"4 Shelly" is by Donna Petry and you can find her step-out HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. I love how it turned out on the brown kraft paper tile above. It looks like the diamonds are floating above the background.
UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.
I don't use white tiles very often because the white card stock that I have has a very smooth surface. That's not bad for drawing with ink but it's horrible for shading. Shading on slick paper produces smudgy shading. Since I can't afford to buy real Zentangle tiles, I started looking for some white card stock that has a rougher surface.
That's when I remembered that someone had given me some very old card stock that was quite rough but it has some staining on it and the paper has yellowed a little. That doesn't bother me as long as I can do some nice drawings on it. I drew the "4 Shelly" tile below on that paper. The shading came out very nicely but for some reason the diamonds don't seem to float as much as on the dark paper. I do like this tile though and I added some extra shading on the diamonds that I didn't do on the darker tile. I also drew the center holes in the diamonds a little larger on this one. If you closely examine these two tiles, you might spot one other change that I made on the white tile.
This next tangle doesn't have a name so I'm not sure what to call it. In my email yesterday, I got a notice about THIS new post on the Zentangle blog. In the article, Rick showed a photo from a magazine that has this design on it along with his interpretation of it that he drew in Maria's sketch book. It is so cute that I had to give it a go last night...
UPDATE 11/27/19: I just realized that I forgot to update this post with the name that I came up with for the design below. I call it "Happy Pops".
I need to try that curly tangle from the blog post too!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the need for the right surface. Too smooth is a nightmare for graphite. Have you tried watercolour paper - the smoothest sort - hot pressed works for me. It's rougher than card stock, but shouldn't upset your pens. It doesn't need to be expensive. That's what I use.
I've looked at the various kinds of paper at the hobby store and they all seem too thin to use for tiles. As thin as they are, they would be more like scraps of paper than artist tiles. Even the 90lb Strathmore artist tiles seem too thin to me. Maybe I'm just too fussy but I like the weight of card stock. I like the weight and feel of the real Zentangle tiles but they're much too expensive for me and I'd be afraid to use them for that reason.
DeleteI was over at your blog just now looking around. Thanks for adding my blog to your blog list.
DeleteMe again. I've got a blogger question for you. Which gadget did you use to get blog links that display when they were updated?
DeleteNever mind. I found it. It's an option under the Configure Blog List gadget.
DeleteI know what you mean - thin tiles aren't pleasant to work on. I'm not sure about many of the artist tiles that are for sale. I haven't found any that I particularly like.
ReplyDeleteI cut my own from watercolor paper. I never go below 140lb in weight. That feels very close to the official tiles. I had a bit of a look around, and it's hard to know what's available for you and how the prices sit. (I'm in the UK so am doing loads of conversion and comparison to make sense of it!).
But I've seen US tanglers use Strathmore and Canson watercolor in 140lb. If you buy a pad of it you can get a lot of a tiles out of it. Bijou from the scraps! I can get tiles for around $0.19 each if I cut my own. Not sure if that's a price that works for you.
I'm sure if you ask some of the bargain hungry US tanglers they'll recommend good brands!
Glad you worked out the blog thing too - I'd have been scratching my head to remember how I did it.
Thanks for the tips on the watercolor paper. I can get both of those brands in 140lb at Michaels craft store and they often have 50% off coupons.
DeleteSo pleased I could help. I look forward to hearing how you find the paper when you get it.
DeleteMichaels has a 50% off coupon today so I'll be going there this morning to look at the watercolor paper. At half price, the Canson brand works out to only about 2-cents per tile. I compared the prices between the various paper sizes and the 11 x 15" pad is the most economical and has the least waste. Strathmore is more than twice the price of Canson so I probably won't buy that brand.
DeleteOh, that all sounds great. I figured that you should have plenty of decent supplies available to you, as generally the US has much more of everything than the UK. I hope you got something you get on well with!
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