Hello bloggers! Long post today, so bear with me - its been a while.
Hope you have all been well and happy! I have been happily tangling - mainly to try to preserve my sanity as my 2 daughters squabble and argue with each other constantly! They can be complete angels or complete devils and lately they have been wearing horns rather than halos! My favourite thing to say at the moment is "There is a girl with a curl, right in the middle of her for'd. When she is good, she is very very good, but when she is bad, she is horrid!!" This applies to both my girls (and to me too, I believe lol).
But I digress...
My post today is about
the value of using shading on your zentangles. I have been meaning to scan my tangles
before I shade them as well as after, to demonstrate the value of shading. However, I am usually so in the zen-zone that I don't remember until
after I have finished. So, today I managed to do it.
The
Zentangle Inspired Art yahoo group to which I belong, is about to run another bingo game (called Zengo!) and the 'fee' to enter is to complete a 3x3 grid sampler of tangles, that we choose from a list of 60. I chose 8 that I hadn't tried before and one that is a fave (Puf).
The 1st image I have here is the completed grid, minus the shading. I really love to use shading, as I love the depth you can achieve just by adding a smudge of shadow. I could never leave a tangle unshaded (at least, not for long) because it just looks so incomplete to me.
The 2nd image is the finished sampler, complete with shading. See the difference? It is amazing, isn't it, how something as simple as a bit of shading can enhance the finished appearance so much (you can click on the images for a larger view).
I know a few people who are afraid to add shading to their tangles, for fear they might 'wreck' them, or not do it 'right'. Folks,
there is no right or wrong! If you like how it looks, then its 'right'. Don't be afraid - its only pencil and there are plenty more tangles inside of you waiting to come out.
There are no mistakes, only opportunities to learn.
My advice to anyone who fears to shade - pick up a pencil and just go for it. I use a 2B or a 4B pencil and very light pressure when shading - if I am too heavy handed I simply rub it out and re-do. The softer pencils are much easier to rub out than HB pencils. Again, there is no right or wrong way to do it. You can shade using a 'light source' (like I did for 'Nipa', where the light is coming from the north-east) or you can shade where the light appears to be coming from straight above (like in 'Eiffel' and 'Zingiber') or you can just shade however you want.
I like my art to appear 3 dimensional - I do the same when colouring in stamped images for cards. It's just my style. You don't have to shade your tangles, but you have to admit, it makes a world of difference.
Give it a try. You won't be sorry you did.
Take care and ciao for now,
