Ratoon and Baton

On the eve of a new decade, I look back and see everything that happened to me. A brush with death through cancer, financial issues, then recovery, new love, new city, upgraded career and again, recovery. It was an interesting, even if difficult, time.

I pulled out from my tangle index only two tangles for this picture: Ratoon (Molly Hollibaugh) and Baton (Carole Ohl).

I created Ratoon with two layers of loops to form this very lovely star. I feel it's peaceful and beautiful, just what I'm looking for on the start of this new decade. Since Art Clubbers and I are exploring shading, I worked diligently on the shading for it, exploring “corner shading” abundantly, and also a little bit of modeling shading. Here's a little step-out:

The piece was entirely shaded with graphite pencil, so you can imagine that it took me quite a while to get all this shading down. It was super fun, though, an excellent end for a turbulent decade. Here's a close-up for you to inspect:

I sure hope the next decade brings us all a bit of peace and tranquility, and BEAUTIFUL, LOVELY art.