It’s a little late in the week to be posting, but here is my tile for Diva Challenge #350  Heart Strings: Rimana (UMT) by Nadine Roller, CZT. You can find the stepouts here.

So, I had a little bit of difficulty with this challenge. I think my main problem had to do with placement and spacing. Rimana is a very pretty and versatile tangle, and I hope that with more practice I’ll get technically better at it.

Anyway, I decided to combine Rimana with Hearty, by Margarete Gilge. Stepouts for Hearty are available here. Hearty and Rimana are both quite similar to Rixty, and also I think they are comparable to Pokeleaf and Pokeroot. Given the appropriateness of Valentine’s Day related themes, Hearty seemed a great match to  use with Rimana for this challenge. Of course part of the string is a heart shape and I outlined it with Hearty. Then I surrounded (framed) the heart with Rimana.

After drawing the basic tile I felt it needed more contrast and detail. Thus I sought a way,  or ways, to make the tile more intricate and interesting. After thinking about it I realized that the answers were: color (Derwent ink pencils), auras, and shading!

The Diva’s video reminded me of the usefulness and beauty of auras, so I outlined the heart shape with auras, and also “aura’d” the areas of Rimana. Another valuable tip in the video was to scribble on a scrap piece of paper with a soft pencil, and then to pick up the graphite for use in shading the tile. Blend with a tortillion. Great idea!

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