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:
This is Jenice Kee's Jeweled Garden, part of Zentangle Beyond Language event. Halfway through, silly me decided to add a hatched ribbon, leaving no room for the other tangles! I like the result anyway, THANK YOU Jenice for a fantastic project.