Update 11 July 2020

I did say “less text“...well that didn’t last...oh dear, grab a coffee ppl!

After doing the hair, I figured the woodcut is most probably German. Now that the shark has so much detail, I think the mermaid’s will need more work.

I think the sea only really comes to life when the palest blue is added. I’m using a single thread, as doubling it means the colours don’t blend as well.  I did a section with doubled thread, but had to juxtapose with a single again as the “quality of the line” was completely lost.

Il Futuro
Ok, so here’s the handsome chappie that’s going to be stitched. As an image I think it’s really great. I like his pose, especially that he’s not looking directly at us.  Love he’s reading a letter...who could it be from?

He’s a Royal Artillery soldier about to go off to the Battle of Waterloo.  I think because it’s a watercolour representation, it’s already been simplified for sewing.  I’m going to use a mixed bag of stitches, mainly satin, stem, long & short and gold threads etc. It’s a nice size, not too small around the face.  Very small faces can be particularly tricky. I love his hat, so that might get ‘special’ treatment. I don’t think the colour of his trousers is accurate, must be a faded reproduction because they’re more blue than grey in the image and I think they were actually light grey.  He has some gold, but not too much.  It might help to copy the image using coloured pencils first, but the danger is that I’ll have exhausted my enthusiasm and then won’t proceed.  But saying that, deep shadows need to be understood e.g. elbow creases.

 Have a good weekend !