Stitching and Stitching

The sun has gone away again, today has been wet, windy and grey. I have been looking at and changing things on my most recent work. I have even thought of starting over but I am trudging on not giving up just yet. I have worked on the dyed background with oil sticks to lay down the features of the girl in the portrait. At the moment her soft features and subtle expression of shyness are being strongly contrasted with her painted mask design which is quite strong and overpowering . I have used paint and stitch for this. From the overall image you can see that I still have quite a long way to go, I intend to include some printing and applique onto the background and will add more definition to the face. The machine embroidered round shapes seem to work well in representing the texture of hair, I intend to add beads and printing to this as well. It is quite an overwhelming task which I have set myself and as I do not consider myself a quilter I am giving it a go and I am using quilting as a new means of expression.