My collection of images is growing (see left). I've got definate groups of themes. There are beautiful crosses and stars in patterns in the tiles and stone forms at La Alhambra (from a book I bought from a charity shop), crosses in nets (fishing and tennis) and structures (the Eiffel Tower!), images of chainmail showing crosses, the criss-crossing of water fountains, and, my personal favourite - fractals (well I am a student of mathematics after all!). I've got a great book from the library on architecture and that has some wonderful structural images.
See image (right) for sketches of selected stars and crosses from my source images.
See left for
some wax crayon rubbings on thin paper. The top two are from a kitchen spatula rubbed in two different directions, the second perpendicular to the first. The left image has a tracing paper overlay with some cross shapes outlined in black pen.
The middle 'grid' image is from the grips on the handlebars on my bicycle. Again this has an overlay of tracing paper with a few shapes marked out in black ink.
The rubbings on the bottom left are from bathroom tiles.
The bottom right image is a double rubbing from the air vents on the back of my television, the second rubbing being perpendicular to the first.
ught Radiant Concentrated Watercolours! It was a happy error. To see what colours they really are I created some paper swatches with undiluted colour. What vibrant wonderful colours! Unfortunately they are not light-fast so any display images would need to be carefully protected behind UV absorbing glass, plexiglass or UVA acetate. Great for work in a sketchbook or images kept in a portfolio. It would be an interesting experiment to see how they fade... The concentrated watercolours can be made fast for use with textiles.
