Chapter 2 – Blackwork and Tonal Effects (1)

I began this section by noting a handful of blackwork patterns in my sketchbook (all hail graph paper!).

Image 1 – a handful of blackwork patterns:

Image 2- another handful of blackwork patterns!

Then I started to look at building up patterns within the patterns to explore tone.

Images 3/4/5/6 – tone within the patterns

With a few little drawings done I decided to do something a bit bigger.

Image 7 – two tonal columns with blackwork patterning: 

Images 8/9/10/11/12 – close ups of image 7:

I decided it was time to move onto the stitched part of this section of the chapter so I planned two more tonal panels.  The one that is in blue ink is simply because I picked up the wrong pen but seeing as it was purely for planning purposes I wasn’t bothered.  (I also found it was easier to follow the blue pattern).

Image 13 – stitch plans:

When I was working out the bottom part of the left-hand panel I did extra little drawings and one is included below.  The black ink represents the stitching (scaled by half) and the little blue dots helped me work out where I would be placing the small diamonds.  Using a different colour made it easier to see the pattern.

Image 14 -  planning drawing:

I will write about the stitching in the next blog entry but I must at this point reference the books I used for this part of the chapter.  Please see the reference link here.