Taking Aim

[Gill]

You're quick off the mark, Kerry!

You're also brave in putting up a pattern that we can discuss.

I've taken the liberty of identifying the lines that I discussed in my previous post and which I often find puzzling:



The questions going through my mind were, 'why are these lines necessary?'; 'what guides us in deciding where they start, where they end, and where breaks occur?'; and 'how do we decide upon the thickness of the lines?"

I'm not criticising the pattern for a second, Kerry - just trying to investigate what guides us as designers.

Gill

[kerry_nf]

Don't worry about critisizing. It's all good IMO.

One of the things I use to help me determine where to put lines is I put them where the "mind's eye" will have trouble filling in the missing parts. In other words, often the absense of line doesn't affect the beauty of the finished pattern becasue the "mind's eye" fills it in...when this effect is not as easily attained, I like to define a line in that location.

There are several other criteria of course, but this is just one of them.

[workin for wood]

Bob pretty much took my thoughts on that. It wouldn't be a very good intarsia pattern with the nose way up like that, and it would be the thickest piece...as a fret pattern it's sort of the same situation.

[Gill]

So it seems that intarsians and fretworkers define their lines by different criteria. Would I be right to suggest that intarsians pay more attention to color contrast than fretworkers who are more interested in tonal values? That being so, I'm wondering how significant the lines that I highlighted earlier are.

Gill

[CanadianScroller]

I hope you don't mind Kerry, I just played with your pattern a little.
I spent around 10 minutes with MSpaint brush.
It isnt a pattern just some ideas to play with

[kerry_nf]

I don't mind at all bud.

[Gill]

To my mind, Carl's changes give the image more impact. He's eliminated the worst of those lines that I found problematic. Those are the lines that seemed to be almost arbitrary to me - not because of their position, but because of their dimension. In reality, our eyes don't see a line where you have the edge of a white area alongside another white area. You see light coming at you from a different direction. That's not too difficult for an intarsian or segmenter to replicate because the segment edges can be rounded over to distort light reflection. I'm wondering if shadow portrait designers should consider other approaches to either capture this effect or avoid it altogether.

Gill

[kerry_nf]

Originally Posted by Gill

I'm wondering if shadow portrait designers should consider other approaches to either capture this effect or avoid it altogether.
Gill

This is one of the challenges for sure where shadow portrait designs are concerned. There's not really a way to infer a boundary other than cutting it (at least a part of it) or by allowing the "mind's eye" to "see" it.

I do agree tho that Carl did a magnificant job improving the pattern. I have to admit "furred" animals are not my forte...tho I will attempt them when asked. I much prefer human subjects...at least for portraits...tho I find the "furred" animals easier to get along with sometimes. lol! Ha ha!

[CanadianScroller]

I remember, as a child being so proud of a pencil drawing I made. I showed my dad, who was a phenominal artist.
He looked at it and said good job, but.....
I love big buts and I don't know why.... sorry sidetracked.
I drew pencil lines to outline an image. It was a simple glass.
He sowed me by drawing beside me that there were no lines, there were only tonal values. He even showed me the light reflecting from the surface of the counter onto the bottom of the glass.

I have to say my ego was somewhat crushed, but he did open my eyes to a whole new world. I still need to learn way more but I am on my way.

[miamw]

Carl, I like what you did with Kerry's pattern. Kerry, I like your pattern too. Each of us have eyes that look the same, but see differently. To me, seeing the thicker and less lines in Carl's version makes the picture have a greater impact on my mind's eye. The way he took out the line on the mama bear's head and only left the facial features makes the picture appear to have more depth to it. Apparently, from what I'm seeing and learning through all this is that sometimes simple lines are good, but when eliminated or moved can make the picture have an entirely different impact on the viewer. So, really, when Gill was asking in post #111 above if those lines are important and why are they important, after seeing what Carl did with those lines made me realize why Gill was asking those questions. And, yes, those lines are important, but their importance doesn't mean they have to be there, it may mean that they shouldn't be there.