Gu Xiaoxian's•Thesis 1

On the Artistic Creation of the Embroidery Work Lotus.
Abstract: This is an analysis of a delicate embroidery artwork Lotus. This work is based on an oil painting work. As we all know，the oil painting work is much more colorful than the works of traditional Chinese style painting. Therefore, it is even more complicated in the use of color when embroidering the work.
 Key words：Embroidery   Painting   The use of color
 Let's start with the background of this work. In Su embroidery, the background of an embroidery work can be completed in many ways, such as dense embroidery which is also used in this work, or virtual and real embroidery techniques that is usually applied in ink series artwork. Some of embroidery work are not embroidered with background in traditional Chinese artwork. Two techniques of “random embroidery” and “even embroidery” are usually used in embroidery artwork with dense background. Considering the strokes in the original oil painting, vertical small cross needlework embroidery is used in Lotus, which is more close to the with the original form of expression. The color of the background in the painting becomes darker from top to bottom. So the color and thickness of threads in embroidery are important factors to achieve such an effect. The hazy distant background can be expressed with relatively fine silk threads and intense stitches. For the upper background in this work, two silk threads are used in underpainting. Another two threads are used to touch it up. One more colorful thread to make it more refined. In this way, the background are with diverse color and also a sense of haziness. The background below six silk threads are used to underpaint, four threads to make it denser and another two thread to refine. No matter the size of the color block, each color block has more than three colors. Color transition between color blocks is well handled while embroidery. Usually, the color of oil painting works is usually cold and warm color mixing, which is much easier to deal with when painting oil painting, but it is very difficult to use Su embroidery to express such an effect, because the color of each thread of Su embroidery is unrelated. It is impossible to mix two colors together to get one mixed color, so one can only look for the middle color through which two distinctively different colors can be transited more naturally. Sometimes there will be two or even three middle colors if necessary. The green silk thread cannot be embroidered on the red silk thread. It is same with the blue and yellow silk thread. Otherwise the embroidered works are not natural or delicate. The painter's meticulous painting and the diversity of color changes in the bottom part of this painting makes embroiderer match almost all the colors of thread in the wire box to get the proper color. How can one make full use of these colors when embroidering?
 First of all, one needs to choose the proper main color because the silk thread is the thickest in the underpainting. The thicker the silk thread, the stronger the color intensity it has, which can better show the main color. As the underpainting is divided into several color blocks and the color of each color block is relatively independent of each other, it is difficult to integrate these color blocks.
 Secondly, compared with the thick silk threads used in the underpainting, finer silk threads with middle color are used for the second layer to transmit the different color between color blocks. Middle color can be in the same color type, or different color types. It depends on embroiderer’s ability to compare color. Without accurate master of middle color, the color in the embroidered silk can be garish. If there is much middle color with dense stitches, it is also difficult to polish and add other color to it later.
 Third, to diversify the colors on the color block, we must first find the darker color in the color blocks. These colors are often embroidered in small quantities, but they are quite obvious after embroidering. Now, there are two different situations. In the first situation, the color of the second layer is closer to the underpainting, especially for the dark and the light color, which can be integrated easily. In this case, one can directly apply the color of the original painting, such as directly embroidering the violet on the purple underpainting, But for the middle color with a relatively high color intensity, things becomes different. In the second situation, things are more complicated. Colors in one clock block varies distinctively from each other, such yellowish red and green, which cannot be embodied together directly. So how can one integrate two colors in the embroidery? First, to find the middle color between those two colors. The color close to yellowish red is yellow. For green, yellowish green is the close color. Therefore, one can choose near-matching yellow as the middle color. If one middle color is not enough, one can try two middle colors for the color transition. In this way, colors in one color block can be more natural and matching.
 Because the bottom part is quite colorful, there will be more embroidery layers.
 The embroidery of the main part requires proper direction of stitches according to the shape of patterns. For example, it needs centripetal stitches for the embroidery of lotus leaves. To make the leaves more vivid, the needles move with slight curves, forming a little s-shape. The embroidery of the reversed leaves and unfolded tender leaves is based on their shape, which is quite different from flat leaves. The weaving technique of Baotou embroidery or even embroidery is used in the embroidery of lotus. I use the fine random embroidery, because it is easier to add color on the second or third layer of embroidery. One need to embroider not only the color of lotus leaves, but also the color of surroundings according to different scenes. Even if it seem that there is only the color of green, one need to embroider with different types of green, such as grass green, yellow-green, blue-green, emerald green and other green. One also needs to pay great attention to the color of surroundings that is close to the color of background or near flowers. The same is true for the lotus. Except the main color that can be noticed at a glance, one also need to add some near-matching color that highlight the sense of layers. For example, one can add yellowish pink, pink-purple and purple on the pink lotus. Flowers should also be embroidered with surrounding colors, such as green.
 The painter paid great effort in this wonderful work with many subtle details. It also take much effort to embroider those all those details. However, I believe, with a yearning for beauty and the endless pursuit of embroidery learning, the artworks embroidered will amaze people all over the world.
 Author: Gu Xiaoxian