My Medieval Cat Outline

The first step for any pet guardian angel design is to transfer the design to your 18 count canvas. Above you see the outline of the Medieval Cat. I made a copy of the outline from my magazine, taped the sheet to a sunny window, making sure it was straight, then taped the bare naked canvas on top of the copy, again making sure the grain of the canvas was straight.

Sometimes you can line up the canvas so that a long straight edge of the design underneath falls right on the long line of canvas threads. In this case, I lined up the vertical drop of the skirt edge to a thread. You can't always do this, but if you can, line something up. Use a very thin pencil or marker. I used a blue Zig Memory System marker that is colorfast if you take the canvas swimming and that has archival quality ink that won't react chemically later when your canvas is in a museum.

HOWEVER, you will want a similar quality marker in gray or yellow or another very light color. I had to use blue to show up in photos on Blog and I'm having a heck of a time covering the line with my ecru background thread so you don't see blue. I'll tell you what to do if you have a similar problem later, but for now, avoid the issue by using a very light-colored marker.

Trace the outline on your canvas, going slowly and trying to draw on a thread of the canvas instead of a ditch. Be as careful as you can to be faithful to the design (I discovered later I'd drawn one area too thin for the threads that belonged there) but don't obsess over it. I'll tell you later what to do if you drew an area too small.

You may find you need to lift the canvas and peek at the design to see if you missed something, so using masking tape or painter's tape that doesn't stick forever to hold the canvas over the line drawing might be helpful. Once you are sure you have everything transferred, remove the canvas and line drawing from your window (or light box if you have one) and check area-by-area once again to see if you forgot an eye, a paw, a line to show a fold in the animal's face. Once you are happy, put the copy you traced from away. We'll cut out the shape from that sheet like paper dolls later in finishing.

Now get your canvas onto stretcher bars and away we'll go!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow