Claire’s Portrait

The making of Claire’s Portrait, from an original picture in Lisbon, Portugal to the mosaic studio in Headland, Alabama, USA and its delivery in Saint Valery sur Somme, France

An Opus Pixellatum mosaic starts from a picture or drawing which does not need to be high definition…

I received this picture of Claire resting in the gardens of the Gulbenkian Museum of Lisbon last November.

Designing the Model

I first cropped the picture to the part I wanted to represent. It had to be square and I focussed on the face, leaving out all outside parts of the landscape.

Next came a desaturation to create a black and white picture

Calculations determined pixelization parameters and I created 4 different pixellizations of the picture to decide the one I best liked.

Here I opted for D1 model…

I did many simulations, replacing the different hues of Gray by Blues and Oranges … And finally came up with the best combination.

I had the model printed and laminated at the local Office supply store.

The actual making of the mosaic.

Once the model laid on the bench, I started gluing tiles on top of it. I always glue every other tiles in a first batch.

Then complete the mosaic by gluing the remaining tesserae.

Once all tesserae had been laid, I mounted the mosaic on its support.

and frame it…

I had actually been working on 2 commissioned mosaics at the same time, Claire and Carole saw the light of Alabama together…

I packed my luggage and flew to Paris to deliver Claire’s mosaic portrait for Christmas !

Based on your own picture, drawing or design, I will create for you :

• An actual, complete Mosaic such as Claire portrait.
• A Model of a mosaic that you can build yourself.