Yuma and Watercolors
Two challenges in one: the previous week we focused on Yuma tangle (deconstructed by Tina Hunziker) at my FB Group Shading Zentangle®, and this week I posted a new challenge with a technique that I've been wanting to try for a while, inspired by my friend Flori and some other very talented tanglers out there such as Lily Moon: using watercolor background. The idea was to use Watercolor in one of two ways: add the watercolor first and let it be your guiding string, or add a string and paint the background with watercolor. I chose the first one.
As my friend Jo Flaherty expertly pointed out, the challenge here included also knowing WHEN to to add tangles -- not just filling up the tile aimlessly -- but learning when to leave the drawing open so the beautiful watercolor patterns show through.
Here is my "BEFORE" picture, showing just some of the lines of yuma:
I wasn't seeking to create a floral arrangement with it -- I'm strongly in favor of abstract Zentangle® and ZIA drawing -- but yuma has a certain floral quality to it.
I inked the entire drawing using sepia pen, then shaded very lightly using a sepia marker. Finally, I colorized with colored pencils.
I had no idea where this would take me, and just let the watercolor be "the string". Tangles used: Yuma and Crescent Moon, with a string of pearls.
A really fun exercise!
Copyright 2016 Eni Oken