Acanthus leaf sample - a bit more shading

The shading is coming along.  A bit more added, to the left hand half:

This uses one strand of 1910, as before, but with one strand of 1908 (the same shade as used for the outline).

The second half too:

That's the shading done - time to start filling in the rest next.

Acanthus leaf sample - a bit of shading

Dear me, it's been a long time since my last post - I've been rather busy with other, non-sewing, things, so sorry about that.  I'm getting back to my stitching now, though, so things should get back to normal soon.

I've made a start on adding some colour, starting with the darkest shade, Madeira 1912, at the edges of the leaves:

I then started the shading, adding some more stitching using one strand of 1912 and one of 1910:

More shading next.

Acanthus leaf sample - colours and outlining

With the design transferred and painted, I put it on a frame ready to stitch:

(sorry about the rather harsh lighting in that photo - I'm not sure what happened there).

I'm using three shades of Madeira stranded cotton: nos. 1908, 1910 and 1912.

As the palest shade, 1908, will be the most used of the three, I used that to outline the design in split stitch:

Next time, I'll start to fill it in.

Acanthus leaf sample

After the Apple Tree fire screen, I want to do a couple more small sample pieces using the same techniques, to play about a bit with the shading and see what works.  The first one I'm going to do is a classical acanthus leaf design:

While the fire screen used quite bold colours, I want this to be more subtle, and will be using a 'coffee and cream' colour scheme.

First things first, though.  As previously, I'm working this on gold organza, and will cut the completed embroidery out and apply it to a background.  I traced the design onto the organza (with a pen this time, rather than the almost-invisible pencil I used last time):

And off the design:

I then painted this with diluted acrylic paints:

This is still on the paper so the colours look stronger than they will once it's come off, but it shows the shading I'm aiming for quite nicely.