Eventually the Romans popularized tesserae, the style of mosaic made of individual square cut pieces of stone and shell. The oldest known mosaics were created from smooth pebbles of varying sizes, but this limited the precision of the artist to the available stones pebble mosaics were popular with the Greeks and many of their mosaics were made from pebbles. These squares are then adhered to a base to create an image or design. Tiling is the individual pieces of a chosen, or a variety of chosen materials, that are cut and then typically shaped into rough squares. This is the most important portion of the mosaic, as it is the most visible part of the mosaic. I used my previous knowledge of photography to capture the mosaics that would make up my mosaic, but I used my newfound knowledge of mosaic techniques to create the mosaic. I chose to use Photoshop to create the mosaic because of prior experience and I knew it would lend itself well to the functions needed for this project: cloning, resizing, compressing, and reshaping. As opposed to creating a traditional mosaic I chose to experiment with a digital medium to see how the process would differ and what challenges this new method could create. Unlike a collage that just mashes photos together, the mosaic created is based on mosaics that I have observed across London to create 'such a picture or decoration in composition'. It also required a discussion of techniques needed to create a mosaic, and how they are used.

This involved looking into the elements needed to create a physical mosaic and what kind of properties make them effective materials. The experience of creating the mosaic was enlightening into how difficult creating a cohesive and well structured mosaic could be.ДЄ mosaic is, 'something resembling such a picture or decoration in composition, especially in being made up of diverse elements.' From that definition, a mosaic is a decorative element or image made of just a few simple components: some form of tile made of any material, a base surface for the mosaic to rest on, and an adhesive to hold to mosaic to the base.ДЄ Mosaic of Mosaics takes the traditional art of mosaics and then applies it to a digital setting. Throughout this milestone I learned that much of the origins of mosaics are unknown and that mosaics can be made of virtually any material. Using my skills from AR 1101, Digital Imaging and Computer Art, and my experience from high school using the Adobe Suite, I aimed to create a modern mosaic in a digital format. The aim of this project was to develop an understand the techniques and materials needed to create a mosaic and apply that to a new digital medium.

Simple mosaic shapes