CHAPTER 2
Set the Stage: Creating Gorgeous Compositions
Now that we’ve discussed some of the basics about how to piece together your gem, select colors, and audition fabric to give the illusion of clarity, let’s spend some time talking about composition.
Detail of Between River & Sky
Photo by Tony Bennett Photography
Tools and Techniques
I want to introduce you to some powerful online tools that can help you create your dramatic composition. These online tools, in addition to some old-fashioned physical manipulation of images, are how I create the mock-ups for most of my gem quilt designs.
You can find dozens of free image-editing applications by searching the internet. These applications download to your computer and connect with your picture files. They provide a work space where you can manipulate your original images to enhance them or create a new image altogether.
Of course, you can also pay for sophisticated image-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop. That might be a perfect choice for you if you are preparing to publish your images. However, I find that often the more advanced apps like this require considerable time and effort to learn. Many other apps—free apps—don’t have the steep learning curve and still give you the power to improve, transform, and otherwise modify your original images.
Platinum zoisite
Photo by Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
(Disclaimer: Most of my “play time” is spent using Photoscape, a free app. However, when I’m ready to create artwork for my patterns or other publications, I use my subscription to Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign to do the heavy lifting.)
I’d like to introduce you to some of the image editing functions I use the most. There are many more functions included in these apps, and I encourage you to explore them. The ones I describe, however, will get you started down the path to awesome design. I’m using a gorgeous sunstone gem from the collection of Mayer & Watt to demonstrate the next few ideas.
1. First, let me assure you that these apps typically have an Undo or Reset button that will restore your image to its original state. You can audition certain looks for your gem and then easily clear them if it’s not the look you’re going for.
2. Remember to save your modified image with a new filename once you have created the look you want. This will allow you to preserve your original image in case you want to use it again in the future.
Yellow-green sunstone
Photo by Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
Color and Value Modifiers
All image-editing apps will allow you to modify the color and value of your image. Here are the four functions that I use most often.
Hue
This function changes the hue (color) of your original image. By sliding the toggle bar up and down the continuum, you can change the hue of the original image from, say, blue to green, yellow, orange, red, purple, and back to blue.
Change image color using image-editing apps.
Saturation
The saturation tool allows you to increase or decrease the amount of gray tones in your image. By increasing the saturation you remove gray, producing an image with purer hues and more vibrancy. Conversely, reducing the saturation adds more gray tones, resulting in a softer, more muted image. Take the level of saturation all the way to zero, and you end up with a nearly perfect gray scale of your image.
Intensify image color using image-editing apps.
Contrast
The contrast tool enhances or dulls the light and dark areas. By boosting the contrast, you brighten the light areas and darken the shadows. By reducing the contrast, the lights and darks mellow into a range of gray tones without much distinction between them. The image becomes misty, as though a veil of fog has rolled over it.
Intensify value contrast using image-editing apps.
Gray Scale
Image-editing apps typically allow you to view your image in gray scale. In Chapter 1, I described how to put together a selection of fabrics with a good progression of values (light to dark). Once you have selected your fabric, matching those values with the gray scale of your gemstone will help you tremendously in assigning fabric color to the facets in your gem.
Remove color and assess gray scale using image-editing apps.
Preset Filters
Most image-editing apps have a series of preset filters that allow you to easily achieve a specific effect without having to fiddle with the individual hue, saturation, and contrast settings. If you open up the filter tool, most display modifications of your original image in thumbnail images so that you can compare and select just the filter you want.
Three options for Elizabeth pink colorway
Using Color and Value Modifiers in Design
When I was preparing to launch the first pattern of my Diamond Divas series, I designed Elizabeth in a blue colorway inspired by a lovely light-blue princess-cut diamond. However, I wanted to offer Elizabeth in additional colorways, including pink and yellow.
Instead of trying to find images of gemstones with the alternate color palettes I envisioned, I decided to play with the original image of the first Elizabeth in an image-editing app to create the pink, yellow, and neutral palettes myself.
Once I opened Photoscape on my computer and selected the original image of Elizabeth, I used the hue setting to alter the image from blue to red. Next, I tweaked the saturation and contrast settings until I found an image I liked. I repeated the exercise with the yellow colorway.
Elizabeth from the Diamond Divas pattern series
When I began searching for a gem to use for a new Bourbon Diamond design, I looked for a fiery gemstone with a red-orange glow. I remembered that I had once seen a gorgeous, pale peach zoisite in the online collection of friends Laurie and Simon Watt, international gem dealers.
I loved everything about the little oval gem—its shape, its color, and especially the river of light that swept across its surface. I wondered what it might look like if I modified the color in an image-editing app.
Peach zoisite
Photo by Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
I loaded the image to Picassa, which has a preset filter called Boost. This filter increased the image’s saturation and contrast. When I clicked on the filter, the little zoisite caught fire! I knew immediately that was the inspiration for my Char #4.
Modified peach zoisite image
Directional Modifiers
Tilt
Image-editing apps allow you to tilt an image to the left or the right. In some instances, you may decide to align an offset gem to an imaginary horizon. In other instances, you may want to tilt an image to create energy in your design.
Some apps provide a toggle bar that tilts the image to the left or the right, while others allow you to input a numeric value identifying the degree of tilt that you desire. Entering a positive number such as 25 will tilt your image 25° to the right; a negative number such as -25 will tilt your image 25° to the left.
Using tilt function
Flip
Let’s say you found the perfect image for your next project, but it’s pointing the wrong direction. Image-editing apps have a solution for that. You can create a mirror image of your gemstone on either the vertical or the horizontal axis. In other words, if your image faces left, you can flip it to face right by selecting the vertical flip function. If it’s pointing up, you can flip it to point down simply by using the horizontal flip function.
Using flip function to flip right to left
Using flip function to flip down to up
Rotate
You may simply want to change the direction of your image by a clean 90°, 180°, or 270°. The rotation function allows you to spin an image either clockwise or counterclockwise by one-quarter of a full circle.
Gem rotated 90° clockwise
Using Directional Modifiers in Design
After I had landed on the fiery color for my little zoisite, I played with the alignment functions to see how I responded to the image at different angles. I tilted it, rotated it, and flipped it vertically and horizontally. I settled on a 45° tilt clockwise, which placed the river of light flowing diagonally from the top right of the stone to the bottom left.
Crop Function
Image-editing apps also allow you to remove unnecessary parts of an image with the crop function. This tool allows you to zoom in on interesting areas and delete the part of the image outside the boundaries you’ve selected.
Using crop function
Using the Crop Function in Design
Once I had changed the zoisite’s color and direction, I cropped the image to preserve just the upper portion of the gemstone, including the river of light flowing through it. I dropped the “ceiling” of the cropping square to cut a slight bit from the top of the gem. This created a pair of wonderful negative spaces to the left and right of the tilted gem, delineated by the sexy curve of the gemstone. I had my final design!
Final mock-up of Char #4
Photo by MJ Kinman
Tips for Creating Great Compositions
Now that you’ve mastered some of the features of image-editing apps, you can use them to create exciting designs. My early gem quilts were simple portraits of gems. They were placed in the center with all edges visible within the frame of the quilt. I positioned the gems in this way because I wanted to prove that I could capture the essence of a gem. I felt that including the entirety of the stone was the best way to do that.
However, a few years into the adventure, I decided to make quilts that were a bit more sophisticated in their composition. I had no idea what that might look like or how to do it, but with experimentation, my design process evolved. This is by no means a treatise on composition, but I hope it will provide a jumping-off point for you.
Fascinate with Focal Points
Simply by placing your focal point in different areas of your design, you can create all kinds of moods. If you want to create a design that conveys gravitas, solidity, and permanence, consider placing the focal point or main feature of your design in the very center of your quilt.
However, if you want your design to exude energy and motion, consider placing the focal point of your design off-center using the rule of thirds.
The Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds suggests that the most visually powerful placement of your subject is along imaginary grid lines that segment your design space into thirds both horizontally and vertically—or at their intersecting points.
Energize with Angles
I once heard an artist say that if you want to add kinetic energy to your work, place your subject in a position that isn’t sustainable over time. In other words, knock your subject off balance. That’s where you’ll find your energetic point. Char #4 is a perfect example of knocking my subject off balance. The gem looks like it’s toppling to the left.
In another instance, I experimented with the juxtaposition of sapphire blue and fiery orange facets for Old-Fashioned New, separating them with a horizontal line. Even though the line was positioned in line with the rule of thirds, it just didn’t have the energy I wanted.
As I played with the frame surrounding the blue and orange facets, I tilted it to one side, transforming the horizontal line into a dramatic angle rising from left to right. I knocked it off balance. The resulting angle added energy to the composition.
Between River & Sky was designed with several strategies in mind. I wanted this piece to have the gravitas of a medallion quilt but with a hint of rebelliousness. While the citrine superimposed on the aquamarine is set in clean horizontal and vertical planes, the gem is placed just off-center. I shoved it a little bit to the upper right of the design to create visual interest and a subtle energy.
Fancy zoisite
Photo by Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)
Entice with Off-Page Placement
My earlier gems were portraits of the full stone. You could see the outside edge of the entire gemstone within the quilt. In later quilts, however, I cropped the gem down to its most interesting features. For example, Devil’s Due is inspired by a cushion-cut diamond, a four-cornered gem with gently rounded sides. I knew I wanted one of those four corners to be the focal point of the composition, so I tilted the image about 45° and cropped everything out except the lower half of the gem.
Dos and Don’ts When Using Gems as Inspiration
1. Do look for a gem with personality. I search for gemstones that either have a unique color, shape, cut, or all of the above. Using the techniques I described, you can modify a gem’s original features to make it more interesting, as I did with the peach zoisite that inspired Char #4.
2. Do keep in mind the question “How would I piece this back together?” as you study the facets of a gem. If the gem has many facets converging in one spot, can you design it so that the seams are offset?
3. Do consider looking for multiple gems to include in your design. Consider placing more than one gem in the same composition. They could be the same type in terms of shape, color, and cut, or they could have contrasting shape and color. The three voluptuous cushion-cut gems that inspired Communion had the same basic shape and cut but were of contrasting colors. The two gems that inspired Blush, were dramatically different sizes and contrasting colors. I loved bringing these two stones together to create drama.
4. Do experiment with modifying the image (boosting color, cropping, rotating).
5. Don’t let your background detract from the focal point. In the first two compositions of the Angle of Repose series, Communion and Blush, I added embellishment to the negative space between the gems. In hindsight, I didn’t need to do that. I feel now that the juxtaposition of the gems creates a strong enough composition.
6. Do keep notes about your progress so that if you need to take break for a period of time you can reengage with your work without having to take too much time playing catch-up.
7. Don’t attempt to copy the image exactly. This image is a slice of the infinite ways that gem reflects light. Further, you don’t want to run afoul of copyright laws or permissions. If you’re using specific gems from a collection, ask permission from the owners if you can. I have written permission from my gem-dealer friends to use any gem in their collection as inspiration. I cite them and the photographer when writing about them and showing images of the original stone.
8. Don’t try to use an actual gemstone as your image source. It will drive you crazy. The color and brilliance of your gem will change with the tiniest movement of the gem or light source. If you want to create a portrait of a beloved gem and you don’t have a photograph to guide you, here’s how to go about it. First, determine its cut. Find a drawing of the cut online and study the facets. Find an image online of a gem that resembles your gem in shape, cut, and color. Create a composition inspired by your research. Voilà! A portrait of your beloved gem.
Padparadscha sapphire
Photo by Geoffrey Watt (Mayer & Watt)