Walking around the Rockefeller Center in New York, it’s easy to be distracted, especially at Christmas, by things like the enormous Christmas tree, the musical light show on the front of Saks Fifth Avenue and the large skyscraper. But take a moment to look down, and you’ll find brass tree surrounds set into the sidewalk. Here’s a tangle pattern based on just one of those. Next week: Fairmont CP.
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It’s been a long while since I last published a tangle pattern that I’ve developed. Well, followers of zentangle inspired art (ZIA) will be delighted to know that I have written three step-by-steps for new patterns inspired by a recent holiday to New York.
The first is inspired by the doorway of 636 Fifth Avenue, part of the art deco Rockefeller Center. Same time next week: Deco Sidewalk – based on a brass tree surround very close to the same doorway.
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Well this layout has taken pretty much all day, aside from occasional breaks to make tea for the landscape gardeners laying my greenhouse base. I had this background waiting for something over the top – in fact since I printed it using this technique in 2011. I’d also blended a thin layer of Dylusions Paint over the top to help seal it. A new set of alphabet stencils also arrived yesterday afternoon, so that’s where the zen started, continued with the hand-drawn flowers (following some of the examples in the FloraBunda book), and then coloured with glazes.
This week, I had a day off and using a special offer voucher I took myself off to Liverpool for a day trip – just because I could. Over the day, I walked 15 miles around the city, took in both cathedrals, a couple of art galleries, had a pint in The Cavern Club and spent a lot of time looking up, and down alleys, enjoying the varied architecture and juxtaposition of money versus old dock buildings, and old versus new.
Ever on the lookout for new patterns, I came across this stone carving above an access archway aside 25 Castle Street – which appeared to be a mercantile area back in the day with fabulous mosaic building titles and fancy copper roofs.
It’s been a little while since I’ve done a step-by-step for a border pattern, so I thought I’d add to my art nouveau inspired tangle patterns. Use as a corner piece or expand the leaves and tendrils to increase the border length, throwing in the odd flower for interest and break up the lines.
Another tangle pattern, this time drawing on Gothic architecture for the inspiration. The stippling can be either very annoying or very therapeutic depending on what sort of pen you’re using! I recommend a soft tip on a stack of paper if you value peace and quiet, or a hard ballpoint nib straight to the paper on a hard surface if you’re dead set on annoying someone in the vicinity…
This second vaguely festive tangle pattern was fairly tricky to break down. It’s based on an ancient Greek stone carved border with a few adaptations to make the continuous pattern. In step 2, try to keep the lines flowing as you weave in and out round the circles.
Now I have stopped making items for sale at the Christmas Fayre, I’ve turned my relatively idle hands to working out a few more step-by-step tangle patterns. Inspired by various designs, this is the first of several to come. I love how the repeated geometric pattern forms a bauble shape in the negative space – hence the name.
There’s just one day left before the Christmas Fayre (in case I hadn’t mentioned it recently). Though I have more items than I can fit on even a large table, the inspiration hasn’t stopped. I thought I would have a go at some mounted typography, so designed, cut out (ok, the Cameo did that bit), stuck together and mounted these two examples – which happened to be two verses from Sunday’s morning services (see the sermon sketchnote).
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, I’m finishing off some MDF chalkboards – three down (one featured here), three almost done. The first is covered in old dictionary pages, and aged with a ‘dirty wash’ – a drop of DecoArt Media Raw Umber and a drop of Quinacridone Gold watered down, brushed over and splattered with water before drying and sealing with DecoArt Media Ultra Matte Varnish. The second started with squidged Distress Paints, sprayed with water, then dried and I used DecoArt Media Phthalo Blue as my dirty wash, before glazing with a watered down metallic blue acrylic paint. I then sealed with a gloss varnish with a bit of DecoArt Media Interference Blue mixed in. And the last – I’ve tangled it in Sakura Micron 08 black pigment ink over Dylusions Linen White paint (which when completely dry doesn’t clog the nib), sealed with DecoArt Media Ultra Matte Varnish.
[Disclaimer: as part of the DecoArts Helping Artists Program,
I have been provided with samples of their products to use for projects]
Another church inspired pattern… this time I was playing around with the Christian ‘fish’ symbol whilst trying out different church logo designs. By organising a shoal of the symbols, a pattern can be built up – and you can see that there are possibly quicker ways of drawing the base pattern by the time you see it in step 2. I think the directional lines make this a more complex looking pattern.