My sustained investigation question was, "What would mental illnesses look like if people could see what others were suffering and dealing with?" For my fourth sustained investigation question I wanted to portray anorexia nervosa and what the people who suffer from this disorder have to battle mentally everyday. First, I started with a sketch. I wanted to have a girl as the main focus, and I wanted a tape measure used to measure clothes and fabrics raveled around one of her arms. Then, I wanted the tape measure to be around her mouth as well. Also, I wanted a skull to be on half her face and an arm bone to be on her other arm. Lastly, I wanted cracks to be overtop of everything to illustrate how when people don't eat their bones become weak, fragile, and more likely to break, but to also to portray the brokenness these victums feel internally.
To start of the project I searched for a close up image of a hostage with duck tape around her mouth. I wanted the girl to take up the whole page so after I placed her I adjusted her sizing. My vision was to have this girl illustrate how the victims of anorexia nervosa are held hostage by their mind and the self-deprecating thoughts that cause this disorder. I also wanted to create the tone of feeling trapped because anorexia nervosa suffers are held captive by the disorder and insurmountable toll it takes as well as hostages.
I wanted to portray anorexia nervosa and the mental illness as a whole because this eating disorder makes someone fell as if they huge when in reality their body is unhealthily tiny and deteriorating from the lack or nutrition. I wanted to convey this through a tape measure because this is how people get their body measurements and body size is the root of anorexia. So, I searched the internet for an image of a tape measure wrapped around an object because I needed it to be bent so I could create the illusion that it was around an arm. To do this, I place a layer mask over the image and cut out everything besides the tape measurer. Then, I made many copies, just masked over the parts of the measure I didn't want so I had one singular strand per copy, adjusted the sizing/angle, and then I moved it to where I wanted it on the arm. I did this with multiple different strands until I liked the look of them all on the arm.
I later decided that I wanted to add more of the tape measure on the arm to represent how people with this eating disorder fell about themselves and their weight. So I did the same process of making many copies, masking over the parts of the measure I didn't want so I had one singular strand per copy, adjusting the sizing/angle, and then moving it to where I wanted it on the arm. To get the full effect I also wanted to cover up the duck tape on the original hostage image, and the best way to do this was through an overlay. So, I made a copy of it one of the strands I cut out for the arm and adjusted the sizing. I stretched it out super wide and long and then placed the overlay of soft light overtop of the duck tape to create the illusion that her arms and face were covered by a tape measure instead.
Then I felt like the image was to bland, so I went to the adjustments of the image and raised the saturation levels as well as her contrast levels to add more dimension. I also felt like the tape measures on the arm felt misplaced and that they needed shadows to blend better. To do this I created a separate layer, selected the brush tool, lower the opacity and then brushed it on. Then to clean it up, I used places a layer mask with the hard brush tool and brushed over the areas I didn't want the shadow so it was only underneath.
Next, I wanted to portray how this mental illness is not only emotionally draining but also dangerous and causes many health problems due to the inadequate eating cycle and the starvation. I also wanted the skull and bones to represent how the not eating cause the body to become super fragile because there is no muscle on the body to protect the bones from harm plus their is no nutrients keeping the bones strong. So, I found an image of a skull from online and used a layer mast to cut out only half of it. Then I adjusted the sizing and placed it to fit on the hostages face. To blend it into the image I changed the overlay to color burn. Then, I found an image of an arm bone and I placed it on the hostages empty arm. I then changed the overlay to color burn as well.
When doing the background, I wanted to make it darker so that it didn't take away from the hostage and the main focus, but I also wanted it to correlate to the topic of my project. So I searched the internet for an image of a girl suffering from anorexia nervosa and placed it on an empty layer underneath all of the other layers. Then I got an image of sold black and moved it underneath the girl image. After that, I changed the overlay of the girl image to linear light to get the effect I wanted.
To finish off the project I wanted to portray the brokenness felt by the suffers of anorexia nervosa and the continuous internal turmoil they deal with everyday. I wanted to do this with cracked cement to illustrate even the toughest of people can't fully cope and mentally beat the distress caused by mental illnesses. So, I found an image of cement off the internet and adjusted the sizing so that it fit the whole page. Then I changed the overlay to overlay because I thought that it fit best and still hilighted the girl without taking away the main focus and message of the project.
