Most of my art is designed at least to some degree as I work on it. When I am working on a teddy or other artwork, I frequently come to a place in the making, where I am stuck on a design decision. I may have several options I am considering, but am having trouble picking the right one. I try adding the different options temporarily and going back and forth looking to see which I like best, but it is hard for me to tell this way.
Recently I started taking digital snapshots of my various design options. This way I can quickly go from one to another and view them in the camera. This also puts an extra step in the viewing (like looking at your work in a mirror) so your view is less biased and more distanced. I have found this so helpful. If I am really still stuck, I can upload them to my computer and view them at the same time in a photo-editing program.
Here are some snapshots I used when designing the face of a mohair rabbit and the accessories for a bear.
When I was making this rabbit, I couldn’t decide what type of mouth to make, even after trying out one then the other using pins to hold the mouth in place. Finally I took a digital snapshot of both variations and by comparing the photos was able to choose the upside-down V mouth.
Here is Isabel before her accessories were added. I tried two types of bells and a flower with a tarnished copper chain, and then a fabric collar with a large vintage pearl button. I took digital photos of each variation and was intrigued to see that they all (except the flower variation) seemed to give her a boyish quality. I had already decided that Isabel was a female bear. My final solution came from a combination of ideas from the flower pendant and the button collar as you can see here.
Hi Ellen!
Great idea, sure beats trying to recall how the previous ‘version’ looked while being influenced by the changes in front of one’s eyes. Learned sumthin new, thanks! Also, I had no idea that the mouths were changeable…always thought that they were lines of adjacent stitching! Now I just have to get past the mental image of the poor bunny with the acupuncture treatment going on…pins in the face…ack! *grin*
Cheers!
pete
That is a great idea! It makes it so much easier to compare and contrast your ideas and your progress. You outlined the process really well here as well.
Hi Pete and Bean,
Thank you! It was an idea “invented” (I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this) out of desperation.:-D
Pete, yes I sometimes feel very guilty about sticking pins all over the critters’ faces. They don’t seem to mind though, and are happy when they get their new faces.