Acanthus design outlined

So here's the Greek acanthus design, outlined in split stitch, and the next stage is to design the areas where I'll do drawn and pulled threadwork and some needleweaving. This first stage went surprisingly fast.

As you see, the design is free flowing rather than the severely symmetrical acanthus design carved onto Greek columns, because this is stitching, so it needed a looser treatment.  Anyway, it's working so far.  We'll see how the open work areas work out.

Incidentally,since some blogistas are interested in design, just a note on how I proceed:  I pinned the hoop over a lampshade to act as light box, and pinned a sheet of paper over it, so that I could try out drawing various forms and shapes for the openwork on the paper.  I tried and discarded geometrics, which were a bit too severe against the flowing lines, and fought with them, and I think I'll go with various organic shapes, a la Arp, in various parts of the interior of the plant.  


At this point I don't think I'll do anything with the negative space, that's the area around the plant.  But that may change as I go.