I zoomed over to my computer, switched up the colors a bit, and now I have a Technicolor Lieutenant Commander. I realize he is very green. However, as you will see from my WIP photos I am not actually making Lt. Commander Kermit. Data's android face is more of a milky yellow, and I am using artistic license by making greens, blues and teals the shadow tones. Perhaps this is alluding to his time with the Borg? Who knows.
Thankfully it was before I made a single stitch that I realized how much I hated my original color scheme. I matched my threads to the pattern, and what did I see? Beige, brown, tan, white. As I thought about how I want my project to look and what I like to wear, it became clear that I really needed to amp up the colors if it was going to match my aesthetic. The point is to remain flexible with your projects, especially when it is an original design. I zoomed over to my computer, switched up the colors a bit, and now I have a Technicolor Lieutenant Commander. I realize he is very green. However, as you will see from my WIP photos I am not actually making Lt. Commander Kermit. Data's android face is more of a milky yellow, and I am using artistic license by making greens, blues and teals the shadow tones. Perhaps this is alluding to his time with the Borg? Who knows. After I stitched the brown shadow line in the center of his mouth I realized I really should have added a backing, also known as a stabilizer. I solved this problem by basting on a black backing fabric of cotton/polyester blend. It has no stretch and is pre-shrunk. Pushing and pulling the needle through these fabrics is shockingly difficult, which is where the pliers come in! Most of the time I am able to stitch along without a problem, holding the needle with my thumb and pointer finger of my right hand. However, strain this area, and you are messing with the muscles and tendons in your forearm which can be incredibly painful, and can lead to carpal tunnel. Using the pliers to pull the needle out does slow my work a bit, but really makes a difference in tough spots. So at this point I wanted to add the J&P Coats to DMC colors conversion, for anyone who wanted to copy my color scheme... and learned the floss I have been using may be a knockoff! I added a few paragraphs to my Needlepoint Intro post going into it. Fact is, for me it makes little difference because I prefer to eyeball the colors until it "feels" right. And for anyone who wanted to copy this, I encourage them to do the same. If there is ever a demand for it, I will take my piece to the yarn shop I frequent and manually match up my colors to DMC, but until then, too bad. Don't know how to stitch? My Needlepoint Intro may help!
This is a tutorial for creating your own seamless patterns in Gimp. Online, you have probably come across at least one of the many "made-to-order" services offering skins for your laptop and cell phone, printing on garments, or even putting your pattern on a whole bolt of fabric. And though these sites usually have awesome pictures for you to choose from, maybe you wished you had your own pattern to upload that was totally original. Whether you already excel at graphic design or are a newbie to the world of digital image manipulation, this is fun, fairly easy, and basically free. Example 1: Overview Still interested? Let's make another one!
Since I learned needlepoint I have been waiting to make myself a large Data for the front of a garment, combining my passions for Star Trek and needlecraft. Though due to an overwhelming sense of frugality it took me a while to assemble all of the pieces for this project: 1. Suitable foundation garment. I found this great hoodie for $3.50! 2. Waste canvas. This allows me to rely on the grid used for needlepoint, and when finished the grid threads pull out. Bought it on Ebay. 3. Pattern. I made the pattern myself using a photo from Memory Alpha. In Gimp I cleaned up the image, simplified it, adjusted the colors, pixelated it, and added the guiding grid lines.
I can say from the start I will not be following the pattern I made exactly, but it will be an indispensable guide, especially for the placement of his facial features. I want it to resemble the character, after all.
Before finally getting stitching, all I need to do is confirm I have enough embroidery floss in the proper gradient range to ensure I don't run out halfway through with nowhere to turn. ARTISTIC influence, that is. Influence is different from inspiration, in that inspiration is seeing or thinking something which gives you an idea, while determining influence may be a little harder. What has influenced you as a person, as an artist, as a creator and a thinker? Answering these questions means thinking about what has affected the development of your interests, and trying to put a name to what is often intangible. In this post I will explore what has influenced me and by extension, my work. Children's books I love to read and feel fortunate to have been exposed to wonderful fantasy stories from a very young age. All of the Chronicles of Narnia were in heavy rotation with The Magician's Nephew and The Silver Chair probably my favorites. Alice In Wonderland and its sequel, Through The Looking Glass were read many times (as was the very dense Annotated Alice). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the original book long before the movie) and its sequel The Marvelous Land of Oz, and if you thought the movie was trippy it really has nothing on Frank L. Baum's Dorothy with her *silver* slippers. I remember reading Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid and crying inconsolably afterward when, plot spoiler, she kills herself so that her beloved prince may live. The version I had was illustrated with gorgeous paintings by Charles Santore, and that is where I am going with all of this: the stories alone would not have been as much of an influence without the contributing artists. Paying full price (!) for beautifully illustrated books was a special luxury for my mother, many times buying books where the story was secondary to the art. Dr. Suess, Lisbeth Zwerger, Peter Sis, Demi, and Kevin Hawkes come to mind, as do the lively line drawings of Shel Silverstein. My enjoyment of some books is inextricably tied with the pictures-- John Tenniel's art for Alice in Wonderland, W.W. Denslow's depiction of Oz, E.H. Shepard for A. A. Milne, Pauline Baynes for C.S. Lewis, and who can imagine the books of Roald Dahl without Quentin Blake? My love for fantasy and the absurd, for seeing art as something fun, is all thanks to the stories above and so many more. Their influence was to ingrain within me a sense of play and silliness. Comic book art & Retrofuturism Comic book art is distinctive in its important role with the narrative (have fun reading a comic book without the pictures) and, in my opinion, the incredible talent of the artists. Extreme action shots, perspective and depth, as well as portraying emotion in a small frame are all imperative with comic books and graphic novels. I feel this is a good example of influence-- I do not draw comics. Nor do I read or collect them. But I admire the artistry and it influenced the way I draw with lots of clean colors and black outlines. Oh, and girls with big boobs. Now for retrofuturism, which I lumped into this category simply because I found those awesome comic book covers (look at how useless those helmets are!) In the spirit of specificity, futurism is just what you think it is: imagining the future of life and technology, which is what science fiction is largely based on, while retrofuturism is a term used when artists and designers intentionally imagine "futuristic" things with a retro twist, or re-imagine the past with fantasy technological elements. Star Trek is futurism, the animated show Archer is retrofuturism. I won't even try to put into words how much I love Star Trek (TOS, TNG, and VOY). Other futurist influences would be the movies Silent Running and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the social engineering of Jacque Fresco, 1960's "mod" interior design, Space: 1999, George Orwell's 1984 and the writings of Ray Bradbury. I have been greatly influenced by the dystopian elements in The Matrix and Strange Days, as well as the fashion and interior design in all of the above. My heart goes to Sylvia Anderson, co-creator of the amazing 1970's British series UFO, who confidently predicted that wigs would someday be an integral part of uniforms and daily wear, which explains why the female Moonbase personnel all had matching purple bobs. I think these influences are the most easily recognized in my work, whether it is clothing I draw, furniture I wish I owned, or illustrations I have done for various projects. More or less, it all points to my as yet unrealized career as an alien barmaid on Babylon 5. In conclusion... These aren't my only artistic influences, but they are significant. My real goal with this piece is to inspire the reader to explore what has influenced them. It doesn't need to be what is behind your work, because not everyone is an artist. But everyone has influences. I cannot say whether it is important to be aware of the elements which have affected the development of your sense of "self," but I can say it is enjoyable. Revisiting the things that made me happy as child, and dissecting the things which make me happy as an adult has been informative, and surprisingly, has renewed some interests I had forgotten about. Do you know what has influenced you? All images used here are copyright free, thanks to Wikimedia Commons |
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