I haven't been able to do any stitching on the new leaf design since my last posting but I finally took the plunge and colored in the area I plan to be exposed canvas, or only lightly stitched. I used a marker technique using three Copic transparent markers. The colors used were a light green, a medium-dark blue green and a dark indigo. I used the three markers in order, and changed direction with each of the 7 layers. The resulting effect is supposed to be rather like a coarse linen fabric.
The scan is only of the left side of the design, but gives a good idea of how the technique looks.
The result might look at little rough right now, but there will be a little light stitching over the marker areas which will help to tie the areas together. One interesting thing I did realize was that I really should have added the marker earlier....but I just couldn't design which markers and layering I wanted to use before today. I kept making different samples, but never could settle on one. Now that the background is in, I realize I think the orange and yellow gold vertical strip is too bright and I will re-stitch it in slightly softer tones. Oh well....i'm no stranger to "unstitching".
I will be away for a few days and then back to stitching next week and will post more then. So, wishing everyone a great week.