‘MaryShel’, the tangle for day 2 of #InktoberTangles2024, was formulated by Alena Light. It’s a delightful, organic tangle in its original two variations. However, I couldn’t resist playing around with the basic principles of the tangle—the initial ‘s’ curve and the ‘lobes’ that grow from it.

You can watch the video of my explorations of MaryShel on my YouTube channel.

I had played around with the tangle in a sketchbook, and some variations appeared in this collection. However, a few didn’t, and I also realized that many more could be created.

Not all the variations appeal to me, per se, nor do the ways I’ve added patterns to some. It is all about exploring, however, and not all discoveries will be pleasant ones! However, the not-so-pleasant ones are the ones that lead to reflection and learning.

I also like the softly coloured background with some stencilling on it. I achieved this by using Distress Inks—Rusty Hinge for the background and stencilling and Walnut Stain (I think) for the darker edging. I used Rosa Studio Watercolour paints to colour the individual MaryShels. A burnt sienna Prismacolor pencil was used to add drop shadows.

Although this page isn’t perfect (and it wasn’t ever meant to be), I very much like the colour. It’s warm and friendly compared to yesterday’s ‘Ambler’ exploration. The black and grey Ambler on the off-white paper has such an austere and cold feel. Perhaps I need to try some coloured Ambler!

I didn’t fuss around too much when adding watercolour; too much tends to break down the Canson Imagine mixed media paper. I just used very simple, mostly flat, colour washes, intending to add shadow with textures and patterns and highlight with a white Posca pen,

The patterns/textures/highlights/shadows are the parts that have not been completed. However, I want to work on larger-scale drawings of MaryShel variations.

What will Day 3 of Inktober Tangles 2024 bring? I don’t know, but it’ll be fun I’m sure!