Paint With a Fine-Tip Brush
Ana de Austria, B. Gonzalez, Museo Del Prado
“The Devil is in the details!”
If you’re a costume designer, a programmer, a web designer, a painter, or…or….(I mean, really, it applies to everything), the chances are, this phrase has been leveled at you like a weapon at least once. If I’m honest, I am not a fan of it. But there is such a heavy dose of truth in this concept that it bears some examination.
I prefer the phrase, “Paint with a fine-tip brush.”
At its heart, the phrase just means, “pay attention to the tiny details.” When you don’t pay attention to the smallest details, you miss the bigger picture. There are varying levels of thought when approaching this concept and I often think of it in terms of image resolution.
Full disclosure, I get a bit heavy-handed with my image resolution thought-experiment in the next several (many) paragraphs, in order to put your mind in the right place to grasp my point at the right intensity. If you’ll come with me on this journey though, I hope you’ll understand better what I’m driving at and how a different way of looking at imagery and extant clothing can push your work to an even higher level than you thought possible.
Imagine, if you will, that we are on old, narrow-band/or even dial-up internet service and an image is loading…ever. so. slowly.
It is pixelated to the extreme and we can’t really make out anything specific from the painting. All we can see is the silhouette of the clothes at this level of clarity. The silhouettes can be easily viewed as simple 3D shapes like cones, spheres, cylinders, etc. I’m talking broad stroke generalizations about the shapes in the image. Were it not for the colors in the image, you might not even be able to distinguish a person from a shrub.
As the image begins to resolve, we can see a bit of the pattern on the materials. The colors are more refined and the interplay of proportions is more obvious. At this point though, we still haven’t looked hard enough to see exactly HOW those proportions interrelate…we can just see that the hem is wide, or the sleeves are slim or the shoulder decorations are epic, etc.
As it resolves a bit more, we can make out better detail. Smaller elements such as the design in the lace and the embroidery, we might be able to see that there is trim on the garment and that there might be decoration on the linen accessories. We might see the hint of jewelry, perhaps the tip of a delicate shoe. It is interesting to note that this is where a lot of people stop looking. This assumption is based purely on what I see people create and post online (and what I, myself have done in the past). We tend to stop and assume we know what we need to make. It is also about this distance from the painting that we reach the level of visibility that is close to the clarity we get from our seats in the audience in theaters around the world. We can see that there is detail in the clothing but we don’t really know, or care about the specifics…once we know it is there, our minds will automatically fill in the remaining details, rounding out our concept of what we are seeing by filling in the visual gaps with things from our memories (human brains are super cool this way). This is where we mostly think we KNOW what we are looking at. This is not a situation where we are being willfully lazy. It is, quite simply, how the brain works. We are hard-wired in a biological way to draw conclusions about what we see from the most sparing bits of information. Anything similar that we have seen in the past gets tossed in and interpreted by our brains so that we think we’ve got it. There is some fascinating neuroscience to back this up. You can read THIS article from Science Daily to understand more. Because of this natural trick that our mind plays on us, there can be no fault in this moment where we think we’ve got it figured out. It is simply how we are built. BUT all it takes is one excited person to stop here and start making clothes without all the information and soon we have something that is brought into reality without the benefit of understanding the whole picture.
But now, if we continue our thought experiment, we come to…
Next. Level. Resolution.
This is something that has happened countless times since ultra-high resolution images have become available online. Someone finds a super hi-res image online and zooms in (or if they’re lucky, they pop into the museum that houses the painting they’ve been studying for years), and suddenly realize they’ve gotten it all wrong. First there is excitement, then a sinking feeling that the outfit they made from the painting the year before is totally wrong.
There have been a few blogs out there where people write about how they have had to completely re-examine their assumptions about everything they thought they knew. The stroke of a fine-tip brush rendered something visible in person or hi-res which was previously invisible to them and the result is a paradigm shift in their thinking.
All sadness about “low-res” versions of historical dress aside (I’ve made plenty of them, I know how frustrating it is), this is actually where the research gets interesting.
Bronzino, portrait of a young man, Frick Collection NYC.
Returning to the painting at which we are looking in this thought experiment, we have reached a resolution where you’re not only able to make out the pattern in the lace, but the painter has actually shown you the stitches of the lace. They have shown you the texture of the gold work embroidery, or the weight of the fabric. At this resolution, in some paintings, you can even see the divots of the stitches holding the hem in place or in one mind-blowing moment at the Frick collection in NYC, I saw a Bronzino portrait, in person, where the painter had gone to great efforts to show the frayed threads around the edges of little cuts in the fabric. This resolution is where you see everything.
At this level of clarity, you can make comparisons of scale between different parts of the sitter’s body and the details of their clothing. As you compare the details to body proportions, you find that things are MUCH smaller in size than you ever thought was normal for the period. The details are far more intricate than you knew. To gauge proportions, my favorite quick tool is to compare clothing details to the eyes of the sitter. As a rule, keep the scale smaller than you think is necessary. “Objects in a painting are smaller than they appear.”
The human eye is roughly 1 1/2 inches/3.8cm wide. Take a moment and use that simple comparison to really LOOK at the painting. It will take you to a whole new level of appreciation for the painter’s skill.
How far will you go to achieve the detailed look?
Now, in startling detail, we know what we didn’t know before. We are aware of just how much we need to do to recreate the look accurately.
Tiny embroidery which is more complex than we anticipated needs to be reproduced.
Intricate lace with fine threads may need to be commissioned or the skills learned to replicate it, however amateurish they might be.
Complex narrow trims need to be analyzed, solved, proven, and made in the right quantities.
Detailed embossed silks which originally looked like a woven-in design need to be copied and understood and the embossing technique should be tested and finally, the work executed, preferably by a professional. But what if you can only afford your own two hands? You might be in for some wood carving and metal work to make that happen. What if it was a fancy, all over embroidery…who even has time to cover 5 yards of fabric with embroidery for a dress?
In any case, there is a TON of work to be done and that is long before we even approach the specifics of the hair and all of its hardware and linen goods and styling and jewels and other accessories.
You can see how overwhelming this might be for the passionate clothier. We are obsessed! We have to make it! We have to figure out how. For some of us, this moment can become the start of a journey to learn a new set of skills. For others, it could be the start of a years’ long hunt for craftspeople with whom you can collaborate to make your vision come true.
The magic of this hi-res, super detailed understanding of the painting is you can see how an entire village of tradesfolk had to work together to create whatever clothing confection we’re looking at. It is clear that they were ALL masters of their trades. In this moment, we need to take a breath and begin to accept that we may never achieve a level of mastery that is even half of the skills that are shown, but we will work like hell to get close. Once we accept this tough, but very useful truth, we can set out to find the information about the skills we need to learn.
We can begin searching out samples of work from other people who have had more practice than us.
We can comb YouTube for lessons, tutorials and the names of people who have these skills in their very blood. If we’re lucky, they might offer us a tip or two in their videos.
We can look to books from previous decades since many old-world skills tend to linger on as leisure crafts for decades or even centuries after their mainstream popularity has faded. Some techniques are seemingly re-born in an instant when a shift in fashion contrives to bring back details that have long since passed. Find the people who executed them for the runway and see if they can give you some tips for practicing and mastering the techniques.
Some examples of style rebirth include the resurgence of 16th and 17th century details on women’s clothing in the 1800s. Or the Pseudo Gibson-Girl hair and high Victorian collars on women’s blouses in the early 1980s, which themselves call back to the aforementioned use of 16th century details in the 1800s — two layers of resurgence flowing into a new style (seriously, fashion is fascinating when you look at it as a continuum from past to present instead of isolated eras).
It is an old adage, but true nonetheless, “What’s old is new again” and each time, the original work gets revisited, reinterpreted and new discoveries are made. For those of attempting to recreate clothing of the past, we have to keep pushing forward and keep digging for nuggets of information that can lead us to our desired result.
Where do we begin?
My suggestion (and this is a hard one to put into action), is to start with the hardest part of the learning first and get passably skilled with whatever you know the least about. Then, when you are at the point where the only thing you need is practice and repetition, move your main focus to reading up on the next skill while practicing the one you just finished learning. Keep the flow of self-education rolling.
Keep going! Continue building your skills! And as much as you can, keep making the bits you need for your outfit along the way. For many items, it can be an advantage to use your beginner work on the backs of the pieces in your outfit. Take trims, for example, If you’re new to weaving but you know you have to make 20, 30 or 40 yards of trim for your outfit (it is always more yardage than you think), just start weaving. After that many yards, I guarantee you will have improved, but put the beginner yardage on the back of the outfit and the “good stuff” on the front. Not only is this a great way to push yourself forward while learning, but it gets you closer to your goal and your clothes suddenly have a story to tell about how you’ve grown. Those stories are powerful inspiration for any beginners you may encounter who might swoon over your look. Share them when you can.
While you are making all of the complicated bits that you have just had to teach yourself, you can also be taking breaks from the repetitive work of weaving, embroidery, or lace making to make the mock-ups of the garments that go into your outfit. You can test the fit, test the weight, test the fullness, even quick-baste some trim or draw lines on your mock-up to make sure you like what you see. At all phases, you should be checking, thinking, learning, and testing your hypotheses and finding the answers you need. This can sound like all of this is happening at once. It doesn’t have to. We all have jobs and families and we definitely need some down time, so you will have to be the judge of where all this learning and making fits into your life.
In professional shops, it is completely common to encounter costumes which require techniques that no one in the shop knows how to execute. Inevitably, someone has to start learning, testing, and figuring out how to do that work efficiently so that the job can get done and the next one can get started. When there is money on the line, bosses don’t want to hear “I can’t do that.” No ma’am. They want to hear “Give me a couple of days to read up on how to do that and I’ll start testing out solutions.”
There is no reason that you, an individual, cannot use your time in a similar way. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know…charge ahead. Dive in. Revel in the process of new learning. Today’s culture tends to presume that you can become “perfect” at something instantly. Of course, when it is said out loud, it sounds preposterous. The idea that you might fail a time or two is something that you just don’t talk about!! Feh…I like to thumb my nose at that attitude because it is toxic as hell and leads people to self-destructive judgment about their work. The process of being a student and a lifelong learner can be a life-affirming experience and often times, unforgettable stories will arise from it.
Be fearless in learning. Most of these processes can be made with relatively cheap raw materials. If you make a mistake, keep going, keep learning. Mistakes will become easier to avoid. Mistakes can even become part of the beauty of the final piece but don’t let them stop you from pursuing that fantastic vision.
Go deep, but keep your eyes on the prize
You might have a lot to learn but there is no reason that has to mean you’re moving slowly. This is where you have to find a little bit of logic and balance. Go deep, but don’t lose yourself completely. If you don’t have extended periods of time to learn a new trade or craft, never fear, surely someone in your circle of friends has skills that you don’t. As I’ve said before, YouTube can flatten a learning curve by a LOT. Some people can be bartered with for their teaching or work, others prefer to be paid well for their work (Pay what they ask and don’t try to haggle. It makes most crafts folk angry and it’s disrespectful).
Only you can know your specific situation and what you can afford. Only you can decide what you are willing do to have the outfit of your dreams. Whatever happens, try to make your work as efficient as possible since most of these techniques take time to master.
One of the best bits of advice I can give is to ‘batch your tasks.’ This is something that is discussed in project management as a tool for keeping things efficient.
Simply put, it means to group like tasks together, even in seemingly unrelated parts of the project. For example, if you’re cutting silk threads for braids or weaving, also cut some, wax it, and press it for sewing the trim on. You’ll need a matching color anyway so you might as well prepare it while you’re in the mode of cutting silk thread. If you’re going to baste together pieces of the skirt, why not baste together other parts of the garment at the same time? Do as many as you can before you have to stop and stitch them all. The hands get used to the movements as you’re doing them, whether it is basting, back stitch, lace or weaving, so take advantage of the body’s natural tendency to lock into a repetitive motion and run with it. You’ll save so much time if you do.
This trim was woven for my client by Meg Duffy Vaughan of Tied to History (amazing maker, go check her out). The rest of the suit required me to weave more than 80 yards of similar trim to create the look we were going for. I spent almost six weeks doing nothing but weaving.
Over the years, I have built up a small collection of looms for weaving trim. When I’m in the midst of making a ton of trim for a big project, I often will prepare two or three looms with the warp and then weave them all up before prepping them all again and moving forward as fast as possible. When you have to make more than 100 yards for a project (as I mentioned earlier, don’t dismiss this…it is EASY to underestimate how much these historical clothes use), you will thank your past self for having the forethought to be prepared for a weaving marathon.
In short, you are absolutely capable of training yourself to do amazing things. If you want to treat your handcraft in a more professional manner, or perhaps just want to know what pro-level skill looks like in action, look up videos of people working professionally doing these crafts for pay.
Is embroidery on your docket? Have a look at YouTube and search up videos of people working in hand embroidery shops in India. Many of the techniques still in use today come from the eras that we study as historical clothing enthusiasts. If you need to see how bobbin lace makers work REALLY fast, just look up anything on YouTube related to “Women making bobbin lace in France” Try again with Spain, then Italy, or Belgium. The videos of these women (and men) working will open your mind to what the human body is capable of achieving. If you have to knit stockings, look up speed knitting tutorials. Look up professional knitters. I cannot stress how useful YouTube is for learning these old skills. Get into it. Not only are there videos of professionals working, but also videos from amateurs or semi-professionals working hard to master those skills who want teach you along the way. There are a lot of vintage videos as well, showing people wearing traditional dress while doing their work. It is worth spending an hour per day watching, just to observe the skills and allow your mind to absorb them. Humans are fantastic mimics, so the more you SEE the techniques in action, the more likely you are to adopt the efficient movements in your own work.
You CAN create these amazing clothes. You CAN make yourself look as though you stepped though time. There is no other experience quite like donning an outfit that has been sewn entirely by hand. One where you have stitched every leaf, woven every inch of trim, sewn on every bead. You can do this…it will feel amazing.
As always, Happy Stitching!
