I need you ladies to eyeball the globe and tell me if it is improved. In the photo above I replaced the Petite Treasure Braid lines on the Earth with a very thin DMC Metallic machine embroidery thread. It is black with a lot of highlights. This time I didn't enhance the photo a lot so you may not be able to see it all that well. In person it looks good but photographing metallics is a chancy business.
If you look at the hem of the purple under-robe you'll be able to see that I've added the three padded lines of trim. The original paint on the canvas is two lines of gold with a line of silver in the middle but I switched colors so that I have a fat line of silver nearest the hem, a line of pale purple metallic in the middle and then a narrower line of silver. All the threads are Soft Sheen Fyre Werks and I matched the silver in the Fyre Werks carefully to the silver Kreinik so that the two shades would be as close as possible.
If you look at the hem of the purple under-robe you'll be able to see that I've added the three padded lines of trim. The original paint on the canvas is two lines of gold with a line of silver in the middle but I switched colors so that I have a fat line of silver nearest the hem, a line of pale purple metallic in the middle and then a narrower line of silver. All the threads are Soft Sheen Fyre Werks and I matched the silver in the Fyre Werks carefully to the silver Kreinik so that the two shades would be as close as possible.
I've also added more to the layers on the purple robe but I doubt you can see it since I didn't get very far in this step last night. Instead I concentrated on the basket next to the books at the wizard's feet. I never liked the idea of a basket much. Surely a cauldron is more likely to accompany a wizard on his travels? So I pencil sketched a likely shape on my copy of my plain canvas until I was satisfied I had the shape right and then stitched it using three threads: a black Frosty Rays used to tent stitch the interior so it had extra sparkle, a line of couched black Petite Very Velvet to make the rim of the cauldron stand out a bit (it's very hard to see but in person you can get the idea) and the body of the outside done with black Flair in Mosaic stitch (on the right of the staff) covered with long lengths of the same thread running horizontally (on the left of the staff) to hide the white dandruf and smooth the outside to make it like a real cast iron pot. Once the books behind the cauldron and the staff are stitched, I'll couch down more Petite Very Velvet to make a handle.
Do let me know what you guys think, especially Margaret and Belle.
Thanks!
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
