Inktober Eve! And my new-ish tangle: within

If this is your first visit to Tanglefish, WELCOME! 
If you are a returning reader, WELCOME BACK! 
I'm glad you are here.
I'm glad I am here, too.

If you are just here to see my new-ish tangle, within, inspired by Margaret Bremner, scroll on down to the bottom of the post. But then make me feel better by reading the rest and maybe even leaving a comment. LOL

Today is the last day of September, which means...tomorrow is officially Inktober!

So maybe I will use Inktober as a great excuse to resurrect Tanglefish. I have missed blogging, but the blog world is so full that I doubt that anyone missed me. My last post, "PUF the Magic Tangle" from over a year ago, had only one comment. One mere comment, despite the fact that it was viewed over 1500 times, according to my statistics. And that one comment was total spam, not at all related to what I had written. I'd delete the bogus comment, but then you wouldn't have the opportunity to go read it for yourself for a laugh and an invitation to join my blogger pity party. LOL

But back to Inktober!!! Are YOU ready??? I'm not, but I hope to be soon. ;-) Workin' on it!

Inktober is a widespread endeavor in the art world, and since it involves drawing and ink, of course the Zentangle® community gets excited about it, too! There are lists of tangles and Facebook groups for anyone who wants to participate through social media (I'm sure Instagrams will also be full of Inktober images!). 

CZT Stephanie Jennifer of Singapore is one author of an Inktober Tangles list...here is a link to her Inktober 2019 blog post.

CZT Alice Dean Hendon of Maine, who runs the amazing tangle-y Facebook group called Tangle All Around, is also an enthusiastic promoter of Inktober (and so much else!). Her Inktober Tangles list includes not only a tangle suggestion (the first word on her list) but also the "Official" Inktober work prompt from Jake Parker, the creator of Inktober.
Click here to access one of Alice's Facebook Tangle All Around posts that talks about Inktober.
and,
Click here to access another post in which she clarifies.

Oh, yes, and though it is not Zentangle-specific, I must include a link to the official Inktober website!
Each list (Alice's and Stephanie's) is fabulous, and I like to use both lists to inspire my drawing throughout the month of October.

Full disclosure: I have never made it all the way through Inktober drawing every day. But that's okay! The point is to get you drawing MORE. 

And I will add to that the goal of SHARING more. I need to increase both. I don't draw as much as I'd like, and I rarely make the time to share what I do. So...here I am, putting it out there. I have goals. Time to progress toward them. 

One of my goals is to do a better job of sharing all the tangles I have come up with over the years. There are gobs of them. Not many are published. Those that are published don't get much attention; they seem to fly under the tangle radar systems. But I do get so very excited when I see other tanglers using them in their art. So if you share work with any of my tangles, I'd be thrilled if you'd let me know! 

One of my Zentangle inspirations is Margaret Bremner, CZT™, of the Enthusiastic Artist blog. Last summer Margaret shared an artwork on Facebook that had a feature in it that enthralled me immediately. It was a round medallion that drew me in and held me captive, in a good way! An amazing way. I could not stop staring at it, enjoying it, exploring the lines. It led me to create a new tangle that Margaret embraced, much to my very great joy. My tangle is a simplified arrangement of strokes inspired by that one element, that fascinating medallion, in her work. I named this new tangle "within" because it is contained within an enclosed orb. It is a single path, reminiscent of a labyrinth. Labyrinths have fascinated me for years. I won't go into labyrinths here, but if you are familiar with walking labyrinths and the practice of walking them in order to reflect and journey with one's thoughts, then you might also appreciate the name within from that aspect. Within also reminds me of the plastic adapter that was inserted within a 45 to play it on a record player, back in the days of vinyl.

Within can be used as a single unit or in clusters, as shown on the right. There are many ways to embellish it.

Within, inspired by Margaret Bremner.

A few weeks ago when I was visiting my daughter in NYC (that'll have to be a whole 'nuther blog post or two for a whole 'nuther time! LOL), I was blessed with a pm from Margaret who had been playing with within. It brought me such great joy to see what she did with it...and even more joy that she has granted me permission to share her work here. 

(Yes, I know this paragraph is centered for no good reason; there must be a glitch that is not allowing me to format it flush left, try though I might. I have certainly tried. Multiple times, multiple ways.)

Art by Margaret Bremner,
used with permission.

Art by Margaret Bremner,
used with permission.

Margaret also gave me permission to post a link to her original post on Instagram, so you, too, can see the artwork that sparked this tangle. It is entitled, "Shield Thy Trusted Servants." Click the title to see! (I hope; you might have to sign into Instagram. I'm not sure how it works, as I am not IG proficient yet.)

And thus concludes my first post of 2019!
Leave me a comment below to help encourage me to continue posting. 

Happy Inktober to all, and to all a good pen!