Category: Improving Your Art

  • Make Quick Mosaic Patterns From Any Photo

    Make Quick Mosaic Patterns From Any Photo

    Recently a friend of mine asked for a mosaic pattern for a kingfisher and the materials to make it. He made this request at the eleventh hour when he discovered that it would be raining the entire weekend of his family’s beach trip. I literally had to get the pattern and the tile shipped the…

  • How To Mount A Gapless Mosaic In Thinset Mortar

    How To Mount A Gapless Mosaic In Thinset Mortar

    I just made a video that shows how to mount a mosaic without a grout gap in a bed of thinset mortar. The project task used for the video was mounting the QR Code Mosaic to an outdoor sign backer that made from mortar and hardware cloth. The Video Here’s the video: video: How To…

  • QR-Code Mosaic Sign

    QR-Code Mosaic Sign

    I needed to make a QR-code sign for my yard to tell my neighbors about the native pollinator meadow seedlings I have for them this year. I’ve converted my lawn into a native pollinator meadow, with all sorts of amazing results in terms of butterflies and hummingbirds and native ecology, and I am trying to…

  • Mosaic Design Evolves During Implementation

    Mosaic Design Evolves During Implementation

    I make imaginative artwork using a trial-and-error process, and my compositions evolve during implementation. I study models, but I don’t render from a particular model. I try to capture the archetype, iconic essence.

  • Digital Grout Color Studies

    Digital Grout Color Studies

    Artist Steve Katzman’s first mosaic is a classic decorative design: sparse floral motifs with sufficient background for showing off interesting andamento. The problem is that Steve wasn’t satisfied with the grout color he used, which was very light, almost an off-white color. Also, the grout had an overwhelming color impact because a distinct grout gap…

  • Day-&-Night Table And Decorative Mosaic Design

    Day-&-Night Table And Decorative Mosaic Design

    Artist Pete Keller’s Day-&-Night Mosaic Table is an excellent example of incorporating scenic elements into decorative mosaic design. By “decorative mosaic design,” I mean a mosaic that covers a functional surface such as a table top or floor and is composed so that it is still figuratively meaningful when only a small area is visible.

  • Morjo™ How to Mosaic Videos

    Morjo™ How to Mosaic Videos

    I am producing a series of How to Mosaic Videos and have rebranded our Youtube Channel to Morjo Mosaic Tile™. I have about 30 to 40 videos currently in production and will be publishing these in the coming weeks. The mosaic video published today is: HOW TO IMPROVISE A MOSAIC DESIGN WITHOUT DRAWING Using Morjo™…

  • Having “Wrong” Colors Available for Mosaic Art

    Having “Wrong” Colors Available for Mosaic Art

    What Impressionist painting teaches us is that using the exact colors of the model is much more important than exact rendering. We can draw sloppily, but if we get the colors right, the mind of the viewer can do most of the work and perceive an image easily. That critical need for exact colors seems…

  • Aspen Glen Mosaic as Semi-Abstract Art

    Aspen Glen Mosaic as Semi-Abstract Art

    Artist Michael Hayes recently completed a mosaic based on a photo he took of an aspen glen in Colorado several years ago. I wanted to share this mosaic for several reasons and not merely because it is a strong work by someone just starting out with mosaic.

  • Semi-Abstract Mosaic As a Learning Exercise

    Semi-Abstract Mosaic As a Learning Exercise

    Mosaic as a medium has several intrinsic strengths and weaknesses. The main weakness it has as a selling point is that it takes significantly more time than drawing or painting for an image of similar complexity. The intrinsic strengths of the mosaic medium far outweigh the time commitment. For starters, mosaic is a “gateway” medium…

  • Finishing Touches and Revising Mosaics

    Finishing Touches and Revising Mosaics

    I had previously written about Lisa Sunshine’s Eyes Mosaic in my blog article The Importance of Context in Figurative Mosaic Art. In the article, I addressed the problem of the mosaic not being instantly recognizable as eyes, and I recommended extending the bridge of the nose slightly to provide context. Lisa took me up on…

  • Building a Mosaic Portfolio

    Building a Mosaic Portfolio

    Artist Jacqueline Spohnholtz is building a mosaic portfolio to solicit commissioned work, and she is doing it in an intelligent way in my opinion. Of course the portfolio needs to be uploaded to an online platform such as the artist’s website or Instagram, and it needs to be built from catalogue-quality photographs (full spectrum white…