a three-cornered problem

I have mixed feelings about Tripoli.  I quite like drawing it, and I like the look of it when it's done, and in some people's hands it is a wonderful tangle.  But I'm never really sure what to do with it.  And quite often, in fact usually, I draw a bit of it, on its own on a tile, and never really know what to do with it.  Whether to include other tangles, or let it stand alone.  In fact I usually end up with an unfinished tile.  I've got quite a few of them sitting in my little tangle basket - maybe I need to think about a project to finish the unfinished... 

But anyway, when the Diva challenged us to work with Tripoli I knew it would be a tough one.  I started well, laying down lots of triangles with my thick Sanguine Pitt Pen.  I like the way it looked a bit like potato-printing.  Once dry I went back and added some details with my Micron.

Work in progress

 But then I got stuck - with Tripoli hanging there in a unfinished state.  And it sat like that for days, and it could have ended there... but I risked inking in a few tendrils, so that the Tripoli looked like it was attached to something, like it belonged.

Done and dusted

And I think that worked out okay - I think it's good enough to call it finished.  Not an easy one, but a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.

whispering

For this week's Diva Challenge we were encouraged to give 'just a tiny taste' of tangle to our tile.  Easier said than done when that pen wants to lead a merry dance and fill every inch of those little paper squares.  But I was determined to make it happen...  I took a deep breath and waited a few days before even stepping near a tile.  Time to let all those crazy grand impulses subside.  Time to let the symphony settle down and just listen to the echoes.

XYP - with white highlights and arua

Hamail with Antidot-style fill and white highlights

It's a process I enjoyed very much.  It allows for a tile to be 'done' when there is less time available, but more than that it allows for far closer attention to the tangle in question, making it the star of the show.  And I felt thoroughly involved in the process.  Thanks to the Diva for the encouragement, it's a style I know I'll revisit.

trying to be everywhere

Tri-Bee, the tangle chosen for this week's Use My Tangle Diva Challenge, is one that is so addictive and mesmerising to draw it's a wonder I didn't carry on and fill every inch of my tile, and even then draw on across the table beneath.

But I stopped myself, constrained the spikey wonderland with a basic string line, and added detail down both the inner and outer arcs.  At that point it started to look a bit like a flamey biker tattoo - nothing wrong with that, but not what I wanted, so a few Fescu softened the mood.

And there you have it.  No doubt Tri-Bee will be a great tangle to have in mind to fill those areas where you want something not quite straight, but not too round. 

a long, long time ago

Not a lot of time this week.  No time for pondering and deliberation - just time to grab the pen and draw a frame using a couple of the variations of (the newly released official tangle) Zenith as encouraged by this week's Diva Challenge.

And in my head while I'm drawing I have American Pie on an incessant loop - and it's only when I'm finished that the line I keep coming back to is the one about the jester - and in a way that's what I've drawn - a thorny crown for the jester, so he doesn't need to steal the Kings.

in bloom

And then in other bursts of broken minutes I did another Zendala - Bright Owl's #107.

I used X-ess, Mr. E and Tearce.  And if the Owl's recent tangle, Mushnik, were to flower - it might well look like this!

hidden stars

Sometimes my days don't allow a reasonable piece of time to settle to truly mindful tangling. 

But there are usually at least a few minutes here and there to put Micron to paper and fill in a section of a Zendala. 

So that's what I did.

With Baton and Antidots and the Bright Owl's #106 Zendala.

the long and winding road

The last time Sharla Hicks visited the Diva's place I ended up learning loads of news ways to work with Flux.  This time - not only has she encouraged me to develop my appreciation of curved tangles - but also the wonders that can arise when working in a series.

It's all too easy for Zentangle to become just another box on today's tick list.  Especially when one is trying to make a tile for this or that 'challenge'.  Sometimes they are the perfect kick-start.  But all too often they become constrained by themselves and possibly overshadow the finer point of Zentangle. Which for me is about getting lost in the doing of it - picking up the pen with no plan and being surprised every time by what I end up with.

Working in a series encourages you to limit your parameters - and thereby expand your horizons.  It's about having only a vague destination in mind, and getting thoroughly, blissfully lost along the way.

I decided to focus on Unyun (by Carole Ohl) as it has both an S and a C curve.  Previously I've only used it in its basic described form, as so

which is fair enough but I wondered if it could do more.  After a little bit of playing about in my sketchbook I found three different looks that I wanted to try out on tiles.  I did these quite quickly on fairly smooth white paper, as these are just practice pieces in my view.  I took scans at various stages in the drawing so I would have a record of how they developed.

[click to enlarge]  The top row shows basic outline drawing.
In the lower row I have darkened certain areas and thickened lines.

Smooth white isn't the most amenable paper to shade but still - here are the finished pieces. 

The reverberating one - this makes me think of a sound wave,
with echoes spreading out from the initial noise.  Two rows
of Unyun, mirroring each other, and then aured
and intersecting the auras as it expands.

The crazy one - like eyes and mouths in a hall of mirrors.
  I pencilled 3 initial lines and placed Unyun against them,
but then reversed the direction of the C curves.

The lacey one - I see ruffles around the necks of old Queens,
or piped icing around a cake.  Two double rows of basic Unyum,
darked in the centre. 

Each significantly different while still retaining the essence of Unyun. And even better, I'm brimming with more ideas to try out, which I'll add here once they see the light of day.