playing games in the rain

I'm now officially in the Summer portion of my year long seasonal tangling project or Inklings as I call it.  Midsummer's Day is next week - but the temperatures have been stubbornly low lately and this week we've had high winds and lots of rain.  I'm not complaining - the plants and soil need it - but I'm not deterred from working with more traditionally summery colours either!

I prepared my tiles using Distress Inks in 3 colours.  On each tile I used a blending tool and gently built up smooth colour all over the tile, darker at the edges, lighter in the middle.  Using a stencil I then added a section of one of the other colours.

Sinking into summer - Alice Hendon recently blogged about her Line Dance
tangle.  It's a great one to tangle - simple and deliciously repetitive.  Shading
takes it to another level and there's scope for embellishment too.

My choice of tangles was mostly dictated by those that have come to my attention over recent weeks, and that I haven't yet worked with, or those I wanted to try again.  There was no greater planning involved and yet somehow I tangled a very cohesive set of tiles.  One reason they work well together is the similar colouring and background.  But the other is those black vines that appeared on every tile!

Stars and Stripes - with pleasing similarites to Romancy and Clob
Checkmate (Jody Genovese) is a joy to draw and shade. 
I added a handful of Helen Williams' Seeing Stars too.

I often add black details as I come to the end of a tile.  To me they feel like the finishing touch, and help to give an extra layer of excitement to a tile that might look a little flat.  Sometimes I might use perfs, or some Fescu or Beadlines.  There's official terms for this I think - to do with contrast and value maybe.  But to me it's just instinctive.  Is there enough black, white (or colour) and grey?  If not, add a bit here and there till I like it more!  These vines also help to connect different areas of a tile.  They can be vines, or ribbons, or long Fescu.  They can break out into an area of negative space, without completely filling it.  They can also cover over any little wobbles or slips I'm not happy with!

Dark and disturbing - Saatin (Nadine Roller) is one of those tangles,
deceptively simple and yet with so much potential for variation.
Blind Membranart (Tomàs Padrós) is another stunning fusion of organic
and mathematical and just begged to be envined!

Lately my black ribbons and vines are not content to merely wrap around or between other tangles - now they want to go through!  And who am I to stop them.  Just as summer days are sometimes cut through with rain, so the brightest tile needs its shot of darkness.