I thought I might try and describe the aesthetic and practical decisions whilst making this mosaic!
It happens on such an intuitive level I thought I would try it in words?
Starts with defining the plain compositional elements – square – circle – and corner triangles really really mechanical yet high attention required for accurate placement of tesserae. The only good thing about this stage is that it moves along so quickly compared to the other stages, which I like.
Next lettering and the broad white ring. The lettering is all about planning, keeping them consistently spaced and the same height requires constant monitoring as the drawn writing below on your cartoon is only a guide and is never right so its all about construction and system. I hate doing S – B – C – G – Q all the circular ones they pose problems when filling in the white behind them. M – W – A – T are always require special attention as they make very large gaps between the next letter and you have to adjust your formula to get the spaces right. H – I – F – L – T , I love these as they are so quick. The width of the white ring needs constant monitoring and pencil predictions as to where it will be as the drawing underneath has again become obsolete as the tiling system overrides the pencil under drawing.
Then doing the picture starts. Which bit do I want to first? Often things have be prioritetised in a way that can only be described as – ‘ I cant do that bit untill I know where the edge of that will be. So the interesting bit you fancied may have to wait till other areas are completed. Starts with outlines of thin black tiles which define the elements of the picture following your drawn cartoon underneath, it may require adjustment as things may be too close together, and this is the opportunity to make slight arrangement and compositional adjustments. I have even omitted a leaf or flower head if the thing is just too congested.
If your unlucky the really complicated part is the part that unlocks the rest of the piece and has to be done first. After a week of pretty low skill level work where your mind is mush and on auto pilot suddenly with no warm up, your in there doing the hardest part of the whole thing. So this is probably a week or more even before anything artistic happens! Every thing to date has been mechanical, practical and formulaic.
