Impossible vs Etcher vs Y-Not

Impossible

Yesterday I blogged HERE about the official Zentangle pattern called "Impossible" or "Impossible Fragment and Reticula Tangle". When I posted my tile from yesterday's blog post in the Reticula and Fragments Facebook group last month, some of the members of the group commented that it looked a lot like two other patterns called "Etcher" and "Y-Not". "Etcher" is by Sandy Steen Bartholomew and her step-out is HERE on her blog. "Y-Not" is an official Zentangle pattern but there is no published step-out for it. Sandy mentions it on her blog and I found some examples of it on Pinterest HERE, HERE and HERE. I found two YouTube videos about "Etcher" HERE and HERE.

Although they have similarities, there are distinct differences between them. "Etcher" and "Y-Not" are almost the same but "Impossible" is drawn by a totally different method.

In the picture above are examples of "Impossible", "Etcher" and "Y-Not". "Y-Not" is pretty much the same as "Etcher" but without the lines that make "Etcher" look 3-D. "Y-Not" is the letter Y forming a sort of mesh. The Y's are drawn as flat shapes with no dimensional attributes other than the appearance of being woven together. "Etcher" is 3-D and has three planes which I have colored with three different colors. I used the same three colors on "Impossible" and the three planes are in different positions than with "Etcher".

In the top right example above, I flipped "Impossible" upside down to make it look more like the letter Y. Look at where the bars intersect on "Impossible" and compare that with the points where "Etcher" branches to the right and left. "Impossible" is more complex. Plus, "Impossible" is made up of the fragment that I drew in black in the corner. There are no fragments in "Y-Not" or "Etcher".

Etcher

Y-Not