In this tile, we see the author taking a central image and working outward from one existing border into three unknown borders. The image has been manipulated insofar as it's coloration and it's texture has been altered by the stroking of a tool across areas of color and pulling the color along with the influence of the tool tip. The smudge tool was designed with that very intent and as you see above, is really quite effective at creating the desired design effect. If the author had intended to achieve a different effect, he could have used the airbrush or the paintbrush and accomplished about the same thing. That's part of the beauty of just being creative, the chance and the right to choose! Now, there are some who would say that this effect may seem a bit "overdone" but these people have yet to understand that beauty, is really something that lies in the eye of the beholder and they might be setting themselves up as some kind of authority on technique, some aloof graduate of the people's art, gone on into becoming veritable legends, within the confines of their own minds! You know, I guess that you could call this tile, kind of a smudge tile because I think that the tool was used extensively in the creation of it but still, I think that it's valid and would be acceptable to the earthly eye of most beholders. Personally, I wasn't very impressed with the outcome of this tile, I completed it and posted it unashamedly. Funny thing tho, after I posted it, I considered it just another part of the learning process here at ICE, a learning process about everything from colors to tools and yes, even and ultimately, about people themselves.If you've followed this tile from a link somewhere out there, sit awhile and stare at the monitor and if you haven't voted or scored it, give it the score that you believe that it's worth. When I voted, I felt that altho it was a valid tile by quilters standards, that it wasn't near as nice as other work that I've done, so I gave it a 2 and I waved goodbye to it until now. Oh yes, and forgive me please if I've somehow mistaken you for someone who really cares... Kindly submitted, Eddie M.