Modern Vespa

I had a proper look at these today. There's some inspiring work in those books.

I thought I'd have an attempt at making a tiling pattern based on the waves on page 31 of Hamonshū v.2

I tried to keep the lines a bit wobbly and irregular. I think it works fairly well when the stencil and the background are tonally close, making the pattern quite subtle.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks much for the hint! I've brought both ends in a bit, adding a base layer of 25% transparency and bringing the max transparency of the main pattern down to 75%. Actually, I'm not sure that ends up bringing both ends in (too early in the morning for me to think hard about math) but the result is decidedly less contrasty.

Is it enough? We'll see what Patrick says when he checks in. I'm prepared for this particular pattern to be a write-off if it's still bothersome.

Agreed! I wasn't even aware of it until I started experimenting with a couple of patterns, and Patrick pointed out that the likely source of the patterns I was using was the Hamonshū series. I was instantly hooked, and have downloaded PDFs of all three volumes. Very cool! You know, I was kind of wondering if you might end up trying your hand in this niche category of art. Agreed. I've had decidedly mixed success with translating patterns into stencils -- some of them work really well, and some of them just end up being garish. There's usually a fairly painful workflow of fiddling with line weights and overall sizes (and sometimes inverting the pattern), uploading to the test server to see it in situ, lather, rinse, repeat.

What I'm learning from this conversation is that contrast and tone are some of the things I should be fiddling with.

Last edited by jess on Wed, 18 Jan 2023 15:48:34 +0000; edited 1 time

I did. I suspect it bothers folks like me that have mild nystagmus.

Ah. How is it now?

Clarify - "bothers" is too strong a word though. I just reduced the window size to reduce the margins and was well sorted in a half second.

Causes me to squint, but nothing unsettling. (Note - I suspect I am in a very small minority with the congenital nystagmus.)

Still, there's no reason we need to have a background pattern that bothers people. It's a background, it's supposed to, well... fade into the background.

So I'll replace this one with something else. I went on a shopping spree at vectorstock.com, it's just a matter of processing the patterns into stencils.

Last edited by jess on Wed, 18 Jan 2023 15:57:56 +0000; edited 1 time

effect is still there, but less so.

I would not call it "bothersome", and it's likely an interaction with the floaters in my eyes, or my brain trying to picture the interlaced tetrahedral crystal lattice and wanting to model it in 3D.

I say keep it.

What would make it less bothersome? Do you think it's just the underlying structure in the pattern?

two ideas:

1. I actually think if the pattern was larger it would be better. when I look at the raw image in preview it shows about twice the size and I don't experience any odd effects. but that could be because it's not tiled.

2. removing the triangles in the pattern could make it less busy, may or may not help.

This particular stencil allows quite a bit of the underlying color to show through. When I've tried it at larger sizes, it becomes a bit overbearing. I had a go at this, but had some difficulty with the vectors. I ultimately gave up on it. I think we'll just write this off.

I had another pattern I was interested in turning into a stencil, and spent about an hour trying to get it to tile properly, but the underlying document organization didn't actually lend itself to easy tiling. This, despite the fact that it was presented specifically as a seamless pattern. Even the line weights between top and bottom didn't seem to match up, and I eventually gave up on that one, too.

Back to the drawing board.

Mrs Syd and I went to the movies yesterday - we saw Gerard Butler's latest disaster, movie - the pattern looks like "Plane"s.

I see a butterfly, oh wait, this isn't a Rorschach test

Anything is a Rorschach test if you want it to be.

I agree. I never really understood the purpose of that test. The butterfly picture on it looks to me like a woman's reproductive organs. With the ovaries here and the Fallopian tubes here and the uterus here etc

There's a butterfly?

Yes those drawings are lovely, thanks for the links. It's quite a privilege to see collections like that up close in forensic detail. Something the internet is actually good at.

In my bookmarks I have a link to a Hokusai collection, The Great Picture Book of Everything, a series of preparatory ink drawings for a book that was never actually published. While they're more figurative than the Hamonshū series they have the same mastery of brushwork and surface pattern.

overview:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hokusai-great-picture-book-everything

list of images:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Katsushika&keyword=Hokusai&keyword=%E8%91%9B%E9%A3%BE%E5%8C%97%E6%96%8E&agent=Katsushika%20Hokusai%20%E8%91%9B%E9%A3%BE%E5%8C%97%E6%96%8E&agent=Art%20Fund&material=paper&technique=painted&view=grid&sort=object_name__asc&page=1


Here are some details I clipped out last time I browsed the collection. I find the small marks fascinating and I set these clippings aside as reference for possible patterns and textures. It's difficult to emulate this stuff digitally as much of its character comes from the variation in the strokes, the flow of the ink and the texture of the paper.

Lovely on the eyes today!

You're right, that's a really interesting bit of texture. And also rather intimidating!

I'm trying to find a suitable replacement for the offending pattern. I've been through several that haven't worked out, either because they didn't tile as well as they were supposed to or because they had similar (potential) visual issues. Apparently I'm consistent in picking out really challenging geometric patterns for use as source material

I have another variation on Hamonshū waves that I might turn into a stencil, though. I was worried I was overdoing it with the waves, but actually they seem to fit the bill rather nicely.

Twill weave patterns could provide some inspiration. houndstooth and herringbone are the best known, but there are a crazy number of patterns.

Got any links to ones you find appealing?

now see what you made me do! In school I cast parts for these looms.

The diamond twill pattern is one of my favorites.

here's come good examples: https://vandra-rugs.com/weaving-patterns-in-wool-felt/

All right, all right, I'll go to "normal" width.
Sheesh, the peer pressure here....

Love this one today!

I literally came back to this thread to post the same. Nice one today.

today's pattern reminded me of this

I have no idea where that is, but knowing who posted it, my first guess is Pompeii.

Beijing

I've not been to Pompeii yet

It's cold in The Valley today. This pattern looks like the wind today.

Yep me too. And it's my favorite color too light blue. Very soothing. I took a shot as well

Today's pattern looks like a display of noses. For the nose-less, you know.

So how does one stack noses in such a way?

This interpretation is not lost on me.

Is today's background Da Vinci's notes?

Magna Carta.

Wow, you'd think, being such an important document, that it would have been written more clearly.
Oh, wait, paper super rare. I seem to recall something in history class. Folks would write letters on paper, then rotate the paper 90 degrees, and write another set of lines.
And today, we keep rolls of the stuff to wipe our bums clean.

it's actually lorem ipsum