Getting my help_japan charity commission finished up.  I'd offered myself up for two cross stitch commissions, but one of my bidders disappeared into the ether.  Which is probably good given my level of grad-school related fail.

After some negotiations, we went with Cubone.  Pokemon are great since most of them now have an overworld sprite and several front sprites to choose from.  This is the first time I've done a back sprite, but it's what my commissioner sent over.

Most video game sprites have a black outline.  It's much easier to start with the outline and then fill it in, but then you also have to be very careful that you're not getting stray threads caught under or pulled through with your lighter colors.

During the PCA/ACA conference I started working on a Shiny Vaporeon for personal use.  I don't have to worry about getting my threads mixed up, but I did have to learn how to count.  And since I don't "fill in" areas that are the same color as the fabric, I dread finding out that I've miscounted everything below Vaporeon's white ruff.

Cubone I did start with the outline because I'm a jerk because that made it much easier to figure out the starting point and a lot of the design is that big white skull.  Yes, I did spend a lot of time carefully picking stray bits of black out from behind my stitches.

I talk about color choices a lot, but that's only because color choices are either ridiculously obvious or the biggest pain in my ass.  Except for the few times they are a total pain in my ass until an Angel of the Lord descends and says, "Glory to God in the Highest, for He hath decided that all white people shall hence forth be stitched with 945 or possibly 948, but really thou shalt just go with 945."

Like I've said before, choosing colors is not about what color something actually is; it's about what color something looks like.  I'm still not entirely sure I got the colors quite right for Cubone, but I also have no idea what would've been better.  Some of the official art looks like a pale golden brown, but the sprites and other pictures look more tan.

If you look at the stitched picture and the sprite, you can see I've skipped the shading.  I didn't think the little highlight on the arm was worth it, and I was definitely worried that the shading on the back of the skull would just look dingy at this size (fortunately my commissioner is willing to trust me rather than wanting to go totally accurate).

According to its Pokédex entry, Cubone is hardcore.