Ribbon tangles! And ‘Nzeppel as a ribbon, continuing an ongoing theme.
This style of tangle can be used as a frame or border. They can appear between other tangles to separate them from each other, or used as an accent to fill in behind focal points.
Sometimes, you might see them in the bands of Hollibaugh.
There are Ribbon tangles that everyone is familiar with, like Archer, Worms or Dragonair. You can also use a single row of a grid tangle. Or you can choose your own adventure, adding a botanical or other style of tangle and placing it in a ribbon, as I did with Pokeroot and ‘Nzeppel here!
Project Pack 22 - Day 3 - Phi Spiral
In this video, Julie demonstrates how to use Hollibaugh to create a Reticula along a spiral shape, which she then fills with ‘Nzeppel bubbles.
The remaining spiral shapes are filled with a traditional Marasu rendition which povides a old contrast to the Hollibaugh-‘Nzeppel design.
This was not a difficult lesson to follow along with. It was fun and relaxing to do.
I am still having fun with variations of ‘Nzeppel, crazy or not!
Since I was given the tangle Drawings in my random selection, I decided to make it the large focal point of my tile today.
Then I used Crazy ‘Nzeppel as my background fill. I used a lighter color, gray Micron pen to draw it, so it would recede more into the background. I also wanted an opportuntity to use a specific style of shading for it. I think this style emphasizes the “bubble” more and the background less.
This was created by using Crazy ‘Nzepple as a reticula in a spiral grid. Then the fragment K7, a Crescent Moon in a grid shape, was added to each section of the grid.
I wanted to use contrasting and complimentary colors for this design, so I chose Micron pens in colors reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest indiginous cultures.
Strong corner rounding was used within each section of the grid after the ‘Nzepple bubbles were drawn to make each section stand out.
While I was at it…
This is a very traditional rendition of Nzepple drawn in a standard grid. What makes it look different is the coloring and where the lines on the petal shapes are drawn!
Since I’ve been tangling with various versions of Nzeppel, it just made sense to add an original version.
The overall tile makes me think of Japanese Origami paper.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Coloring and shading done with Crayola blending pencils.
Randomly selected tangles applied to a simple criss-cross string.
If I draw a ribbon-type tangle, I will often use it along the string to define individual spaces. This accounts for the center, angular location of the Hibred tangle.
Then I arrange the other tangles so they balance out the best possible taking drama, complexity and type into consideration.
It all usually works out fine, which is one of the wonderful things about tangling!
Another tile using ‘Nzeppel as a reticula. This time, Bunzo was tangled inside of each “bubble”.
Shadinging was done around the edge of each bubble, on the Xs inbetween bubbles, and where the Bunzo shapes overlapped another.
This was a bit tedious, but if you go slowly and don’t put too much pressure on the pen, it works!
Zentangle drawn on a black, standard Zentangle tile using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Project Pack 22 - Day 2 - 5 Spirals
The video for this lesson is here .
In the second lesson, Molly and Martha show us how to complete a pre-strung, 5xPhive tile. This project uses all the the tools that came in the project pack to decorate 5 spirals arranged in a wreath.
I am starting to get the hang of working over the Moonlight ink with graphite and the white chalk pencil. The main conclusion that I’ve come to is to let that ink get good and dry! Since I live in Arizona, where it is hot enough to bake cookies on your dashboard in the summer… letting the ink sit undisturbed over night did the trick. Shading and highlighting was more succesful this time!
Continuing along the Crazy ‘Nzepple trail…
This time I used a grey tile. I loved the Project Pack that I did with the grey tiles previously and wanted to do something with this “winter” theme… since today, it was over 113 degrees here!
Instead of doing the same thing in each bubble, I chose several tangles and did each one in four or more sections, aiming for them not to touch each other if possible.
I don’t think I have ever done ‘Nzepple on a tan Renaissance tile!
Inspired by what I tried on yesterday’s tile, I decided to give it another go, using somewhat different materials and some style changes.
After drawing a curvy grid with dark brown, I used the same pen to round the corners of each section. This gave me the rounded baloon shapes without drawing them in each section.
Experimental.
I had this idea of using a Souffle pen on top of watercolor to create a design within another tangle.
To test my concept, I chose Crazy ‘Nzepple as the initial tangle because it would give me a variety of blob shapes that I could play with.
After coloring all the sections and using pencil to darken the places where all the lines crossed, I drew a single Printemps spiral inside of each blob. I tried to make it the largest size that would fit. This turned out to be an issue in the very small shapes, so they just turned into a puddle of ink.
Project Pack 22 - Day 1
For the first lesson of this project pack, (video located here ,) Rick takes us down the path of using a pre-strung Phi tile to make a beautiful spiral design.
I loved the design and it was not difficult to do. Coloring in the various orbs and petal shapes was fun since the Gelly Roll pens just flow out ink that you can kind of push around to make an even colored area.
I recently saw an article about Neurographic art. After a little research, I decided to create a string on today’s tile that takes inspiration from this psychological art form.
Note: This is an example of artwork inspired by Neurogenic art. It is not meant to be an accurate representation. I enjoyed rounding all the corners on the complicated string. It was also a lot of fun filling in all the sections.
I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for a while. This was the day for it!
No border, a large, off-center spiral string, main object using colored pens, using reticula, surrounding support in black and white. I also used much heavier graphite on the spiral… at least heavier for me.
I think I am happy with the results!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, dark brown and brown Micron pens. Shading done with graphite pencil. Highlights done with white chalk pencil.
I did a grid tile previously, which you can see here . I think this is going to become a “go to” string when I am really busy or can’t think of what to do! They are fun to do, but don’t require a lot of figuring out! However, I will need to do a little better selecting tangles… since I duplicated two of them between the tile above and that previous one!
I usually manage to get some tangling time, even if I am having a really busy day. One method I use use when time is limited is to tangle on a Bijou tile. Since they are only about two inches square, it doesn’t take long to complete one. A few fit nicely in a thin pencil case along with a tangling board and a few tools, so I can tangle anywhere.
I wanted to do something with Dingbatz today, rather than using my standard daily method. I pulled out my copy of "Zentangle Dingbatz" by Brian Crimmins, CZT and started flipping through the pages.
The first thing that attracted my attention was the border on the tag on page 124, so, after drawing a simple border around my tile, I added the Mooka design. Then I decided to repeat the Mookas and create a kind of square in the center of the tile, which also created the triangles in the corners. The corners were a perfect place for Diva Dance!
Random tangles. No string.
This is the first time that I’ve tried using the grey pens for tangling. I don’t like the little dark “dots” that are left behind when you end a stroke. This is done on Strathmore Bristol paper, so I will reserve judgement until I try these pens on a Zentangle tile. But if they do the same thing on those, I may not be using them very much!
PP08 - Day 8 - The Last Day, The Last Project
In the final video for Project Pack 8, Maria takes us through creating a hexigonal design created using six 3Z tiles.
While all these tiles appear the same at first glance, there are two different center designs, three tiles with the “arms” of the center going clockwise and three with the “arms” of the center going counter clockwise. The direction of the tiles alternates going around the hexigon.
Randomly selected tangles. Although there were 5 tangles, I decided to use only three of them.
I really like, Ing, but for some reason, I rarely use it. After this, I may think of it more often. I haven’t used Vermal in years, that I can remember! I really like drawing Sharalarelli… but maybe not this much of it one one tile in the future. I got a little tired of it before I was done.