Embroidered Collage

This face took two tries.  The first time I tried to do it only from an image in my mind and ended up tearing a piece of the dark blue paper into ever smaller and eventually useless piece.  I was adapting my ideas along the way, trying to figure out how else to fit the face onto the 8"x10" sheet.  I even tried drawing on the sheet first, but then couldn't figure how to place the paper.

The second time I tried I did a little sketching first from a reference photo, looking for the curves and shapes that I wanted.  Then, when I went in to cut I knew which points to keep mentally in mind and the path my hands should take.  It worked much better and I still came up with something more free than if I'd actually drawn the lines on the blue paper itself and cut along them.

I used chain stitch for the eye and mouth.  I had originally intended the red as lips, but some of the folks at CoachCreativeSpace, where I posted the image yesterday, interpreted the lines as teeth.  That's actually pretty neat and I can see how the spaces between the chain stitches do have that effect.

I'm wondering if there's a way to effectively make the details with paper shapes and the expanse of the face as lines for the next piece.  Or if I want to leave the face as negative space and use the paper to indicate the water instead.