Lynn Mead – Page 3 – A Tangler's Mind

Florez – Square One Focus

This week’s (Sept 30 – Oct 6) Square One focus tangle is Florez introduced by Andrea Shuman, aka Cookie. This is a tangle I have not used before but is a close relative of N’Zeppel one of the tangles introduced by Zentangle HQ.

If you follow my blog you will know that I usually start out the Square One focus by just playing around with the tangle to get to know it better, especially if it’s one I’ve not drawn before. This has been a very hectic week so I thought I’d pick up a tile and just draw without intending it to be a Square One tile. Before I realized it I had drawn a Florez shape string so decided to go with it. Unfortunately I was swept up in the creation of this tile and did not take any work-in-progress pictures, but I can share a lot about this tile anyway.

First off I should reveal that it started in a completely different direction than what you see as the finished tile. I started drawing patterns in the shapes that are now black, then was inspired to draw the sections that contain Rixty. I loved where that took me but it didn’t really go with the sections I started with. Those sections had to go, so that is how they came to be black (my own take on the Bronx Cheer). This literally set the tone for the rest of the tile. From that point on, drawing and shading decisions were made in order to balance out these black spaces.

The second thing I wanted to point out was the use of Convergent Shading in this tile. I introduced this concept in Tangle Deck 2 but have not addressed it here in my blog. It is used in the sections containing Rixty. In convergent shading two adjacent shapes are shaded from dark to light in opposite directions. Here is an example using stripes so it is easier to see.

In this tile the area around Rixty is shaded dark to light toward the center while the pie shapes are shaded dark to light from the center out. Here is a detail showing what I mean. This helps to define edges in an interesting way.

The third thing I wanted to share about this tile is the way the black shapes float on top. Usually darker shapes recede into the background. I did not do this intentionally, it just happened as a result of the way Rixty is drawn seemingly on top of the pie shapes pushing them to the back. Further supporting this illusion you can imagine that those pie shapes continue behind the two black sections to form a circle. As one person commented “It looks like the moon is hiding in the back!” Take another look at the tile and see if you can see what I mean.

This tile had secrets to reveal and I admit I was an accomplice.

As always, If you see something in this post you’d like to try in your own work, please do.

If you are on FaceBook and you’d like to try the Square One focus sometime, or just follow the page for inspiration you will find it here.

Blessings,

Lynn

CreZendo – Square One Focus

This weeks Square One focus tangle is CreZendo, by Pam Hartz Miller CZT. Step-outs can be found in the comments of this weeks Square One FaceBook post (found here).

CreZendo is one of those long and thin tangles that pose an interesting problem, one immediately thinks of using them as a border and it can be hard to think about them in other ways. I like to look for a less obvious solution and in the case of CreZendo it’s S-shape lines and Crescent Moon-ish shapes suggest to me several tangles that would complement it.

For my tile I decided to forgo the obvious Crescent Moon and instead do a little rounding which allowed me to flow right into Diva Dance and build on the auras of the tangle. On the opposite side I mirrored another line of CreZendo but only added the Crescent Moon-ish shapes to one side. This allowed me to flow right into Cadent.

Diva Dance turned into Hollibaugh and I added some black highlights and background. Cadent sprouted some Fescu which again uses the s-shape line.

Here’s how the final shaded tile came out. I think it flows together pretty well.

As always, if you see anything in this post you’d like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Beeline – Square One Focus

The Square One focus tangle for the week of September 2-8 is Beeline, a tangle introduced by Zentangle HQ. Here are the step-outs for this tangle as illustrated on the card from Tangle Deck 1.

I knew as soon as I saw that the focus tangle was Beeline that I wanted to do a softer version replacing the black with gray. I have been playing around with Margaret Bremner’s Rope String recently and the thought occurred to me, what if I used it as the basic framework for Beeline? (I seem to ask myself a lot of What If? questions ; ). I remembered to take lots of work in progress pictures as I was drawing this week and I’m glad I did because the finished shaded tile looks so different from the beginnings that it really helps to see the tile develop. To get the softer feel I was going for, I used parallel lines to create the shades of gray. One advantage of this method was that the lines bisecting the diamonds just blended in with the rest of the lines and disappeared. Anyway here are the work in progress photos, they are self-explanatory.

This is the finished tile BEFORE SHADING…

…and this is the finished tile AFTER SHADING.

As usual if you see anything in this post that you would like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Viaduct – Square One Focus

This weeks Square One focus tangle is Viaduct by Wayne Harlow CZT. Stepouts can be found here. As usual I started out by trying different variations of the tangle in my sketchbook and in general just becoming friends with it. Here are some of my sketches.

I liked the idea of seeing through the arches AND they just seemed to want to go in different directions.

I kind of felt like I was drawing a cartoon this week, I guess because this tends to be a bold tangle and the arches wanted to be wobbly. In the end I embraced it and just started a tile.

This was my journey…

Note: Sometimes when I’m stuck about what to add next I shade what I have already drawn. You don’t have to wait till the end to shade the whole tile.

Here’s what I finally ended up with. I like the wonky Viaduct, I like the contrast of the fine lines of the Fassettoo background to the simple bold shapes of Viaduct, and I like the way the faces of the arches turned into Quib-like ribbons at the bottom.

As usual if you see anything in this post you’d like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Introducing Abeko

I’ve taken a little vacation from posting for most of July but it’s now time to get back into the swing of things. I’m going to share my Square One tile for the week of July 22-28 and introduce you to a tangle called Abeko.

The Square One focus tangle was Echoism, one of the tangles introduced by Zentangle HQ. (Margaret Bremner has an excellent post on her blog called Echoism, and then some). As usual I started out just playing with this tangle in my sketchbok. Here are a couple of ideas I tried.

I liked the way the loops on the left image snuggled up together with the adjacent rows so for my first tile I incorporated that. I added a twist by adding a border and then filling in some of the spaces with black.

I’ve also been playing with a tangle that came to me a while ago that is started by drawing either Eke or Echoism and then adding on to that. With Echoism as the focus that gave me the opportunity to play with this tangle as well. Here is my second tile which blends a version of this tangle with Echoism.

I word about new tangles… I never feel like a tangle is something I created, never felt like it was mine. It’s more like the tangle comes to me and we partner so that it can be introduced to the world. I call this tangle Abeko, because to me it’s like a combination of Abundies and either Eke or Echoism. I think you can see what I mean in this series of step-outs…

Here are a couple more tiles using Abeko. This first one is kind of a mono tangle sampler.

This second tile uses the flower variation of Abeko in a cross shape with an aura around it. I really liked the way it turned out here.

UPDATE: Some people wanted to see in more detail how this was drawn so here is a short stepout:

I know this tangle is similar to other tangles that are out there but I’ve not seen one exactly like this one that is based on Eke or Echoism. It’s what came to me so it’s what I’m passing along.

As always if you see anything in this post that you would like to use in your own work please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Groovy – Square One Focus

This week’s Square One: Purely Zentangle focus tangle is Groovy by Eden Hunt. Step Outs for this tangle can be found here.

I have a very busy summer ahead so I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with the weekly posts for the Square One focus. I’m already behind and I decided I wouldn’t try and catch up. But first off here are the two tiles I did for last week’s focus: Rundl by Ela Rieger.

In the first tile I added Diva Dance to Rundle and did the background using pencil.

In the second tile I used rounding on the Rundl.

Now to this weeks focus tangle. Groovy, uses a wavy grid, also known as an Ogee grid. It looks like this. (Note: I mentioned this grid in my last post too.)

To warm up for this week’s tile I decided to do a “sampler” tile with several tangles that use this grid. It turned into a kind of Family Portrait. Tangles used are top & bottom – Bask-it by Anna Houston, left to right – African Artist by Tina Hunziker, Scrumble by Jane Monk, and Groovy by Eden Hunt.

After this fun warm up exercise I moved on to a mono tangle of Groovy. I started with the wavy grid but as you can see it did not want to stay together and instead pulled apart a bit at the edges.

Next came the diagonal lines that alternate back and forth. They didn’t want to cooperate either and one space got left blank.

Then anarchy ruled and some of the ribbons got loose and some of the shapes turned see through.

In the end I let Groovy have it’s way and I like what it did. What do you think?

As usual if you see anything in this post that you would like to try in your own work please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

C-Wing – Square One Focus

This past week the Square One focus tangle was C-wing by Staub Korn. It is one I had never tried before so I practiced it a bit in my sketchbook in order to get to know it a little better. I noticed a couple of interesting things about this pattern. First, there is an Ogee grid hidden in the pattern (I’ve gone over it in red in the photo below) and Second, it can be broken down into a Fragment which when mirrored and rotated forms the tangle ( I’ve also indicated the fragment in red).

If you are unfamiliar with Fragments, they are a concept that Rick and Maria have introduced in their recent book Zentangle Primer Vol. 1. Fragments are elements that when placed in a grid create a pattern. Note: R&M refer to the grids used with fragments as Reticula. Different patterns can be created by repeating, rotating or mirroring a fragment. But more about that in a later post.

For this week’s tile I started with a dot grid since I didn’t want the lines from a lined grid to show. I chose to use a variation of the tangle that offset the overlapping shapes in alternating rows.

I did the main outline with a .05 Apprentice pen. Then I drew an inner aura in each shape with a .01 micron. Some shapes I made see-thru so the shapes behind could be seen. Then I added tone and texture through line and fill.

The shading enhanced the effect of the solid and see-thru, the foreground and background. Here’s the final tile.

What I like about this tile is that the tangle is very regular but the fill is unexpected.

As always if you see something in this post that you’d like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

IX and Bales – Square One Focus

I was away from my computer last week so did not get a chance to post my Square One tiles, so I’m combining last week with this week. Last weeks focus was IX, a tangle introoduced by Zentangle HQ.

I see lots of possible combinations of tangles that work well with IX so I did two tiles using several of the options. Instead of showing work-in-progress photos I decided to show why I choose the tangles I did for each of the tiles.

Here is the first tile…

I used IX, plus my tangles Fassett and Fassettoo. Here is a diagram I drew in my sketchbook outlining the common elements of the three tangles.

These common elements give the tile a unified look and help the tangles seamlessly morph from one to another.

In the second tile I used IX, Arukas, and Diva Dance and I added some rounding.

Here is the diagram I made depicting the common elements of Arukas, IX and Diva Dance.

Again the common elements between the tangles unify the tile and the rounding helps with this. Arukas terminates into IX on several of it’s arms creating a Tango of the two. And while Diva Dance has the shared elements of lines and black spaces it’s curvy-ness provides some contrast to the straight lines of IX and Arukas. I also shaded it grey to add to the contrast.

This weeks Square One focus tangle is Bales, and I decided to do something simple. Got to give my mind a break sometimes. I draped the grid for bales over the border on my tile to give it a little interest.

As usual if you see anything in this post that you’d like to try in your own work please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Fugu – Square One Focus

After a brief hiatus to finish Tangle Deck 2, teach at Tangle U and then recover from both those things I’m back to posting my Square One tiles. This week’s focus tangle is FUGU by Sonya Yencer.

Frankly I feel kind of burnt out from the final push to get Tangle Deck 2 finished so I just played with FUGU a little in my sketchbook.

FUGU just seemed to want to have fun so I went with that for the tile.

I started by adding the “football” shapes with auras and then added the orbs and embellishments.

Next I started at the bottom of the tile and began to add some contrast using black pen.

I finished the tile with pencil shading to add a grey mid-tone and some detail.

This tile turned out whimsical and very comic-like to me and for some reason reminds me of Where’s Waldo. I guess that’s what I needed in my life this week.

As always, feel free to use or share anything you see in this post.

Blessings,

Lynn

Tangle Deck 2

Update: Tangle Deck 2 is now shipping. Get 10% off your order thru May 31st by using Coupon Code: 10off when you check out.

Soon I’ll be leaving for Portland, Maine to teach at Tangle U 2016. (For those of you who are not CZT’s Tangle U is a continuing education event for Certified Zentangle Teachers.) But before I go I have an announcement to make.

Tangle Deck 2 and More Tangle Deck Techniques are a continuation of Tangle Deck 1 and Tangle Deck Techniques. The deck contains 45 more tangles introduced by Zentangle Inc. and I’ve included 3 of my own tangles for a total of 48 tangle cards. The included book,More Tangle Deck Techniques, includes some general tangling techniques AND some specific information about some of the techniques I used in the card drawings.

Update: Tangle Deck 2 is now shipping. Get 10% off your order thru May 31st by using Coupon Code: 10off when you check out.

Click Here To Order