Project: Crossing Lines

I am fascinated with patterns.  I have been doodling patterns for a long time and it was only a while back when I learned about Zentangle®.  I have taken the whole experience and added it to paintings.  “Crossing Lines” is a series that focuses lines that cross in an asymmetrical way and adding patterns to those line.  The first in the series was simple titled “Crossing Lines” and can be seen here:

I took that painting into work to put on an annoyingly blank wall.  One of my bosses saw it and mentioned the only thing he would change was the colors.  He is a huge fan of the Florida Gators, so he likes blue and orange.  My other boss is a big fan of the Eagles.  So, these two were painted:

Gator Crossing NOT FOR SALE

Eagle Crossing NOT FOR SALE

From there, I wanted to try a few different techniques and play around with patterns inside patterns.  That brought this painting to life:

I decided that I wanted to add some skinny lines with the bigger lines and that is this one:

Then there is this one:

Here is one with circles instead of lines:

The Lines

I used the color of the lines to paint the whole canvas.  Then, I used masking or painter’s tape to make the lines themselves.  While the tape was on the canvas, I would paint each section its color.  In Crossing Lines – Purple, I used a sponge to get a more texture effect.  Once the paint was completely dried, I pulled the tape off and that left me with something like this:

The Patterns

My favorite marker/pens for the patterns is Faber-Castell’s Pitt Artist Pens. I like to shop at Blick Art Materials (Affiliate Link) I used the fat ones for the thicker lines and the regular pens for the thinner lines.To decide what patterns I wanted, I visited tanglepatterns.com.  There is a ton of patterns on that site.

That’s pretty much it for now.  I’m planning a few more in this series, but I’m trying to finish the Giraffe Silhouette painting first.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!