s problems at the feet of his or her temperament or character. At a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, I met a young doctor who practiced in a well-known hospital near Hollywood. When he heard about my research, he became quite interested and offered me this experience.

Where I work, we get a lot of Hollywood comedians coming in. They are manic depressives. There are two important things about this: first, they do not want their condition publicized, and second, their managers always get involved in the details of their treatment. The managers want the mania treated just so. They do not want it floridly out of control, but they also absolutely do not want it damped down too much.

He felt he was being called upon to optimize his patients’ moods (for the theatrical profession and for the particular kinds of creativity it requires) through proper management of their drugs. Listening as an anthropologist, I began to feel uneasy about the prospect of extending the optimization of psychotropic drugs to suit other kinds of employment and people in other age groups. What would happen if optimizing states of mind were extended, as the DOD hopes, to soldiers on combat duty? What are the implications of extending the use of powerful psychotropic drugs to treat children whose behavior causes problems at home or school? A number of factors have been blamed for the rising statistics of bipolar disorder in children: improved treatments or more knowledgeable diagnosis by doctors. But the need for treatment (real as the need may be and helpful as the treatment may be in some cases) cannot be separated from values in our cultural environment that associate some moods with success and others with failure. A broader conversation about the cultural environment in which rates of bipolar disorder are rising would enrich our understanding of what it means to be bipolar – for children and adults alike –today.

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I've been taking a few posts to share some information about novel writing. This week I will focus on setting, and specifically how to get more mileage out of the setting by considering it a character in the story.

What exactly is setting? It is the millieu: the social and physical environment that wraps around the characters and events of a story. The more present the writer is with this millieu, the more complex and textured the story. An effective setting must have depths and layers and be true to life just like a believable character. The setting must contain unexpected incongruities. The best settings are showcased by revealing flaws not perfections.

The setting will help create the tone of a story. If a story is lighthearted, pensive or tragic, specifc setting details can bring cohesion to the author's intent. Tone is about considering how you, the author, view your story. Are you angry, amused, or passionate? Hopping bunnies and flitting fireflies may be just the ticket to slant in your sacrastic view of your story. You as the author may have very complex feelings about your story; the setting is a great place to connect the reader with your attitude.

Also, consider the mood of the story. Generally the mood of the story rises directly from the reactions of the main protagonist. Using the setting to reflect these reactions is a power device. Think about this classic moment. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, the Gothic lightning bolt strikes the tree just as the brooding Mr. Rochester makes a fateful descision to marry his Jane. This bolt signals the storm that will destroy his and Jane's happiness for a time. This is an over the top classic moment but gets the point acros. Be mindful of the setting details and how they reflect the characters choices. This will serve as a support structure for the original voice.

It is a useful exercise to write a scene in a working story in a new way. Think about the context of the scene like a depiction of a first betrayal. Take this context and then rewrite the scene but use only the setting of your story to reveal this context. Does a spider pounce on its prey? Does the wind tear glorious fall leaves from a tree? Does the ocean wash away a fortress of sand? Will the unwelcome smell of burnt toast flood a rose garden? Exploring context through setting is a way to expand your storytelling skills. Give it a try.

I hope something here will bring richness to your endeavors. I've been traveling, so not very much writing over the past couple weeks. I've reached the 40,000 word mark with my work-in-progress. I turned in my two picture books, received copies of two other books and am working on a polish of a favored manuscript.

I leave you with a poem that perhaps says more about what I am trying to say than all my words put together.

The Fog
by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Author: Karla Kuskin
Illustrator: Marc Simont (on JOMB)
Published: Harper Collins (on JOMB)
ISBN: 006443124X Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Peppered with humour and interesting details, 105 parallel melodies of quiet, private bustling sweep us from the calm of a chilly dusk to the resounding beauty of a symphony’s first notes in this inspiring peek at the talented, not-so-unlike-us individuals whose work is to play — beautifully.