Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Bad hair day for Luke

In my first posting for the Luke project I mentioned that I tend to lose patience midway through a project and start working faster than I should. Yesterday was one of those days.

I started working on Luke's hair. I really enjoy doing hair (in a mosaic that is) and think that the hair usually ends up being the best part of the mosaic. Here's Kurt and Augusto. It's hard to make out the tesserae in these reduced photos. There's a nice randomness of lines and (with Caesar) color that resembles real hair.


Luke hair is different. Here's a photo of the original along with the work I did yesterday.

What's up with the top of his head? Is he going bald or wearing a yarmulke?
Do saints wear yarmulkes?

There are a few differences between what's happening with Luke's hair vs Kurt & Augusto's hair. Luke's hair is much more formal and precise. Color is important with the streaks of light and dark. Not only does it emphasize the source of light for the portrait, it also helps emphasize the perspective of the piece making his head look more three-dimensional.

My attempt was pretty feeble with some problems and mistakes. First, I have a limited selection of colors which makes it difficult to fade from dark to very light brown in a small space.

Second - and probably my biggest mistake - although I sketched out the pattern before laying the pieces, I was pretty much winging it - as I did with Kurt & Caesar's hair. Not good. This piece requires a more precise placement for the andamento and the colors. I should have been more exact in drawing before gluing any stones.

Third - I only worked on the top part of his head. I should have followed a row at least until the part in his hair if not beyond the part and around his ear.

Fourth - I worked from top down. I was itching to place the top row of tesserae just to define the top of the head - perhaps to get a sense of satisfaction that I'm making progress with the piece. (This is my urge to rush things coming out.) It seems that it's harder to fill in a section than to build out- especially when there is so much detail to fill in.

So after spending an entire afternoon laying hair on the top of Luke's head, I ripped it all out.

I never though about it before, but I suppose even saints have bad hair days.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Lighten Up, Vidal von Buckingham. Even Saint Francis had bad hair days...why do you think everyone in his order shaved their heads into nice bowl cuts? Because he got a bad 'do, and since he was founder of the order, they all followed suit. Maybe this image of Luke was taken when he was trying out the Hairdo Codex before joining the Franciscans. Which would explain the pained look on his face. And the small bald patch.

You're doing great! When you feel a surge of completion coming on, stop and pour yourself a glass of Vin Santo, dip a few biscottini di Prato, and chill out. Rome wasn't built in a day. Too much traffic on the Via Appia.