Luis Royo: Luz. Update 9 May 2020

[SteveM]

The bottom left area of page 8 looks a bit darker than the pattern would suggest. Does it look fine to the eye or is it indeed coming out darker than expected?

[richardandtracy]

I'm using the standard DMC thread definition files, which from 'I'm Watching You' lead to a picture a bit darker than the original. However, also from 'I'm Watching You' the picture is actually pretty good nonetheless.

Regards

Richard.

[lavenderbee]

Well done on a good start. That shading is great on this Richard& you are doing well, all those stitches on this section, always amazes me when I see these projects.

Look forward to seeing your cat one too. They will both be masterpieces going by your other works.

[richardandtracy]

An update.
After putting Gryff away, I picked this one up determined to do something more interesting, so moved to page 7 of the chart. This was on 30 April and now have done a fair bit more:

The progress is as below. The photo covers the area shown by pages 3,4,7 & 8. I am using a light yellow thread as gridding, which has helped a great deal, though it's currently making for an odd line across Luz's eye. The stitched area shown in the photo is exactly 5.5" x 7", so on a PC screen will display at slightly over full size. Stitch count is probably approaching 7000:

It doesn't look too bad. Luz's left eye has about 40 colours in it, none are solid colours and few stitches colours have more than 2 or 3 stitches in the area. Consequently doing her face and hair has been fairly slow. Anyway, the face part of this page is finished and I'm getting on with her hair. Having something to look at has improved motivation enormously, and should carry me through the background section of this page.

Regards,

Richard.

[rcperryls]

Awesome update!! The eye is perfect (assuming your gridding thread gets pulled) and I think the fabric is perfect for this design also. Having something to stitch beside background is a great motivator. Looking forward to more updates on this one.

Carole

[SteveM]

I am plodding through pages of background on both of my WIP's. I don't mind too much, but I think you've got a good idea here with adding something of interest. And it looks like that eye detail did come out quite nicely.

[Allyn]

That looks great.

[lavenderbee]

Brilliant update Richard. This is coming along nicely. I'll take your word about how many stitches you've done as I haven't time to count them This is going to be another fascinating project to follow to the end. It is a good idea to change to something intricate on a project after doing a few sections of fairly plain stitching. I interchange now & find it helps. Look forward to seeing next update

[karen4bells]

Amazing update!!

[AlwaysGoofy]

The details of your charts and stitching are mesmerizing. I've tried blended threads in the past, and it just gave me a headache. But there is no denying the beauty and detail that it produces.

Thank you for sharing your updates. I look forward to each and every one.

[richardandtracy]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

The blending is not actually too difficult. I have a number of thread cards with spaces for all 447 DMC colours. I store two cards facing outwards so I can read the numbers in a ziploc bag and 20 colours per card. This stops tangles and reduces thread wear. Then I simply pick off two for the blend. Once that colour is finished for the moment, I have a second set of thread cards marked with the symbol number (1-107) and store the thread in the right hole. It possibly takes 75% longer to choose the thread than with a solid colour. Otherwise it's pretty much the same as with solids.

One thing I find a real boon is the 'stitch breakdown for each page' that my program does (hope others do it too) as it means with low numbers of certain colours on a page, I can be certain that I've stitched all of a certain colour on the page. It really is worth scanning the chart page for stitch 8 after completing 7 of that colour if I know there are only 8 on the page.

Regards

Richard.

[fccs]

Beautiful update!!!

[SteveM]

One thing I find a real boon is the 'stitch breakdown for each page' that my program does (hope others do it too) as it means with low numbers of certain colours on a page, I can be certain that I've stitched all of a certain colour on the page. It really is worth scanning the chart page for stitch 8 after completing 7 of that colour if I know there are only 8 on the page.

I should try to make better use of this feature, but the PDF grows to 203 pages with ~150 of those pages devoted to the per-page list of stitches. There are 8 pages in the PDF for every 39 symbols so the symbol counts for page 1 are on every 8th page from page 51 onward. If I stitched one symbol at a time that wouldn't be an issue of course so I may try that on page 2 of the pattern.

[richardandtracy]

Two weeks of sporadic stitching have passed since the last update, and I have made a little progress, around 2000 stitches maybe. There are 7000 on this page, so it seems about right that I'm around the half way mark, possibly a little past half way.


Still working on chart page 7.

On a PC screen, the picture above is approx. life size, so coverage is still small.
Have finished Luz's hair, and having done most of the background adjacent to the hair, it's looking a lot better defined. It is strange how the hair appears to get lighter the more I fill in the background.
It is much nicer doing this picture now that part of the focal point of the picture is visible. I have used every one of the 69 colours present on this page, and the time involved in making the blends is surprising.

This is the last update I'll make before swapping over to my 'Gryff' picture for June.

Regards,

Richard.

[SteveM]

Yes, the hair is much better defined even though all you've done is add surrounding background stitches. I've been starting to notice lately that surrounding stitches can really alter the perception of the area being looked at. I am really impressed that you've got 69 colours present on the page, you've done a good job.

[fccs]

This is just stunning, Richard!!

[rcperryls]

This is just stunning, Richard!!

I totally agree!!

Carole

[lavenderbee]

Just as fabulous as always Richard. You are doing very well with this. Love it

[richardandtracy]

Thanks for all your kind comments, it all helps to keep the enthusiasm up.

Regards,

Richard

[Lulu22]

Beautiful update and such neat stitching