abstract paleontology

Two firsts for me this week. 

My first every tangling done on an Official Zentangle tile.  It was an entirely different experience than working on any of the papers I’ve used so far.  It was softer, warmer, more welcoming in many ways but also demanding of a gentler approach.  I loved the way it slowed my pen down, making me feel like I had far more control of where my lines where going.  But the surface fluffed up a bit with my desire to get my black areas really black and I need to be a bit softer with my blending stump too as the tile surface again started to protest a little. 

I used the tile to pick up where I left off with my One Zentangle a Day course.  Day 20 introduced Jetties, Sampson and Nzeppel.  I can see that Jetties will be great fillers of awkward spaces and provide a useful alternative to Tipple.  Sampson is lovely, and looks like that yellow lichen that appears to be soft and delicate until you need to chisel it off.  And Nzeppel to me look like fancy fishnet stockings!  I used it at Christmas to tangle a tree on a card for my partner and with a touch of glitter at the junctions it looked very festive. 

My second adventure was into the world of colour.  Apart from the odd dash of red or blue to accent the occasional It’s a String Thing tile I’ve avoided colour.  But I wanted to have a play – this is supposed to be fun right? – and see what I could do.  I’m not a natural artist and often what I see in my head fails to materialise on paper – but this was a rare instance where it did.  

I wetted the paper first and then dropped small spots of colour from my new Zig Clean Color brushes.  The colour spread out a bit.  And I left it to dry.  It did cause the paper to wrinkle a bit – but hopefully fine -tuning my paper choice will get round that in future.  I then monotangled Snaylz Trayl (from Tanglepatterns) over the top and blacked in all the space between and around.  The Pigma Micron 01 had no trouble drawing over the dried colour.  I wanted the tiles to look like a slice through rock – fossils buried deep within layers of colour built up through the ages.  And I believe it does.  It’s not my tidiest piece – probably because I was so excited that it seemed to be working - but I’m very happy with it!