I first tried knotwork on the 5th of February (that's the European way of writing dates... sounds much prettier than Febuary 5th, doesn't it?).

Here is a peek into my sketchbook. All of these drawings are from the weekend of the 5th of February (so, you're looking at first attempts... some rather pitiful):

The green ones in the left corner are the very, very first.

Trying my hand at some "trinity knots." My compass got it's work cut out for it!

...and here I experimented with "walls" and coloring the background. With sharpie. Which bled through and ruined three pages of my sketchbook.

Always use a bleeding sheet (old, thick, ruin-able paper) behind the page you are Sharpie-ing. Just sayin'.

Normally, I hate grids. I. do. not. like. them. Sam-I-Am.

When it comes to art, I can't stand that grid! Every art book I have read says to "use a grid in order to make your proportions proper."

I don't know about you, but I like to eye things. Ever since I was little and first started doing artwork, I've kind of trained myself to dissect what I see into both 3D and 2D shapes. Does that sound weird?

If I'm drawing a face, I "pull apart" the the shape in my head. I see sphere of the face... the circular shape it forms... Noses are made up of three small spheres, which I can draw as circles and shade into 3D-ness. Eyes are usually an eye's distance apart, and the top of my cousin's ear is the same height as his eyebrow's arch peak...

So, I've always hated that greatly-honored grid, because I have my own way of doing things. Or maybe my little mind is jealous of the almighty grid.

I drew the grids, using big and small dots and a ruler for guidelines... Then I drew a criss-cross pattern... sketched in the walls... traced everything with a darker pencil (over, under, over, under, over, under, get really dizzy)... trace that in pen... erase the pencil lines... color it in...

It sounds long and boring, and it might be, but it's strangely calm and soothing. :)