How to draw DOUBLE 8’s

Today’s tangle, Double 8’s, comes from Aussie artist Helen Williams who has quite a few very lovely tangles on the site.

Helen was revisiting a concept from some time ago from which she developed Pebble Flowers and another tangle she called 2/8’s. In her experimentation and exploration she came up with Double 8’s.

Before we get to Helen’s deconstruction, a couple of my own personal “field notes” for drawing Double 8’s.

In Helen’s Step 1, you’ll first note that the figure 8’s are very slim. AND on close examination that the columns alternate with a vertical half drop of the figure 8’s. In other words the top of an 8 in the second column aligns with the middle of the 8 in the first column — it drops down by half. The same applies when you turn your tile 90° to do Step 2.

In Step 3 if you make the “aura” stroke begin part the way down rather than “sliding” off the top, I think you get a slightly different-looking result. My example on the right is with the stroke part the way down. My main example above left is more like Helen’s final example. Minor change, slightly different result which would be much more evident in a larger scale.

In addition to the all-over version of Double 8’s demonstrated in her Steps instructions here, Helen also shows an “off grid” version that more resembles scattered flowers. Not quite “non-representational” as tangles are meant to be but very pretty nevertheless.

Update 08/12/2016: Helen posted some Double 8’s variations here.

As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please do leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours.

Check out the tag helenw for more of Helen’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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