Title: Hunted
Date Completed: July 2023
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 16
Canvas: Black
Colours: 2
Pop Culture: Animals & Black
 
When Mr X Stitch came to me and told me that the next issue of the XStitch Magazine was going to be themed “Black” I was a little stumped.
There had previously been an issue called “Noir” in which I wrote about the importance of black in cross stitch, so when I was asked to come up with a whole new pattern, I just knew I needed to make it REALLY black.

I made the decision straight away to stitch on black aida, but what? I had a few ideas in the bag from my recent trip to a few galleries in London to get some cross stitch inspiration, and went through them to see just how I could adapt them.

One idea I had was a shutter speed-like effect where the object was only displayed using lines, and not whole blocks. And then it hit me.
Black panthers, much like all big cats, hunt in foliage. The line idea was essentially like the foliage panthers hunt in. Not only that, but they hunt in the dark, meaning they’re incredibly hard to see.

So I put a quick pattern together for the mag, and got it over to Mr X Stitch that shows how the hunted prey will see a black panther stalking it.