Saturday 10 March 2018

showing my workings

It's been a while since I aired my dirty laundry in public - otherwise known as sharing pages from my sketchbook!

Sketchbook pages are interesting places - the place where the rawest materials are held.  Where ideas form and fall apart as often as they evolve into something that will take the leap from the sketchbook to the tile.  Pens are tested, colours considered.  Old tangles revisited, new ones met.

My sketchbook pages have changed a lot since I first started tangling, when they were orderly and sparse, tiny little squares with neatly drawn tangles within them.  A couple of years ago when I shared a few on here they were starting to get a little darker and more disorderly.  Now they are a sprawling mass / mess and as much as I'm tempted to keep them to myself, I love looking at those belonging to other people, so it only seems fair that I share mine.

These are the four I've filled so far this year.

Points of interest - a trial run of my idea for IAST #225 which actually ended
up smaller as a Bijou.  Rediscovery of the wonderful Exis tangle.
  An interesting variation of Bales (top-right)

Points of interest - Dublin, which I could have hours of fun with.
  A few tangles that I like a lot but haven't yet used - Irradial,
Zigzag Track and Dollpin.  And a test of a few new pens / colours.

Points of interest - newly discovered treasures Floid and Wavlin.
  The ever challenging Mistura.  Tying myself in knots with Elven and Buckled Up!
  Triangular Hollibaugh and fragmented N'Zeppel.

Points of interest - new ways with String Rose.
  Scraps of tangles featured in recent challenges.
Vivi - which seems like it could come in handy.
  A possible new tangle - to work on. 
And playing around with Pokeroot in ink.

And that's all for now!

4 comments:

  1. omigosh! This is fantastic Jem. As much as I love the amazing finished art I see every day, I'm far more inspired by looking at other peoples sketchbooks. Yours is truly an inspiration;-)

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    1. So pleased they inspire you Michele. It's always a bit unnerving to share the messy stuff. But I think it's important too - to show how ideas don't emerge fully formed but take time and tangents to develop. This is something that is useful to know and remember at all levels of creative art.

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  2. Oh my gosh, there is so much to see here. On the first page your reinvented Bales certainly sticks out. Drawing circles without drawing them. Clever! I have Chorus on my tangle todo list. I will remember the shading!!! Flower left of Exis.. ??? Very interesting.
    2nd tile: Irradial jumps out! I love what you did with it.
    3rd: Of course Mooka Flower and Ria Mattheusen's Mistura.
    4th: Pokeleaf and String Rose. Oh my goodness, your bouquets of string roses look so fluffy, so full of leaves. Gorgeous! A nameless one next to string rose and above cornetz. If that is a new tangle, make it official. I love it! I see more to comment on, but the comment section would be longer than your post.

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    1. Thank you for your enthusiasm and interest Susie! The 'flower' left of Exis - is actually an extreme variation of Shattuck I think - sort of bands with only parts filled in...

      Image 4 - the tangle above Cornetz... if you mean the big triangle with branches, that's Mosi in Tripoli. If you mean the spikey, loop little vine that's a tangle called Vivi! The new one I'm working on is the triangular grid thing on the bottom right!

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