Stairwell Dithering

[firstfrost]

More paint has been applied. The wisteria is done (and it's particularly impressive when I stand next to it on the downslope, because it makes it clear that I had to use Magic Levitation Powers. harrock is jealous that I've gotten new shticks), and I've been starting the edge flowers.

I painted the irises first, and I quite like how they turned out. Then I started putting in the smaller flowers (I had this idea of taller irises anchoring little beds of smaller flowers), and I'm much more unsure of them. Thus, I turn to those with more aesthetic sense than I, for opinions.

• Here's what it looks like now. It's halfway between irises-only and irises-with-little-flowers.
• But I keep thinking I liked it better before. Maybe it's a question of keeping a clean colorway, or maybe it's that the little stencils just don't have the room to be as artistic or elegant...
• Or would it look better with the bed filled in with the rest of the little flowers?
• Or there's the different tack entirely of All Irises All The Time.
• Here's a version with all the leaves the same color green (approximately) as the irises.
• Here's multiple levels of little flowers. Fire sale on little flowers!
• This one is harrock's suggestion, of grass instead of flowers.

Opinions?

For those following other memes (paraphrased):
Me: Bah. I'm not sure I like the little flowers.
harrock: It's still a good project. I'm very impressed. It's pretty and I'm proud of you.
Me: Um... I'm not depressed, I just want to do it right. Oh, er, I see - "words of affirmation" is my lowest score.

Comments

[treiza.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not clear I have more aesthetic sense, but I liked the All Irises All the Time option the best. I don't think the little flowers are a bad thing, and the contrasting heights might very well be good, but with the filled-in mock up, I kept getting drawn to the fact that the greenery was in all contrasting shades, and thus not admiring the whole effect.

But the project as a whole is looking terrific! :)

[kelkyag]

I adore irises, so I'd hardly pout at all irises all the time, but I like the little flowers, too. I might bring the greens closer to the green of the irises and/or put in multiple rows of little flowers -- so that they feel a little more like a flower bed and a little less like flower icons, perhaps? Or at least, given that you're already playing with photoshop, I'd dry it out there.

Also, the little flower you've done with the pale leaves and the purple bells feels slight off-center, so at the edge of the step it feels to me like it's about to tumble off. I might experiment with rotating it slightly counter-clockwise.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I like more flowers or fewer flowers. I like more irises & more little flowers about the same.

Acts of service?

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Acts of Service and Gifts are both ~9 for me. :)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I've added a mockup with the greenery all the same color. I think you're right - this looks like an improvement to me.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Looking back at the original pictures of the little flowers, you're right that I've tipped the bluebells too far. The middle section is supposed to be approximately vertical. I've added a mockup with more little flowers, though I'm not sure they look less iconic yet. :)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I really like All Irises All The Time. I also like the grass.

[kelkyag]

You're right, they look even more like little flower icons when stacked up. I like the little flowers, though, especially the violets. (Okay, so I'm almost as much of a sucker for violets as for irises.) How about occasional small flowers hither and thither in the grass, instead of in neat rows of flower icons? (Can the stencils be overlapped?)

[twe.livejournal.com]

Everytime I take that quiz I get something different....

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, overlapping stencils doesn't look very good unless it was set up that way and there are holes left in the appropriate place. :-\

My long-winded two cents

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Wow, you've been busy! Yes, the irises are very pretty. :-)

I agree that the greens need to match on the little flowers. I like what you've done in photoshop. It looks like they could stand to match even closer. Although in real life the greens of different plants don't match, in real life there's a lot more supporting texture and background filler which ties the look together. So that's another thought; if you wanted, you could get more stencils for misc small greener and dot those in the whitespaces.

One row of little flowers is better because the whole look is more realistic than iconic. If you had smaller units of greenery, they might work in a stacked configuration, but as it is, I agree that the stacks of little flowers look too iconic.

The grass is good. It looks a bit spindly and sparse though. Can you make it come closer to the edges of the irises? Or take some of the small sets of iris leaves and fill them out?

The All Irises plan has potential, but as shown I don't like them as much as the grass or 1 row of little flowers. To my eye, the height differential between the two stencils fights visually a little bit with the height change of the stairs. That's kind of a minor thing though, and possibly only bugs obsessive people. Also, they're separated by a lot of white which looks iconic again. I get the feeling that all-irises could work with a small amount of fussing.

Another thought, after bringing the greens on the little flowers closer, you may want to skip the yellow flowers. They stick out. Or maybe make them darker and orangeyier, like the yellow beards on the irises.

Here's a composite of all my little-flower ideas.
(http://photobucket.com)

More than two cents

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Does that make this 3 cents? :-)

I love the tall wisteria. How did you levitate?

I realized I was focussing on the closeups. The big picture of the stairs with the single irises looks really good. So here's another vote for just irises, and possibly just the every-other stair irises that you had originally.

Re: More than two cents

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

For the top of the wisteria, there was a lot of standing on one foot on the stairs beside the wall, leaning forward across the stairwell and bracing with my hand by the window, and painting with the other hand. It looked a lot more perilous than it was, but I did discover that if you put lots of weight on the heel of your hand for a long time, you get the same symptoms as carpal tunnel syndrome for a couple of days. :(

I have a theory

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

And that theory says that these things want to fill about the same amount of space. So under that theory, grass and little flowers bad; all irises all the time (with or without blank spots) or multiple levels of little flowers work better for me.

Not enough contrast on this screen to see the really subtle color differences...

Re: More than two cents

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Ouch carpal tunnel!

You're right, that does sound like a perilous position. :-)

[kelkyag]

Yeah, I can see that. I wonder how much the difference in stencil scale is contributing to the big and little flowers not going together, with the stencil gaps on the irises being very substantial compared to the overall size of the little flowers and grass.

What about fewer leaf shapes? How about just the irises and the bluebells and some grass, perhaps leaving off the bottom two leaves on the bluebells to make them more upright like the irises?

Could the other little flowers sneak in with the swooshes of leaves and roses on the risers, since those are pretty iconic anyway, or would that be far too busy? (The stencils are in a different style, though, too. Maybe not.) Or perhaps they could get a little flowerbed of their own at the top or bottom of the stairs, or on the third floor.

Re: I have a theory

[desireearmfeldt]

I think I have the opposite theory, that contrasting levels are good. But I liked all irises with or without blanks too, so...

I think the stacked little flowers look not like actual growing flowers any more.

I would tend to vote for fewer colors in total than the irises-plus-little-flowers samples you've got. (And I kinda like the grass, probably for that reason.)

Re: More than two cents

[twe.livejournal.com]

if you put lots of weight on the heel of your hand for a long time, you get the same symptoms as carpal tunnel syndrome for a couple of days

I was noticing something similar from too low bicycle handles...