Leaky pen borders

Stop! Don't throw out that leaky pen!

You can use it to make interesting borders...

Below is the first tile I ever did with a leaky pen border.

And here's one with twisted Striping and Knightsbridge.

It's a simple matter of rolling the leaky end around over the edge of the tile. You need to be a little cautious so you don't get ink all over your fingers! Here is my first video (!!!) to show you how I go about it. (I couldn't see the camera, and the sound was on, so you can hear my husband giving me instructions!)

Below are a couple of photos showing the border in process, and what it looked like when finished. This is on eco-dyed paper.

Here is the result of the tile in the video.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Doodah, Knase,
Knightsbridge, Snail 

"Window on the Woods"
(c)2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Pearlz, Seljuk, Wud

I really like using Seljuk as a border with the leaky pen.
It nicely accommodates some of the blotches and irregularity. 

"The Door's Always Open"
(c)2017 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Crezn't, Floo, Paradox, Pearlz,
Sanibelle, Seljuk, Tagh

Color words

I have a long-standing interest in languages and linguistics and in color, so of course I'm curious about how various languages refer to colors. Here is a bit of what I've learned, paired with some more-or-less appropriate artwork!

Primitive languages have only two color words
and they are for black and white,
or - more accurately - dark and light.

If a language has only three words for colors,
they are for black, white, and red.
This is because red is so closely associated
with life and death.

Color terms are added in a fixed order
as a language evolves.
Next to arrive are words for green and yellow,
one or the other, and then the other. 

After yellow and green is blue.

All languages distinguishing six colors have terms
for black, white, red, green, yellow and blue.
I wonder if this is why a basic crayon or paint set contains
 those colors and is missing orange and purple?

As languages develop they next add
a term for brown. 

Brown is followed by orange, pink, purple and gray,
in no particular order.

Finally a term for light blue appears.
Russian makes this distinction with 
sinii (dark blue) and goluboi (light blue).
These are as separate and distinct for Russians
as red and pink are for English speakers.

(No, this isn't my art, but it gets the point across nicely!)

Irish apparently has two words for green. 
Glas denotes the green color of plants and the gray-green of the sea,
while uaithne describes the artificial greens of dyes, paints, and such.
Apparently this distinction is made even if the hues are identical.
It seems it's not so much about the color itself,
but about how it came to be.

And there you have a brief history of words for colors.

IZE - a new tangle! (sort of)

Some time ago I was in need of a tangle that called to mind a peacock's tail. You can see that project here. There were a couple of tangles I knew about*, but neither was quite what I wanted, so I designed this one. The version in the tile below is very slightly different from what I finally decided upon and, of course, there are always variations.

Tangles: Ize, Lotus Pods, Seljuk, Spinners, Zewm

Ize (pronounced like 'eyes') is certainly a 'high-concentration tangle' and has more than six steps - sort of an ideal maximum for a tangle. In fact, there are really two sets of steps. 

First is the offset grid, composed of large and small squares, which is an interesting beginning pattern in itself that could be filled in many other ways. It's what I call a vessel tangle. It was first shown in BrixBox from Anneke van Dam, and recently in Reticulous from Heidi Kay. I'll let you check those posts for the slightly different grid step-outs.

Here are two tiles I did recently using this offset grid for a Square One focus on Facebook.

Tangles: BrixBox or Reticulous, Black Pearlz, Dex, Doodah, Tipple, Zonked

The second step is filling the small and large squares. 

The smaller squares are simple. These steps are even a little different from what I used in the colored artwork, but I prefer it.

The larger squares are also fairly simple, but there are a few more steps.

You might find it easier, or prefer the look, to draw a central spine before drawing the second circle, oval, and 'bean'. You can also draw the large circle so the edges touch the square. And you can nestle the bottom of the 'bean' against the previous shape.

Here's Ize larger, and on a bit of a curve.

Tangles: Ize, Munchin, Paradox, Pearlz, Tipple

I've been staining tiles with hibiscus teabags, and this is one of those. The first image is basic Ize with no shading; the second image is with embellishments and shading. I used a Gelly Roll pen for the purple fills; I find it a nicer purple than the micron, which is almost black.

* The other tangles that call to mind peacock tails? One is Pavonia (from Angie Shade). Another is Peafea (from Amélie Liao).

BTW: It's getting harder and harder to keep track of tangles and names. If this pattern has been presented elsewhere, or if the name has been used already, please let me know!

Mistakes? Methinks not.

We do make mistakes. But that doesn't mean we have to abandon the entire project. There's almost no mistake that you can't do something with, and maybe even make it better.
This concept is a 180 degree turn from my attitude 35 years ago in University. If I did something I hadn't intended I'd often scrap the thing and start over. An important message brought to me by Zentangle!

First, here are two"mistakes" that my students have made.
Once in a while, learning the tangle Florz, someone puts the little black squares in line with the square grid rather than doing little diamonds at the intersections.

It's a rather interesting variation. And as proof that it's really not a mistake, here's a floor I saw in a historic building.

When drawing Crescent Moon, occasionally someone will think the Aura lines go all the way down to the base line all the time rather than keeping the Aura happening, with space between each row of lines. It's an interesting, tunnel-like variation.

Seven ways to deal with something displeasing.

1. Shade.
Besides adding wonderful dimensionality to your art, shading is a great way to hide or disguise something that's a bit disappointing. Go to the dark side with your pencil.

2. Overlay with a tangle that is mostly black.
Of course you'll think immediately of Bronx Cheer, usually done in raspberry form, but demonstrated here as a border pattern.
Or try Punch from Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book Totally Tangled. Simply draw some circles around parts you do like (or do a regular pattern of circles) and fill the rest of the area with black. I used a variation in the darkest section of the tile below, where I'd done something I just didn't like. Maybe try squares or triangles. If there's a LOT of black, refer ahead to idea #6.

Tangles: Keenees, O-Bob, Punch, Tipple, Tripoli,
stripes with highlights

3. Try the Tranzending technique.
You can watch Rick and Maria demonstrate it here. It will still leave a lot of what you already drew showing, but perhaps you can draw a heavy line over your "mistake" - and add some heavy shading. ;)

Tangles: pinched Assunta, Black Pearlz, Yincut
overlaid with Echoism

4. Do it again, and again...
Made a little booboo? Do it again a few more times and it will look as if you intended it as a cool "Oooh, look at that!" kind of thing.

5. Accept it. Be creative. Deal with it.
Accept what happened, see it as an opportunity to be creative, and make something of it.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

In the tile below, the tangle Chebucto went haywire at the left end. I'd put some lines on the wrong side of the black squares. But it's interesting how the tangle interlocks at one end and flies off in ribbons at the other. If I hadn't told you, you probably would have thought I intended it. :)

Tangles: Chebucto, Drupe and Fracas,
and one whose name I forget!

6. Cover it. Then maybe tangle on top of it.
Use black. In the tile below I didn't like the pink sections; they seemed to take away from the yellow/orange. I blacked over them, then used a white pen to draw spirals. Other details completed it.

Before and after covering, and tangling over.
Tangles: Doodah, Pearlz, Stella, Within, and the sparkle enhancement

Or try another opaque ink. Sakura's Metallic ink pens cover well. Here are before and after pictures where I felt the dark blue Diva Dance (top left) was the wrong color, so I used silver and blue metallic ink to cover it, and added more for balance. (Now I'm not sure which one I prefer!)

Before and after covering with silver and blue metallic ink.

7. Channel your disappointment and carefully chop it to bits.
If I've been working on something that has its good points, but I'm generally not happy with where it's going, I cut it up and make bookmarks or ATCs. I also save bits for future collage.
Here are four bookmarks made from very different beginnings.

And four ATCs.

No mistakes, right? Only opportunities to have fun and be creative.
Here's wishing you a year of creative 'mistake' making!

Spliced tiles

I often enjoy working on spliced tiles. It's both fun and challenging. With the three colors of zentangle tiles you have three possible combinations.

One of the first places I saw this idea was on Day 9 of the 12 Days of Zentangle 2017. The video is on YouTube here.

You can create a spliced tile...

...with a knife:

1. Place one tile on top of another, both facing up (or down). Take care that they don't shift.
2. Giving yourself an interesting dividing line, use an X-Acto knife or scalpel to slice them in half. Pencil a light line on the top tile first if you want a little more direction. 
3. Swap halves.
4. Tape the halves together at the back.

...with scissors:

1. Cut a tile in half (with an interesting dividing line, of course).
2. Place one half on your second tile.
3. Lightly trace the dividing line in pencil.
4. Carefully cut the second tile in half.
5. Swap halves.
6. Tape the halves together at the back.

Here's a black and tan one. I used colored pencils (white and various browns) to create a gentle transformation from one color to the other. Several of the central 'seeds' are gold ink.

Tangle: All Stars

More black and tan, this time it became houses. I used both black and brown inks, as well as white.

Here's a black and white spliced tile. Part of the moon is metal leaf, part metallic ink.

You can bring even more color into the mix if you want! In the tile below I also used metallic inks.

You can see more of this type of work in a post from a while ago about notanicals, a hybrid name I invented to combine notan and botanical imagery.

Oh, those three blank tiles at the top of this post? Here's what became of them:

Tangles:
Black and white tile: Crusade and one Dex
White and tan tile: Bosch and Lamar
Tan and black tile: Molly's Sprouts (that's what I call it!)

The black/white tile is in the same position as above. There is a hint of colored pencil, and clear Glaze ink in the center of Dex for more depth.
The white/tan tile is turned 90 degrees counterclockwise from the image at the top. I decided to ignore the color division and do the tangles across both colors.
The black/tan tile is upside down from the tile above. I tangled in black, white, and gold inks and I used brown colored pencil as well as the gray graphite.

'NZEPPEL, and then some

Tangles: Meringue, 'Nzeppel, Tipple and stripes

Possibly the main issue with 'Nzeppel is: Where do you put that darned apostrophe?!?!

The shapes created by this pattern look a bit poofy, especially when you add shading. Sort of like... a zeppelin airship! Take the "in" off the end of zeppelin and put it at the beginning and you get Inzeppel. In English when we eliminate a letter it gets replaced with an apostrophe (don't, isn't, they're, you're) so when we take away the 'I' and add an apostrophe it becomes... 'Nzeppel.

Image from the Puget Sound Airship Society website.

This is the LZ-126, the largest zeppelin yet. It was christened in November 1924 and was included in the list of active ships of the US Navy. It remained in active service until 1940 and was the most reliable American airship ever. It made 331 flights and accumulated 5,368 hours of flight time.

DRAWING 'NZEPPEL
Zentangle's drawing instructions for the original 'Nzeppel can be found in this newsletter.
Drawing instructions for the 'random lines' variation can be found in this newsletter.

'Nzeppel in its original form leaves all the little stars showing at the intersections. A key factor when drawing the rounded shapes is to draw the entire shape. It's tempting to simply round the corners and be done, but speed is not a goal of zentangle. Take your time and draw all around. This means you'll be drawing over lines two times. You can see the effect in the tile below; note how the lines of the stars in the intersections are thinner than the lines connecting them. I'm including a detail shot too.

Tangles: Florz, 'Zeppel, Seljuk

VARIATIONS / TANGLEATIONS
A simple variation is to fill the intersections black, as on the right on the tile below.

Tangles: Beadlines, 'Nzeppel, and Pearlz,
plus Auras, Perfs, and Rounding

Try drawing 'Nzeppel larger and add some fills.
In the tile below you can see:

1. repeating Auras
2. one Aura and Crescent Moon
3. similar to the tangle Gewgle
4. a wide Aura, then filled black
5. floating Black Pearlz

For an interesting different effect, draw the grid lines in pencil instead of pen. Then draw the shapes, leaving a space between all the lines. When you trace around the shapes, tracing over most of the pencil lines, rather than inside them all, helps hide the pencil marks.

Cockles'n'Mussels is a tangle I developed based on random 'Nzeppel. The shapes are filled with lines that cause them to resemble shells: cockles, mussels, and clams.

Do a large version of 'Nzeppel and, using the original square grid pattern, fill the sections á la Knightsbridge.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, "Nzeppel, Tipple

Forget any sort of grid and just use the string you have, draw 'Nzeppel's X-lines through it, and go with the flow. Here's a string I drew and the tile that resulted. I added a few lines as needed.

Tangles: Aquafleur, Beadlines, Fleurette variation, 'Nzeppel

Go and have a different kind of flying experience with 'Nzeppel!