CUBINE, and then some - a tutorial

Cubine is one of many 'official' Zentangle patterns. Maria Thomas' drawing steps for Cubine are here, as well as a photo of the inlaid wood that inspired it.

SHADING
With most tangles you can be rather easy-going with the shading, but there are a few where you want to stay in the lines. Cubine is one of those. Take care shading.

And then some #1 - SCALE
I generally make the small black square about one quarter of the original large square. One of the simplest ways to vary the look of Cubine is to change the size of the small square, the black 'hole'. You can see the difference below: medium holes, small holes, and large holes.

If you use large black squares you can create 'windows on the stars' by leaving some tiny white circles.

Try very gradually changing the amount of space given to the black squares and you have a gradation. It almost looks as if you're moving past it. See the tile at the top of this post for another example.

And then some #2 - ANGLES
Try drawing your grid so that one set of lines is closer together at one end than at the other, and the pattern seems to be nearer and farther.

And then some #3 - ADD A FRONT
Something I really like to do with Cubine is to add an extra corner. It gives the whole pattern a 'front'. Simply add a corner before continuing with Cubine as usual.

Below it is a tile where I've used this idea a couple of times.

Cubine monotangle, some with added 'fronts'.

You can achieve an uninterrupted front by starting with a series of squares, instead of a square grid with added extra corners.

And then some #4 - CURVY LINES
As with almost any square grid pattern, you can use curvy lines rather than straight ones. You can do straight diagonal lines in each square, but I prefer to curve the diagonal line a little according to the shape of the square. In this case, know that the diagonal lines will not be straight lines through all the squares. On occasion they may be almost frighteningly angled!
Here's a curvy square grid, the same grid with diagonal lines, and finished with Cubine.

And then some #5 - ALIGNMENT
One thing I've discovered with Cubine to make it look "right", especially if using curvy lines, is to make the sides of the black square line up with the sides of the larger, original square. The small black square should have almost the same shape as the larger square.

Here's the image above with (messy) red lines to show how the edges of the black squares follow the curves of the original curvy grid lines.

On the other hand (no mistakes, right?) you could do a right angle (90 degree) corner on the black square and achieve a slightly wonky looking Cubine - also cool.

 

Cubine with added 'fronts', with curvy lines, and windows on
the stars, plus a free-floating Cubine: a hole through
the white space - what fun!

And then some #6 - IN A CIRCLE
Cubine can be done in a circle. I've added a 'front' to these, but you wouldn't need to. The template for this design is CZT Erin Olson's Zendala Dare #31, which you can find here.

And then some #7 - TRIANGLES
Cubine can also be done in triangles, although it's hardly CUBE-ine at that point, is it? Here it is in a sort of Tripoli-style arrangement. Tripoli begins with a series of (more-or-less) equilateral triangles. This is a similar process to the 'uninterupted front' using squares, shown above in #3. The trick is to keep the 'holes' on the same side of each triangle; takes a little bit of thinking.

To achieve the look above, notice that there are only two 'fills' for the triangles. Simply alternate a triangle with one white band, and a triangle with two white bands, keeping the small black triangle on the same side of the larger triangle. Then I shade one whole white side of the triangles with two white bands, and only half the white side in the triangles with one white band. With any luck, this picture is clearer than 1000 words. :)

Finally, a give-away!
I'm giving away the four square tiles shown in this post. I'm also going to abandon my salad bowl and bits of paper in favor of digital technology, and use Rafflecopter for this process (*gasp*). Ta-da! I'm growing up! :)

There will be four winners, each of whom will win one of the four tiles featuring Cubine. The contest runs from midnight January 1 until midnight January 8. For those like me who are occasionally confused by such things, this means that anytime on January 8 is too late. The contest runs from January 1-7 inclusive.

There are two ways to enter:
1) Leave a comment on this blog post.
2) Tell me 1-3 other tangles that you'd like to see a similar post about. You can see my "and then some" tutorials on other tangles here: Paradox, Knightsbridge, Cadent, and Munchin, so don't include those. ;)
I think this means that if you do both options you get two entries. No guarantees. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway