One Step at a Time

"It is always the simple that produces the marvelous."
 Amelia Barr

This week's Diva challenge, the last one for the year, is K.I.S.S., which stands for Keep It Simple, Silly. So, in order to keep it simple, I decided to do a montangle, or a tile using only one pattern. I chose to use a Zendala (round) tile because I love them, and also because I thought the pattern I chose would look really nice in the round. And the pattern is... Cosmo, a hot off the press tangle by CZT Sonya Yencer. I greatly admire Sonya's work, and love the look of Cosmo. 

I decided to show you the evolution of my tile, one step at a time. Hmmm... where have I heard that phrase before? First I used a Micron 03 pen to lay down the basic pattern.

Then I added some shading, with a 6B woodless pencil. I've recently started using the woodless pencils and love the way they lay down on the paper, although I can't really pinpoint what makes them feel different to me. Maybe it's all in my imagination!

Next I added auras inside each of the spaces created by the criss-crossing elements. I used the Micron 01 for this step. 

 
In what I thought was going to be my last step, I added dashed lines.

 But then I changed my mind and added one more thing. 

Although I was happy with the way it looked before blackening the circles, I do like the way the black makes the design pop a little more. Now I am finished. I could have kept it even simpler by stopping after the original shading, but the auras, dashes, and blackening were all simple steps to add even more interest to an already interesting pattern. Thanks, Sonya, for Cosmo!