Back to basics

When I first received my Zentangle® Primer Vol 1,  I wanted to go through it page by page and really absorb the knowledge. Of course tho, I had to check out all the eye candy before I could get down to studying.  So, a once through looking at the photos, oohing and aahing over the wonderful artwork and wanting to skip right to reticula and fragments!  But, I started from the beginning and things were going fine.  I was referring back to the original Zentangle book, comparing and making notes and moving along nicely until I got to the "your first tile" lesson in the Primer.  Somehow, I just wasn't all that enthused about doing a basic tile.  I got sidetracked, trying new tangles, new techniques (like shades of gray and graydations), preparing for a new class, and just enjoying what I was learning outside the primer.

Then vacation came along.  I knew I wanted to get back to the Primer.  So there we were, camped in a beautiful canyon, next to a gorgeous river.  And the timing was perfect for my "first tile" lesson.  Setting in a camp chair, soaking in some sun, I decided to use the tile provided in the book, that extra special one complete with watermark would also help to make this "back to basics tile" special.  I took my time with each instruction and each line.  Going back to known tangles (Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Printemps and Florz) was so comfortable, yet I was approaching each as if it were new to me.  And, although I was inclined to do something a little different with the shading, I just followed the instructions.  It was actually comforting to play by the rules.  

Then the exercise was to do the tile again, same tangles but different shading.  Hmmm.  Now a lesson asking for creativity!  So I thought about what I had worked on a day or two earlier, which was making some notes and examples about graydations.  That would totally change the shading, in fact I would be hard pressed to keep it similar!  So I pulled out my new black Pentalic journal that my friend and roommate from CZT14, Dari,(she goes by Dari on the Mosaic App too) recommended.  I had already done the little Bijou tile on the page combining the graydations techniques,  my recent parabolic lines class, Maryhill, Static and maybe a 3V influence as well.  I thought a basics tile using these techniques would be a nice addition to the page.  

So here you have it, same string, basic tangles of straight and curvy, basic techniques of auras and drawing behind.  And then adding complexity just through layering and some reversal of black and white and of course adding all those grays.  

And here's a view of my favorite page in the primer.  Yes, being a CZT has quite a few perks!