Luis Royo: Luz. Update 9 May 2020

[richardandtracy]

This is a new, and long running project. If it goes to plan, I will finish this in 2019, possibly early 2020.

The image is of Luis Royo's Malefic Time character 'Luz', who appears in many of Royo's 'Malefic Time' post-apocalypse dystopia images. In the 'Malefic Time' images, Luz is the heroine of the story attempting, through the use of her sword, to restore the world to its previous state. Luz is so affected by the terrible state people have descended to, she weeps blood. Luz is opposed by various malignant forces analogous to the four horsemen of the apocalypse encountered in the book of Revelations in the Bible.

The picture first came to my attention as the 'March' image for the 2015 Luis Royo wall calendar. I asked permission to stitch the picture and obtained it in early January 2016. I started on 11 January 2016.

The picture is 294 stitches wide and 450 high, stitched on Zweigart opal white 28ct fabric. There are 117 colours of which 105 are blended, made from 133 thread colours. There are 110730 stitches out of the possible 132300 stitches on the fabric. I am doing it 2 stands of floss over 1 fabric thread in a half cross (2 over 1 tent).

The page plan is as below:

I have almost finished the top right page (page 4) and only have 42 stitches to complete the 1588 stitches on the page. I have now stopped this project (on 31 January, average 77.3 stitches per day) so I can rotate onto my 'Gryff' picture. The current progress is as below:


All the colours in the picture are blends, and form the very light shading in the top right. It was difficult in the extreme to be stitching such a light range of colours on the white background. The vague pink outline of pages 4, 8, 10, 11 and 12 can be seen in the photo. The stitched area is approximately 2" wide x 3.5" high.

Anyway, while the progress isn't much, I am pleased with it, and am surprised how far I've got with the other things I'm doing at the moment (pen making and plumbing).

Regards,

Richard.

[wendywombat]

on getting permissive to stitch this!
Lots of pale colours, blended Plus being stitched on a light background is so different from your 'Honeymoon' picture.
This will try your staying/stitching power!!

[rcperryls]

Beautiful start!! This will be worth waiting for!

Carole

[Carole]

Wow, what a fabulous picture. It looks like quite the challenge but will look amazing once done. I love that you stitch such a variety of beautiful designs

[fccs]

This will be another of your masterpieces. Great start!!

[richardandtracy]

Thank you all, it doesn't look like much yet, but in a couple of years time it should...

Regards,

Richard

[Allyn]

I love Royo's women. This is going to be awesome! I know you feel like it doesn't look like much yet, but we can appreciate what you have done.

[Squirrel]

Definitely another masterpiece in the stitching. I think we might just have to pull out a magic bench to watch the two special designs growing.
Well Done Richard.

[SteveM]

Have you experienced any trouble getting an artist's permission? I sent out some requests about a week ago and nothing yet.

[richardandtracy]

It was nearly 3 months plus a reminder... Had to go through the 'Laberinto Gris' webmaster Pilar San Martin as he's the one in charge of all Luis Royo licencing. Think it must have delayed things a bit as it was before Christmas and Royo had engagements all over the world starting with Comicon 2015 in the US and carrying on almost continuously from then. It's a wonder he gets any time to make pictures.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

Been back on it 2 weeks now since packing up 'Gryff'.

Finished off the 42 stitches of page 4 and am now about 2000 stitches into page 8:

The progress still seems pretty miserly, but I am up to around 3% (3500 stitches) into the project. I'm currently working on the left hand side of page 8 of the chart.

With any luck, if I follow this column of pages I may get to the blanket over Luz's knee by Christmas. Not sure I can stand that amount of stitching of the background and may have to do pages 3 & 7 instead to get a little more interest.
At the moment I'm mainly working in one colour thread at a time in a column 10 stitches wide. It gives some of the advantages of parking (making it very difficult to lose your place) without the nightmare of 30+ thread colours to keep track of. On the 28ct I'm using with 2 over 1 tent stitch it's not too difficult to get the needle through the fabric on those island stitches. The most difficult bit is actually seeing the unstitched squares.

Regards,

Richard.

[Midge]

Wow, it's fantastic Richard. I love the design and despite the pale background you can really see the emerging picture. I bet once you get onto the face it will be an unputdownable project.

[rcperryls]

I think you are making good progress! It's hard to judge sometimes when doing background. 3500 stitches is a lot of stitches and like Midge says, once you are stitching her face you are not going to want to stop stitching!

Carole

[Allyn]

Good progress! I know how tedious the background is, but it's looking good.

[fccs]

I think you are making good progress! It's hard to judge sometimes when doing background. 3500 stitches is a lot of stitches and like Midge says, once you are stitching her face you are not going to want to stop stitching!

Carole

I agree! This is going to be another stunning masterpiece.

[richardandtracy]

Thank you for your comments. I suspect I will alter the order of stitching from the one I had planned. It will be more interesting if I can get some of Luz' face in view sooner than later.

However I will have to rotate it with the picture of Gruff, as it's a present for my wife.

Regards

Richard

[AlwaysGoofy]

This masterpiece seems to be coming along nicely. As usual, your charting skills really make this piece come alive. I'm looking forward to seeing more updates.

[richardandtracy]

I'm packing 'Luz' up for a month now, and going on to 'Gryff', but thought I'd register my 'progress'. It has not been good this month, just under 4000 stitches of background. It isn't interesting or stimulating. So, here's the chart xref picture:

I'm around 2/3 the way though the 6000 stitches on page 8 of the chart:

Once this page is finished, I am going on to page 3, because then at least some of the figure will start to appear and tedium will diminish a bit.

Regards,

Richard.

[wendywombat]

All pale colours...but progress non the less, Richard!

[karen4bells]

Great update and I know it will be better for you when you start on page 3---stitching all of the neutral colors would get monotonous but it really looks nice!!