Needle-blending: not just for skies

I started work on Santa's face by stitching the flesh tone in basketweave with DMC floss #950 and the shading around the eyes and nose with DMC floss #3773.  To soften the look of his blue eyes, stitched with DMC floss #931, I used DMC floss #3799 instead of black.

When I'm noodling over how to stitch one area, I often move to another section that's a no-brainer.  So I stitched the red of his hat with Petite Very Velvet #V631, with shadows provided by DMC floss #815.

With that accomplished, I moved back to his cheeks, which are painted differently from most I've seen--not a solid color, but rather shaded from dark on the outside to a light sheen in the center.  To replicate this look, I decided to needle-blend them using DMC floss #818 and #776.  Starting with four plies of DMC floss #818, I worked the center area in basketweave with all the outside stitches staggered.  Then with four plies of DMC floss #776, I filled in the darkest areas, again staggering the stitches closest to the center every other canvas thread.  The last step was to fill in the remaining stitches with two plies of each color floss.  Satisfied with the effect, I can now stitch the second cheek!