Over on Facebook, there's a burst of colour, partly due to
Eni Oken's amazing technique of tangling over distressed tiles...well, the tiles are not distressed but the colours used include Distressed Inks. This is a range of inks, pens and sprays produced by Tim Holtz and whilst I'm not endorsing any products here, the results that can be seen on Eni's blog are incredible.
Personally, I only have a limited set of Distress Ink marker pens that I purchased on my last visit to the UK. However, at my local Lidl last week, I was able to pick up a box of four acrylic spray paints which have proved quite adequate for my purposes.
I have been making my own distress backgrounds and have spent almost the whole week working obsessively on them,,,, and now, I am beginning to really enjoy myself, At first, I found my colours seemed muddy and my tiles without much light but now, whilst I would never say I am an expert, I am much happier with my results.
For posterity more than anything else, I am going to post a selection of my efforts here...
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| A work in progress - and quite gentle colour tones |
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| I liked an idea that Eni gave me - put a frame around one section to see how it looks |
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| Another section with frame... |
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| I really love the colours of this one. I am preparing something for my sister and sent her this to check out the colour scheme. Her husband thought it looked like E.T. fetching a stick....I can't see anything else now.... |
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| I have improved the highlights on Narwal and Marasu since I took the photo...they don't look too good here... |
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| I wasn't too happy with the original tile as it seemed like just a bit blog of red....but I am happy with my tangles on it. |
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| Some distresed tiles awaiting tangling... |
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| Pure fantasy! |
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| My favourite so far...a friend said she could see dragons in this one... |
Not so very long ago, I was nervous about using colour. It seemed too difficult. Now I am so in love with the inspiration it creates in me...it may be some time before I go back to black and white! (But I know I will one day...because I love Zentangle!)
