Each had its own challenges, but I feel I have a few options to work with when I choose to use these patterns.
I worked in black and white, using a Pitt matt graphite pencil to add shade. That is unusual for me; usually, I like to work with colour.
Although not every section has had shade added, nor has the line weight been adjusted, I’m happy with what I produced. It will be added to my sketchbook, which is fast becoming a repository of ideas and inspiration!
However, those curveballs helped me to better understand the tangle. They also helped me discover some interesting variations and a beautiful flower bud too!
I tried adding some texture lines and patterns to the petals, but they just didn’t feel right. However, using colour to add shadow and highlight worked well. To do this, I used Inktense pencils and a water brush. They reacted in some surprising, but nice, ways with the Distress Inks (Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Villainous Potion) I’d used to add colour to the paper.
I really enjoyed trying out different shapes in the leafy Tagh. There are just so very many possibilities for this kind of pattern. I’ve long used this pattern in my artwork without knowing it was a Zentangle pattern!
Walk the line reminds me so much of eroded rock strata and microscopic images of cells. It’s a lovely contrast to Tagh. Again, it’s a pattern I’ve often used in my own art, and it’s nice to find it’s also been added to the ever-growing library of tangle pattern step-outs!
Slowpoke, by Cris Letourneau CZT, looks complicated, but it’s actually quite simple to draw, one step at a time! The fun comes in adding embellishments, which I did with a gold Uniball Signo gel pen. The central coloured panel with Slowpoke on is the only part that I did during today’s video on YouTube.
I coloured the paper with various Distress Inks before I started to draw. In person, the colours aren’t so garish, honest!
Around the panel with Slowpoke on, I’ve added a border of stylised flowers and leaves, all in a very Arts and Crafts Movement style. I need to fill out a couple of areas a little more, but I quite like the simplicity of the coloured panel with the black and white and rather dense border around it.
Today, I took a look at two quite delightful #zentangle tangle patterns – Dinovel by Susan Yeo CZT and Lollywimple by Sally Hunter CZT.
The fabulously floral Dinovel lends itself so easily to variations, only a few of which I drew.
Lollywimple is an interesting and lovely pattern that I haven’t used before, as far as I know. It reminds me of a knobbly branch, and so I kind of used it that way.
I really did need a calm, quiet start to my day. Indeed, I still need a calm quiet day.
After losing this morning’s video (or so I thought – more later!), I decided to have another go at Finery and record it.
I started with an A6-sized piece of mixed media paper and used the black side of a piece of Cut’n’Dry foam to add Distress Inks – Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord, Saltwater Taffy and Spiced Marmalade. These colours gave a warm, almost autumnal feel to the paper, a contrast to the grey-green paper I’m using for my Inktober Tangles sampler.
Next, it was time to tackle Finery for the second time today. This wasn’t without some trepidation. I know how this tangle vexes me. I decided to use a plumptious Sumu motif for the finery grow from. After drawing that, I added the veins of the Finery. A happy accident led to the multiple leafy stoppers on these.
Then, it was the tricksy bit, adding the lines to create some Finery.
And would you believe it, I actually did it as the pattern was intended! I was shocked but pleased.
I used Inktense pencils (Thistle, Sienna Gold and Dusky Purple) to add the shadows. Finer 01 and 03 Unipin pens allowed me to add the filler patterns into the reticular (grids) of the Finery. Finally, a white 05 Gelly roll let me add subtle highlights, which make a difference.
I’m actually pleased with the outcome. This made a nice change from the Inktober Tangle sampler and from some other art I’ve been playing around with lately.
The curious case of the self-deleting file…
The mystery of the deleted video file has been solved! I saved this file and couldn’t find it. Then, I remembered I’d updated the video editing software I use and hadn’t changed where I, not the software, wanted the videos saved.
So, I went on a hunt to seemingly the most arcane regions of my computer’s hard drive. I couldn’t find anything. And then I was struck with a flash of inspiration – open the app in the software for recording from cameras and see where it’s saving it!
Ta-da! I found not only this video but the one I thought I’d deleted by mistake! I chose to go with this video for a bit of a change from the Inktober Tangles sampler.
I’m having one of those days, it seems. You know, the kind of day when you’re careless in deleting files, thinking that the video that’s processing is today’s. The reality is different. I managed to delete today’s video, and reprocess yesterday’s video as today’s!
I’m not going to repeat what I called myself when I discovered that… but at least I discovered what I’d done before I uploaded it to YouTube!
Inktober Tangles Day 10
I added ‘Finery‘ to the top right of my Inktober Tangles ‘sampler’ today, using its sections as a ‘reticulum’ to contain other patterns. To fill one part of Finery, I used Isea-u from day 3. I also used Well and B’tweed for two other sections. The last one is one that is a bit of a nod to one of the sections of ‘Souk‘, the tangle pattern for day 4.
I used Finery as a kind of reticulum (grid or net for a repeating pattern of fragments) as I, yet again, struggled with this tangle. I don’t know what it is about it, but I always mess it up somehow! However, if I hadn’t messed up this time, I may not have got the idea to fill the spaces with other tangles! So, it worked out fine(-ery) in the end!
It’s a shame I managed to send the file into the netherworlds of the recycling bin, never to be recovered or seen again. I realised my mistakes (yes, there were more than one!), but persevered saying that I had to trust I could recover from it(them). I think I did. As Adam Savage would say, I managed to ‘hide the crimes’!
Suma (to the bottom and left of the drawing) is a lovely, lovely pattern, deconstructed by Lin Chiu CZT. It very much reminds me of Medieval manuscripts and architectural sculpture. So, it was a given that I’d love it, just like Tomàs Padrós’ “Snack” in Day 8 of the Inktober Tangles 2022 challenge.
Although Lin Chiu has given many possible variations, just as Tomàs did for Snack, I kept it simple, repeating the basic form around the bottom and left of the Heartfully ‘rug’. It also had to have that architectural, sculptured, carved ‘feel’ to it. Not sure I’ve quite managed it, but it’ll do!
My design is looking a bit higgledy-piggledy at the moment; I’m just going to trust the process and see how it works out at the end of Inktober.
Snack is a lovely pattern and Tomàs Padrós CZT has created a great step out for it, which includes lots of suggestions and variations.
I have to say, it is a motif I’m familiar with, probably early Celtic art or architecture. It was great fun for me to draw, and in keeping with my rather higgldy-piggldy arrangement I chose to use it in that way. As a nod to the architectural origins of this pattern, to me anyway, I’ve worked with shadow and highlight to practically ‘scuplt each ‘snack’ element. I particularly like the ‘half snack’ versions; again, they are familiar to me but not connected to Zentangle, and there’s nowt wrong with that at all!
FluxEcho, a lovely floral tangle pattern by Lynn Mead CZT, was a delight to draw this morning. you can see my variations of the pattern to the centre-left.
I had decided to stick to a monochrome colour scheme for my Inktober Tangles, but today I decided to go a bit analogous! I’ve added some purple and blue to the design. Analogous colours are next to each other on the colour wheel – so green, blue and purple work well together. Even more so as the background is a grey-green colour.
Something had to be done about the hand-lettered panel. I’d added some colour with Inktense pencils and a water brush, but I wasn’t happy with the finish. So, I filled the panel with black ink and added the hand lettering using a white gel pen. I’m happier with this.
Angela Porter 