whichever way you look at it

No theme or grand plan or challenge entry - this is a tile drawn for the sake of drawing alone.

I used another of the tiles cut from old packaging that I debuted last week.  The colour combination is so warming it seems to pull whatever you put on it closer together.

I used a couple of the recent new tangles featured on TanglePatterns.  Whirlee is a delight -  I love the way it appears so natural, like sycamore keys, while also looking mechanical like propellers.  Twizted is mesmerising in its repetive strokes and makes me think of the corn dollies my mother used to collect and hang above the kitchen window.  I love it when a tangle dislodges a long forgotten memory in that way.

I felt like some symmetry so that explains the layout.  And added a bit of colour using dry Inktense pencils.  One strange thing happened with those.  Last time I placed the colour after the lines of black Micron and it dulled the black.  But this time I placed and blended the brown first and then drew over it with the Micron - with no problem.  But when I went to do the same on the white of the Whirlee the pen kept clogging.  Somehow the white pencil must be made slightly differently?  It proved to be a labour of love as I had to wipe clean my pen point after almost every Tipple!

The finished piece makes me think of the shift of seasons which is creeping closer every day - autumn in its bronzed glory humbly stepping aside for the chill cloak of winter.  

waste not, want not

This week's guest Diva challenge invited us to draw a tritangle while contemplating the notion of thanks.

A while ago I cut a few tiles out of some card mailing envelopes that my second-hand books had arrived in. Today seemed a good day to use one.  I like using fine papers, but there is something appealing about using what would otherwise head to the recycling bin too!  I like reading new books, those crisp pages, and unbroken spine.  But there's appeal in the old yellow ones too - thinking of all those hands they have passed through.

Muted pleasures - Trio, Huggins and XYP
- coloured with dry Inktense pencil

While I tangled I thought about some of the things that made me thankful in that moment.  These pens I was using to create line and the pencils to add colour.  The bones and muscles that facilitated the movement that turned my ideas into something tanglible.  The light (as dim as it was on this rainy November day) that lit me as I drew.  The square of card that was receiving the ink.  The envelope that travelled to me delivering a book I will enjoy reading, gaining pleasurable or education or both.  And the tree that grew to eventually form both the book and the envelope and the tile.  It's all quite incredible when you start to think of it like that!
 

obscured view

Life is still getting in the way of tangling.  I've started to  make brief visits to my sketchbook again, but actually drawing on a tile has been rare.  And posting and sharing those results even rarer.

But here's a little something I knocked out for this week's Diva Challenge.  I wasn't in the calmest frame of mind when I drew it and that shows in the wobbly lines, but Seton is forgiving tangle, that turns wobbles into rustic charm.

I adore how Seton provides the bare framework for us to embellish in endless ways.  Here I chose to use my own tangle, Kitl for the fill.  For some strange reason I often forget to use my own tangles when drawing!

A bit of colour and I'm quite pleased with the finished image.  I like the strange sense of looking through bars onto a patterned wall, or seen another way a tiled wall.  This confusion sums up my state of mind of late - sometimes it's hard to know quite what you're looking at.

rolling in the deep

I haven't been tangling that much lately - sometimes life gets in the way.  But I'm starting to warm up and get back into it.  Zentangle is such a welcoming old friend - it doesn't judge you if it hasn't seen you for a while, it opens the door, ushers you inside and lets you take back your favourite seat.  I've warmed up gently, by enjoying the sensation of pen moving across paper, of following a line, rather than trying to tame it.  And what wonderful things that can lead to... 

I had read this post from the always inspirational Helen Williams - and went away with the intention of playing with her Steps tangle.  But something went a bit wrong, but I really like the wrongness.  The way the thing bulges and twists and fills out in some areas but not in others.  Like a creature from the deepest seas - part fish, part plant.  I surround it with a few sympathetic friends, and colour the tile in murky blues and greys.

It has sat on my shelf in a little frame for the last week or so, watching me without eyes - waiting and knowing that more lines of ink will surely follow.  And they do.

clouds and memories

For this week's It's a String Thing challenge we were offered the chance to explore a lovely loopy string and four eager tangles.  I'd worked with none of them before so had fun learning them, putting them through their paces, and seeing together what we could achieve.  I drew quite a flouncy tile which I've submitted to Adele, but I fancied seeing what a stripped-back version, using only two of the tangles and a bit of colour might look like.  And the answer is this -

I drew some Drip Drop along part of the string line, and then added some Inktense colour into two of the sections.  Once dry I tangled these with Dust Bunny - a tangle that is easy to underestimate - it looks like quite lazy bumpy spirals, but with some gentle placement and shading it looks wonderful - like stirred clouds, or the kind of fabric pattern long lost to easier decades.  I did my final shading with a Zig Clean Color brush pen.

And once I'd finished I realised I'd dislodged a long lost memory.  I used to own a single earring, bands of black and silver and crushed turquoise.  It looked a whole lot like one of the Drip Drops.  I don't know where I got it from, and I only ever had one.  I used to wear it all the time.  It was second hand, which doesn't seem that hygienic but when you're young you care less about that kind of thing.  I presume someone had lost it and I found it.  I don't know where it is now, I haven't seen it in years.  Perhaps it's moved on to a new owner, or found its way back to its mate.

in the arms of the angles

With added Knight's Bridge and Onamato-ish orbs

When a new official tangle was released last week it was only to be expected that it would feature in the following week's Diva Challenge!  And so I spent time playing and thereby practicing Ing.  And what a joy it is.  Boundless scope for variation - I know I've merely scratched the surface of its potential.  I even find myself thinking about it at times when I'm not near pen and paper!

Some new tangles seem to encourage me to play with them using multiple lines - somehow this helps me feel the shape of them, get to know how they move and work, and thereby draw them again and again by feeling the tangle as opposed to thinking of how to draw it.  So that's where I started with Ing - as can be seen in these two tiles.

Perhaps not my most elegant tile but somehow quite amusing!

The first features the curvy version, which gives it a more ribbon like effect.  I filled the back panels (as I like to think of those last sections you draw) with different tangles to break away from the planty look that was developing.  Having done the three Ings I wondered about adding more to the tile but thought it was time to stop.

On the next tile I did three vertical straight edged Ing.  They look so architectural and sharp - metallic but also wooden, and also icy.  I wrapped an odd tube thing round them with a few tangle-tendrils coming from the ends.  And I though I'd leave it there - but it felt a bit lacking - so some Msst from above and a few shiny stones below and a bit more balance was achieved.

It's hard to believe that pen and pencil on paper can convey such solidity and such movement - but they do.  I know I won't be the only one Ing-ing for quite some time!

x-did done good

Stage 1 - my pencil lines went diagonally
from bottom left to top right

I couldn't immediately see my way into this week's Diva Challenge.  I liked the look of Annette Carlo's X-Did but didn't want to just use it in stripes as that felt too close to like week's tile.  I sat with it for a couple of days, played about in my sketchbook and today decided to see what I could do.

Stage 2 - getting there

I've chosen to share a few work-in-progress images as I was pleasantly surprised to see how it came together in the later stages.  I knew I wanted to break out from the striped form, so I lightly pencilled in the parallel lines and then later erased them (cheating the pure Zentangle form, but sometimes I need a little help to get the results I want!).  I then drew in all the basic outlining of the tangle, offsetting the rows from each other, so large diamonds were above small etc.  That stage took focus to remember which lines were meant to be going where.  It's also hard to keep the lines parallel to each other.  It can look good when warped too, but I wanted to keep it quite even throughout.

That done I knew that I most liked the tangleation Annette drew where the sections appear sunken (Variation 1) on her step-out, and that was the one I wanted to use for my tile.  I then put in all the inner lines.  I failed to keep their depth equal throughout which would have been preferable.  I also darkened the middle diamonds.

Stage 3 - ta da!

It still didn't look that good but I hoped that shading would work its graphite magic.  Which it did, but something was still missing.  So I rounded the outer edges of each section, which seemed to work a treat - tying the whole together as well as smoothing out any wonky lines or untidy corners.

I'm quite happy with the result.  It looks slightly different each time I glance at it.  Sometimes it could be the pattern on a blanket.  At others a web of jewelled beads strung together.  And then I see a smooth surface with little dips just begging me to poke my fingers in.