Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Something to work with...

This morning's short spurt of painting has gotten me where I want to be with this design, I think.


There's still more to do, however, to turn it into a tapestry cartoon.  And the most important thing is to move from a painterly composition to one that's weaverly.  I'm using tricks to look at it differently... like manipulating it in Photoshop in several ways:



The warp is 42" wide and the 36" approximate square of the design will float within an approximate 42" square, with about 3" all around of natural color wool.  The piece will be woven as another achromatic piece using mostly Vevgarn. The warp sett is 8 epi of 12/12 cotton seine twine.  I'll make a line drawing to simplify from the composition and refer to the painted image for value decisions along the way.


Now, off to the UPS Store to have this line drawing enlarged... more later.

And, now... later and about $23 less in my wallet and I have the enlarged line drawing.  I've gotten more yarn ordered and I'll be underway with this piece before long... like just as soon as I post this.





12 comments:

  1. I absolutely LOVE LOVE the drawing. Am eager to see the tapestry!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pat, thanks for the vote of confidence in the design. Hope I can pull off the weaving of the tapestry to put the cartoon to its best advantage!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is truly amazing! Thank you for sharing the process. I love the sketch, and I'm looking forward to seeing the tapestry emerge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks so much LouAnn! Just wove about 1/2" of the bottom of the white area that will surround the b/w. Many more inches to go!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, Tommye for sharing your process. Interesting to watch go from
    painterly to weaverly. Will be interesting to see the weaving emerge.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you, Gloria.
    I'll be sharing about it along the way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The drawing and development is fabulous. Will certainly be tuning in to see this beauty develope

    ReplyDelete
  8. Have been watching your comments on the weaverly-painterly divide...

    also have been brooding over the Sylvia Heyden DVD which is also much concerned with this.

    As a weaving newbie I am wrestling with the concepts - and the technical implications thus:

    is mixing thread on bobbins painterly, but using pick and pick variations weaverly?
    or are stepped angles weaverly but eccentric curves painterly?

    and where is texture in this - surely texture, the feel of fibre is the essence - so why not much more knotting and three-dimensionality?

    Just rambling, but wondering if you have a take on this...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Misha,
    Your thoughts are ones I have every time I address my loom, to some extent or another.

    You said:
    "is mixing thread on bobbins painterly, but using pick and pick variations weaverly?
    or are stepped angles weaverly but eccentric curves painterly?"

    I think both mixing on the bobbin and pick & pick can be weaverly ways to approach the design. Especially if the bead of the tapestry is of the scale that the yarn is part of the visual effect. Less so at many ends per inch so that the mixture of color is more of an optical illusion.

    "and where is texture in this - surely texture, the feel of fibre is the essence - so why not much more knotting and three-dimensionality?"

    The scale at which I work, either 8 epi like this tapestry or 6 epi for some others, lets the texture of the yarn be quite evident in the surface. I think the eye can "feel" the texture of the yarn. And the yarn I choose to use has a lot of visual texture.

    About knotting and three-dimensionality--so far, I've done very little with knotting or 3-D effects--it's not because I don't think they're capable of producing some amazing things--those methods are! Right now, my desire is to interpret imagery through tapestry making in as much a way as to honor the fact of weaving (weaverly) as I can with my skills.

    You end by saying:
    "Just rambling, but wondering if you have a take on this..."

    What a good way to ramble--these thoughts, like I said, are with me almost constantly. I love Silvia Heyden's very clear way of approaching weaverly--she has created her path and it's lead her in amazing ways. I admire her work so very much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you, Tommye, for your thoughtful response to my queries.
    I hope you won't mind my quoting you on the taptryweaversoz yahoo group - with acknowledgement of course!

    I shall continue following with interest.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Misha,
    I don't mind your quoting me at all. I wish you much joy with your tapestry making adventures!

    ReplyDelete