From Pattern to Pieces: Find the Starting Point

Alrighty, there was the pattern, then the break for snacking, misusing philosophy, and now pieces are slowly knitting crocheting together.  Bummer on 'knitting' being an actual activity, est-ce pas?

Also, tailoring and sculpting terms will be used interchangeably in this post.  I am very sorry to be mixing the two, but if one genera more accurately describes the motions or the end-goal, then that was the default.  'Accurate and Obscuring' should be made as a labeling sticker.  Onward!

Pattern:

Starting to form:

How does one pick a starting point?

Well, that is a great question.  I have had some trial and error over the years and many a project on which I am banking that 'it is the thought that counts' and 'my Mom will love it and love me, no matter what.'  Confessions aside, just look at any form and start by separating out the appendages from the trunk.

On the fish, the body/sausage is the trunk and the fins are appendages.  Appendages are joined onto the trunk, so decide what you want to make first.  I tend to make appendages first.  Basically, those all MUST be there and if I run out of yarn/materials, then there is no recourse (unless you are gifting this to a 3-year old who will still love a three-legged wombat).  That being said, if you suspect an impending material shortage as you work on the trunk, then the wombat is more stubby and the 3-year old thinks it is more cute.  We all go home happy.

As you work on appendages, start working on the end point, or what is the solid, plane of yarn, farthest from the joining (the seam) of the appendage to the trunk.  Consider Hemingway's eye:

Facing outward

The backside

It will join (the seam) at the start of the socket and the solid face, farthest away from this, is the cornea covering the pupil.  So, working circularly, start at the pupil, work out to the iris, and finally add on the surrounding, orbital flesh.   If that don't church up acrylic yarn...

Still, this does not help categorize the body segment to be deemed 'the head,' further complicated with a mouth cavity, possibly nostril holes.  Think of the entire form/animal/shirt/whatever as a misshapen ball (a sausage is a rolled-out ball, right?).  This ball has to have a start and an end.  Assign both positions to the mushed ball which is your trunk.  The head may as well be your 'start' end.  But maybe I am just an optimist.

Actually, the mouth is the true start, as it is where, from the perspective of form, the top of the ball, as the head, dimples in on itself and becomes an internal projection.  I guess this is a mobius strip for an intestinal tract connecting to dermal covering.... but I wasn't planning on being that accurate.  So, my mouth has an end/back-wall before things get too grotesque.

Starting point identified: mouth.  Then finish the head and move on back through the trunk.

I am not going to do appendages (fins) first on Hemingway because the Coelacanth has lobed fins.  These lobes make the fins big, meaty parts of the body.  It would look funny if they were clearly attached, as opposed to limbs that seem to ooze out in fleshy protuberances.

I have another fish, a river trout, that I am working on for an art installation.  This has a simpler construction.  It is farther along, but the piecing and seams are simple and clear.  More on that coming...