I have a embroidery pattern that I plan to crayon tint. It’s a bird on a branch. I can’t decide if I want to outline everything in black or just do the bird in black to make it stand out more, but that might look weird. I can’t decide…
What do you think? Use black or matching colors to the tinting?
Hm…I haven’t done crayon tinting but I do have a love for the black outline, lol.
I can see the branch (and leaves) in brown/green outline and the bird outlined in black to make it pop like you said. Outlining the bird with color could make it look more realistic though…
Hm. Now I can’t decide!
I like the idea of just outlining the bird in black! But if you start working on it, and feel like it’s wrong, just continue with the rest.
Can’t wait to see it!
I’ve done both. For a more vintage feel, use a black outline. If you want something more up to date then definitely the same color.
I’ve done it black outline with water colour pencil - not crayon tinting. I like how it looks, like a pencil drawing. I am working on a chickadee one now that I will either use pencil crayon or water colour pencil - or crayon on.
Thanks everyone! I think I’m going to go for the vintage look, given what it represents.
My teaching duties are officially done for the day, so I can now indulge in some stitching and music to turn my brain off. 
I’ve done the same - use color pencil. I was never able to achieve the same smoothness with crayon. But I like the black outlines
One way to achieve smoothness is with a white eraser or a shading pencil.
I wonder if using a solvent would help - it is an option for paper. Except unless you are very careful, like maybe using a moistened stump or q-tip, you may not be able to control bleed. Also, it could affect any dye in the threads or the fabric.
I have used a dry qtip to blemd. It works okay.