Backstage of Pattern Designing: How I Struggled with Water Drops

When I first saw the reference picture of this snail, I actually fell in love. The vivid colours, the elegant lines and shapes, the juicy cherries... Perfect as it is. The only thing was a little bit scaring. The water drops. I've never drawn a single water drop before. And I knew there were some secrets of realistic water drops - but I didn't know them.

The water drops on the leaves were not as tough as I thought they could be. Of course, I've tried several options before finding the best one. By the time I finished them I already knew the water drop works as a lens, refracting light. But the most challenging thing still lay before me... The free hanging water drops.

So, after doing the main part of the pattern I faced a problem. Frankly speaking, two problems. The first was drawing the nasty water drops. The second was not to add many extra colours, for there were plently already in the design. I have signed. And I have tried. The very first drops looked as ugly as I can't describe. The second looked...like pebles. Some dumb colourful pebles. Just have a look below:

I knew this wouldn't work. After some five or six unfortunate tries I decided I need to come a bit strong. I googled for a realistic water drops painting tutorial. God save the YouTube! It was there, very useful. I did my first water drops in pencil! And at last I grasped some essentials about painting them. Even though my drops were too dark because I took the wrong pencil, too hard for the work xD

You mistake if you think it was done then. Drawing with cross stitches and backstitch is not actually drawing with a pencil... So I needed some ideas of transfering my results to the cross stitch pattern. For the glare on the shadowed part of the drop I used white backstitch, as the size was too small to use cross stitches for the purpose. And there must be a shadow behind the drop, but when I tried some gray half cross stitch shadow... Well, it was not the idea of the year. It looked quite strange, and besides it meant adding new colour, and a depressing one. So I made up my mind to use 2-stranded black backstitch to darken the drop and thus make a shadow. But surprisingly green hanging drops didn't look right in place) So I really-really had to add some blue colours. But I picked up cheerful shades to match the whole atmosphere of the design.

After all this story I have practically convinced myself I need some art classes) I swear I used as much time for the hanging drops as for the rest (and major!) part of the design! But I'm happy to see the pattern finished now)

#cross #stitch #pattern #snail #summer #cherries #water #drops