Cardinals – Sketch in Inktense

This is an off-centered sketch I did in preparation for a new needlepainting. One of the reasons I do these came up smartly while I was painting it: it had looked fine to me in the pencil sketch. But as I was painting, something looked off. The design was centered on the page, but there was something… wrong.

Yeah. That’s because in the original drawing that I transferred to the sketchpad, I forgot to draw the TAIL on the male cardinal to the right. Oops. But that’s OK, because this was a test sketch. I may do it again in watercolor or Inktense® by Derwent (The colors in these Inktense® blocks really ARE intense!)

Now imagine the problems I’d have if I’d centered this tailless bird on fabric and stitched all of it before seeing the error! Stitching is meditative, but I really have no desire to stitch something twice because of a drawing mistake.

This is why I highly recommend coloring your design on a paper copy in some manner before transferring it to fabric. You get to play with colors a bit before stitching, and problems that should be obvious but sometimes aren’t can jump out at you a bit sooner, and with less impact.

I’m now in the floss-choosing phase of this project. One of my favorite parts, as I get to dive in and pet my stash. More on it later!