Eyes Wide Shut

Yikes, I'm running late with my post for this week's challenge from I am the Diva!

This challenge was to draw our string with our eyes closed (*a string is the term for the pencil line that cuts up the tile into sections). There is already a fantastic slide show up on Laura's blog of the results - go take a look!

As for my attempt at this challenge:

1. At our weekly Tuesday Tanglers' get together (coffee, desserts and tangling - what could be better?!), Melissa made sure I kept my eyes shut (while, unsuccessfully at times) trying to keep the pencil on my tile.
   
   



My string!

2. I forgot to take a photograph until after I'd added my first tangle, but you can clearly see my string in this photo. It was quite angular (which didn't surprise me), but also quite interesting (which did).
   
   
3. As well as drawing my string with my eyes shut, I decided, in the spirit of the challenge, to use only tangles that I had never used before (without practising them first!). Tangles with my 'experience' eyes shut [grin].  There are two exceptions to this - and I'll explain the reasons as I go.
   
   
4. So I started off with Margaret Bremner's Lilypads. (Hmm... I clearly need a little more practice with that one.) I thought this corner looked overly dark and heavy (too much pond, not enough lilypads), so I added a few white 'pond bubble' dots to the surface to break up the black (see next photo).
   

   

   Still with an empty centre!

   
   Tool note: I used a Sharpie Poster Paint, Extra Fine Point white marker for this - another tool I had never used before (because I didn't have my Dr. Ph. Marten's Bleed Proof White with me).  The Sharpie Poster Paint is a water-based opaque paint, water- and fade- resistant, and acid-free. It is beautifully opaque, but I would suggest that people don't add it over the top of their Pigma Micron until it is well dry, as it has a tendency to 'bleed' (or 'feather') otherwise.
   
   
5. Then, from the top left corner and working around the tile clockwise in toward the centre, you'll see Carole Ohl's Coaster, Zentangle's Cirquital, Nancy Pinke's Facet, Criss and Cross from Suzanne McNeill's recent blog posting, and (one of the two tangles I've used previously) Melissa Hughes' Hatchpatch (be sure to check out her other tangle inventions while you're there - her pencasts are just brilliant!). 
   
   I used Hatchpatch (though I have used it before) in celebration of its publication on Linda's tanglepatterns.com this week!
   
   
6. Then, after Lilypads, you can see Carole Ohl's Lots-a-dots, which I very much enjoyed doing. A tangle that particularly comes to life after shading.
    
7. After I had finished Facet, I added some of Mary Elizabeth Martin's Laced (the other tangle I have used previously), because I wanted to draw everything together a little better... to give the whole design a more cohesive feel to it. I can't explain it any better than that - a lot of my design decisions are instinctual, not theoretical!

The empty centre still had me stumped, so I left it until the next day. Again, I wanted to give the tile a more 'united' feel - so I decided to fill the centre (all those small sections) with Zentangle's Drupe. This gives (I hope) the eye a central 'anchor' to rest on.  Finally, I couldn't quite resist the urge to put myself in the tile... you can see me peeping out from behind all the tangles... just my eye (wide open this time!).

And here is the finished tile! 

Thank you, Laura, once again for a fun challenge. 
I can't wait for the next instalment!