Not quite starting over…

Well, what with putting her away over Christmas and then taking some time to make a decision about what to do next, it’s been a while since you saw Aethelflaed..

And here I am, snipping and snipping away at all of the wall outlines, the blocks I’d already stitched, and even the pile of blocks ready to be reused.

All gone!

And now, the section behind her and her horse is reinstated, using a mixture of blends and a couple of single colours. The tones are much closer together than they were originally, and I’ve also chosen not to use the dark outlines and dark “mortar”. This will help to create a more subtle background, while still having the pinky-orange of Cheshire sandstone. I’ve seen all these colours in various bits of Chester’s Walls – I’ve just chosen, this time, not to include the much darker browns and plum colours which are also there.

So much of representational art, whether it be painting or embroidery, comes down to a question of editing. What do I want to emphasize? What do I want to play down? How can I balance the colours, the shapes, the patterns, to tell the story I want to tell?

Looking at the newly worked section from further away, I think I’m happy now that the wall will pull back as I need it to.

Now I just need to keep going!