Bunch of Poppies - Outlines and Leaves

I took a break from doing leaves and stem stitched the outlines of the poppies ....

Next to do is the remaining two stalks and the remainder of the leaves (near the top and also the fix-it job I mention below). Then I get to start padding some of the petals.

I'm naughty - I should have done all of the stalks before doing the leaves - the rule is that objects that lie underneath other objects are to be done first - so they 'retreat' into the background - a matter of stitch layering at the edges where they meet. So I'm cheating on the stitch layering.

With that middle bunch of leaves I recently finished - I made a change. I combined several leaves on the right into one big leaf. I feel that it really 'pops' out of the picture to come towards you

I do have a couple of problems.

1) the arrow on the left. That was supposed to be two leaves. I've done it as one leaf, so it looks like the stalk is erupting from the middle of the leaf.

I was too close to the picture when I was sewing it, loosing the 'big picture' and doing two seperate leaves wasn't working, so I combined them, forgetting about the effect that would have on the stem - and then later looked at the picture and thought "ooops".

I'm not that worried that I'm going to re-do it though. It can be a 'quirk'.

2) the arrow on the right.

In the original there is a bit of leaf on the *other* side of the poppy. It's not connected to any of the leaves in the centre, but it does look good to have a bit of greenery out there as well as all of the greenery in the middle.

I had to do that line of the bottom petal of the red poppy petal 3 times before it looked right, and have gotten stuck with a pen line that won't be covered by stalk or petal.

You can see the bit that won't be covered at the base of the right arrow - in between some leaf, and a stalk.

My solution is to say 'well, there *should* be some leaf that is reaching up in that direction anyway, so that outermost bit of leaf isn't an orphan. I've drawn in the arrow to show the direction the leaf should go, ending at the 'orphan' leaf.

If I create leaf over the line, orientated in the direction of the arrow, I will cover that pen line and also give that outer leaf something to hang onto.

It means fixing the existing leaf a bit - it's got darkest edges where it finishes at the base of the poppy atm, but for it to make sense for it to go behind the poppy and all the way to the edge, it should only be light/mid green before it disappears behind the poppy, and then dark when it emerges out the other side.

As for the construction of the purple poppy, I don't get it, but will do it as is.