Progress on Phoebe Anna Traquair piece

I have made good progress on my Phoebe Anna Traquair piece. I continued working the sky around the birds, building the picture outwards.

I need to do a little more work on the transition of sky colour above and below the branch - but this is easier done as the picture progresses.

I  continued along the tree branch.  It was quite tricky. I worked by instinct and eye, with a few periods of studying the original and also looking at trees. I used the full range of four colours provided for the tree. For the stem of the leaf I blended a green with a beige.

The sky was soothing to stitch. It was good to have a large area to work. I continue to fiddle with the top corner cloudy thing.

This is where I am now. I am adding rows of couching to that big leaf, to lift the colour above the brown base. I have more of this to do as well as adding the outlines of the stem, branches and leaf. I will also touch up a few places and adjust that cloud further.