A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps.
I have a book called Mosaic and Tessellated Patterns, from Dover publications. This design struck me as a perfect one to tangle, with large enough spaces to work in. Some of the other designs are intricate on their own and wouldn't be suitable for tangling.
First I transferred the pattern onto a piece of white Stonehenge paper so I would have pencil outlines instead of printed lines. I chose the patterns Maryhill (love that tangle by Betsy Wilson) and 'Nzeppel.
Then I shaded it, which took as long as the tangling did, even though it may not look like it! I love the way a pencil blends so nicely on that paper.
I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I'll have to look at my book again to find another page to do. The designs make great strings for tangling.
"Life isn't black and white. It's a million gray areas, don't you find?"
Ridley Scott
I recently (actually it's probably been a while now) purchased Eni Oken's e-book on shading with gray markers. Finally I got a chance to give the technique a whirl. I used Copic markers - N0, N2, and N4 - and worked on official Zentangle tiles.
I wanted to see how different the shading with markers looked from shading with graphite, so first I took out a tile I completed a while ago with graphite. I erased a small section of my pencil shading and did it over with the markers. Below you can see where I used the markers on the big top section of Phicops, while the rest of the tile has pencil. The marker shading looks smoother and has a more silvery tone to it.
I liked the way it looked, so I tangled another tile to shade entirely with markers.
Then another tile where I tried out the tangle Citrus, by Adele Bruno, for the first time. Here I show it before shading and then after shading with the Copics.
Another one using the new to me tangle Belle, by Sarah Harrison. I think the Huggins may have gotten a little overwhelmed by the shading.
Lastly, I did a monotangle of another new to me tangle, Op Art 1, by Ina Sonnenmoser.
It was fun working with the Copic markers for shading. I still need to delve a little more into Eni's e-book. I have the gray pens she suggests using to add the finishing touches, but have to admit that I totally forgot about using them on these tiles. Oh well, next time!
