The very last thing I did to O'jishi was finish up the whipped backstitched frown lines on his forehead and the wrinkle outline of his cheeks and at the top of his nose. This was slow-going since the backstitches and whipped thread go on top of other stitching. It is very easy to catch a nearby stitch or bead with the tip of the needle and at one point, I snagged the very delicate Empress Silk of his eye and had to put it back into position with a short length of metallic thread. I learned this trick (which I've mentioned here before) from my buddy Mimi who got it from someone on the ANG email list. If you displace a stitch, take a piece of Kreinik metallic (I almost always use #4 braid since it is not very fat) and thread up with it, making sure you DO NOT knot the end. Put the thread down in the same hole as the snagged thread and pull it through to the back. Nine times out of ten it will pull the snagged thread back into place.
The final touch was to add a little dark reddish/brown whipped backstitch line above the heavy dark brown line of his top eyelid. I could see just a touch of red there under the stitching and wanted to emphasize that. It looks good in person although I doubt you can see it in the photograph.
All these thin emphasis lines in whipped backstitch make O'jishi a fiercer and more detailed lion. It's a great stitch for adding detail and color on painted canvases, especially if you need a little something extra.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
