LESSON ONE
designing your mosaic

This is possibly the most important step in your project. Without a solid design, you simply will not end up with the same quality if you do take the time. I am going to assume that you are acquainted with design elements and principles, as well as color theory and other compositional techniques.

• Look at the space you want to mosaic. Is it a table? A piece of plywood? A kitchen backsplash? A patio? Is it three dimensional? Is it architectural? A piece of furniture? What do you envision?
• Make sure that the surface you wish to mosaic will stand the test of time. High quality plywood works fine for small portable pieces. Concrete and stucco are also acceptable surfaces. Particle board will disintegrate. Drywall should be enforced with a tileboard such as hardibacker.
• Consider how the mosaic will look both up close and far away. Up close details should be able to translate into a visual whole when viewed at a distance. This is one of the exciting aspects of large scale mosaic.
• Measure your space and create a scale model on paper. If the piece is three dimensional, I reccomend making a model that can be cut and taped together for the overall effect.
• Begin outlining your design, keeping in mind THE NATURE OF THE MEDIUM. This is MOSAIC, not sketchy pencil work or blended paint. Unless you have a large variety of colors and are really skilled with shading, this is a difficult way to begin a design. Try to keep your drawing simple at first. Details can be added as you are actually setting in your mosaic pieces.
• Click here to learn an interesting design method using Photoshop. It works especially well with large groups of people.
• Once you have figured out your composition, and have tested it out on your scale model, you are ready to transfer your design onto the surface to be mosaiced.
• Transferring: I have found that the two most effective ways to do this are to either use a projector, or to create a one foot scale grid on the drawing. Then recreate the same grid to scale on the surface to be tiled and use your drawing skills to transfer the design. I use chalk, and then finalize my lines with permanent markers.
• Choose your colors and think about the materials you want to use. We will discuss this further in the next lesson.

Installing hardibacker

Using a projector to trace design onto wall