Works-in-Progress: Swap

This was the first tile starting with a simple looping string.

"Tuesday Tangles and Other Faves"

using only patterns from my reference binder

The first 4 tiles using a loopy string drawn with a terra cotta Prismacolor pencil

line work starts with the calligraphy pen dipped in brown ink

this needs time to dry so I'm working on a few at a time

These are tiles I'm creating for a swap for the Facebook group Tangled & Journaled: Too. The parameters are to use standard 3 1/2" tiles and use only tangles (patterns). No doodling.

These swaps are always a lot of fun for me, but mostly I use them as an opportunity to explore and enhance my toolbox. I've been assembling a pattern library (2 inch tiles in a binder using slide sleeves) prompted by the groups Tuesday Tangles weekly challenge to add new patterns to the repertoire, but I'm also collecting patterns I've used before but never remember to use . 

When faced with creating 10+ tiles (or ATC's)  for a swap, I start by finding a theme and then explore variations of that theme-generally something that I want to perfect.

I've been exploring Renaissance tiles lately, so I want to keep working on this. In its basic form it starts with a tan tile, using black, brown and red pens for line work, graphite and brown pencil for shading and then white pencil and gel pen for highlight.

I started with my hand painted watercolor wash on a 9x12 sheet of watercolor paper. This is the link to a previous post with the "How to" tutorial.

I decided to pick an artist whose technique I really admire and try to replicate some of the elements I feel I could use some improvement on. Margaret Bremner's work is incredible and her Renaissance pieces are exceptional. I love how she shades and how she uses strings. I'm using her looping string approach, mixing my microns with calligraphy pen  and Rapidograph technical pens for line work, using only patterns from my pattern library and finally, l want to improve drop shadows.

I posted the second photo (above) on the groups Facebook page yesterday and then I was asked to submit a photo for the banner art this week. How cool is that?

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