{"id":21494,"date":"2022-04-20T16:32:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=21494"},"modified":"2022-04-20T16:32:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:32:21","slug":"pavonine-pattern-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2022\/04\/20\/pavonine-pattern-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Pavonine pattern play"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pattern1.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the projects I’ve been working on recently contains a large quantity of Art Nouveau design. I can’t discuss this any further for the usual embargo reasons, but I can show off this pattern which has been generated as a by-product of the main work. This is one of those fin-de-si\u00e8cle<\/em> designs that looks like it might have originated in the 1960s, a decade which saw a revival of interest in Art Nouveau graphics. Those sinuous lines would work well on a psychedelic poster, and there’s even a touch of Op art in the melting ovals that separate the peacock feathers.<\/p>\n

\"pattern7.jpg\"<\/p>\n

But this isn’t a design from 1970, it actually dates from 1900, the source being a small wallpaper sample that I spotted some years ago in issue 7 of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration<\/em><\/a>. “Frau Dunsky, Berlin” is named as the designer although there’s no further information about her design in the text. After seeing this I thought I’d have a go at copying the pattern in order to create a digital version but I soon gave up when it became apparent that too much work was required to convert the indistinct image into a sharp outline. I didn’t have a graphics tablet at the time, and my printer had broken down, so the only way to draw an outline was the hard way, using a mouse pointer.<\/p>\n

\"pattern2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vectorised and coloured.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few days ago I pulled out the copy I’d been working on and, since I now have a graphics tablet, decided to try again. Even though creating the outline was easier this time I still wasn’t sure whether a repeatable pattern would be possible. The magazine sample is slightly warped, and the repeated elements don’t match exactly when overlaid, but I was able to compensate for the flaws with some stretching and redrawing in Photoshop. It’s very satisfying getting something like this to work, even more so when it’s a 120-year-old design that you’ve managed to resurrect. I also feel a little familial continuity with this kind of pattern making. My mother worked as a textile designer for a few years in the 1950s, although she never worked on anything like this, the designs produced by her studio were generally chintz-like floral patterns.<\/p>\n

\"pattern3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Prior to redrawing the peacock design I’d resurrected another wallpaper design from the same period. This is one of several examples by a French designer, Andr\u00e9 Morisset, that appeared in issue 15 of L’Art Decoratif<\/em><\/a>. Monsieur\u00a0Morisset’s design was easier to work into a digital version, being a better reproduction, while the design itself is a square that tiles vertically and horizontally so it’s easier to build into a pattern.<\/p>\n

\"pattern4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Drawing the outline.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"pattern5.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A tessellated tiff.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"pattern6.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A coloured vector version.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ll be doing a few more things like this when I get the chance. I’m not sure yet whether they’ll find a place in the things I’m working on, but once you have a satisfactory vector outline you can file the art away until you need it later.<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Louis Rhead\u2019s peacocks<\/a>
\n\u2022 Peacocks<\/a>
\n\u2022 Rene Beauclair<\/a>
\n\u2022 Whistler\u2019s Peacock Room<\/a>
\n\u2022 Beardsley\u2019s Salom\u00e9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the projects I’ve been working on recently contains a large quantity of Art Nouveau design. I can’t discuss this any further for the usual embargo reasons, but I can show off this pattern which has been generated as a by-product of the main work. This is one of those fin-de-si\u00e8cle designs that looks … Continue reading “Pavonine pattern play”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post: Pavonine pattern play","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[58,2,4,43,17,23],"tags":[12181,2260,444],"class_list":["post-21494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-nouveau","category-art","category-design","category-magazines","category-psychedelia","category-work","tag-andre-morisset","tag-frau-dunsky","tag-peacocks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-5AG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}