Some of the dissatisfaction I expressed a recent post might be helped by painting my ideas first. I am not talking about any kind of detailed painting, the cartoons that tapestry weavers do, for example. I do think cartoon might not be a bad word. What i am talking about would be simply a painting that roughs in the colors with approximate proportions. What to do within the roughed-out colors would be determined at the loom.
"PAINTING" ON THE COMPUTER
I would probably "paint" on the computer simply because that would be easier. I think, too, it could be just as effective. But I would want to blow it up to the actual size of the weaving. Perhaps I can do this while I am dyeing the additional colors I am going to need.
A recent email helped to generate this line of thinking. In that email I learned that Sally Breckenridge, who created the weaving software called has now created a new weaving software program. This program is called GridN'WeaveIt
GRID'N'WEAVEIT
Grid'N'Weaveit is a graphics program is similar in some basic respects to other graphics programs such as Paint Shop Pro. But Sally's software enables you to create your graphic as a woven image. One thing of interest, for example, is that you can use your warp and weft lines as grids.
The intended audience is tapestry weavers and rug weavers. I wonder if it might be helpful to me? A thought. Unlike tapestry and rug weaving, however, my crackle weaving depends on the interaction of warp and weft. I could probably get just as good a overall idea of where I want to go in a piece by painting or with ordinary graphics software.
PAINT SHOP PRO AND PAINTER
Meanwhile, for my one of my next art pieces, I may work with Paint Shop Pro. In recent years, this software has become largely a tool for photographers in its most recent incarnations. For the serious computer artist Corel has has focused on developing Painter. Unfortunately its price tag puts it out of my league. Or maybe fortunately, for I suspect it would be mostly a distraction to the work I really want to do.
Paint Shop Pro still has the tools I need to do the kind of "painting" I might need to do.
Related Link: Designing Plaids and Corel Painter
© 2008
3 comments:
Paint Shop Pro is still a really fine piece of software. It's great for doing all sorts of graphics and mock-ups. I really recommend it for a not too pricey high quality software.
Funny that you should mention this. I'm giving a workshop for our Guild in September on exactly this topic -- using digital graphic software for translating ideas into usable/workable inspirations for weaving -- for those weavers who don't have computerized looms that can import files.
I've been a painter all my life, and have been a digital artist since the first version of both Corel and Photoshop -- and Painter, when it was put out by Macromedia. Paint Shop Pro, I familiarized myself with because many other artists that I knew used it and still do despite the lure of the more high end programs like Photoshop. If I had to buy Photoshop today, it would be way out of my budget -- fortunately, I can just upgrade, and do. Whew! You can check out my digital artwork at the root domain address of my website. Just leave off the /shuttlepilot and you're there. :-)
When I've given the workshop, I'll post the PDF for the handouts on my blog. I gave one last year on how to photograph your textiles using either digital or 35mm cameras.
Thanks for pointing to Sally's new program. I will check it out for sure. She does such great stuff, and I know the quality will be excellent. The digital wave has sure opened up so many excellent avenues for creatives across the boards. Gotta love it!
You have such a good eye for color and design, I will look forward to seeing what you do with PSPro with relation to your weaving.
Weave on!
Jane <---- who is spring cleaning this week so she can weave with no guilt in a few days. . .
This is interesting, but since I don't use weaving software and don't have windows to use weaving software, I don't have much to say. :) I did find out about a Linux add on to run Windows software with. I might actually do this so that I can get some weaving software.
Hi Jane, I agree about Photoshop. And even PaintShopPro I got in the early days when it was really cheap, and so the upgrades individually didn't seem to bad! Ii look forward to seeing the pdf of your handouts. And thank you for your lovely comment.
Leigh, you do extraordinarily well without weaving software and I suspect more is getting packed into your gut than would be if you were using software. But the more you weave, the more, I think, you will find it helpful both for helping to prevent errors and for saving a lot of time. Of course, it can also cause you to spend a lot of time at the computer.........sob.......
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