Primary Dots Turnaround

From an acrylic painting done a few years back and stretched a little to even out the repeat. After a while they start to look like beads. This next one makes me think of Kumihimo braided bracelets.

Italian Lessons

Yesterday I finished a collage that had been kicking around for some time. I decided to scan the background, an old book page on watercolor paper on which I had drawn a grid. Then I scanned the individual elements and played around in photoshop. You can see the entire development on the tumblr.

Hammerdots No. 3 Revision No. 2

I was browsing though my tumblr archive and decided to do a second revision of my Hammerdots No. 3 because I suddenly could visualize now nicely this cropped version would repeat.

My favorite version is the one in chartreuse green at the top of this post, although I am fond of the golden yellow version as well.

See the entire progression on the tumblr.

Something Old - Something New

 I'll start off with the "Something New" part. I just discovered that Spoonflower is now offering wallpaper and wall decals in addition to fabric. I am intrigued by the new design possibilities, especially for collage. Thus far I have been limited by the size of the paper that I can run through my printer which is only 8.5 inches wide. Now I can get something printed 12x24 inches. I've had some untested designs there for quite some time. I think I will order some of them as wallpaper swatches and see what I can do with them!

The "Something Old" part started off as a mistake. I was looking through my tumblr archive a few days ago and thought I saw the same item displayed twice--this one.

So I deleted one copy and they both disappeared! I really liked the design so I re-posted it. The first time I put it up a couple of years ago I did not have many followers and it was ignored. This time it started getting "hearts" and re-blogs almost immediately so I decided to give it the full Photoshop treatment of repeats, color changes, and artistic distortions.

 I love the results! See the whole series here.

Decoder Dots Revisited

I'm revisiting my collage Decoder Dots No. 1. I keep telling myself I will do one on canvas. (I'm a moron for putting it off.) I love the diagonal orientation. It's just a little unsettling. It could suddenly tip.

You can see the whole development on my tumblr. I wrote earlier about my cool decoder dump find that made this piece possible.

Poster Dots

I was messing around with the Bead Club poster and made Grid No. 2 Sponge Orange (above). The whole thing started with a photograph of a little 12x12 inch collage on canvas called Flatland Spin (below). It is fun to see how one thing progresses into another and then another until something totally new and surprising comes to life.

It started out with a simple repeat.

 

And then a color change along with a distortion.

And then I cropped the dot and repeated and played some more.

This is so much fun it should be illegal.

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime?

I went from this hideous pattern painting (Below) to the design above in just a few easy steps!

 

Heart Dots

John Nack pointed out a video on Recursive Drawing that showed how to make a heart by overlapping a square and two circles. So simple--why did I not think of it before? Well, I have been thinking about it now, messing around a little, and generally having fun. I used a template to draw the lines and then colored them in and scanned it. I could do something a little different directly in photoshop. This exercise will be continued I think!

See them all big on my Tumblr.

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.

Notan and No Cross II.

I was inspired to do a series with my second "No Cross" today after reading Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design by Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield.

 

I've had this book for such a long time but it's been a while since I gave it any serious thought. Check out my Tumblr for more versions of No Cross II.

Hammerdots No. 3 Revision

 

I started playing around with one of my old collages called Hammerdots No. 3. This was a piece on watercolor paper that I never got around to framing. Someone saw it in the gallery and bought it. Luckily I had made a scan of it right after I finished it.

 

 I played around with brushes to add concentric circles and X's over the orange dots. Then I inverted it to result in the lovely turquoise blue on a black background.

I repeated the design four times at different rotations:

Then I switched back to the red/orange and replaced color to darken the background to get the one displayed at the top of this post. I even made this hard-to-look-at color halftone version: