Pushing the Limits

This week's Diva Challenge gave me a bit of pause for thought. Much as I love looking at Aquafleur, and I think it is a lovely tangle, it is one that I struggle with. So having it as the feature tangle for a tile? Well, I felt a bit of dread.

So what did I do? Did I just concentrate on Aquafleur and make what I could of it on a non-challenging white tile? Did I couple it with a comfortable or comforting tangle? Did I make my life easy? Hahahahaaha. No.

Renaissance tiles give me the heebies (which is weird, given I draw and paint on coloured grounds as a preference and love trois crayons), so I got out a Renaissance tile. In for a penny, in for a pound, perhaps.

Diva 322, Aquafleur, Molygon, Crescent Moon, Paisel

Surprisingly, the Aquafleurs worked okay. Still not quite right. I can't quite get my head around how this tangle flows, but they are, for once, on the right track. Crescent Moon and Paisel just seemed to work, so that was okay. So far, so good. But it took me another 45 minutes or so just staring at the tile or maniacally flicking through my tangle notebook before I finally decided what to do. Molygon. Another struggle tangle. That's two pennies in the pound now.

Actually, I'm really happy with the Molygon. I really like the way it turned out. But it and the Crescent section have very different things going on. I wonder if I should have just done one or the other. The Molygon makes the Aquafleur pop while the Crescent Moon sort of... I don't know... behaves differently but equally well. I think later I'll experiment, producing a tile that's just Aquafleur and Crescent Moon and another that's just Aquafleur and that particular version of Molygon, and see how they compare. That could be interesting. And it will make me practice those tangles a little more. Maybe I will find the flow. Can't hurt either way.

Overdid the shading a little. Knowing when to stop is also another challenge. So a challenging challenge this week. It's good to push ourselves.

A Shaky Start

I've missed the last few Diva Challenges. When things get difficult I get a bit social media phobic, which is silly, but there you are. I've read the blog each time and looked at all the wonderful creations, and even done some drawing late in the evening when the kids are finally in bed and I can breathe for a few minutes. But posting anything has been too confronting. Funny that this challenge takes all the pressure off.

Drawing with the off-hand is surprisingly stress-less for me (see this post from way back in 2014 as to why that's so, if you are so inclined). There is no way it can be like the things I draw with my usual hand so my brain just switches off its self-criticism motor, which is normally in over-drive, and I just go with whatever happens. So what we have is shaky and shonky, and the lines don't all join up in places, but I kind of like it. About halfway through I questioned the wisdom of choosing Auraknot, but in for a penny in for a pound and I managed better than I had expected to.

Diva Challenge #321, Auraknot, Frunky, Msst, some random auras

I went back and revisited the diptych issue. Reading through some of the other blogs, I realised I had not quite got what a Zentangle diptych involves, so I had another go. Two cards this time, with a paper hinge behind. The two halves are more echoes than reflections, but it works. Next is to cut a tile in half and attach the two halves either side of a whole tile so they swing out like doors and thus become a triptych. If I can get up the courage to cut a tile. Whole other thing than simply folding one. Aaargh. I'll work up to that.

Diptych, flat and standing. Xyp, Paradox, Arukas, Tipple, Hollibaugh, Tripoli,
Printemps, Noom, Copada

And finally, as promised some weeks ago, my "Jetties as a string" tile. This is the last of the "use tangles as strings" tiles that I began with Lianne Wood back in 2015. So this little tile spans about two-and-a-half years from start to finish. Slack, but I got there in the end.

Tripoli, Jetties, Meer, Flux, Bunzo, Coaster, Printemps, Pearlz, Purk, Finery, Tipple,
Zander, Crezn't, Chartz, and two that I can't for the life of me remember the names of.
I'll find them and put them in. Bear with me.