While some of us can just jump right in and start gluing working in an organic or free-flowing technique others need a place to start and/or lines to follow. This can be especially helpful when first starting out. A line drawing or pattern is often referred to as a cartoon, which consists of a full-size drawing of the mosaic design. Your cartoon can either be drawn directly on your substrate or drawn on paper and transferred to your base.
If the thought of creating your own design is daunting, you can obtain tried-and-tested mosaic and stained glass patterns from the internet, libraries, and craft stores. Cartoons are meant as guides and simple contour line drawings are readily available as clip art. Children’s and adult coloring books are also good sources for contour drawings. These types of simple designs are a great way to jump-start your creativity. Having a pattern will assist you in determining the number of materials and colors you will need and serve as a bit of a road map to your finished product.
Newcomers often see a piece of mosaic art that has been created by another artist and are inspired to recreate it. Recreating or copying another’s work can be a useful learning tool, however, an artist's work is automatically covered by copyright laws. If using another's work as inspiration, make it your own and contact the artist for permission. You CANNOT copy and sell another work. This is a direct violation of copyright laws.
