I just finished the 7th day of the new year on my new tapestry diary. I'll post progress on that occasionally at the side bar like I did the one for last year.
Designing for the next tapestry is well underway now. I've been drawing from my kudzu photos each day, and have taken several of the drawings into Photoshop for further manipulation. Here's a sampling of those, so far.
drawing from the photos
several of these are the Photoshop versions pinned up along with the pencil drawings
Here's an example of one of the drawings that I've manipulated through Photoshop using the cutout filter. I'd first cropped this grouping of leaves and seedpods from the original drawing that included two bunches of leaves and seedpods. I wanted to emphasize the single grouping rather than the hanging vine with several included.
And here's a portion of the overall drawing that was from the cropped version, then copied and pasted with the magic wand tool being used to eliminate a portion of the side on the left. If you look closely you can see the point of the overlap.
Next, I'll try some other things with overlapping the detail drawings onto the mass of leaves. One of the most important things about kudzu is its overwhelming quality both visually and actually. That's part of what I hope to show with this design. Still quite a bit of work to do before the weaving begins.
AND, there's what's been happening outside while I've had my nose glued to the computer screen! First snowfall of the new year... predicted to be about 1". It's falling slowly and might not reach that amount but I think it's at least going to make the ground white for awhile.
Your drawings are so elegant, Tommye! I look forward to seeing both the calendar and this new design progress.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy... hope you'll be feeling totally well very soon.
ReplyDeleteYes, as Kathy said, the sketches are beautiful. I love the new 2010 tapestry too.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your drawings, gives me a whole new perspective on kudzu.;o)
ReplyDeleteyour back yard looks like mine and it is 9 degrees here this morning. Stay warm.
Thanks, Theresa and Sue...
ReplyDeleteOnly about 3/4" of snow, I guess. I haven't ventured out yet this morning. BUT, it's dang cold and the wind's blowing! BRRR... what wimps we are here in the Southland!
Thanks for the details about your design process Tommye. Great ideas... maybe I should learn photoshop. I tend to use a lot of tracing paper and time when probably a scanner and the computer could create possibilities faster... then again spending time isn't a bad thing either.
ReplyDeleteI love the kudzu drawings. I have fond (horrified) memories of whole buildings, trees etc taken over by kudzu, and the joke: How do you plant kudzu? Drop it and run!
ReplyDeleteJan... thanks for that comment! I'll add it to my collection of sayings about kudzu. I grew up in the South seeing kudzu covering trees, power lines, abandoned houses & vehicles. A friend, Jack Anthony, has a wonderful grouping of photos of kudzu that shows many of his "finds"--it's posted online and if you did a search for Jack Anthony Dahlonega I think you'd find his site. I used to think that Christo had nothing on nature when seeing the way kudzu can do wrappings!
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