January 4, 2017
The Square One (TM) focus tangle for this week is one that was released by Zentangle HQ in December 2016, called Icanthis. The stepouts can be found here.
Icanthis was inspired by the Acanthus Leaf motif found in art and architecture from the time of the Greeks in the 5th century forward. My tile was inspired by the Acanthus wall paper designed by William Morris.
It is basically the Icanthis tangle drawn in layers in a Hollibaugh manner. That is, start by drawing one layer and then add additional layers by drawing behind.
Since this is a black and white tile, I began to differentiate the different layers by adding shading where they overlap.
before blending the pencil shading
after blending the pencil shading
I then added in the black background color which further defined the shapes.
I then refined the shading to add some additional detail.
Finally I added a little more shading to the leaves further back to give them more depth and enhance the leaves in the front.
I like the way this tile turned out. It reminded me how adding detail in layers can really add depth and emphasis to a drawing. As always if you see something in this blog that you would like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.
Blessings,
Lynn