Swarm as a Work of Art

I love the abstract nature of Zentangle, and the fact that there is no requirement for any piece of this art to represent anything. However, the tangle Swarm immediately conjures up a swarm of locusts or bees. Itching to use this tangle in a Zendala, I imagined sections of Swarm radiating from a centre and set about drawing a string to fill it in.

I could not draw quite what I wanted but liked what went on to the tile, and the string took on a life of its own. I filled it with Swarms criss-crossing each other, and after a while, thought of Tripoli to fill the rest. The white space in the centre too took on an attractive shape and I left it alone.

And then came the shading. I've been into Zentangle for just two years and enjoy it immensely but haven't been able to do much dramatic shading, much less work with colour. I have only dabbled with it and it has been a fairly pleasant experience. So this time, I decided to against my grain, throw caution to the wind and shade this Zendala with colour.

The predictable black turned into the unpredictable: I used Charcoal Gray from my Derwent Inktense set to shade one string of Swarm, and was blown away by the effect. Some time ago, a friend told me to try shading with a Staedtler 8B pencil for a deeper shade, and I used that very frequently till I misplaced the string. The Charcoal Gray is much more striking. I can't wait to use it another time.

After finishing the browns, I wanted to add more to the tile, but not in the same colour palette. So I chose a green and went about blending it. I hesitated - and went on to add it around the grey Swarm, which accentuated it further. I take few risks, especially when the going is good, but I was glad I went on and on with this tile.