Monday, June 7, 2010

Tranquil skies


I began stitching the Goat Island lighthouse canvas with the sky, needle-blending once again. There are actually very few families of blue in DMC cotton floss that will produce a seamless, needle-blended sky--the "fair weather" sky here was created with DMC floss #3755, 3325 and 3841.

Starting at the top, using four plies of DMC floss #3755, I stitched a random basketweave across the canvas, ending at the first lines marked on each side of the canvas. For each section, I subtracted one ply of the darker shade and added one ply of the lighter. By the time I reached the horizon, I was using two plies each of DMC floss #3325 and 3841.

If I had wanted a "stormy" or "cloudy" sky, I would have chosen DMC floss #932, 3752 and 3753 and used the same formula. Using these same shades of floss in reverse order would create a foggy sky! Isn't it interesting how a little manipulation of color choices of floss can create an entirely different look for a sky?

2 comments:

Possibilities, Etc. said...

A pretty sky! This one looks smooth in the transition of shading. I don't understand "random basketweave" ??

Anne Stradal said...

When you're stitching a section in basketweave, you stagger the bottom stitches--one a thread lower or higher every other stitch or so. That way you won't get a straight line across the canvas where the two sections--and two different combinations of thread plies--meet.