the curse of the black pearl

My peripheral vision has a lot to answer for. Last week I made a couple of tiles that had little black pearls scattered throughout them. I had no idea where these had come from, but there they were. Perhaps I'd seen them in one of the many tiles I view online...

... yesterday I turned to Day 25 of One Zentangle a Day and was introduced to Perfs. And they they were. Those little black pearls. I'd obviously seen them coming in the book but not realised. 

 

I had great fun playing with them, and their paler variants. Like the other Tangle Enhancers they really add extra life to the area they inhabit. Extra movement, extra darkness or light, balance, shape. I know they will come in very handy when I have that 'something's missing' moment.

Featuring - Flux, Fescue, Rain and Snag

In the first tile I used a sanguine pen to draw the meandering Flux.  I'd been drawn to this pen, and it's sepia counterpart but not been 100% happy with the results - but I think perhaps using it alongside the black pen creates a more pleasing look for me. 

The band of plain Perfs around the base really anchor the tangles for me.  I might have used Tipple there, but this way works better, creating a sense of the whole image being seated, but without it darkening.  It's almost like the Perfs are a pale shading.

Featuring - Onamato, Aquafleur, Verdigogh, Echoism and Flux

For the second activity Krahula asks us to use colour in place of a string.  This was fun and challenging to do.  I didn't have traditional watercolours to hand, so worked with my Zig Clean Color brush pens.  They do blend out like watercolours but not as willingly - but I think their idiosyncrasies are to the benefit of the image.  

The fact that the colour went where it wanted to, more than where I wanted it to, made me surrender control over the string.  When I went back later to draw over the top I had to work with the shapes I had, and I think it encouraged me to put all thought aside and laid down whatever tangled worked with the colour.  Presumably to avoid the always risky act of shading over watercolour Krahula asked us to shade using stippling.  Time consuming but always satisfying.

The result is clearly different than my usual tiles - as I don't think my more conscious drawing would have put that selection of tangles together.  But I love it.  It reminds me of dancing girls - corsets and feathers, high heels and pearls.  I spent the rest of the day thinking about the Moulin Rouge and singing 'I am what I am'!