Needle Painting for Beginners
A course by Valentina CastilloEmbroiderer and Graphic Designer
A course by Valentina Castillo, Embroiderer and Graphic Designer
Paint with embroidery and learn to create unique animal portraits
The power of self-management and the idea of being able to make your imagination tangible in personalized and handmade pieces is what leads many artists to venture into the craft or DIY sector. Since she was a child, embroiderer and graphic designer Valentina Castillo has been passionate about creating with her own hands, drawing, and taking pictures. Then she found embroidery, a medium that's a little bit of everything she enjoys rolled into one. She specializes in needle painting, the technique she uses to portray and pay homage to pets, whether it's a dog, cat, or even a hedgehog.
In this online course, Valentina teaches you how to portray animals using needle painting. Learn how to choose a color palette and use different stitches to apply light and shadow as well as generate texture, so you can portray your favorite animals or your own pet as a keepsake or an ornament.
What will you learn in this online course?
20 lessons & 15 downloads
Materials we will need
5 minutes, 58 seconds
How to transfer your pattern to the fabric
3 minutes, 0 seconds
Color source and how to capture its colors
7 minutes, 12 seconds
Build the color palette
4 minutes, 50 seconds
Frame tension
3 minutes, 11 seconds
Starting the outlined
11 minutes, 11 seconds
What's included in this course?
Start by meeting your teacher, Valentina Castillo. She tells you all about how she got started in embroidery and how her style is linked to both graphic design and her interest in animals. She also shares her main influences.
Then Valentina explains the materials you need for embroidering your pet portrait, such as types of thread, a frame, fabric, scissors, etc. Move on to see how to choose the right photograph as your reference and color guide.
Learn to draw the portrait of your pet, with or without a pattern, exploring two different ways of doing this; one capturing the colors manually and the other digitally with Adobe Illustrator, before transferring your pattern to the fabric.
See how to find the mouliné threads that best correspond to your chosen colors. Also get some advice on the ideal number of colors. Now plan the color scheme in your pattern to better visualize the portrait.
Discover how to tighten the frame and work on the different areas of the portrait step by step. Next, begin by outlining some key features, then move on to the eyes to capture personality, then the nose, where you learn to work on volume.
The next stage is the fur, essential for adding texture and realism. Take a look at how to capture each color in layers, making the snout, forehead, cheeks, and ears. To finish off your artwork, add the whiskers before finally closing and sealing your embroidery hoop ready for display.
What is this course's project?
Create an embroidered portrait of an animal based on a photograph.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Embroiderers, illustrators, designers, artists, and anyone interested in learning new embroidery techniques
Requirements and materials
No prior knowledge is necessary for this course as your teacher starts from scratch.
As for materials, you need an embroidery hoop, mouliné threads, a needle, embroidery scissors, cotton or linen fabric, a fabric pencil, fabric glue, and felt or lenci cloth.
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Reviews
- 2 days ago
Me encanta esta técnica, agradezco por su enseñanza
- karisamaPLUS3 months ago
Este curso es genial !! La profesora explica muy bien. Solo haría la sugerencia de que las tomas de cámara fueran mucho más de cerca en las puntadas.
- 8 months ago
MUY CLARA! hace un trabajo, de tipo muy complejo, a uno muy claro!
- 1 year ago
Easy to understand and follow.
- 1 year ago
Ótimo curso! bem didático!
After the death of her dog, she decided to portray pets through embroidery to immortalize and honor their memory. Since then, she has made more than 100 embroidered portraits of dogs, cats, hedgehogs, you name it! Her specialties within embroidery are needle painting and silk shading.
She also gives embroidery workshops at Revesderecho to teach people their own way of understanding embroidery. In 2018, she collaborated on Makikoart's "I love my dog embroidery" book, where she embroidered more than 40 different breeds of dog.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- Presentation
- Influences
- What will we do in the course
- U2
Preparation
- Materials we will need
- How to choose the right photo to embroider
- How to draw the portrait of an animal
- How to transfer your pattern to the fabric
- U3
Color sensitivity
- Color source and how to capture its colors
- Build the color palette
- Color planning
- U4
Legs to work
- Frame tension
- Starting the outlined
- Main features: The eyes
- Main features 2: The nose
- U5
Legs to work II
- The coat, its direction and color mix: Nose
- The coat, its direction and color mix: Snout
- The coat, its direction and color mix: Front
- Ears and curves
- Whiskers
- How to close our part in the frame
- FP
Final project
- Needle painting for beginners
What to expect from a Domestika course
Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
Certificates
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
Connect with a global creative community
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FAQs
Needle painting is an embroidery technique that uses long, blended stitches to create effects of light, shadow, and color mixing, producing highly detailed and lifelike pet portraits with great depth.
This course is designed for those with intermediate embroidery skills—perfect if you already know the basics and want to master realistic animal portraits using needle painting.
You’ll need an embroidery hoop, fabric (like crepe), DMC Mouliné threads, needles, scissors, tracing paper, heat-transfer pencil, liquid silicone, and a high-resolution photo of your pet as a reference.
You’ll learn how to select and prepare photos, create digital or hand-drawn sketches, transfer designs to fabric, choose and blend colors, apply needle painting techniques, and achieve realistic textures, volume, and details.
Choose a sharp, well-lit, high-resolution photo that clearly shows your pet’s features, expressions, and details of their fur and eyes.
The techniques include long and short stitches, color blending, silk shading, and needle painting to build depth, highlights, shadows, and texture in the animal’s eyes and fur.
You can transfer your design using tracing paper, heat-transfer fabric pencils, or a lightbox, ensuring the main features of the animal are clearly marked on the fabric.