Picking the Right Background Color

Recently I completed stitching this Cheshire Cat from Petei. I just adore the design, but finding the right color for the background was a real challenge. In finding it, I worked through some questions that can help you find the perfect background color for your designs.

With more and more needlepoint being painted with no background at all, deciding on a background color becomes more difficult.

Remember that the background is supposed to set off and highlight the focal point, directing your attention to it. You want something that sits apart from the focal point, otherwise you lose bits of the design into the background. If the background does not do this, it isn’t the right one.

First, ask what are the value ranges in the focal point. If they are a narrow range of values, you can pick something lighter or darker than the focal point. With this black and white design, I had too broad a spread to use that solution.

Second, ask if an overdyed thread will work. Sometimes, the design can be set off beautifully by a lovely thread of this kind. Here, unhappily, that won’t work. Once again it’s the wide value range that killed this solution as well, but I did think about it.

Third, look at where the item would in nature, often background colors based on this work well. An animal can often look great on a background of some kind of green. This was my initial motivation in picking green, but it ended up fitting another consideration as well.

Fourth, look at accent colors in the design. Background colors will also work that pick up one of these colors. Here, in choosing primary green for the background, I also picked up the sparkly green of the eyes.

By asking yourself these questions you will be able to find several possibilities for background colors. Hold each up to the needlepoint to see which “sings.”

Then stitch away. If it doesn’t work, you know how to find other possibilities.