Cubine Pokeroot obsession

Yes, I admit it, I was a little obsessed with this week's Diva challenge. It fit so nicely with what I have been doing. Even before the challenge, I had a photograph last week for The Weekend in Black and White that was essentially Cubine! Plus I had been enjoying Margaret Bremner's "and then some" posts, just hadn't gotten to Cubine yet. Then The Diva challenged us with combining this lovely organic and round tangle, Pokeroot with boxy Cubine for this week's DuoTangle.

Since I had given away ALL my ATC's (artist trading cards), I decided to practice on hand trimmed ATC blanks made from Bristol vellum finish. I started with adding the front to Cubine and varying the sizes of the filled in box as Margaret shows in this post. I was coloring in that corner box when I realized I had colored in the wrong area. Hmmm, we'll just emphasize that by putting my initials there and that can be an intentional artistic statement, right? So, looks good, but no Pokeroot.....

I just knew I wanted to put Pokeroot into the grid, but how? This is my first attempt. Pokeroot was a little forced as I was starting with the stem and trying to make the orb "sit" where I wanted it. It had a mind of its own. I also used my Sakura Koi brush markers direct to the paper and it was just too harsh for me.

Next I tried a different orientation for the fruit (berries/cherries/apples/olives?) but the black squares just weren't working with the perspective. I set it aside. Later I filled in where the squares had been, with either a solid triangle, or filled the entire cube and added the lines...ooo I like that much better!

Another attemp at Pokeroot in the grid. Better, rounder, but they still landed wherever they wanted with some floating in space. I felt better about the color, still using the Koi markers, but scribbled onto a craft sheet and then lifted onto the paper diluted, with a waterbrush.

I felt I was finally ready for a Zentangle tile when I wised up and thought to draw the Pokeroot as parentheses from the bottom up, then added the stem. Now that's better! (See first photo)

I was appreciating all my efforts but seeing the same thing over and over. I needed one last effort that changed things up! Since I had put Pokeroot into Cubine I decided to try Cubine into Pokeroot.

In addition to the supplies already mentioned, I used an 01 Sakura black micron (I'm realizing I prefer to color in with that most of the time) and white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. There is also some graphite shading although most of the shading is done with the Koi.  And hey, I have a few ATCs to give away again! Yeah!

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