Somewhere between quilting the backgrounds for Upward Tick and finishing the speaker repair, I tried another Zentangle on my official tan tiles. You may recall I had mixed feelings about how the sepia ink looked on them; thought maybe I'd like the way black ink looked better. Not really feeling it, which still puzzles me. I really thought I'd like the tan better than the white as a background for these. After doing some shading with pencil, I went back over areas with a white charcoal pencil to brighten things up and add highlights. That helped.
This particular tangle called nzeppel has been on my mind for awhile. It was a favorite back when I was working through the daily Zentangle book but I haven't used it much. I thought it might work well around a spiral. I do like the way I worked the spiral here better than on my first try. But I wish I'd gone one more round so that it was a little bigger, and more off-center, which was my intent. As for nzeppel in the background, I wish I'd made the grid for it smaller and wonkier - I just feel the proportions are a bit off and it is not as interesting as it could be. Also, as long as I am critiquing, the grid lines really shouldn't be that thick - the shapes drawn within the grid really should almost touch the grid lines except at the intersections. I may need to try this again, see if I can get it a little more to my liking.
4 comments:
You're very hard on yourself. I thought it was rather lovely.
I agree, you're way too hard on yourself. The tangle is really beautiful. The shading adds so much depth.
Oh, don't I know it! But then again, I know what I like and what I was going for. There's often room for improvement in these exercises, and this is one I think can be improved.
However, Zentangle's principle is that there are no mistakes, no erasing, and that these should not include a lot of pre-planning, just a go with the gut approach. Obviously, not what I did on this one. But if I thought it was a true failure, I would not have posted it! I knew you guys would like it and I CAN see why. ;-) Thanks for your encouragement.
A cool Zentangle, Sheila. As I looked at it, my mind went to How could I make that in fiber and stitch? Sew down multiple layers in that grid pattern, then hit it a heat tool to burn away the open spaces ... then add some pearl beads for the spiral ... But there needs to be something in between the beads ... what would that be?
I really like the way it came out--organic like, big grid and all. The great thing about Zentangle is that they are small enough that you can make another one that may be more like what you had in mind the first time. I thought the whole point of Z was to calm your mind and enjoy the patterns and their making--more like a meditation. Be kind to yourself.
Seems like my lesson for 2014 is "Plan B may be better than your first thought anyway ..." Roll with it!
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