SKATER BOY MOSAIC #1

1. From Madness… to Mosaic

I knew that starting an online business was going to be a slow process with a steep learning curve, but even with realistic expectations, it has been difficult to keep frustration at bay!

Balancing time between social media, the online shop, search engine optimisation, blogging and of course the all important design itself – is a tricky business.

However, now that Tessellation Art’s infrastructure has been set up, this week has seen further developments on TA’s next artwork release and imminent future – in mosaic form.

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2. The Problems

There were two main outstanding issues to resolve in the skater mosaic:

i) The transparent outline between the tiles:

ii) The lack of definition between tiles, in areas of low colour variation:

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3. The Solutions

i) Changing the image to give a greater contrast in colour was the first step:

ii) Next, I removed the outline between the tiles:

iii) Details were added. The colour of each detail is a lighter shade of the tile underneath:

iv) A white tile outline was added. The line thickness of the outline is zero at the centre of the artwork (above) and increases towards the edges of the artwork (below):

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4. Visual Effects

Once the solutions had been implemented, I tried some different effects.

i) ‘Noise’ and ‘Oil Paint’ effects were tested (click on images for better view):

i) A filter was applied:

ii) A vignette was added:

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5. What’s next?

Before creating the final print files and images for the online shop, I’ll need to redraw the entire piece to optimise the resolution of the printed artwork. There’s also some fine tuning of the visual effects to tweak as well.

I’d like to create a series of three skater mosaics to release at the same time. The solutions that I’ve implemented should allow the same process to be applied to other images, regardless of colour variation.

Please feel free to comment on this, or any other post. Your feedback will be used to help guide the development of the work as it evolves.

You can follow all of the latest developments right here in the build up to TA’s next artwork release!

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Happy tessellating!

Chris