Life may imitate art, but it can’t copy it very precisely. Human beings can strive for perfect in their appearance, but as the old saying goes, in the physical world we are seen “warts and all.” People aren’t like artwork where major and minor flaws can be removed with a few flicks of a paintbrush or digital pen.

Unfortunately people can become warped in their viewpoint of what is normal in appearance; a steady diet of viewing idealized people via TV, illustrations, or wherever can cause us to see people in the real world as more imperfect than they would normally appear. The body image we expect to see can vary greatly with the amount of exposure we have to the silver screen where digital artists and plastic surgeons have worked their magic to undo the normal and replace if with artifice.

These days most fashion and entertainment magazines have upward to 90 percent of their pictures art-brushed and tweaked. Politicians and stars appear wrinkle free and 20 pounds lighter. Today not only do children dream of looking like the stars and models in these publications, even the stars and models dream of looking like they do in the publications.

Most people are aware of what’s being done with still photos. Many don’t realize much the same thing is now possible with movies. Actors can be “adjusted” digitally in height, have their waists thinned down, and have muscles built up. You can no longer believe anything you see if it has gone through a digital process at any point between when it was snapped and when you see it.

Here’s a little clip that gives some idea of what can be done on a massive scale.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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