Variations on a Theme

Since I've spent most of my time these last couple of months researching the where's and how's of putting this blog together, I've not spent very much time actually working on art. I thought for this post I'd talk about a design--or rather, several designs--I made earlier, all from a single, seemingly boring, picture.

Here's the original:

These are roof shingles on a garage that accompanied a house built in a Neo-Victorian style. I liked their shape, the subtle color variations and how they all tied together with sturdy black outlines. Not quite so boring when you take time absorb the details. And while it didn't show up very well in the original image, these shingles were bathed in sunlight and reflecting it in their textured surface.

One of the first things I did once I got this shot into Photoshop was to turn up the color saturation and WOW did it pop! Blues, greens, yellows, and reds materialized as if chips of colored glass had suddenly been scattered, melted and fused.

From there I shifted the hues and distorted the shapes, playing like a child with Play-Doh.




Something about this image kept pulling me back, and these are among those that followed:




... and even this, where I pieced together copies of a distortion to make this lovely tile.

I feel the rich detail gets somewhat lost in this last one, given the diminished size and the attention drawn by the overall pattern, so I may have to return to it one day and pull out a portion to put in the spotlight.

In the meantime, too many other ideas beckon...

Thanks for visiting and please come again!

(By the way, the last four designs here (hover mouse over the images for titles)–"Stained Glass Vortex," "Throb," "Chasing Tails," and "Kaleidoscope in Pink"–are all available on many products at nharveyart on zazzle.  "Chasing Tails" is also available as "Swirling Seas" in which the design is predominantly blues and greens.)