Episode 4 already? Time’s really flying. I can’t believe we’re at the end of January so soon. Check out the video for episode 4. I’m really excited about this sketch.

With this sketch, I employed the help of different tones and shades of thread colors to help me shade my sketch. (In previous sketches, I used just one color of thread to shade). To achieve this, I recreated a piece from my hand series – Bread & Butter (B/W). In the original piece, I used different shades and colors of fabric to color my picture. In episode 4, I used different tones of the same color thread to recreate Bread & Butter instead of colored fabrics. After watching the video, read the tips, tools and techniques section for help with effectively shading with different thread colors. Here’s the art piece which was the subject of episode 4. (Created with hand dyed fabric pieces)

  Here’s the art piece which I created by shading with different thread colors instead of fabrics pieces.

Here’s the reverse side of the thread painted piece.

Here’s the comparison of the original subject and shading with different thread colors.

Watch the video to see how you can create your own thread sketched piece by shading with different thread colors.

If the video does not come up, please watch it here.

Tips, Techniques, and Tools.

Shading with Different Thread Colors.

1. For simplicity, start with a limited number of thread colors. Rather, have various shades – light, medium, dark – of the same color
2. Layout a “shading map” before you start stitching so you know ahead of time where you want to have light, medium or dark shading.
3. Thread sketch by matching your thread (color or tone) with your shading map
4. Remember to space your stitch lines according to whether you want light, medium or dark shading (read more about varying distance between stitch lines for effective shading).
5. The color of fabric on which you thread sketch will affect how light or dark your shading looks.  If you thread sketch on a light colored fabric, you’ll need to do more stitching to get a dark shading effect.
6. Super Tip: When you have a large space to shade, divide up your space into smaller sections to make stitching manageable.

Varying both thread color and spacing between stitch lines is a super-smart and effective way to get a lot of shading done in a relatively short time. I’m very excited to share this technique with you and I hope you’ll take advantage of it in your own personal work. As always, I can’t wait to hear your comments and answer your questions. Warmest Regards,     Watch and read about the entire Stitch The Sketch series.