Originally posted 2009-10-14 06:53:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
I recently finished my ornament from School Needlepoint of the main building from my DH’s (and my) alma mater, St. John’s College.
I made some changes from the original ornament. I made the sky a lighter and more muted blue. I also left out the lettering at the bottom. Changing the sky meant I had to make the columns stand out by outlining them with long stitches in a dark metallic. The dome is white instead of gold as well.
It’s the building though that makes the piece and some of the things I did there are great ideas for buildings on hand painted canvas needlepoint. First, look at the windows. The canvas had the windows in white with thin black lines outlining them. These windows have frames, which are one color, and panes, which are another. The panes are made of glass, so they should be a metallic thread. If they are not lit, they should be a darker metallic. If they are lit, it should be a yellowish metallic, almost white.
Now look at the brick. I’ve put a picture of the actual building above for comparison. Notice that the center is further forward then the wings. I showed this by using a slightly lighter and different thread for the center section. The bigger the difference between the facades, the bigger the difference in shades you should use.
Brickwork, especially on old buildings, can be pretty complex, but if the building is seen from a distance, most of that disappears. Bust I did want to show off some detailing. The canvas had lines drawn on it to mark the floors. I did those in Oblique Continental to highlight them. If you had more detailed brick,this could be done in Diagonal Gobelin in a Horizontal Cashmere facade.
Easy ideas, big results.
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