(TSoT = The Story of Trees)
If you are a graphic designer please do not read this. This is intended for “frustrated” older people who do not have much insight into graphic design issues; I associate with this group. As artists we do our colourful work and then we may hit a wall. Let me tell you my story. If you are a painter (or creative for that matter) and you don’t care about other applications or reproductions of your work, please do not read this; I may annoy you.
The reason why I started needing a few basic graphic design skills, is because I wanted to print my designs (my paintings as patterns) on textiles. I realized I needed to know how to make basic patterns and I felt overwhelmed by the idea of getting to know PhotoShop and other programmes which needed money and intensive training. Time is always an issue for those of us who are not in fulltime creative professions. I am a school teacher. I found an answer or the answer which satisfied me. There are indeed free programmes or applications out there, which are in the public domain; on YouTube you may find the assistance you need, by studying the tutorials.
I will now take a quotation from a colouring book of mine which was the result of the “growth” of my new “free” knowledge. I was so excited about being able to do patterns, I decided to publish a book. I could turn old designs of mine into patterns; I was ecstatic, to say the least.
During June of 2019 I took a bus trip from Kuruman to Worcester to present a week-long course on art and recycling to a group of kindergarten teachers in the Western Cape and on my homebound journey I visited family and friends in Bloemfontein for a few days. My cousin’s husband, who is an IT professional, asked me why I was so despondent about all these graphic design issues after I had told him about my frustration and my lack of graphic design knowledge; he introduced me to Inkscape, which is free software that can assist anyone to create patterns and beautiful layouts, similar to what you can do with Photoshop I understood. He downloaded the software on my laptop, ticked all the right boxes and with the help of YouTube tutorials, I was able to figure out how to use the functions I needed to create basic repeats using the images derived from my own work, such as the one below.
As you would have noticed, I add a few links at the bottom of my blogs, which are linked to my Shopify online store. The patterns and the other designed elements (text for example) you see on the garments in the store, I made with the help of Inkscape. Please note that I insert my own designs or paintings into Inkscape and then I use its functions. I do not create my designs from scratch with Inkscape. (Those are complicated matters which I leave to the “true” graphic designers.)
Now back to the story of trees. As I was illustrating the collection 50 trees or Kalahari winter landscapes, I had another idea. I wanted make t-shirt designs with these tree art works. I was envisaging using the painting as the centre piece and then adding the line illustrations which portrayed the flowers and motifs peculiar to these landscapes, such as the farm animals and wild flowers, around the paintings.
In order to do these milieu illustrations, I took photographs of the actual flower or animal and then I drew outlines by hand. (I am sure one can do that on the computer too, but I am not there yet.) Then I would photograph the line drawing and pull it into Inkscape to make a bitmap.
Once it is a bitmap, another world of possibilities opens up. Unfortunately, I am not able to explain all the intricacies of graphic design programmes; YouTube is an excellent teacher. I think I will stop this post here, because if I say much more, you may discover that I don’t really know a lot, which is actually true. However, the little that I have learnt using Inkscape, has given me great joy. I trust it will serve you well too.
As you will see in the links below, I have just used the bitmap of a branch – which you will see in a smarter setting next time, I hope – to create a few items as seen in the links below. I hope to see you at the next tree or landscape soon. Remember, there is art in your heart.
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