Simplicity

This week's guest on Laura Harms's blog is Katie Crommett, CZT. She offers wise words about reducing, simplifying, and letting enough be enough. With a reminder of the principles of zentangle: to breathe, and be aware of every movement, Katie challenges us to create a simple tile. Only two or three patterns, and let white space be part of it.

So, to start, I chose the simplest pattern and possibly the easiest: knightsbridge and followed the advice Katie gives, to be conscious of every stroke. This piece was very calming for that reason...being mindful, and keeping everything as simple as possible really helped me enjoy the process one stroke at a time.

slow dancing

On a pale grey tile, I started with Knightsbridge in a couple of different incarnations, and then the dots in the vertical section wanted to launch into full blown circles, which led to the flowy stricles across the top. Circles! So I drew a circle in the middle, and gave it a globe look by drawing fishnet on it, and added several random dots at the intersections. And to finish, the floor of knightsbridge around the globe.

I don't usually choose blocky, bold, or angular patterns, preferring a leafy, curly, organic look with weighted lines and lots of stipple. But this pleased me when I was done. The contrast of the elements was enough, so I did no shading, and in the end I really do like this piece. I call it

SLOW DANCING.