I started this mandala a few weeks ago, and it’s been taking a long time to finish, only completed yesterday. Not entirely sure if I like it or not - definitely falls into the “weird” category. Tons of little tangles, some knots, and shading using brown inks again.
Here is a short step-out:
And here are some other views for you to inspect:
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Remember that all images are Copyright Eni Oken.
Going through my old photographs and I found some historic ornament that I took in Santa Monica, CA in 1999, wow! I had just moved to Los Angeles a few years before and I was using my faithful Nikon FM camera to take pictures of historic ornament wherever I could. This picture is inspired in one of those close-ups, probably from the Santa Monica Professional Building. Drawn using Inktense paint pads and Pitt brush pens with a waterbrush.
This arch is adapted from a Renaissance arch from the book “Suggestions of Design” by John Leighton and James Colling (1880) found on archive dot org. I also added some Found Flowers on a frame around the arch. Shaded and colored with Inktense and Pitt Artist Brush pens. If you goto my blog you'll see I wasn’t able to stay faithful to the original - I love the way my hand just takes over and adds whatever details it feels like.
An Art Raffle game gave me Fife, Eofer and Mooka. I included one fragment of each, plus added a little random flower to fill up the empty space. Using again that lovely color palette with green, blue and purple. Love that one! Tangled with inktense and pitt artist brush pens.
Mixing and matching fragments is such fun! In this piece I used a combination of three fragments: Tufton (Jodi Christiansen), Stacked Mooka, Munchin (Zentangle) and also an ogee dome. This is part of a mix and match study I did almost a while back, but only developed the final piece now. Tangled with inktense and pitt artist brush pens.
This color scheme was not my favorite when I finished the piece - what was I thinking! - but it's starting to grow on me. Here is Pickpocket (Tomàs Padros) and also a coiled ribbon pattern similar to Cadent with a lotus in the middle, found on Plate X (Egyptian) of the Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, 1865. Ancient Egyptian ornament was mostly very geometric; flowing lines like this were very rare. Tangled with inktense and pitt artist brush pens.
My art-cheological explorations are not always historic in the traditional sense: this fragment was found in one of my sketch papers from January 2023. The quote is from a friend who told me to “focus on the solution, not the problem”. I don’t even remember what the problem was at that time, so clearly it has been solved! Tangled with inktense and pitt artist brush pens. Love the color palette!
Continue to explore the world of historic ornament. This one is my interpretation of a detail found in the Chaukhandi Tombs, a 500 year-old necropolis richly carved in sandstone, located near Karachi in Pakistan. Photos were graciously shared with permission by Tahamie Farooqui, a very talented photographer referred by Jenny Farooqui. Many thanks for the gorgeous pictures and referral! Shaded and colored with Inktense and Pitt Artist Brush pens.
I can’t get enough of Byzantine and Romanesque ornament. I found this one with a typical S-scroll vine in the book Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture by Thomas G. Jackson, 1913, page 256. I replaced some of the leaves with berries and light tangling. Shaded and colored with Inktense and Pitt Artist Brush pens.
I have a thing for the “palmette”, a historic motif used by many ancient civilizations. In this Assyrian design it is flanked by what seem to be two birds deities or birds of prey (mine look a bit like tangled chickens, hahahaha). Palms were sacred trees for the Assyrians and the palmette was their main motif of ornamentation, along with the round daisy-shaped rosettes. Shaded and colored with Inktense and Pitt Artist Brush pens.
Another picture based on a historic photo I took in Santa Monica, CA, 1999. Unfortunately I did not register exactly where it was taken. It seems to have a Romanesque feeling - obviously as a revival, since that style appeared around 11th century. I did not try to reproduce the picture accurately, but instead used as inspiration for a stylized version. Drawn using Inktense paint pencils and Pitt brush pens with a waterbrush.