Just Another Good Omens Needlepoint Done

It's nice to have something to do while watching baseball games on TV, and I watch a lot of them (the Twins and the Mariners).  Needlepoint projects are perfect.  I can spread the supplies over the coffee table and just stitch away, and I don't need to fret too much about losing my place in the complex patterns because with baseball games you only need to look at the TV when you hear the sound of a bat making contact with a ball.  Yay!

I've done three needlepoints during this year's baseball season, all images of my favorite characters from Good Omens.  Two of them were 35,000 stitches, and the latest one that I just finished was 62,000.  Wahoo!  

Here's the photo I used for the pattern -- it's my own colored pencil drawing of Aziraphale the angel holding his beloved books:

Very complicated!

And here is the needlepoint, which looks a little skewed here because the stitch tension tends to warp the canvas a bit as one goes along.  I'm currently in the process of blocking (straightening) it.

Next I'm going to do Crowley, with wings.  It's also 62,000 stitches, which will definitely get me through the playoffs and the World Series and far beyond!

In Which I Ignore the Zoom Group Art Choices

 As I believe I've explained here before, but for the benefit of any imaginary new reader out there or just old forgetful readers, I do three virtual art sessions a week via Zoom with four friends.  On Wed/Fri we choose a photo to work from, and on Mondays we can work on whatever project we like.

About a month ago, for the Monday project, I decided to do something that would take more than one Monday -- a painting of Aziraphale's bookshop (yes, that would be Good Omens again).  I came across this pre-production photo, which had lots of fabulous details and wonderful lighting:

We never actually see this view in the series itself, as some furniture was changed or moved around, and that gorgeous staircase top was never shown.  (We've been promised a view of the upstairs in the upcoming second series, so maybe it will turn up then.)  

I decided to use Strathmore mixed-media tanned paper, as it had worked well for an earlier piece I did of the bookshop -- this one, in fact:

Well, as things turned out, the toned paper wasn't really necessary, as I wound up covering every single inch of it.  But I enjoyed working on it, as it has the smoothness needed for fine detail work, with just barely enough of a surface texture to allow for some watercolor blending.  

I started with a simple pencil sketch to place the basic objects, and put in a few details in brown ink.  And then I used white gouache to add highlights, and watercolors for the rest of this very complex picture.

Here you can see the start of those details, and the simpler sketch:

The piece is 8" x 10".  I used VERY VERY small brushes to get the fine details, especially in the staircase top and railing, and for the books.  (Most of the books are about 1/16" wide!)  This is the smallest brush I used (Princeton Velvetouch 5/0 Spotter):

I wound up enjoying the process so much that when the Wed/Fri group sessions came around, I often ignored whatever picture the others chose to work on, and just kept painting away on the bookshop.  And I worked on Tue/Thu/Sat/Sun too!

Most days I could only handle about an hour of painting.  I had to enlarge the original photo 300-400% to see the fine details, and would work on one or two square inches at a time, and go bug-eyed after a while.  Also, the tiny brush can't hold much paint -- perhaps 1-2 strokes -- so I was constantly reloading it.  It was quite slow-going!  

It all took a month to complete, and I love the results:

Now I don't have a Monday project...hm...I wonder if there are other photos of the bookshop that would be fun to do?   

Wait and see!