#4 - This is the fourth in my series of fountain pen, shimmer and sheen ink tests. J. Herbin, Amethyste de l'Oural , a dark, purple ink with a beautiful crystalline-to-silver sheen, is such a deep, royal color. It’s beautiful with any tangle that has some filled in portion which allows the variations to shine when rotated in the light. I wish you could see here, in the scan, the beautiful sparkle along the bands in the Jetties tangle. You’ll just have to try it for yourself!
This week’s I Am The Diva Challenge is “Orbs”. These simple spherical shapes are a fundamental of the Zentangle Method. For this tile, I chose tangles that are created completely from orbs, with some minor ornamentation. It was really good practice, and got me back into the swing of drawing these shapes with total concentration. The sepia color was a bit of a happy accident… I picked up what I thought was a black pen and started drawing… So I just kept on going!
Jumble. Others always wondered at how so much cargo could come out of such a tiny ship. They just didn’t understand. She’d captured so many universes in her travels. And now she could store infinite amounts in each one. All she had to do is make sure they traveled together! It has always fascinated me how shading opens up, raises, or pushes back sections of tangles on a tile. Here, this crazy combination took on all kinds of dimension just from shading various edges. Don’t skip shading your tiles. It’s as interesting and meditative as the drawing!
Another’s view. The tiles above and below were created by my husband. If you remember, from yesterday's post , I mentioned that I had asked all of my relatives to draw Zentangles for my birthday in 2010. Recently, I found them again and got to reminisce about that time and to see all the wonderful tiles everyone made. For this first tile, my sweetheart used a heart as the central string! I think he did a fantastic job.
From the Zentangle Primer: Lesson 2, page 45, Exercise 4. For this exercise, we were to use all the same tangles: Shattuck, Jetties and Bales, but use different shading. I think Amanda (above) did a fantastic job with this tile! I love that she used several tanglations: Bales, Hollibaugh, Florz, and Jetties! My favorite is her version of Bales. It has so much depth to it now! My artwork is above. I mixed Bales and Florz togther for my background, and pillow-shaded each floret in the design. I had a lot of fun with Jetties. I decided to treat them more like beads, and made each one different, although a few original Jetties snuck in on their own. I’ve drawn Shattuck many times, this is the first time I’ve added perfs to them.
From the Zentangle Primer: Lesson 2, page 36. In this chapter, we are learning three new tangles: Bales, Jetties and Shattuck. For the first tile in this chapter, there are step-by-step instructions that tell you where to put each tangle and how to draw and shade it. I did make a few choices like drawing straight instead of curved lines for the Shattuck, and I chose to overlap my Jetties, rather than make them all touching. However, I did try to follow the shading instructions as exactly as I could.
Hidden. She tried to hide from the outside by pulling the drapes, but the wouldn’t close completely. There were so many dangers she could not hide from around here. From the mystery under the pillow, to the strange marbles on the floor. She didn’t know how to escape the situation because she could not dream. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Jetties is a wonderful tangle that can be used as a fill, a focal point, or scattered into the nooks and crannies of a tile. Here, I‘ve made them all different sizes and given the impression of them falling into a pile. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Coloring done with distress inks, distress markers and colored pencil. Tangles: Jetties
Rotation. It‘s interesting the way the design feels like everything is wrapped around the Bunzo as if it‘s surrounded by a mini cyclone of patterns. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Ambler Bunzo Ennies Florz Indy-Rella Jetties Knase Purk
Lesson 2. This is the tile I drew from the instructions in the second chapter in the Zentangle Primer. I‘m not sure that I like Bales, but I tried a different way of shading it on this tile. I‘m also trying to draw my tangles larger, so it felt different to draw the grid this large. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Bales Jetties Shattuck
I think I‘ll stay away from black tiles. Every so often, I think I can do something cool with a black tile. And every so often, I‘m disappointed. I know that I can do better work than this. It just didn‘t real work on any level. Zentangle drawn on black card stock using Sakura gel pen. Tangles: Bricks Fengle Jetties Knopen Munchin Pepper Ennies
No Mojo. This is the first time I‘ve drawn Marbaix. I was thinking it would work as a central medallion, but I think it lacks the “oompf” of some of the other medallion-like tangles. I may experiment with mixing it with some other tangle to see how that works out. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Bales Dribbetz Jetties Marbaix Pinch Pop-Cloud
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol . Tangles: Jetties Knightsbridge Meer Nzeppel Quabog