I love my art. I love paying attention to some fine detail during my day and then turning it into a piece of stained glass as I did with “Falling Leaf”. I love sketching my ideas into my sketchbook. I love picking the colors and textures of glass for each piece. It is all very rewarding right up until that time when I have to take that sketch and decide on the final size of the piece. This is when I have to go to an office supply store and try and get the person behind the counter to enlarge my sketch to the exact size I’m looking for. This takes time, it takes math skills and it takes patients when getting that person behind the counter to understand why I need this sketch enlarged 168% and why 165% isn’t going to work. There has to be an easier way.
There is and Don, a fellow stained glass artisan introduced me to it. It’s software called, “Glass Eye 2000” by Dragonfly Software and I’m thoroughly hooked.
I still sketch my ideas but instead of doing the final drawing and then having to get it resized at the office supply store, I scan it into a .jpg and import it into the software. Once my sketch is in there, I trace it and color it using all of the glass samples in the program (over 2600 different color and textures from 8 different manufacturers) and make it the exact size I want. When I’m satisfied with it, I send it to my printer, it prints out on multiple sheets with match lines that I piece together and I then have my pattern for my piece of art.
At first I questioned whether this would affect my ‘art’ in some way so that it’s not really art. But after much thought, I decided it does not. I still use my imagination, I still do the initial layout in my sketchbook and I sill use my hands to create the finished product. I’m a believer that modern technology has not taken away from my art but just made it more efficient. Same as the architect that uses CAD to draw the plans or a musician that uses a soundboard to get the just right sound. Is it any less art by using modern technology? I think not.
To see more of my designs created by using "Glass Eye 2000" by Dragonfly Software, click on my link: Those In Glass Houses...designs using "Glass Eye 2000" by Dragonfly Software.
