"Green Bloomers" (Green Circle Tangle)

"Green Bloomers" (Green Circle Tangle) by Megan O'Madadhain

My Green Circle Tangle (nicknamed "Green Bloomers") is part of my "Rainbow Circle Tangle" series. For this series I started by tracing a circle and then used circles to define the regions.

The good:

I like the tree extending to the edge of the page. It reminds me of stained glass. I also like the texture behind that tree. I did a wash of pale green (using "indirect blending") with swabs of more intense color on top. This was inspired by some artwork I saw on Pinterest.

The trees remind me of stained glass.

I like the way that the scales in the lower left are colored. Usually my instinct is to do a slow color blend for each scale pattern, but I like the way the coloring jumps from light green to a dark green outline, to a medium green.

While not very novel, I like the vines and the way they extend past the edges of the original circle. The lines in the background remind me of wood block carvings.

Using Perspective in Tangle Drawings

There are many, many great online resources for learning how to draw objects in perspective so that they look 3-D. I think it's really helpful to know even a little bit about perspective drawing. It can be fun to have parts of your tangle that seem to fade into the distance or seem to be drawn on folds of fabric, for example. If you just want quick results, find a few tangles that look convincing and try to do something similar. Look for which lines in the grid are parallel to each other and which are converging to a point.

Most of the resources for drawing in perspective are way too complicated for a beginner and do not give practical help for someone quickly wanting to apply those techniques into a tangle. My skills with creating perspective drawings is rudimentary, but I decided to create an example that would help new tanglers a place to start.

Grid Pattern Fading Into the Distance

Below is a simple grid pattern that looks like a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. I chose to make the horizontal lines blue and the vertical lines red to make it easier to see how each type of line changes in subsequent examples. Many tangle patterns are based on grid patterns, so these basic steps can be used for a variety of different patterns.

Simple tic-tac-toe grid pattern.

Each "O" shape touches the grid square halfway on each side. Similarly, each X shape touches the corners of each grid square that it is in. No matter how the grid is distorted BOTH OF THOSE MUST STILL BE TRUE.