Yesterday we talked about padding parts of the Miami Gold Digger's dog, then stitching over those areas, finishing up with my struggles to make the dog's mouth look good. The photo above is my original sketch showing the ways in which I thought my stem stitches should curve to mimic fur realistically.
And here is how the dog looks once I finished the eyes, nose and mouth. Look carefully at the dog's ears and you will see there is a line of tent stitches on either side of the face and under the mouth to create a chin. I liked the chin but the tent stitches on the side of the face had to go. With needle painting, mistakes are easy--you just cover them with more stitches! So I added more stem stitches flowing from the head to the ear tips, covering the tent stitches I didn't want. Here is what the dog face looked like after I finished.
You can see how the ear tent stitches are covered. No one knows they are there except you and me! I have to admit I worked hard on the chest to get the slant of the stem stitches right. That was the hardest part of the dog for me. But I worked this a little at a time by taking my four plies of Silk/Cashmere and splitting them further into eight sections. You have to be careful doing this as the thread will separate if you pull too hard--it's not really meant to be separated into 8 plies. But doing so enabled me to cover just a little at a time as I tried to get the chest area right. I could have also used one ply of silk floss as well if I wanted just a touch of coverage. That also works without looking too different than the Silk/Cashmere used for the fur.
Finally I ended up with a dog that looks like this--I hope you like him and that my struggles and planning show you how to proceed with needle painting. It just takes a little planning, some careful observation when things go wrong to figure out how to fix them, and then layers of new stitches on top to hide your mistakes. In fact, it is really not that hard once you understand how it is done.
I hope you'll give needle painting a try.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 24, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
