Creation of a New Tapestry Design...

A new tapestry design has been working it's way into my consciousness in the past week or so. It coincides with a direct 'prescription' from my doctor at my annual physical last week to 'get back to work.'

The process of working a design idea out of my head and onto the loom is not always exactly the same for me, but it is pretty similar each time. It usually begins with the idea, and this idea combines my love of Nature with my love of Music. From that idea, I choose images that will fit. This time I began with a photo of a bluebird I had taken at Sand Dunes National Park last year. A song about a bluebird had been going through my head, and this lovely bird just appeared, to sing along with me! It was such a special moment, I felt the need to work the memory into a  'visual song.'  I have been using big chunky acrylic markers a bit in my sketchbook, and, since I didn't want this to be too detailed, that is what I used to do the sketch.

I then put the sketch into Procreate in my iPad. (I do not have an iPad Pro or an Apple Pencil, just a mini, with a stylus pen I got free at my bank. That also keeps me from getting too detailed.) The result was the image above.

This morning I did a ballpoint pen sketch of an image from the Sktchy app of a girl playing the guitar.  The photo was very backlit, which is what I wanted. I painted the sketch with gouache (not my favorite medium, but I wanted boldness and opacity.)

Next, I imported that sketch into Procreate, and merged it with yesterday's bird sketch. The image below is of the design in progress in the app.

Then, to the computer. I put the digitized sketch into Photoshop, and worked with it to make some corrections and adjustments, saved it as my maquette, then changed it to black and white and sized it for weaving. At that point, I cropped it into printable pieces, printed them out on heavy card stock, and taped the pieces together to create my cartoon.

The cartoon is printed and the maquette/design is ready. The loom is warped, and just needs the warp tied on to the front beam. The next step is to choose the yarns and to get weaving. I am excited! .... and I'll keep you informed as this tapestry, which is tentatively called "Duet," progresses.