I had recently received the new book 'The Art of Zentangle', and loved the fairies drawn by Norma J. Burnell. She has a step by step in there for one. I decided to have a go, even though I hadn't drawn most of the tangle designs before! I have drawn this piece on a 12" x 12" piece of Hot pressed watercolour paper, as I love the smoothness of this paper. It's very similar to the little zentangle tiles in composition. I drew out my rough guidelines, and then stamped the portions of the flowers that I wanted to use, before drawing my sections of Chainlea, so that the stems came out of the middle of them, rather than wafted around in mid air. By stamping the flowers with black archival ink, I could add sections of stem with my Micron pen, and the join wasn't noticeable.
I decided to add colour to the butterflies, flowers and the fairy's face, but to leave the tangles in black and white. I felt that this allowed the tangles to be more striking in the drawing as a whole, than if I had coloured everything in. I have simply used pencil shading in some areas. I could spend more time, adding and refining, but this is my first piece. I want to have the enthusiasm to go on and do more!
If anyone was considering purchasing this book, I can heartily recommend it. I love the workbook style, and the mixture of tuition that the four women bring. It has renewed my enthusiasm, and got me tangling again.
Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx
