Double the Fun

"All human things of dearest value hang on slender strings."  Edmund Waller

The Diva's challenge this week was to use a two-pencil string. She had issued this challenge way back when she first started doing challenges, but I was not even aware of what Zentangle was at that time. So when I saw this challenge I thought it sounded like a fun idea to try. For those of you reading this who may be non-Zentangle people, the string is the lines that divide your drawing area into separate sections. Normally you use one pencil to draw the string, but for this challenge you were to hold two pencils together to draw a double line.

The Diva suggested using a rubber band to hold the pencils together, but I found that I could hold them just fine without the rubber band. So I drew the string and tangled away, and here is what I ended up with, pre-shading.

And here it is post-shading.

  

I think this is one of my favorite pieces that I've completed recently. I love the flow of the string. So I decided I'd like to try another one. This time I held the pencils crossed over each other, rather than side by side, so I'd get a wider "ribbon".

 

After tangling the ribbon and holding it out to admire, I was reminded of the breast cancer awareness ribbon. I know it's not exactly the same shape, but that's what came to my mind. So when I was trying to decide whether to make the little triangles formed by the shattuck pattern black or another color, I thought that coloring them pink would be appropriate. I used the Sakura stardust gelly roll pen, which shimmers more than you can see in this photo. Rather than doing more tangling, I chose to leave it simple and just add a few little accents, in addition to the shading.

I like the simplicity of it and I'm glad I decided not to go any further. This was a great way of drawing a string and I'll be experimenting with it some more. Who knows - maybe I'll try a three-pencil string for triple the fun!