I've been alternating work on putting away Christmas stuff, catching up on the laundry, and designing the next small tapestry, all morning. As you may recall from my earlier post, I'm working with two possible designs (with the always available option of chucking them both and coming up with something altogether different.)
The first design originated with the photo above. But it has too much going on in it for a small tapestry. So what I have ended up with in my maquette and cartoon for this one (both below) is a simplified, weavable version, that keeps all the elements I like, and eliminates the unnecessary clutter, which would not weave well.
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| tapestry maquette |
One of the things I liked, though it was not really a recognizable element in the original photo, was the red wheelbarrow. I use the color red frequently to make the viewers eye travel through the design. The barrow was tilted against the garage in the photo, and was not in a place that was helpful, design-wise. So I took out the garage and put in a new wheelbarrow and it's shadow in the garage's place. Now it will be not only weavable, but recognizable, and the red is placed where I want it to be.
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| tapestry cartoon |
The only other major change I made to the image was to enlarge the chickens in the doorway. I enlarged them several times to get them to the size I want them. I'm actually pretty happy with this design now. It will be weavable, and will have enough challenges to keep me interested as I work.
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| tapestry cartoon |
The other design I was considering was the sketch I did yesterday. I am somewhat amused by how many people relate to this sketch! So, in considering it as a tapestry, the sketch itself would be the maquette, and the cartoon is above. I actually see this as a more challenging design to weave than the chickens would be. The reason is that I really like the sketch; which I did in a few short minutes to capture my mood. It would be difficult for me to capture that immediacy in such a slow medium as tapestry. I know myself: I would see all my sketch's 'errors' and would try to 'fix them,' losing the mood and the sketchy quality I love about the image. I could weave this, and I may weave it; mostly because I love a challenge! But I am thinking I will weave the chickens first.
Or maybe I'll set up two small looms, and will start them both at the same time, and see which one wins my affections as I go! (Or which one looks like it will be done in time to go to the exhibit....)
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