Shades of (very subtle) grey

Kit's 2011 Calendar - January (so far)...

I made a fun discovery regarding shading, while playing with Nzeppel on my 2011 Tangle Calendar... which, of course, I'm going to tell you all about!

Tortillons:

I like to use rolled paper tortillons to push my pencil shading around the paper. Tortillons have a firm tip that I find doesn’t need to be sharpened or reshaped as often as the paper stumps I've used in the past, and they’re so cheap I buy them one gross (144) at a time on eBay. The tortillons I buy are quite short, so I mount them in a pencil extender for more comfortable use. (I have used Amazon links for each of these items, so that you can see an image for each tool, but there are heaps of these items on eBay, and the latest Zentangle® kit I ordered came with a rolled paper tortillon in it.)

2011 Calendar: 

I have started a ‘one square a day’ tangle calendar this year, inspired by AC's beautiful calendar. I bought a lovely blank calendar, to which I add one tangle a day (my one and only New Year’s resolution for 2011). Mine is a blank, acid free "Keep a Memory" Do-it-yourself calendar. But, if you'd like a lovely, Zentangle inspired, blank calendar of your own, there is still one of these beauties left (at time of posting) from Open Seed Arts on Etsy!

Now, as they say in children's books, "on with the story…"

Shading Trick: 

On the 2nd of January, I decided to do a square of Nzeppel. When I had finished my tangle, I wanted to add a very light and floaty effect for such a small space, so I was loath to add too much pencil shading, which may have resulted in too much grey and too little contrast. So, as I was thinking about what to do next, I dabbed at the page with my tortillon ...a Eureka moment!!

The tortillon left a delicate, soft, light-grey shading mark on the page – just by dabbing it directly on to the paper (no pencil)!

I shaded the rest of Nzeppel using the same technique – and was very happy with the result.

There was enough graphite sitting on the end of the rolled paper tip of the tortillon to leave a lovely delicate shading and, when it began to fade away to nothing, I just ‘topped it up’ by running the tortillon tip along my pencil tip a couple of times. 

Initially, I suspected this would work best on the super smooth paper of the calendar… but I tried it on a Zentangle tile and it worked very nicely there too!

Thanks to Linda Farmer for encouraging me to tell this little story -
I would recommend all tanglers to read the tanglepatterns.com article about shading!

You can find more brilliant examples and shading suggestions at Mel's blog: Lone Creature.  Check it out to explore the differences between blending (or not), pencils of different softness, shading with white on dark cardstock/paper, shading using your Micron, and how to provide a sense of depth, shape, and 'outline' without using outlines at all. 

Phine has posted some great visual examples of shading techniques here. Check it out!

And yet more shading fun here at stART's blog - I'm going to find my Copic markers and give it a go!

Coffee with Michele!

Yesterday I met Michele (Shelly Beauch) & Paul for coffee at a cafe called Jam Packed, in the old IXL building on Hobart's waterfront. What a beautiful place to meet a tangler face to face, for the first time! I sat with my Zentangle kit, working on a tile... so Michele had no difficulty in spotting the right person.

Right next door to Jam Packed there is a lovely gallery called Art Mob (specialising in Tasmanian Aboriginal art). Michele, Paul and I were admiring the spectacular painting on the sandstone wall behind us and, of course, noticing that it was an enormous, wall-sized 'tangle'.

I spoke to Euan Hills, director of Art Mob, and he told me that the artist's name is George Tjungurrayi. I would like to honour his talent by sharing George Tjungurrayi's page at Art Mob with you. The painting we saw was huge (3.9 x 2.05 metres, or 12.792 feet wide x 6.724 feet tall). Click through to that link and you'll see it - though at full size it's a different experience altogether. A magical painting that you 'fall into' as you look at it, mesmerised. To see a similar version of that same pattern, click through to his painting, number eight. It is such a privilege to live in Tasmania, and have the opportunity to see, and be inspired by, these beautiful, ancient patterns.

Though I have seen Michele's Zentangles on my screen many times before, the tactile nature and immediacy of being able to hold them in my hand, turning them this way and that, and falling into her tangles, was a far richer experience. I realised anew the value of the 'appreciation' experience in Zentangle. And, looking at Michele's work yesterday I was particularly inspired by the beauty, freedom and playfulness of her spiral, rope and swirled tangles. Even on her coffee mug!

Michele did a beautiful tile to mark the occasion. And I also have a wonderful new refrigerator magnet - a Shelly Beauch original!

Thank you, Shelly!

Next time we'll meet at your end of the State.
(And I'm playing with spirals and rope tangles today [grin].)