Stitch The Sketch #18: Purple Orchid

Orchids are lovely, delicate and beautiful to look at. What I love more than looking at orchids is growing them. There’s something about the process of caring for and watching a flowering plant grow that I love. Although you wouldn’t know that by looking around my yard. But what can I say, I have a few potted plants 🙂

I took a close-up photo of one of my potted orchid flowers for this stitched drawing. Since I’ve used the color yellow recently, I decided to re-color the cream orchid and make a purple orchid.

Here’s my inspiration photo for the purple orchid.

Here’s my shaded pencil drawing of “Purple Orchid”

And the stitched drawing …

Reverse view of “Purple Orchid”

And then the video that shows me putting it all together. If I can’t have a pretty garden full of purple orchids, at least I can stitch one to remind me of the real thing.

Scroll down after the video to read how I use texture to create different areas of interest in this stitched drawing of “Purple Orchid”

VIDEO

Tips, Techniques, and Tools

Defining Areas of Interest Using Texture: “Purple Orchid”

When a viewer sees your stitched drawing the overall look of the piece should draw them in to take a closer look. Now when you’ve drawn the viewer in, you must have something to show them.

One way to accomplish this is by creating different areas or pockets of interest for the viewer to explore. Texture is a tool that I’ve found useful in creating areas of interest  in my stitched drawings

In “Purple Orchid“, I used three different forms of stitched texture to create interest.

1. The Raised Surface: To create this form of texture in a particular area, you stitch (shade) all around that area leaving the desired area unstitched. This results in your desired area being raised above its surroundings. An example of this is the white area in the center of the flower. Watch the video to see it.

2. The Wavy Surface: To create this form of texture, leave spaces between adjacent lines of stitching. Don’t make your stitch lines too close together. The unstitched space between stitches will create a raised surface like above. Now repeating a pattern of space then stitched line, space then stitched line -will result in a wavy look. Watch the video above and see how I stitched the medium value petal.

3. The Flat Surface: To create this, completely cover your chosen area with stitch lines that are close to each other. Always remember, simply stitching any area of your work closely together will flatten that area.

Let me know if these tips and techniques are helping.

Warmest Regards,

 

 

 Watch all the Stitch the Sketch Videos and read about the techniques.