Questions about becoming a cross stitch designer

[Amélie Abels]

Whilst being a cross stitch designer isn’t something I would necessarily be interested in, I’ve got a lot of illustrator friends who do tattoos or the odd commissioned artwork who see some of the patterns I’m working on, and start to get a bit curious. Unfortunately I’m not very good at meeting that curiosity with actual information!

Rather than ask the broad question of just how to become a cross stitch designer, I thought I’d just list a couple which I’ve sometimes been asked but never really had a researched answer to:

- Do you need any special computer software to make patterns & knowledge of how to use it?
- Are there some illustration or art styles that are easier to work into cross stitch patterns?
- What kind of stuff would I have to keep in mind if I was making a pattern for a beginner cross stitcher vs someone more experienced?

If anyone has any particularly helpful tips, do let me know!

[richardandtracy]

I am not the best person to answer - not being a designer - but will try to the best of my ability.

It is a good idea to have some form of charting software, because computer generated charts are so much quicker to develop and easier to reproduce in a professional manner. I have to tell you of an interest here. I have written a piece of charting software for PC's that enables you to pick an image and convert it to a chart (see in my signature for a link). The image can be one generated in a very simple image editor, right through to a full blown colour photo. There are other free and paid for software packages that do the job, some better, some worse. The price is not necessarily a guide as to how well it'll work. I'm currently adding an image editor to my program so it'll address the concerns of those who hate to use more than one package to get a result.

For the 'special skills' needed, at the simplest level, can you draw something attractive in an image editor? If so, you've got it made. The only thing that should be a real limitation is your artistic skill.

Blackwork stuff is simple to convert & stitch, full colour photos are at the other end of the spectrum.

I am on my 7th project in my life, so feel I'm still a relative novice.
Beginners tend to get frightened off by small stitches, large projects (more than 150 square) and lots of colours. If the colours can be kept to 20 or so, and count to no more than 14 holes per inch (hpi) on Aida, then it should be 'Beginner Friendly'.
For 'advanced' stitchers the sky's the limit. 32 hpi on evenweave, 150 colours, blending of threads, projects 600 x 600, you name it. If it can be imagined, it can probably be done by an advanced stitcher. My current project was charted with my software from a photo I took of my wife when we were on honeymoon http://www.crossstitchforum.com/viewtop ... =6&t=26356. It has 118 non-blended colours, and is an example of what can be done.

Hope this helps a little.

Regards,

Richard

[Rose]

The first one is easy enough to answer NO, you do not need to have any special software you can use just plain old graph paper. But YES there are several different programs out there most are discussed in out Tips and Tricks Section. They can be quite expensive or rather economical. And then of course there are the free programs. One member here on the board has a program he is developing and it is for free. Most are very easy to use.

For the second one I do not think that there is really anything that has not been worked into a cross stitch design. So depending on the artist I think anything can be worked as a pattern. The biggest thing to think about it that this is basically a pixelated picture, just like video games but you can smooth things out with fractional stitches and backstitching.

Things you or the designer need to keep in mind and watch out for is colors and shading. If the designer is not familiar with the DMC or Anchor colors they may not understand the shades that are available but then, they could do a bit of tweeding........ie combining 2 colors to help with the shade but still they should at least have some idea of the colors so either go on line and look at the color palette or better yet go to a store (Micheal's, Joanne's or IMHO an LNS) to see the colors in person and know what is available. Any pattern can be worked up as long as the pattern is clear and the instruction well written. One thing we have all been discussing here recently is symbols. Stitchers do not like to have similar symbol shapes in the same pattern things like < and > should be avoided as well as 1 and ! are not some thing we like. Using the same shape say D and the coloring it or making it bold is also frowned upon. At the moment that is all I can think of to help.

[cairee]

another issue to be aware of is of course copyright.
if you are charting a picture that you made, or a photo that you took than you own the copyright and can make and sell the pattern, no problems.
if you want to use a picture that you do not own the copyright to you will have to get into the tricky business of licencing agreements with the holder of the copyright.

[Amanda G]

Some good tips already on here.
I'm currently working on a magazine commission where a rough draft drawing is needed first. This is being done on good old graph paper with coloured pencils. Once approved, I'll scan and add it too a chart program and use a DMC thread shade card to choose my colours. Like Rose said, it's important to know the true thread colours......what you see on a pc monitor is not always an accurate way of seeing the true colours.
And then of course, the copyright issue....but if it's your own artwork or photo, there's no problem.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Most of my designs aren't cross stitch but I suppose a lot of it is the same - I often quickly sketch ideas, then work them out either on graph paper or on the computer (using an ancient Jane Greenof program). Because few of my designs have many colours, and because I often work with non-DMC threads, I never choose the colours in the program. In fact, I usually know what colours I want to use either before I start the design, or very early on during the designing. Then I stitch it. This I find an absolutely indispensable part of the design process as I often make changes when I actually see the design in fabric and thread.
I've only had designs published by one magazine, but they seemed perfectly happy with my computer-drawn charts, although they did re-do some of my stitch diagrams.