White Carving over Tan

This year I decided to embrace the goal of getting to know a lot more about Art History, with particular emphasis on ornament and patterns. With that in mind, I'm taking some Art History classes and I can see they are having a huge influence in my art right away. The Palazzo Tangles happened right after I watched a lecture about Sienna's Renaissance Art; and just this week I watched another lecture mentioning the stunning Alhambra in Spain.

I visited the Alhambra in 2010 — years before I even thought of Zentangle — and I can guarantee that it is as mind-boggling as people say it is. Maybe ten times more! Mosaics and carved plasterwork cover what seem to be miles and miles of walls. Here are a few of the pictures I took there:

I'm especially in love with the carved atauriques (highly stylized vegetal shapes present in Islamic Art, influenced by the Byzantine and Chinese ornament).

Inspired by all that but without the intention of doing an exact copy, I sat down and started very casually to draw this, using only white gel pen and pencil (a little similar to my Glazed Whitework, but all done in earthy tones). Here's a work in progress picture:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I love the antiqued and distressed background. Very very fun! I will have to make more, and perhaps include some Zentangle fragments.

Feel free to pin or share these pictures if you like:

 
Learn more about this video lesson
White Carvings Video Lesson
White Carvings Video Lesson

Learn how to create beautiful carved effects over tan paper inspired by the splendors of the Alhambra plasterwork. Learn more

VIDEO SHOP

Related Posts
Renaissance Arch and Found Flowers
Renaissance Arch and Found Flowers

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.

Ratoon Journal Tile
Ratoon Journal Tile

Last Wednesday I attended a CZT After Hours conducted by Heidi Froelich where she explored Ratoon (Zentangle). Of course I had to create another brown/sepia Journal Tile. I also included tangles Florz, Braze, Garlic Cloves (Jacquelien Bredenord) and Chrissie, a rather new tangle by Martina Ramhapp.

Small Treasure Journal Tile
Small Treasure Journal Tile

Another Tangled Journal Tile. This includes an encapsulated MI2 (part of my class Small Treasures), also Oybay (Antonine Koval), and also Coiled Berry and Skorpio (both Eni Oken). MI2 is a tangle originally by Mimi Lempart. I’m enjoying so much collecting these “artifacts”, small piece of wonderful patterns, motifs and combos.

IDOZ Journal Tile
IDOZ Journal Tile

I’m on a roll making these Tangled Journal Tiles. This one celebrates IDOZ, the new tangle released by Zentangle founders during the first International Day of Zentangle, released during an online live event to an audience of 2k tanglers! Such fun. You can also see there a Morph between Moon Pie and Jaysix. Every thing shaded with brown and sepia.

Heart Knot Journal Tile
Heart Knot Journal Tile

It’s been so long since I made one of these Tangled Journal Tiles! I used to make them all the time for my private journaling. This one has as focal point a series of heart knot fragments I learned from Sheila Sturrock’s book, and is shaded in sepia/brown inks. Tangles include Shiloh (Maureen Stott) and Trelina (my own).

Knotted Mandala
Knotted Mandala

Another mandala: I used some overlapping knotted ribbons according to the samples I played with before, and it was fun - took me two whole days to finish the 8x8 inch picture. This is probably the last one I’ll make for a while, I’m utterly mandala’d out :-) But I can’t promise.

Another Mandala in Brown
Another Mandala in Brown

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 and sepia inks.

Celtic Knots Tests
Celtic Knots Tests

Lately I've been exploring Celtic knots. I started these recipe cards testing the method similar to constructing the tangle Huggins, but I discovered another book and tried a different method which is more similar to my Freeform Knots class. I also tried some treatment options, mixing brown pen tangling with some color.

Star Spangled Ren
Star Spangled Ren

Today I participated in another fun class with Angie Gittles celebrating the 4th of July US independence day. She used Phicops, Ixorus, Printemps and Pokeroot, and colored it with very beautiful red and blue markers. I went rogue and couldn’t resist going into sepia/brown again. Such a fun class, thank you Angie!

Onba and Flux
Onba and Flux

Today I participated in a fun class conducted by Mary Rose Feldman, an amazing CZT and friend. She took us through a project using Onba, a rather challenging ogee grid tangle by Francoise Lip. I used the opportunity to use brown pen and india ink shading again. Love the result!!!

2021Eni Okenrenaissance tile, tan tile, ataurique, whitecarving, carved