Nvelope using an Alcohol Inked String

Hi and welcome back to another week on the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. As our Focus on Nvelope nears to a close, we’re going to look at the latest tile I’ve created. This tile contains a ribbon full of Nvelope using an Alcohol Inked String. Nvelope is a tangle pattern originally deconstructed by Alyss Amster, CZT and over the last month, we’ve pulled it apart to study. Last week (Week Three) we explored Colour Techniques and this week (Week Four), we created a tile combining bits of all we’ve learned over the last month. For this week’s Tangle Creative Process Mapping Post, I am going to share how this combination tile was put together.

Nvelope Colour Techniques

I have to begin by being honest and saying that last week I really struggled creatively. Many that know me might might think I’m quite extroverted, but that’s actually far from the truth. I function quite well around people, but begin to really struggle if I can’t find the time withdraw to a quiet place to be alone to recharge. I have been known in the past to remove myself entirely from social media (for a period of time) to recharge and reconnect spiritually.

Things were very hectic last week and I wasn’t getting the time I usually do to withdraw and reflect. I was impacted creatively. I couldn’t come up with the variation I was seeking to colour Nvelope. This is despite it being a pattern that has great potential for colour. I just couldn’t come up with anything of significance.

The Colour Techniques I had were ordinary and flat. I believed this was a pattern that would enable dynamic and interesting colouring, but creatively I totally missed the mark. There’s always next month to try again, but out of all I did colour, I preferred the green woven Tangleation of Nvelope. This was the colour technique I decided to include in my tile.

An alcohol inked string

A little while ago I made myself some homemade alcohol Inks. I used rubbing Alcohol and Sharpie Markers to make myself a set of colours in little squeeze bottles. The Sharpies are quite bright, so they blended with the alcohol ink really well to give me some really vibrant colours.

I wanted to use an actual string for my string on this tile and I thought I could soak it in my Alcohol Inks and then lay it on the tile.

The idea worked well, but it wasn’t something I could easily photograph. It’s a bit messy, so I decided to film this part of the Creative Process. If you’re interested in seeing what I did, you can head to my YouTube channel to see more.

Applying a hint of contrasting colour with Distress Markers

Looking at the dried tile, I felt some contrast with the greens was needed. Not a lot, just a little. I wanted a sandy sort of colour, and my Distress Markers had the colour I wanted.

I applied a little bit of colour in some corners and different places then used a waterbrush to activate it and blend it out.

A quick sketch to lay Nvelope groundwork

When it had dried, I did a very quick sketch to layout where Nvelope would live and where other patterns would join in. It made sense to use Nvelope as fragments and create a ribbon pattern with it.

I just followed the shape of the string and let the ink define my path. I didn’t spend a lot of time here, I just wanted a sense of how the tile would play out.

Inking with Ohuhu Markers

A couple of months ago I roadtested Ohuhu Permanent Markers and the green that was in this set seemed to be the colour I was needing for inking.

I inked the entire piece in green and was actually pretty happy with how it looked when I was finished…. but me being me, I plowed on to add more shading and colour.

Shading of Nvelope using an Alcohol Inked String

I used a combination of warm and cool toned Copics to apply shading to this tile.

The Warm Toned grey Copics of W3 and W5 were used around the sandy colours. And the Cool Toned grey Copics of C3, C5 and C7 were used in the green areas.

More colour

There were a lot of Prismacolors used in this tile too.  It doesn’t look like it hey, but there were. Again I used colours that were similar to the colours used earlier with the alcohol ink and Distress Markers.

The colours that were applied earlier became my guide for how to colour the tile as all I did was enhance the ink. That’s probably the best way for me to describe how it was coloured.

The following Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils were used for this tile:

• PC 940 Sand

• PC 943 Burnt Ochre

• PC 942 Yellow Ochre

• PC 1068 10% French Grey

• PC 989 Charteuse

• PC 1035 Neon Yellow

• PC 938 White

• PC 913 Spring Green

• PC 910 True Green

• PC 1006 Parrot Green

• PC 1027 Peacock Blue

• PC 909 Grass Green

• PC 907 Peacock Green

Reinking, Highlighting and Embellishing Nvelope using an Alcohol Inked String

After applying Prismacolor’s some of the linework had dulled again, so I reinked the entire piece with my Ohuhu Marker. Next I finished the tile by applying highlights and embellishments using my white Signo Uniball pen and Kaisercraft glitter gel pens in coordinating colours.

I also used the gel pen to apply some background ink, little lines and dots. The space looked too empty without anything, and the contrast was too stark.   The background ink helped to create a more pleasing visual balance.

My finished Zentangle tile

So here it is, my finished zentangle tile. I used a piece of Archers Hot pressed watercolour paper for this piece.

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Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!

Bless you my friend

Chrissie xx