Category: Improving Your Art
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Frida Kahlo Mosaic
Artist Denise Cook’s mosaic portrait of Frida Kahlo is a great teaching example. It illustrates several important tips for making better mosaic artwork. The background and skin tones are made more visually interesting via variegation of shade and hue respectively. There is also a satisfying andamento in the background, and the use of found objects…
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Design Priorities
I’ve explained about the importance of artwork being balanced and harmonious with itself. I’ve also written about how mixed-media mosaic allows you to incorporate found objects as elements of images otherwise rendered conventionally in mosaic tile. When do these two modes clash with each other? Usually when there is just one of two elements that…
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Mosaic Lazy Susan Teaching Example
Artist Kim Wilkowich emailed me a picture of the mosaic lazy susan she recently completed, and I think any artist would be justifiably proud to have made it merely because it is so well-balanced and harmonious in multiple ways. It is a great teaching example for several fundamentals of art and composition. Looking for instructions…
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Art Therapy Projects
Art Therapist Ellis Eisner sent me some photos of her client’s mosaics and her own work, and I wanted to share them with you and use them to illustrate several points. Mosaic the Gateway Medium Mosaic holds a special place in art education and art therapy in my opinion. Often all that is required to…
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Composition and Correcting the Model
Artist Candy Hahn emailed me a picture of her recent mosaic and the photograph she used as a model. It is a solid mosaic interpretation, and it reminded me that I am overdue to write about using photographs as models for mosaic art. Sometimes a composition is made stronger by deviating from the model, especially…
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Grout Color for Stone Backsplash
Randy Evans emailed me a photo of his stone mosaic backsplash and asked for advice in choosing a grout color. Even though this project isn’t figurative mosaic, and the grout gaps have the width of masonry joints (much larger than the gaps recommended for small glass mosaic tiles), it still makes a good teaching example…
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Owl Mosaics and The Importance of Andamento
Linda Lawton emailed me some pics of her recent owl mosaics, and one of them had an issue that made it a good teaching example about the importance of andamento. That mosaic also became a case study for how to mosaic on top of part of an existing mosaic if you want to rework a…
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Shipping Resumed
We have resumed operations and are now shipping packages normally. Please be decent to people in these hard times. APOLOGY AND CONFESSION My apologies to anyone who I have offended with my criticism of Donald Trump in my previous post Coronavirus Helmets, but you might want to give me a pass on that for several…
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Warning: Marine Plywood Not For Mosaic
Marine plywood cannot be used as a mosaic backer for outdoor and wet mosaic. Yes, marine plywood can withstand the outdoors and wet days for many years, but it is completely unacceptable as a mosaic backer because it swells and contracts with changes in humidity in the outside air. That amount of swelling and contracting…
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Well-Executed First-Time Mosaic
One of the most well-executed mosaics I have ever seen in terms fine details wrought in slivers of glass came to me in photos in an email last week from artist Irene Clifford. As Natalija pointed out, ” Most people would throw away tiny pieces like that as scraps.” The mosaic is excellent work in…
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Centering Mosaic Table Top Designs
Artist Stephanie Potter‘s mosaic table top designs are mandalas that catch and hold the eye with contrast, symmetry, and visual interest. They are centered so that the outer circle of tile is at the edge of the circular table tops. Mosaics made on wooden table tops are for indoor use. Outdoors, the wood swells and…
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When To Use Sanded Grout
This article is about why we recommend “the opposite” of what the tile industry recommends for grouting glass mosaics and mosaics with a standard grout gap. This article also explains how to avoid scratching the glass tile while grouting with sanded grout. Industry Recommendations The tile industry recommends using sanded grout for gaps 1/8 to…