Sunday, January 22, 2006


In the interest of Full Disclosure

I often use an overhead projector to enlarge my design sketches. I was instantly convinced by Caryl Fallert, several years ago, that I needed one of these babies. That was back when this particular model cost $399.00. Now they are dirt cheap,
Go right out and buy one if you are an artist who draws your design and wants to make it big---Caryl Fallert.
Need I say more?

The Drawing from yesterday has now become a transparency. How, you ask? I'll be glad to share. I scanned my original drawing into my computer and using Picasa2 I pumped up the contrast a bit. Then I printed it out, also enlarging it a bit, to fit a full sheet of printer paper.

tracing

Then I had to hand trace the drawing. At this time it is easier and faster for me to do the tracing than it would be to dink around with any other drawing program, and I can more easily choose which lines I want to keep and which I will eliminate in the final tracing.
The tracing then gets scanned and printed out on transparencies made especially for the home copier/printer. Apollo makes them and I got mine at Office Max.

Here is the transparency sitting on a piece of plexiglass. I use the plexi as a holder when I place the transparency on the projector. Sometimes the heat from the projector bulb distorts the image as I am projecting it and the plexi semi-prevents that. NOT all that well however, but that distortion of the drawing is inevitable, so I just go with it.

Now I am ready to project my image onto the wall, which I have covered with a large sheet of plastic, about 48x72" which is stuck semi-permanently to my wall. I keep this there for just this use. The projected image is traced with Vis-a-Vis water soluble markers, also from Office Max.




It looks like a bunch of spaghetti doesn't it? I am so glad I have the original drawing as reference or I would already give up trying to make this design.
Initially I will just trace each ellipse and construct it first and then that will begin to clarify what it is I have going on here. I hope.
Q&A
Melody,I don't understand...why do you need to hand-trace on paper after enlarging the drawing and printing it out? Why not just print it out right onto the transparency?
Because the shadows and highlights in the original drawing are too vague. I need the exact outlines of the shapes…clarity.
To project that on the wall with all the renderings in it means having to make design decisions at the moment of tracing the projected image.
At that point it is too large to see what it is I want to include and discard. Tracing from the drawing and then scanning that tracing, gives me just the necessary lines. Although the image on the wall is very busy it is non-dimensional and the shapes for my pattern pieces are clearer.

10 comments:

  1. This composition is wonderful. I hope you stick to all the little bitty parts as I think they make the design more edgy and great. Oh, you didn't ask for my opinion. Sorry.

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  2. Anonymous8:44 AM

    I hope you show the rest of the story (i.e. how this gets to fabric) tomorrow!

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  3. I absolutely LOVE this sketch. It will be a fantastic enlarged quilt with uncontrolable energy. So many color options. EXCITING!

    I'm so serious when I say time and time again that you MUST exhibit your drawings with the quilts they materialize into. The drawings are full of life and your line quality is mesmerizing. You could enter them in juried competitions. I'm totally serious and also trying to pressure you into doing it. Can you tell? Am I subtle?

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  4. Exactly the way I work.So easy and I never have to leave the house for Kinko's, where I have some kind of weird karma trying to get the drawing to the size I want.
    I also agree with Sonji, only going to take it a step further. I am going to send some of my paintings out...so should you.
    Sermon over.

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  5. You can also use an old school opaque projector. You don't have to make transparencies for it. I used to use one but hated the standing at the wall drawing part, I was always in the way of the projector. My new favorite thing is the Rapid Resizer program. Does the work for me, tiles it onto numbered pages to print on 81/2x11 paper, can control width of lines and took me all of 3 minutes to learn.

    Can't wait to see the quilt!

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  6. I was wondering if this was where that was going.....I also loved the drawing . No doubt the quilt will be just as rockin.Please let us in on all the dirty daily details.Also...that snow makes it look like we're livin in the same neighborhood!.

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  7. Melody, this drawing looks like an alien Dancer in front of a group of tall, thin spaceships.

    Shirley in NZ

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  8. More sharing of the process... cool.

    Just a little note: those "dirt cheap" prices shown at the Epinions site are all from one company, and all wrongly coded items. So instead of being the actual price of a projector, these are the prices for ribbons, electric pencil sharper, etc.

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  9. Hi Melody, I appreciate you showing this. I keep hoping I'll come across a really cheap-almost-free projector. The large transparency is reusable due to using the erasble markers, right? I like that idea.

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  10. Anonymous2:18 PM

    Wow! I love knowing that you work this way. I bought a projector too(mine was $200) after seeing Caryl B.F give a lecture. I'm hoping it will eventually pay off. Do you have any trouble with getting crisp lines once it's enlarged by the projector on the wall? I get some fuzz that bothers my eyes.

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com