This is a Knight's belt I am charting for my apprentice, based on his device. I'm going to do the red in brocade at the ends, because I want the majority of the belt to be white. If I used double face, the back of the belt would be red.
When I started charting designs, I used a window as a lightbox to block the general design on graph paper. I started using excel, because it is more flexible when tweaking the design, though for some designs I still start with graph paper. This design is very simple, so I won't be doing any of it on paper.
First, I insert a picture, then for brocade, I format the cells to make roughly even blocks (double face has a different ratio, and needs to be taller than it is wide). At the top, I add a fill color to every 5th or 10th cell, so I have a ruler.
Device added, ruler at the top, and since I don't want this design to go over 30 cards, I have added the red border from the device.
The white bull's head will be not be brocaded, but it is easiest for me to build a positive image, then change it to a negative image later. I've started with a suggestion of the horns and the chin. (I should have used a different color, because I will need to change the color before I do the red circle.)
Roughly filled in the bull's head, and I contemplated adding ears, but with how small this is going to be, it is a detail that doesn't work, so I'm going to get rid of it.
The horns need to be wider, and more slanted, so I play with it on one side. I can erase as many times as I like, because I can just refer to the other side to start over.
Updated the other side.
Shifted what will be white to grey, so I can build a circle around it in red.
Circles are basically diamonds with the points cut off, but they look better if they are taller than they are wide, The top and bottom need to be the same, and each side should match, but circles look wrong if all four sides match.
Added an extra line of red in the circle. Yes, you can cut and paste filled cells. I think I may need to add another line of red, and shift the bull head down again, but I'm not going to do it until I adjust the border.
Removed some of the spaces between the border and the circle, which works, but that bottom looks weird.
Left side looks better, but still wonky. I need to start the curve higher on the side.
Mostly done, but the circle still looks short at the bottom. I've also added grid lines.
Added an extra line of red in the circle, and shifted the head down again. I think this should work.
