Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Today's Tangle - Ratoon


"Ratoon" is a relatively new official Zentangle® pattern and I have never seen the step-out for it. I have only seen examples of this tangle posted in some of the Facebook groups that I belong to and on Pinterest. Based on the info that I've read, "Ratoon" was created by Molly Hollibaugh and it was presented to the CZTs at ZenAgain in 2018. I think that there might also be a Kitchen Table Tangles video on the Zentangle Mosaic app but I have never seen it.

UPDATE 1/12/19: Melinda Barlow just posted a video tutorial HERE and she demonstrates how to draw "Ratoon" according to the official step-out. Melinda also mentioned something about this tangle being released by Zentangle HQ. I wonder if it will be featured in their next newsletter.

UPDATE 1/11/19: Ellen Wolters has made a video tutorial for this tangle. You can watch it HERE. Note that Ellen draws "Ratoon" a little differently than I do. I have also seen the official step-out on Pinterest since writing this post and Molly draws it the same way that I do.

UPDATE 1/25/19: The step-out was posted in the Zentangle newsletter yesterday. You'll find it HERE.

If you search for "Ratoon" on Pinterest, you'll find lots of beautiful examples. By looking at many examples of the basic design, I was able to deconstruct the tangle and made my own step-out for it. Even though it looks complex, it's actually quite fun and easy to draw once you know how and where to start.

Start by drawing a medium size orb in the center of your tile. Add six rice shapes around the outer edge of the orb with a little space between them and make sure that they touch the orb. You'll see once you've mastered the technique that you can tweak the sizes, spacing and number of petals to get different effects but this is how to draw a basic "Ratoon".

Next, draw six more rice shapes approximately the same size as the inner petals. Place them in between and a little distance away from the inner petals. If you draw them too close to the original six your strands will have a very squashed look. If you draw them too far away, the woven strands will be very narrow and elongated. Look at my example above to get a sense of the ideal distance. Again, you can tweak this later for variations.

Now you will connect the inner petals to the outer rice shapes. The key is to start from the left side of one of the inner petals as if you are adding an aura to that petal. Continue your line and curve it toward the nearest rice shape that is to the right of the inner petal you started from. You will end the line at the bottom tip of the rice shape. Repeat this for all six petals.

Now draw a parallel curvy line that goes from the outer point of the inner petal to the right side of the outer rice shape as an aura this time. This is the opposite of what you did with the first curvy line. When I draw this aura, I stop just above the point of the outer rice shape and connect it to the other side of the rice shape in a separate step. You can do this in one stroke once you have the hang of it. The aura line stops when it hits the strand on the other side. Repeat this for all six petals.

Below is what your "Ratoon" should look like at this point:




Note that if there is not enough space between the inner petals to aura them, start your aura line "behind" the adjacent petal in Hollibaugh fashion. It just happened that I had plenty of space in my example drawing but you can see that I will have to draw behind on some of them when I add my strands in the other direction in the next step.

Next, you will do the same thing going in the opposite direction. The difference this time is that your strands will go under the previous strands in Hollibaugh fashion. You really only need to add the parts of the strand that go up to the outer rice shape using the previous lines as a guide for where to connect them near the outer rice shape.

This is my completed basic "Ratoon":

Below is another example that I drew, embellished and colored:

No comments:

Post a Comment