At the end of Part 1 I mentioned that I had made a tracing of the basic position of the main features of the picture, with the intention of using that to mark the important features onto the background by stitching.

These pictures show the tracing, and part of the initial background marking.

This picture shows all the marking out I have done at this stage, as I like to work these pictures from the far distance first and work towards the foreground, so that I have a better chance of getting perspective and depth right. The tracing is still intact as I have just released it from the backing by running a needle along the line of the stitches, cutting though the tracing paper without (so far) tearing it.

You may note that the tracing does not show the horse. I made a separate tracing of that, so that I can place it correctly when the picture is sufficiently advanced and so that I get the size right.

The next step is my palette of felt “paints” Having collected from my stash of merino tops those colours that I thought might be useful, and using my dog comb-carders, I started to blend various colours to create those I would need for the hill in the far background.

However as I was doing it in the evening, using my daylight lamp, I found that it is not really “daylight”, just bright. When looked at in the real daylight it was clear that most of the colours are wrong. After I had used them to fill in the far distant hills, I saw that they looked even more like sky than in the original photo. So I enlarged that section of the original photo and used that to recreate the palette.

The hills still look a bit on the blue side in this picture, but not as blue as I had needled into the picture. Also it is clear that in my picture I had not made the nearer hills misty enough. So I set to and removed all the colours I had added and did some more blending in the real daylight.  Here is what I managed to come up with by sitting beside the window while I was doing it.  It was a bit overcast  outside but I understand that that is the best light to work in if you haven’t got a north facing window.  Mine faces west and when the sun is shining in the afternoon I can’t see for squinting.

Here’s what I came up with. Much better.

I’m going to have to try to find replacements for the carders though, one of the handles has snapped off. My husband’s “patched” it with a bit of brass and some screws (he works in metal!) but it won’t last much longer. Mind you they don’t owe me anything, I bought them about 6 or 7 years ago and I only paid £1. each for them!

So now I have to go back to the picture and remove what I have done; and on Thursday, when my friend is reopening her workshop, I’ll have a full day to make a fresh start.  I can’t wait.

In fact I’ve just been to a second full day’s workshop so I’ve made fair progress.  I have added the Golden Mean lines so that I can make sure that I can show things that I want to emphasise where I want them to be “artistically”.

My last picture shows where I’ve got to todate. Watch this space!