Here is the sketch I made on the spot at the top of the cliffs in Orkney. It was such a dramatic surprise coming to the edge of the cliff from the carpark. I knew straight away that I wanted to draw them. I used soft pastel and pencil for this. It was this sketch that I used for my recent diptych shared on this blog using dye and stitch on canvas as well as some oilbar.

It is a sad day for me as am coming to the close of this little piece. I never like endings and this particular response is no different. However, you have to know when to leave something alone and not just keep going for the sake of it as it were. Click to enlarge as usual. I have used a little oil-bar on here as well as the stitch and pebeo dyes on sized rough canvas. It was made from a small sketch created on the spot which I will share soon…

Am sharing this second panel with hand stitching so far. This is incredibly slow work but I don’t mind that! The action is satisfying, meditative and stays with me as I think about marks. It is drawing in a different media afterall. I am not finished yet and will introduce some other media soon I think. I split the threads even down to a single strand to provide different effects.