Cross Check Cross

This started with two crossed lines and then I just filled in on four sides. Such fun to make that I started creating little repeat patterns, and then added some color. Done with marking pens from Staples on cheap water color paper last night in bed because it was too cold in the office to sit at the computer. Today it was warmer so I scanned them and played around in Photoshop.

 

See more Cross Check Cross designs on the tumblr.

The Recovery Grid

I was playing around with my blue cross, repeating it on a grid and changing the colors. I discovered this captivating color combination and got so excited about it that I accidentally kicked the power strip on the floor (too near my feet) and turned the power off! So I had to go back to square one. But it was worth it, I think.

Here's the inverted version:

Then I went pink and purple:

And then stepped back and tweaked it just a little:

The Cross Dot

I was thinking the other night that with all the disruption caused by my shop renovations, I had gotten away from my habit of drawing. So I made this little Cross Dot. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I really came to like it the next morning when I started playing with it in photoshop!

There is something very satisfying about repeating on a grid.

Another Venus Star Cross

I had fun adding all the little dots. I couldn't make up my mind which version I liked better so I combined them. The purple one is more popular on my tumblr.

Venus Star Cross

I looked for the basic shape in my Dictionary of Symbols by Carl G. Liungman and the closest match I could find was to the "Venus Star." I started with just the green outline repeated and overlapped a little, then filled in colors with the bucket tool. Here's an array of various manipulated versions.

The No Cross

I'm starting the day with something beautiful. I drew a cross last night which started with the symbol for number: #. So I am calling this the No Cross.

A lovely teal results when the design is inverted.

One More Thing

The beginnings of this were used to illustrate a rant on my Temporary Blog. I applied a "Sponge" filter and then inverted. The second one on black is a glass filter I think. I worked so fast I can't remember now. I'm still learning so results are a surprise which is what makes it so fun.

Still Playing With the Star Cross

I really like this one in primary colors against the dark background. Amazing effect. When I stare at it for any length of time it starts moving like one of those animated GIF's. I need to try more drawings like this with radial symmetry. Photoshop is magic!

Star Cross

Star Cross-Blue Flame Quilt (above) and a couple of Star Cross elements (below).

I scanned in this blue outline drawing and manipulated it in photoshop.

The Artist's Mind

“There is at the back of every artist’s mind something like a pattern and a type of architecture. The original quality in any man of imagination is imagery. It is a thing like the landscape of his dreams; the sort of world he would like to make or in which he would like to wander, the strange flora and fauna, his own secret planet, the sort of thing he likes to think about. This general atmosphere, and pattern or a structure of growth, governs all his creations, however varied.” (G. K. Chesterton)

Spin Granny Story

It suddenly occurred to me that I did not have to wait to see fabric swatches to see a test of the granny. I printed it out on a piece of "dijon" colored Southworth Textured Weave Paper to tone it down.

Then I scanned it, posterized it, twirled it, radial blurred it and replaced colors.

This combination on black reminds me of Japanese fabric:

This next group has been blurred and posterized to various degrees:

Amazing how much you can change something you hate into something interesting. Tomorrow I will put the ones I still like onto my Tumblr to decide which to make fabric. There is a definite process developing that makes sense to me.

Crazy Granny - Cross No. 10

I probably would not wear clothing made from this fabric unless I could wear a sweater over it. For the right application, it's a humdinger, though. (I'd never make it in advertising.) I had fun with the colors--but in two days I could hate it.

I may even hate it now. I just went to post it on my Tumblr but could not bear the thought of it sitting at the top of the page.

More Stuff On Slate

I got sidetracked with this little cross. Once I started repeating it I lost control which was the smart way to go with it.