prologue
When an illustration inspires me, that is, it lends itself to an interpretation in embroidery, and my little embroidery heart awakens, then I bug it on a wall, right next to my desk. This means that I will see her and see her several times a day for days and days, months and months, sometimes years…
This means that before I start, I know her by heart.
I love this illustration for a long time and it was even on the cover of my catalog for some time because Viviane and Nimue are both avatars of the Lady of the Lake.
1- The canvas
For this new pair I chose a different marbled Zweigart canvas. I chose the color of the Other World: white. Symbolically this makes sense, because that’s how we know if we’ve swung into magic when white comes before our eyes.
2- Tones
The cape is in the center of the picture, I’ll start with that.
Although the character wears a red cape, I decide to go instead to red/pink, to move away from what was done for the first 2 characters. The color references will be completely different.
I create a first shade of pink/red and then a second brighter one before choosing the softest,
it’s played to nothing, just a quarter of tone less bright …
This choice will determine the general direction of embroidery. If I’m wrong, all I have to do is cry or do it all over again. This happened to me a long time ago for another Nimue, Nimue Sepia. Perhaps I would tell you this one day in History of Creations.
3- The grid
On my computer, in a dedicated software, I will ask the first points by recording the colors I have chosen. The software will memorize my choices and keep my palette. On my screen I can now see an area of dots that I have just created, I will be able to start embroidering by following this beginning of the grid.
Follow the progress of this new challenge here:
be continued… Viviane Episode 1
Viviane, The Lady of the Lake, by Nimuo after an illustration by Elph’s Zephir.
