Experiment #1.
Here's the photo I chose to experiment with, a sunset shot from my front yard.
The power lines kind of spoil the photo, but I could ignore them for this experiment.
Next I cropped a colorful stripy section of the photo to work with
Then in Gimp photo editor, I added a transparent layer on top of the image.
From there I used the "select" tool to make lengthwise boxes on the transparent layer, roughly the width of the color stripe on the photo.
Then it is was a matter of using the color picker to select a hue within the selection, and then using the fill tool to fill it in on the transparent layer.
Here's what I ended up with.
If I didn't know it was based on a sunset photo, I'd never have guessed. The width of the stripes was arbitrary, as was which color I selected with the color picker. I think it is about as random as I've ever done, and I wasn't even trying for random. For that matter, the colors seem anything but natural, don't they? But there they are, after sorting through a number of digital pixels.
Here's what it looks like when the stripes were repeated four times (2 across and 2 down).
And here's the pattern repeated 16 times (4 across and 4 down).
Repeating the original pic of stripes gives it a sense of balance, don't you think? And it creates a pattern.
Cropping a different section of the photo would give me different colors and a different set of stripes, as would using a different photo.
My previous methods of working with stripes was either evenly spaced, evenly balanced, or as a Fibonacci sequence. I'm pleased that this gives me another design option.
My dream has always been to live close to the land. My goal is simpler, sustainable, more self-reliant living. In 2009 my husband and I bought a neglected 1920s-built bungalow on 5 acres, which we've gradually built into our homestead.
