Simplify or adorn
Posted by Eliz. R. on December 07, 1999 at 02:23:09:
In Reply to: Re: Easy designs are too easy, hard designs are too hard posted by Kenzi on December 06, 1999 at 22:41:12:
Agreed - I'm practicing dragons on rags before trying on my skin (also
getting rid of some post-prime paste).
The other thing to do is to make the simple designs more ornate or to
simplify the more complex ones. I used a rubber stamp to give me
guidelines to do an Earth, but it looked way too plain, so I put some
fancy borders around it. Often, fancy designs are just simple ones
that kept going. Another way to make a simple design fancy is to make
it bigger and then instead of plain lines, do double ones, or wavy or
scrollwork. Or take "solid" areas and fill them with designs instead
of plain henna or open skin. Or put two or more simple designs
together and join them with a common border, words, or whatever.
To simplify a fancy design, try removing borders, straightening lines,
or look at the pattern through squinted eyes and draw the result. (A
sort of impressionist's view.) This are also ways to break a fancy
design into its simpler components (which get added together under the
first principle - that a fancy design is a simple one that didn't
end).