Perhaps the most challenging cross stitch conversion I've encountered was in creating true to the painting cross stitch patterns of Rembrandt's painting. For those of you familiar with the works of Rembrandt, his paintings were usually dark with dramatic splashes of color to enhance the subject. I remember reading about his life story where it says that his paintings at that time was rejected by most because it was dark. Art patrons back then were used to light, bright paintings and here comes Rembrandt with his mostly black or dark paintings.

I had to create a balance between the colors to ensure that it does not totally come out too dark but also come close to the actual painting. The patterns went through a lot retries before I got it just right. My favorite among all those patterns that were created? The Man with the Golden Helmet. Very dramatic, dark background, warm colors on the face and helmet. I imagine this piece of cross stitch hanging in a library somewhere.

Below shows the process by which the painting was converted into our pattern and then actually stitched and you can see the progression and result.

Enjoy the new classic art cross stitch patterns folks! Happy Stitching this coming spring and summer!