I've been thinking a lot more about backgrounds, and the composition of the whole area of an embroidery, than I used to, and the idea of a design just hanging somewhere in mid-air makes me a bit uneasy these days. A while back I did a design of a Siberian tiger, which I quite liked in itself, but it was definitely one of those mid-air designs. So I’ve been trying to think of a suitable background for it. Thr tiger itself reminded me of some of the tigers in Rousseau's jungle paintings
A Rousseau tiger in the jungle
So my first idea was to put the tiger on an embroidered background of Rousseau-esque jungle foliage.
The Siberian tiger in an embroidered jungle
This sort of worked, but the more I looked at it the more it reminded me of a naive illustration to a children’s book – naturally, I suppose, as Rousseau’s work does have a lot of childlike and naive elements. However I wanted something a bit more sophisticated, so I just painted an abstract and jungly background in greens and yellows, and stitched the tiger on it. To my eye this is a more successful approach, and although it still needs work I think it’s better than the more realistic treatment
The Siberian tiger in a painted jungle
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