This week’s diva challenge is to use Pea-Nuckle. (The diva challenge button is no longer working, so I guess I’ll have to link instead of using her button.) Jessica Davies, our guest challenger, admits that it wasn’t her favorite tangle in the beginning, so I’m in good company, I guess. She said it was like lima beans to her. Well, even after using it again here today, I must say that it is still lima beans to me. I watched Molly draw it and thought I understood how to draw the lines but . . . yeah, lima beans. 
The Square One: Purely Zentangle focus tangle this week is Fluxecho. I think it looks like a Pansy in some of the sample pictures.
I chose to use string #41 from Pattern Collections. I also used Flips-C and OO-Africa from their daily tangles. To be honest, I didn’t do any of them justice. They all look like such nice tangles. I enjoyed doing my tile but I’m not sure I liked the end result. I know that doesn’t really matter but I’m just saying.
Here is my tile before shading, with all its imperfections.
As you can see, Pea-nuckle gave me some trouble. I’m going to have to practice with it a lot more before I can know better how to draw all those lines and blacken in areas. And poor Flips-C really looks nice when others draw it but clearly I need more practice with it as well. I even started off wrong and had to white out the wrong lines and draw it again.
I had visions of this looking like a nice basket with Fluxecho flowers hanging over it and then some OO-Africa clouds. Unfortunately when I drew Pea-Nuckle I drew right to the string line. I should have stopped short of the string line and drawn Fluxecho so that it would give the envisioned effect but alas, I did not.
I was concerned that even shading wasn’t going to do much for this mess because of all the wonky lines in Pea-Nuckle. I was also having a difficult time deciding how to shade the rest of it. In the end I decided to blacken it in around Fluxecho because I always like the drama created by lots of black. Then I just started putting down some graphite.
Here’s what I ended up with.
I think I need to get a new small blending stump because I’m struggling getting it to smooth out the graphite without filling it all in.
Oh well! It is what it is. At least it is improved over the lineart. 
Thanks stopping by and a special thank you to any that take the time to leave a comment, it’s greatly appreciated and oh so encouraging.
Until next week, God bless,
Michele ºÜº
Michele, lima beans or not, you’re getting it! Thanks for your openness to try new things and participate in the challenge this week. That’s exactly what it is — a challenge for all of us, whether we like the tangle or not. Thank you for stepping out of your comfort zone and trusting in the Zentangle Method.
So, like many of us, you overcame your dislike and participate. I think the tile is quite pretty. And, let never forget that it is about the proces.
Your finished piece is very nicely done, even if the tangle wasn’t your favorite. Good for you for pushing on
I am surprised by the number of people that have had difficulty with this tangle. I guess I should not be as it does show the diversity of tanglers. I think that you tackled this challenge well.