Renaissance tiles

In the beginning there were white tiles with black ink and shading. Several years later along came black tiles with white ink and highlighting. And recently on the Zentangle scene, Renaissance tiles: beige, with brown ink. A few weeks ago I was given three to try, which was much appreciated as I had yet to order any for myself.

This was something a bit new so I went to some tried and true, favorite tangles. I used brown, dark brown (Sakura's sepia), and white inks. For shading and highlighting I tried a brown Verithin colored pencil and a Zenstone.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Paisley Boa, Paradox, Phuds, Zedbra

Opting once again for the tried and true, I did some little wonky houses using the same materials as above and adding various brown Prismacolor colored pencils.

Tangles: Crezn't, Dust Bunny, Flux, Knase, Knightsbridge,
Palrevo, Pearlz, Printemps, Tagh, Tidings, Tipple, Wud

I wanted to try doing a wash on the paper before tangling it. Not a good idea. The paper quickly begins to rub off and the water seems to leave the paper more porous so the ink bleeds somewhat. I didn't get the nice clean lines I like. I left an area blank so you could see some of the wash.

I finally tried Aquafleur (love it) and experimented with a square grid tangle I'm working on. I used some regular Prismacolor pencils for shading. They go on better but their waxiness makes them look a little grainy and it can't be softened with a tortillion (blending stick).

Tangles: Aquafleur, Aura, Black Pearlz, Knightsbridge, Pearlz,
an unintended variation of Boo-kee,
and a square grid tangle I'm working on.

There is a slight greenishness to this paper that I don't really like, but once the brown ink is on, the green diminishes a lot. Don't try putting a wash on this paper, and I'd advise against hard lead pencils such as Verithin.

Working on toned paper is a bit of a challenge and great fun. I think I'll dig out some gray paper and try that.