Figure and Boat

Having finished sewing the pattern in the boat with two strands I started on the figure in the boat, also in two strands, but hit a problem. Looking at the image from a distance the two sections are the same shade and therefore are not distinguishable. It looks like they are simply two parts of the same object. The figure needs to be a noticeably different shade in order to be obviously separate - in the boat not part of it.

Adding extra stitches is the obvious answer but doing so with two strands would leave the pattern so heavy that it could not be distinguished because it is already quite compact. Therefore I cheated a bit and added an extra stitch to the pattern in machine thread so the overall impression is slightly darker but not too much:

The difference is minor but just enough to make the figure noticeably separate from the boat. The next section to move on to will be the mountains.