I’ve been using Photoshop in my work for a long time. But mostly just very simple cropping and formatting with my knitwear designs. Color correcting, saturation, that kind of thing. An occasional illustration.

Whenever something needed more touch-up, my husband would use the clone tool to clean it up.

I’ve already written here that my hardest decision in tapestry design is color. It stumps me every time.  Sometimes I start a weaving knowing all the colors I will use. Most times, I prefer to make at least some of those decisions as I see the design emerge. I like working this way because I feel it gives the weaving a sense of life and energy.

With this piece, I got to a point in the tapestry where I realized I didn’t intuitively know what color or color combination I wanted for the background. I thought about coloring sketches in with different backgrounds, but that method has always been a tedious one for me.

Then I remembered all those times my husband would use that clone tool to get rid of a hair here or there… And I thought- well- hey- I could do that with color. But instead of getting rid of something, I could add.

So that’s what I did.

I wove a tiny bit of a new color combination, photographed it, opened it in photoshop, and used the clone tool to fill in the background. It was pretty quick to do once I got the hang of it and actually, kind of fun, too.

After the orange, I went back and began again with pink.

Next, I kept the pink and decided to add a little grey to the mix.

Then one more with the additional gold cotton added in…

I stared at those 4 combinations for days; something was still not right.

That’s when I turned to the masters. I got out my art history books.

I found color combinations similar to my warm reds, orange, and golds.

That’s where the teal came in.

I think I’m happy now and ready to get back to the weaving!

Do you use Photoshop or similar programs in designing tapestry? Which ones?