Tile-a-Day: Practice, Practice

I've spent the last week or so learning several new tangles.  But instead of practicing the step outs in my sketchbook the way I usually do, I've been working directly on tiles.  I found many of the tangles on Pinterest and some from my friend and fellow CZT#22 Katrina Starkey Thiebaut.   I've discovered that working several new tangles together, I can better determine my favorites.

Below you see the back and front of one tile.  I think the string was too tight for all those tangles, especially for practice.  But since the process is the most important part for me, I'm sharing it anyway--even without shading, even with "mistakes."  On the back, you'll see that I noted the names of the tangles, if I had them.  I think I like the middle swirly line of Eddy and the canyon-like Taxi, plus the interwoven Gotcha, and especially the black-and-white zig zag.

*Rotate this 90 degrees to match up with tile above

For this tile, I borrowed the ribbon-across-four-tiles idea of Ellen Bruce CZT and again filled the string with tangles I was learning.  

Starting in the upper left tile and moving clockwise, approximately (completing each tile before moving on):  Fassett, Cheesecloth, Quandry, (a version of Waves?), Enyshou, (something with dots and strings), Frames, (a rose), Huggy Bear, Kunstler (waves), Flitter, Amoeba, Voly, Spoon Flowers, Stribations.

Tile-A-Day: Shading

For a long time, I did not shade my tangles, mainly because, as an art historian, I worried about realism and the consistency of the light source. But during CZT training, I came to see shading as just another aspect of the pattern itself, without trying for realism or a consistent light source; shading gives depth and dimensionality to my patterns.   Now, I do consider where lines overlap and what shapes could be rounded when deciding on where to put the graphite.  Look at the difference below.

Some shading tips:  hold your pencil almost parallel to the paper, in the palm of your hand, not as you would for writing.  Place the point of your pencil where you want the shade to be the darkest.  When you rub the graphite with your tortillon (or finger or tissue), place the tip at the darkest point and make little circles to draw the graphite out.  Be sure to leave some white areas, for contrast.  

To improve my practice, I'll be looking at Chris Latourneau's Made in the Shade:  A Zentangle Workbook.

I shaded where the strips of punzel "overlap," along the centers of flux to create rounding,
and where the bands of zander cross the bundles.

Tile-A-Day: Go Large!

When I feel like I'm in some kind of a tangle rut or I want to try something different, I remember the suggestion to draw patterns extra-large for a new effect.  I imagine I could make them even larger.