The struggle continues...

Since my last post I decided to remove the hand stitching and go with free-motion embroidery. I have to say that I am finding the process to be very tedious on this piece, as I am attempting to add shadows and highlights with the stitching. Here is my update:



Below is a detail of some of the stitching I have added:

So far, the highlights are working better than the shadows. I am thinking of adding a darker thread to 'cross-hatch' some of the darker shadow areas in the hopes that will make the shadows more realistic...