Completing Carola Quinta - the last cuts.

I am presently completing Carola Quinta, the fifth of my Opus Pixellatum series of Carole's eyes. I only have 3 to 4 % of the tiles left to lay, but they will take about 10 % of the total laying time.

I have used in this piece the 3 Opus Pixellatum and Tesselatum and Sextile techniques. Tessellatum is perfect for the curvy vines growing on top of the background layer. The bottom boulders (I harvested on the parking lot of the riding trail ...) qualify as Sextile.

Green boulders at the bottom right corner.

Because of these irregular and spiral shapes, I have to cut some of my small square tesserae to fit the curves. This accounts for the extra time spent in the completing stage of this piece which should be available in August after I come back from visiting some Romans sites in France next month.  

I am a French mosaicist.

In 1992 I made Alabama his home.

  My Art is about inspiring People.

You can contact me either 

by phone at (334) 798 1639 or by email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to my

MOSAIC NEWSLETTER

3 ways to improve your Mosaic Art Models

In March 2017, during our first Mosaic Art Fiesta I introduced Opus Pixellatum to a group of confirmed mosaic artists. They had traveled from all over the USA to the Mosaic Art Supply warehouse in Decatur, Georgia.

In Opus Pixellatum you build your Mosaic exclusively with square tiles of the same dimensions. There is no cutting. The tiles are arranged on pattern of rows and columns in the same manner as the pixels of a digital photography. 

Model of a Yezidi Warrior mosaic eyes portrait.

2 weeks ahead of the seminar the participants had sent me pictures of their faces and I created a model so they could build a mosaic portrait of their eyes during the seminar.

An Opus Pixellatum model looks like a spreadsheet. Each cell bears a number corresponding to a color of a tile to be glued on that spot. Although this sounds a lot like “Mosaic by Number”,  I came to realize through my experimentation with this method during the past 18 month that Opus Pixellatum allows for many dramatic variations.

Blue Carole, Mosaic Eyes Portrait being built.

With Opus Pixellatum the Mosaic artist can unleash her creativity in ways a more classical Opus Tesselatum approach does not allow. This will be the object of future posts.


While I was generating the models, I realized that the quality of the original picture has a great influence on the final result.

For this seminar, we were working with a grayscale palette composed of 7 nuances : Black, White, and 5 nuances of Gray.

Grayscale palette, 8mm elementile tiles from Mosaic Art Supply

I have realized many mosaics with this very accurate palette.

Yezidi 37, Opus Pixellatum mosaic portrait of a Yezidi Warrior

So you want your well balanced original to actually display a wide array of grayscale. If the contrast is too high, you might end up with only 2 or 3 nuances of gray. This is acceptable on a smaller mosaic but a bigger piece will look much better with the 5 nuances of gray.

When you create your model, the first operation is to turn the picture from Color to Black and White. Often named “Desaturation” this operation can be performed in many different ways, with different results as you can see here.

Original photography & 3 types of desaturation.

A black and white picture cannot be desaturated because it already is. You can alter it in different ways, but you wont have the same array of choices you have when you desaturate yourself. 

Advice # 1 : Start from a color picture.


Lighting. 
In order to show all the nuances of your grayscale palette in a balanced way, your original picture should not be too contrasted. It is very easy to boost the contrast of a picture but it is more difficult to decrease it without losing accuracy of the features.

Advice # 2 : Shoot your picture outdoors when the sun is low on the horizon (morning or evening).  An overcast day is perfect. Alternatively, ask a professional photographer to do this for you in a studio.


Format :
The best format to create a model is PNG. Most cameras shoot JPG (or JPEG) pictures. JPG files do not take much storage space but every time you modify a JPG picture, you lose some of its quality. So before you work on the picture first save it as a PNG file. Alternatively if you send me a picture to create a model, please send me the original picture – even a JPG - without editing it.

Advice #3 : Use PNG files




Basically, to get the best possible quality for your model :

• Shoot your picture outdoor in the morning, evening or with an overcast sky.
• Send me your original color picture without cropping or editing it. 
• Send it as a PNG file

2 different mosaic eyes realized in Atlanta last March

Mosaic sometimes can be intimidating. Opus Pixellatum is the easy door into this wonderful world. It allows beginners to build beautiful first mosaics from the beginning, and confirmed artist to unleash their creativity in amazing ways. If you would like to build a mosaic from your own picture, I'll build for you a kit including a model and the quantities and references of the tiles to order from Mosaic Art Supply in Atlanta, GA.

I am a French mosaic artist  established in Alabama. In 2015 I created a new mosaic technique. I named  it Opus Pixellatum. When I realized this technique allowed for much more than I was expecting I decided to share it with confirmed mosaicists.
If you'd like me to create a model of a custom mosaic pattern from one of your picture, please contact me by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com 

or by phone at (334) 798 1639 
You can also subscribe to my   Mosaic Newsletter

Carole's Eyes Series

Every morning begins with the animals, group hug with Tomoe and Itto.

​

Then we go together feed the chickens (the ones you hear in my videos) and pick up the eggs. 

As I have to walk through my studio to get to the chickens coops, I generally stop for a while to lay a few tesserae...

I'm presently working on an other pair of eyes. The same eyes, with variations, Variations on Carole's eyes !  I realized I like working on series; you take a design, a beautiful one, and then you create several pieces based on it to express different feelings, moods, or ideas. 

 

I completed the first Carole's Eyes last December, but it fell from its wall while I was gone and got damaged. This kind of stupid things happen, it was my fault. I am restoring her now, she will look just as good as before. She'll look great, the greatest ever, believe me...

​

Blue Carole, the second of this series, is almost complete, I still have to grout and frame her. She will be there by the end of the month...

And presently, I am working on 2 more variations. I played with colors, and added borders to them, the same kind of borders the Romans loved to use.  Why do you think I'm traveling all around the countries that were once part of the Roman Empire ?

​

This is Greek Carole Sepia. On the bench. I am building her reverse method like I do 98 % of my pieces. She is a mix of Opus Pixellatum and Opus Tessellatum. 

The frame is a very important enhancement for a painting. It attracts and focus the eyes of the amateur. Unfortunately you cannot frame a mosaic with a painting kind of frame. For the past 4 years I have been using 3/16" steel welded frames. They are an excellent way to structurally reinforce my mosaics, but aesthetically they bring nothing like a frame does to a painting. So I decided to follow the Masters by incorporating the frame in the mosaic itself !

Fish mosaic from Pompeii, 1st century AD

So here you have the model of Greek Carole Sepia...

And here is a Bluesier Carole. The original idea, it will be different. Opus Pixellatum allows me to improvise, and I am going to fully take advantage of this fantastic opportunity.

This one will incorporate more vegetal patterns, Acanthus leaves, possibly  wisteria cascades...

I am currently experimenting with layered models. Instead of creating one very complicated model I create several of them and use them as layers, just like you can in a program create an image by combining several graphic layers. Some layers pixellatum, some tessellatum...

So you see, I am very inspired by modern technology to realize my pieces. 

• The theme or subject is always shrouded in a mysterious aura !  What's behind the Eyes? What's behind the Mirror of the Soul ? What's behind the Scouts of the Heart ? 
• The Aesthetic is enhanced by 2nd century AD border patterns and ,
• Techniques based on 21st century graphic softwares allow for a dreamatic new type of mosaics. (Yes, "dreamatic", it's new, its great, it's dreamlike, it's dreamatic ! believe me...)
•  

Frederic Lecut is a French mosaicist.

In 1992 he made Alabama his home.

His Art is about inspiring People.

You can contact him either 

by phone at (334) 798 1639 or email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to his

NEWSLETTER

Opus Pixellatum - Une Partition pour Mosaïques !

Read in English

J'ai inventé Opus Pixellatum en 2015, car j'avais besoin de construire rapidement une série de grands portraits en mosaïque des yeux de réfugiés yézidis.

Yezidi 37

Le principe d'Opus Pixellatum est simple. À partir d'une image originale, je dessine et imprime un réseau de lignes verticales et horizontales. Ces lignes définissent des cellules carrées.

  

Détail du modèle Yezidi 36

A l’intérieur de chaque cellule est imprimé un numéro correspondant à une couleur. J'utilise généralement 7 couleurs de blanc à noir. Donc les numéros progressent de 1 à 7.

Modèle de Yezidi 36.

Je monte la mosaïque en collant à l'intérieur de chaque cellule la tesselle correspondant à son numéro.

Détail de Yézidi 36, en cours de réalisation

 

A ce niveau la, Opus Pixellatum semblerait n'être rien de plus qu'un système de «Mosaique par numéro». Rien de vraiment excitant... 

Et puis, d'un seul coup, j'ai eu un petit déclic !

En construisant ma série d'yeux de Yezidi, alors que pour des raisons de temps de séchage de colle, je ne montais qu'une sur deux de mes tesselles, je réalisai soudain que cette technique avait beaucoup plus de potentiel que je ne l'avais initialement envisagé.

Pour commencer, il n'est pas nécessaire de poser toutes les tesselles pour commencer à voir l'image que vous essayez de créer ...

Yezidi 20, seulement la moitié des tesselles sont posées.

Et donc cela allait me permettre d'utiliser des couleurs supplémentaires, différentes des 7 initialement définies. J'ai utilisé cela sur la mosaique Yezidi 37.

Détail de l'oeil de Yézidi 37

Puis, une fois terminée ma série Yézidi, j'ai décidé d'expérimenter l'utilisation conjointe des deux techniques Opus Pixellatum et Tessellatum sur la même pièce. Ce qui nous a donné Carole's Eyes.

Carole's Eyes - Decembre 2016

Ayant achevé Carole's Eyes, j'ai créé - sur la base du même modèle - Blue Carole, dans laquelle j'ai remplacé toutes les nuances de Gris par des nuances de Bleu. Le résultat ici encore, est très intéressant ...

 

Blue Carole sur l’établi - le 12 décembre 2016.

Opus Pixellatum est en fait une méthode totalement nouvelle d'aborder le design et la pose des mosaïques. Cette technique fournit effectivement un modèle pour la monte de la mosaïque par l'artisan qui peut choisir de suivre ce modeler soit de façon très fidèle, soit d'une tacon beaucoup plus lâche qui lui permettra d'exprimer sa créativité d'une manière beaucoup plus improvisée!

Vous pourriez en fait comparer le modèle Opus Pixellatum à une partition de musique. Si vous êtes un débutant, vous essayez de la jouer exactement comme écrit par l'auteur. Mais si vous êtes bon musicien, alors vous pouvez vous permettre d'improviser et d’interpréter, ce que l'auteur aurait probablement voulu que vous fassiez!

C'est vraiment trop cool !

En 2017, je vais continuer a expérimenter pour essayer de cerner les différentes manières d'utiliser Opus Pixellatum pour permettre une plus grande créativité en mosaïque. Je vais également commencer d'enseigner l'utilisation de cette méthode a quelques stagiaires. Je vous tiendrai au courant sur ce Blog.

Gardez le contact !

 



 

Je suis un Mosaiciste français installe en Alabama
  Je vous invite a visiter mon site mosaicblues.com

Vous pouvez me contacter soit par telephone au 001 (334) 798 1639, soit par courriel a frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

  Vous pouvez également souscrire a ma Niouzeletter

(gratuite)

Les yeux de Carole devoiles

Read in English

Les yeux de Carole sont une pièce expérimentale. J'ai utilisé pour la  composer 2 techniques différentes (Opus Tessellatum et Opus Pixellatum) afin de créer un contraste dramatique entre les différents arrangements et textures caractéristiques des 2 techniques.

Opus tessellatum était la technique la plus utilisée dans la production des mosaïques hellénistique, romaine et byzantine. On y utilise des tesselles (petits cubes de pierre, verre, céramique ou autre matériau dur) de taille uniforme pour former des images et des dessins. Les tesselles sont appliquées suivant un motif RÉELLEMENT dessiné sur le support.

Un canard romain réalisé en Opus Tesselatum

J'ai inventé Opus Pixellatum en 2015 pour créer ma série de mosaïques des Yeux des Yézidis. Dans l'Opus Pixellatum, les tesselles sont posées comme les pixels d'une photographie numérique ou les taches de couleurs d'une peinture impressionniste. Le modèle que j'utilise n'est pas un dessin, mais une grille qui me guide pour poser les tesselles. En Opus pixellatum, vous ne voyez pas ce que vous faites jusqu'à ce que vous ayez recouvert la moitié de la surface de votre mosaïque.

Un Oeil de Yezidi 37 - Opus Pixellatum

J'ai utilisé Pixellatum pour réaliser les yeux eux-mêmes et Tessellatum pour le feuillage des saules pleureurs au premier plan. Ayant travaille en méthode inverse ce n'est que lorsque je la retournai que je pu constater avec grande satisfaction que le résultat dépassait mes attentes.

 

Les yeux de Carole - juste retournés.

Retourner une mosaïque est toujours un moment magique, aussi, regalez-vous ...





 

Les Yeux de Carole sont entièrement en verre (recyclé ou smalti) et mesurent 17 x 47 " (42 x 118 cm). Il seront livres, comme toutes mes mosaïques, avec le matériel nécessaire pour une installation murale très facile. 

Ils seront disponibles à la vente en décembre 2016.

Je suis un artiste en mosaïque français basé en Alabama.

Mon art est a propos d'inspiration.

Si vous souhaitez commander un portrait ou êtes intéressé par mon travail, s'il vous plaît visitez mosaicblues.

  

Vous pouvez aussi me contacter par téléphone 

au (334) 798 1639 

ou par courriel à frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com
 
 

Vous pouvez également vous abonner à ma NEWSLETTER

Carole's Eyes unveiled

Carole's Eyes is an experimental piece. I used both Opus Tessellatum and Opus Pixellatum techniques to compose it for I wanted to create a dramatic effect by contrasting the different arrangement and textures of the 2 techniques.

Opus tessellatum was the most commonly used technique in the production of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine mosaics. It involves the use of tesserae (small cubes of stone, glass, ceramic, or other hard material) of uniform size to form pictures and designs. The tesserae are applied following a pattern actually DRAWN on the support.

A Roman Duck realized in Opus Tesselatum

I invented Opus Pixellatum in 2015 to create my series of Yezidi Eyes mosaics. In Opus Pixellatum, the tesserae are laid as the pixels of a digital photography or the color blots of an impressionist painting. The model I use is not a drawing but a grid  guiding me to lay of the tesserae. in Opus pixellatum, you do not see what you are doing until you have covered half the area of your mosaic.

One eye of my Opus Pixellatum Yezidi 37 mosaic

With Carole's eyes I used Pixellatum for the eyes themselves and Tessellatum for the weeping willows branches in front of them. I was as usual laying my mosaic upside down (reverse method) and it was not until I flipped it that I could realize, with relief and great satisfaction, that the result exceeded my expectations. 

Carole's Eyes - just flipped.

Flipping a mosaic is always a magic moment, enjoy this dramatic video of my flipping this handcrafted piece ! 

 

Carole's eyes is entirely made of glass (recycled and gold smalti) and measures 17 x 47"  (42 x 118 cm). It will come like all my mosaics with the whole hanging hardware making its installation very easy and will be available for sale 2nd week in December.

I am a French mosaic artist based in Alabama. 

My Art is about Inspiring People.

 

If you would like to commission a portrait or are interested by my work, please visit mosaicblues.

 

 You can contact me by phone at (334) 798 1639 or by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

 

You can also subscribe to my NEWSLETTER