turning curves into corners

According to this blog it's been months since I've done a Diva Challenge - but this week's really caught my attention.  The Diva invites us to play it straight - using only straight lines on our tile.  While I love the calm precision of straight line drawing, it's the curves that forgive our wobbles and inaccuracies.  It's the curves that truly allow us to feel the freedom of the 'no mistakes' motto.  But it's not a challenge if it's not challenging!

I played around with straightening out a few curvy tangles - with mixed and maddening results.  After abandoning those I decided to try on a couple of my own tangles.  And the results were quite surprising.  These are the two basic seeds of my Snag and Sati tangles.  Curves and loops galore.

And this is what happens when you straighten up and fly right.  A block of 4 Snag in the centre with detail lines and then a border of the beautifully boxy Dex.  Some simple shading just to add dimension.  Drawn on a tile cut from Murano pastel paper.

My second straight lined tile got even more lively.  In the middle 4 Sati - with diamonds instead of rice shapes to start and then a zig-zag line to join them.  Bands of Rain join the Sati to the corners, some straight Mssst in the middle, and the areas along each side filled with one of my favourite straight tangles - Baton.  What's a little scary is where my subconscious took me with the second tile!  We had an electrician in fixing a broken fan and fitting a new light but thankfully there were no bangs or sparks sent flying despite what my tile seems to prophesize!

in a maddening loop

My Remote Zentangle Mentor (as I see her!) chose to include my first tangle Snag in the selection for her String Thing challenge for this week.

First the thrill, then the fear - what if people don't like my tangle. What if they can't do it. What if it's no good. Rush to pen and paper - play with the tangle myself - find I love doing it, find something so satisfying in those repetitive loops. But then the realisation that they don't always come out that neatly, that evenly.

I do a tile to test the theory and it's true. It's a wobbly old tangle that I invented. How apt from this wobbly old inventor of tangles and other penned meanderings. But perhaps it also embodies one of the things I like best about Zentangle - it's forgiveness of wobbles.

My starting grids are rarely straight. My Snag loops are sometimes small, sometimes large. But once I've looped back and forth across and around the tile - choosing different angles, and meeting points for the Snags. I can go back and fill some, leaving other, shade and shape and slowly something pleasing emerges.

A quote (from a popular song) I often chew over asks 'Do you want the truth or something beautiful?' And perhaps only within Zentangle can you have both. The truth of the wobbly lines, the mistakes, the smudges, the experiments or ideas that didn't come out quite how you hoped. But also always a beautiful result. Beautiful because it's made by you, beautiful because of the pleasure of the process, beautiful because of those truths.

caught in the act

When I mentioned in my last post that I had a tangle in the pipeline I didn't realise it would burst forth quite so soon. Imagine my excitement on Wednesday, when I paid my daily visit to Tanglepatterns, to see my very own pattern there on the page! Snag! It's mine - published under my real name.

The thought that others might use it, just as I use theirs is quite thrilling. I'd love to see what you do with it - please do let me know so I can come and take a look. In the mean time I'll share the odd example of what I do with Snag.

One problem challenge of working with the tangle is to get the loops even - part of the fun of this tangle is it's quite easy going and quick to get down on paper. If we take a laid-back approach we shouldn't worry, let those loops go where they want to go and enjoy the lively tumble that results. But if you're in a tidy mood (and I often am too) you might want them to behave a bit more. One way I've found to tame them is to tuck something in each square of the grid, an orb or a square for example, and nudge each loop against it as you go.

(Here I've done that - on some lovely grey Tinted Bockingford paper. I've shaded using a Derwent Water Soluable Graphite pencil.)

It reminds me of lacey curtains hung in a window that hasn't known fresh air for many years.

I set myself the challenge to design my first tangle this year, it's only March and I've achieved it already - I guess that means I'd better get working on the next one!