Tippel Challenge

There is a monotangle challenge this week at I Am the Diva.  The challenge is to use tipple and only tipple.  As I am currently working my way through some stencils, more on that in a later post, I wanted to work on a ZIA using the idea of this week's challenge.

I used my fish stencil, and not really sure what fish it is, I searched out the silhouette on google and I think that it is an Angel fish.  I went with the markings of a French Angel fish.  I used green and purple for the fish and blue and blue/black for the water.  It may seem like a test for color blindness, but I think it works.

This post is short, but kids and work await.  I hope that you have a great week!  Happy 4th to American readers and a belated Canada Day to my friends to the north.  Thanks for stopping by!

UMT: All Boxed Up

A new month, a new tangle to learn over at I Am the Diva CZT.  This month the tangles is called All Boxed Up from Alice Hendon.  This is a fun tangle and reminds me a lot of my own pattern Zuan Shi.  Alice's tangle is so simple though.  There are a lot of variations possible with this and I can't wait to use it more.

I started this tile with a stencil outline as my string.  I added the dot and dash to the outline. I know it has a name but I can't think of it.  While I was trying to think of what else to add, I decided to play with the idea of a mirror image. After coloring in half black, I added the All Boxed Up but managed to mess the variation that I planned on using.  No matter, it just adds more interest for the tile.  After that was done, I added more black and kept going with Printemps.

This was a fun tile to draw.  The gelly roll pen that I used for the white worked very well.  Maybe it was because I was drawing over the prismacolor marker or maybe it is because it is really warm and the ink likes it warm.  Whatever the reason, I was glad.

I hope that you all have a great week.  Thanks in advance for your wonderful comments and for stopping by.

White on Black

Draw in white on black is the challenge that Laura has put to us this week over at the Diva.  I am not sure what happens to me when I make this simple switch but just changing the ink color can stymie my progress faster than anything else.  Maybe it is just that I over think it.  Who knows.  This week though, I wanted to embrace the challenge.  Getting things started has been difficult for me these days, so I used the challenge to do something, anything no matter how it looked.

For white ink these days I have been using a dip pen and white ink from Speedball that has been thinned with some water.  The ink is great but when it isn't thinned, I have to fight with it to get the ink from the pen onto the paper.  I still have my white gelly roll pens but when I want to do a lot of drawing, not just some highlights, I go for the Speedball ink.

My first try at this week's challenge was going well.  I started with Arukas and went from there.  It was when I decided to give Athitzi a try that I jumped to a new piece.  I almost never just abandon a drawing, it is a rule of mine.  Pushing through a drawing that I am not excited with has resulted in some of my favorite designs.  Other times, a little piece that I love turns into a study for a new drawing to come.  Either way, today I didn't want to push through, I wanted to try out more Athitzi right away.  The pattern is so simple, yet I have not had good luck making it work the way I wanted it to.

So, launching onto another 5x7" of black drawing paper, I drew some circles randomly and got started.  My first circles are very controlled but I can tell when I got the hang of the pattern.  I worked quicker and the lines weren't so straight any more.  They get a little hook on the ends and while I do pick up my pen for each stroke, they touch and seem to be connected sometimes.  The dip pen worked for me here and a against me.  I like the way that the ink becomes more grey as the reserve is used up.  It makes for nice variation in the strokes and even makes over lapping strokes stand out a bit more.  Where it worked against me is my lazy hand.  I smeared this a bit by not watching where I placed my hand.  In all though, I think the smears work rather than ruin.  In the end, I think it works and I am trying to decide if they look more like dandelions or fireworks.

This is a zendala that I did a few weeks ago.  I wanted to try a larger drawing in white and black. Sorry for the odd photo.  It is too large for my scanner.  I hope you all have a great week!  Thanks in advance for stopping by and comments you leave.  

Labyrinth Tangle

I was so excited to see this week's challenge over at The Diva. The challenge is to use a labyrinth as the string.  I was excited am I have had this idea kicking around in the back of my mind but I haven't pulled it out.

 The challenge gave me just what I needed to pull it out. While Laura gave us instructions to draw our own, I found a layout online and traced it onto some grey paper.   I love the look of a labyrinth, it is so graphic. But at the same time, as the designs are so often in gardens, I didn't want to go graphic but wanted it to have a more natural feel to it.  I drew in brown ink for the basic out line and then used a micron to draw Betweed in the spaces.  I "walked" this labyrinth several times while making this piece.  First to draw it, then to draw Betweed, then to embellish the design and then finally to shade.

There are some great labyrinth paths on line and I think that I will have to check them out and see what else I can come up with.  Drawing my own would also be a great place to start and see what I can come up with.

Last week Ginny Stiles asked me to show her my dip pens that I use.  I was unable to figure out how to load a photo in the comments so I am posting a photo here.  The pens in the image are the three that I use most often.  The brown with the gold nib is one that I can change out the nibs on.  I use my pen for drawing and not calligraphy, so I keep the nib to one that makes a thinner line.  There are those that can make a thick line but I haven't used them much.  All I can say about working with a dip pen is practice.  It takes a light touch and dipping in the ink often to keep the line the same.  I am by no means an expert.  I have made many mistakes and am really just making it up as I go.  My favorite ink is Winsor and Newton drawing ink.  It mixes easy and has great color saturation.  I just have an initial set but there are tons of colors.  Anyway, I hope that seeing the pens help Ginny.

Have a great week everyone!  Thanks for taking a look and for your wonderful comments. 

Earth Day 2015

The earth here in Delaware has started to really wake up and I am so glad!  The leaves are popping out and early flowers have started to bloom.  We even had our first thunderstorm this week.  Spring is really here.  Each year, over at The Diva, Laura posts an Earth Day challenge.  This year is no different.

I tried another zendala this year.  I adapted a mandala pattern from a book I have to make it more zentangle friendly (read opened some space for tangles) and gave it a go.

I am so happy with how it turned out.  For the "water" I used a dip pen and Winsor & Newton blue ink.  I love how the Crest 2 pattern turned out.  I want to fill a whole page with those awesome waves.  Look for this in another design soon.  I used my green Sakura pen for the Garlic Cloves and Diva's Dance. A little ink wash and some white ink fescu finished out the center.

I hope that the weather is nice for you on this Earth Day.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Happy 200!

Over at The Diva, Laura has posted her 200th challenge.  Quite an accomplishment I must say.  As the challenge this week, we are to make a monotangle of our go to tangle.  My go to tangle changes from time to time but currently it is Garlic Flower (or at least that is what I think that it is called.)  I have tried to locate the blog where it originated but I have having some trouble finding it.  If you know, please link to it in your comment so that I can edit this post and add credit where it is due.

My most hearty congratulations to Laura on her wonderful achievement.  You are a constant source of inspiration both in your art abilities and as a Mom.  I am looking forward to 200 more!

I made this on one of the black zentangle tiles, using a thinned Speedball white ink and a dip pen.  I want to explore negative space more so I thought I'd use this challenge as a try.  I hope you like it.

Have a great day!

Tone on Tone Monotangle Ensemble

Say that title three times fast!  Yeah, I don't want to either.

Sometimes over at the Diva, Laura throws us a challenge that is REALLY a challenge for me.  This week the challenge is to use the tangle Betweed in a monotangle.  Meaning, use only the tangle Betweed in your tile.  This tangle is a challenge for me because it feels awkward to me as I make the strokes.  Well, it does in the "traditional" way of creating it.  I am much better at it when filling in a line or section but trying to do it in a circle really changes the feel of creating it.  Why? I have  no idea.  My brain, sometimes she sees things and sometimes she don't.  Anyway, as I contemplated even participating this week, I thought to myself that there is a reason it's called a challenge so suck it up and do it!

BeTreed (see what I did there?)

At first I tried to force Betweed into a tree shape.  I had checked out a few of the wonderful entries this week and saw a lot of Halloween shapes so I wanted to try something different. I thought that if I could get a tree to work, maybe I could make it into a card for the holidays.  Yeah, that didn't work out so well.  It wasn't terrible, but not so good either.  I didn't even finish the tile.  I decided to move onto a new idea.  But what?

In the last few days I have been using some of the Sakura Gelly Roll pens that I have collected as accents in my inktober pieces.  I bought some of the glaze pens a while back.  At the time I had an idea to use the black glaze on black paper and see how that looked.  Like so many of my ideas however, I never got far.  With the idea of using Betweed in the round, I pulled out my glaze pens, a square of black paper and a circle to trace, and I gave things a go.

Black on Black

I think that part of where Betweed hangs me up is the little spot of shadow.  I always make my lines and then go back to add a shadow spot.  This time using the glaze pen I tried something different.  The ink in the pens really flows and will puddle on you quite easily.  With that in mind, I started each line with a small circle and then made the line.  If the pen is going to puddle on you, why not use it to your advantage?  I was so excited that not only did the black on black stand out - the glaze ink has a nice shine to it - but the tangle turned out pretty well too.  The scan has the paper more gray than black but it is still a good image of the tile.  Since the line of the pen is "fat", I did these on a 5" square.   I debated trying to shade this but I like it without shade so I left it alone.  Once this one was finished, I was so excited by it I pulled out the rest of the set, matching colored paper and DID ALL THE COLORS!  There is a clear glaze that I tried on a white paper but it REALLY didn't show up.  For the white then, I used a Gelly roll glitter pen.  After I got all of the colors done, I realized that I had 9 tiles so I have put them together in an ensemble.  I think that I will put them in their own 5" frames and hang them in one big square on the wall.  A few of the colors didn't scan so well.  The tone on tone was hard for my scanner to see, that or maybe the shine of the ink threw it off a bit, but I think that you can get the idea.

Sorry that I made you get through all this rambling to get to the finish.  :)  Thanks for stopping by and for all of your lovely comments.  Your support is invaluable to me.

Have a great week!

Pretty in Pink Flowers

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Over at the Diva's challenge, Laura is honoring her Grandmother who had breast cancer.  The challenge is to use pink to honor someone you know that has/had breast cancer.  I did zentangle inspired art to honor Laura's Grandmother, my Godmother, and my friend who all battled breast cancer and for my Aunt who had cancer but is luckily now cancer free.

While it didn't scan really well, the pink here has a little shimmer to it.  I started by watercoloring the background and using a dip pen and india ink, drew my garden over the top.  I used variations of Diva's Dance and Arc flower and the top flower is inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  I think that someone has already done a step out for a pattern like it but I am not sure.  I was going to shade with my prismacolor markers here but the paint really stopped that from happening.  I'm not sure why, maybe the paint and the alcohol? but as I started, the marker picked up the pink as I went and was not doing nice things.  So, I stopped and made a light wash with the india ink and used a small brush to shade.  The outside shading is the marker.

I like the whimsy of the piece and even the pink (a color that I don't usually embrace).  This is also doing double duty for my inktober drawing for today.  Not too bad for a morning's work.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the wonderful comments each week.  I appreciate them all, I just don't usually have time to go back and comment to everyone individually.  Have a wonderful week!

Yuma tangle

A new month brings a new tangle in the spotlight over at I Am the Diva.  This time the tangle is Yuma by Tina.  I like this tangle but my version needs more practice.  When using this tangle in the past, I have started out not liking the results but by the end, I like it a lot.

For this week's challenge, I decided to use a black zentangle tile.  As I have been using a dip pen lately, and have some white speedball ink, I used those to draw.  The results were mixed.  I have had issues using this ink before.  I haven't figured out if it is me or the ink yet (me I think) but it doesn't want to work well with the nibs that I have used.  Not to worry, I will keep at it.  My results are:

For the tile I tried the original version of the tangle.  I also tried my hand at Onion Skins, another new tangle I haven't tried.  I enjoyed it but it also needs a little work on my end.  I started to "shade" with a white charcoal pencil but changed my mind and just stopped.  To fill in, I used a small brush as the pen wasn't cooperating.  So, this tile, not my best but I learned doing it.

I have used Yuma once before a few weeks back.  I gave it a try when making a pin and experimenting with a new Shrinky Dink film.  I used a black and pink sharpie to draw and used a Sakura gold marker to fill in the seed shapes.  I felt a little lost as I was going but by the end I liked how it came out.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to those who celebrated in Canada.  I am looking forward to Thanksgiving here in the US.  My family will be here to visit and I am excited to see them.

I hope you all have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Love is Love

I believe in love.  Love drives all of us crazy.  Do we have it? Can we get it? Do I deserve it? For some finding the person who means the most to you in the world is a lifelong search while for others love seems to happen quickly.  In a world where there is more than enough hate and animosity to go around, I support love where it is found and that includes love between people of the LGBT community.  This week in the US, the Supreme Court declined to rule on cases where same sex marriage.  While this doesn't give a clear and final ruling on the issue in the United States, it to open the door for each state to decide.  I am happy that the state I live in, Delaware, allows same sex marriage.  I have several gay and lesbian friends and love them with all my heart.  Their families are no different than my own and I am proud to be included in their lives.

Why is she going on about this you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  This week Laura over at The Diva's challenge, accepted a challenge from a young man named Daniel, who at 12, is already an outspoken supporter of the LGBT community.  He thought that a challenge in support of National Coming Out Day would be a good idea and I do too.  Congratulations to Daniel for putting out the challenge and to Laura for hosting what can be a controversial issue.  Thank you both for this wonderful idea.  It has been a great challenge for me.

Love is Love

I started this challenge with the center design of zinger.  Zinger is a new tangle for me and I have really fallen in love with it making it in the round like this.  I have done it several times on the Shrink Art Necklaces that I make and on ornaments as well.  The black and white section is a variation of several different tangles (H2O Lilly and Mathura for example) but is kept very plain and simple.  I wanted the section  to add interest but not overwhelm the piece by adding too much pattern or color.  The outer layer is Wud.  I love the way the pattern looks in black and white but after I drew it in, I decided to color it like a rainbow.  ROY G BIV is my new BFF. Hee Hee!  I used Sharpie markers for the center and a Sharpie Pen for the drawing on this one.  I didn't have a rainbow of microns so I broke into the sharpies.  I drew this on bristol board as well.  The colors were added to Wud with Prismacolor color pencils and the shading done with Prismacolor markers.  The whole thing is on 9" square paper.

This zendala personally makes me happy and I am so proud of it.  I hope it makes you happy as well.  I have set this image up on zazzle to be available on a variety of products.  It isn't quite available at this time but it should be by this time tomorrow.  You can check them out here. 

Thanks again to Daniel and Laura.  

Blind Sting - Test Case

Fall has arrived here in Delaware not only on the calendar but in the weather as well.  This past weekend was really nice with highs in the low 80's but I think that was the last hurrah of summer.  The leaves have begun to change and there is no going back now.  If I were smart, I'd pull out warmer clothing now but I think I'll stay in denial a little longer.

The new week has brought a new challenge over at I am the Diva.  This week is to use a blind string, that is, to draw the sting without looking.  This string challenge always has me drawing in a kind of swirly lump in the middle of the tile.  My first try was really not useable.  Not only where there a lot of spaces, which isn't a problem really, but they were so small that drawing in them would be impossible.  So, I went at it a second time.  I should have been more willing to go wild and not worry about staying on the paper but I wasn't.  That's ok though.  I need to work on leaving some white space too.  I try to fill it all in every time so this string was good for me.

You see the pen I am using there?  I bought it in Italy this summer on our family vacation.  I have used it a little but I got it out to use today.  I have decided to participate in inktober and wanted to practice with the pen I am planning to use.  Inktober is a drawing challenge where you make up to 31 drawings in 31 days.  You can work a shorter number, check the link for details, but I want to give 31 a go.  Over the summer, I was cutting up some scrap paper to use as smaller tiles and/or test paper and ended up with some 3" squares.  I thought that I would draw on the smaller tiles and then group them together into a larger piece.  So far though, they have only been an idea waiting to happen.  So when the idea of inktober came to me, I thought, "Why wait? Let's do it now!"  And as October is just a few days away, I thought that I would use today's challenge as a test run to see how it would go.

The dip pen makes a nice thin line and covered over the pencil string well.  I am still getting used to having to refill my ink but it isn't as disruptive as one might think.  Sometimes I wait until I run out of ink so I have to go back over a little to keep the line even.  The design stayed pretty simple.  I wanted to work on curving lines as those can sometimes trip me up with the dip pen.

I was afraid that the slightly smaller tile size would be too small for me to work on, but it wasn't.  I haven't tried the even smaller Bijou tiles/size yet.  Maybe that is next.

But back to this tile,  I held close to the string but let the design run to the edge to let it feel a little less constrained.  I could have done more but I didn't want to over work the design and wanted to work quickly.

For the shading I used a new Prismacolor marker.  Color: warm grey 30%.  This is the first time I have had a Prismacolor marker and the first time that I have used a marker to shade a drawing.  I have used them on canvas though.  I like the pen and look forward to using it in the future.  It is nice to make a shade line and not have to go back and blend it out with a stump.  It is a different feel though and I look forward to exploring more.

I hope that you will join me in inktober.  It will be nice to have a daily challenge and the smaller size will keep me from spending all day drawing.  Not to mention increasing the likelihood that I will finish my goal.  You can follow my challenge either on my Facebook page or on instagram (@tinkertangles).

Have a great week!

Diva Duo

Every week I check in to Laura Harm's site for her weekly Challenge.  I don't always make it to the end of the week with a challenge completed. Often, if I manage to do the challenge, I don't always get it posted here.  Why? Laziness. But this week! This week I got it finished, scanned and am now going to post.  I'm on a roll baby!

So the challenge is to create a duotangle using only the tangles Diva Dance and Phicops.  I was happy to see these two tangles being used as I used the two together this summer and wanted to explore them further.  The idea was added to my idea list, but stayed there until this week.

As you may know, I created the artwork for a coloring app this summer.  You can read more about it here.  After finishing, I wanted to keep going with the coloring idea and made a book, which you can also read about  in the link.  Anyway, one page was a nod to zendalas with half zendalas covering the page. See the bottom of the image on the right.  While I like all the designs here, I really love the bottom one.  So, this was my inspiration for the challenge this week.

Wanting to separate the challenge from the coloring book, I chose to use tan drawing paper as a beginning.  I then used black, brown and a burgundy micron pen for the drawing.  Exploring colored paper is a lot of fun and I really experiment with the idea of white as a highlight.  I have a white chalk pencil that I use and it is really nice.

I redrew the phicops and diva's dance from the coloring book but then I was a little stuck.  I was really happy with what I had so far but the drawing didn't feel finished yet.  And as the challenge only allows for the two tangles, I wasn't sure what to use next or how I wanted to use it.  I opted for diva's dance and making it look different than I had used it before.

Drift

 The new burgundy pen is the outer layer and I like it.  On the brown paper it doesn't look as red as I would think, more of a darker brown.  I opted not to fill in the spaces in there and to me it feels like drift wood.  I used the chalk pencil to add a little highlight there.

I hope that you like this as much as I do.  I am really proud of the shading and highlights on the phicops.  I was thinking of it as a sea creature but then a friend said it looked like a meringue so now I'm conflicted.  :)

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great weekend!

Dot - Dot - Dot - Dot - Dot

This week the challenge that Laura put forward is Pointillism.  I confess that I have never tried this style of drawing before, or at least, not that I can remember.  I guess maybe I have as the tangle pattern Rain Dotty is pointillism.  However, I have not tried to create a whole piece of art using just this style.  I really focused on the method here.  Trying to play with the dots to show more depth in some areas while little in others.  I ended up doing two for this week.  First I used an older micron on a square of watercolor paper.  I followed Laura's example a bit and kept things non-tanglely at first but later added more defined pattern.  After I was done, I went back and added a little pencil for shade in a few spots. After I was finished, I found more to the tile than I thought there was.  Some of the sections, blend one into the other to create a curved look that I certainly didn't plan.  As my teacher in college would say, it was a "happy accident".

Next I was drawn to give this method a try on canvas.  I took a blank black canvas board I have and used white oil pen with a white charcoal pencil for shade.  This one was really abstract.  I just started tapping away over a minimum of pencil string and this is what I came up with.

It reminds me of a shoe.  I'm not sure why but it does.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  What is it? Who cares?  

I will certainly explore pointillism more and keep it in mind while working on my pieces.  

Knights Over Tipple Challenge

The other day I realized that it has been 4 (!) months since my last blog post.  I really need to set time aside each week to sit and post something for those who visit here.  I won't promise that I will though.  Because I know me.  I will try, but I can't say I will.  I have been furiously working away however.

In the attempt to create an alphabet in tangles, I decided that I will try to use the Diva's Challenge each week as not only a challenge for Zentangle but as a double challenge to myself to work on an alphabet tile.  I am using some letter cookie cutters that a dear friend gave me long ago as my stencil.  I really love cookie cutters as stencils.  They come in all shapes and sizes and no printing is required.  Just set it where you'd like the design, trace the outline and get get started.

This week is the first in the (hopefully) future series of 26.  As M was at the top of the bucket, M is the kickoff letter.  The challenge is to use just two patterns on the tile.  Those tangles are Knightsbridge (a checkerboard pattern) and Tipple (circles).

I started with the M, using it as a string in this piece.  I drew out the boarder first.  I knew I wanted that to be Knightsbridge.  Then I tippled (is too a word) the M.  I thought about varying the center here and adding to the Knightsbridge but I decided that simple was the way to go.  After getting that done, I had this empty spot that I needed to put something in.  The blank paper was just too empty and didn't look right.  So after a mid morning trip to Starbucks and the Post Office, I came back to this.  With caffeine kicking, I decided to freehand some wonky lines for the Knightsbridge and then Tipple over the spaces.  Combining them to make a  Tipplebridge.  Tee hee!

Things were a bit busy there until I got some shading in to pop the M up from the background.  Here I only shaded around the M and again at the outer edge, separating the Tipple from the border.  In the end, I am happy how this turned out.  I wasn't sure that the final tile wouldn't look too busy, it still is.  With the shading however, the separate layers "stack" as it were, to make things easy to see.

I hope to sit and get some more posts in soon.  I have been working on Shrinky Dinks lately.  I have been using past Bright Owl challenges to make medallions for necklaces.  I have also been doing some rectangle pendants.  I debuted them at the local Arden Fair and the necklaces sold quite well.  So well, that I posted the remaining in my etsy shop.  I have made 4 more in the last few weeks and hope to have them completed soon.

So, have a great day all you out there!  I look forward to seeing what cool things you have come up with for this challenge.

Walk this Shway

I must be the first to admit that when I say Shway arrive in my inbox the other day, I did not think that I would ever use it.  Not because I don't like the tangle, but because it looked hard.  I felt like too much spacing and even-ness would be required.  (Confession: mismatched spaces when I want them to be matched makes my eye twitch.)  All that being said, I decided that I was going to figure this out and do the challenge on time this week.

First things first, I played a little with Shway.  I had not tried it out yet.  Once I did a little, and figured out how to get it like I wanted it to be, I pulled out some paper and got to work.  I did a little tic-tac-toe board for a string.  I wanted Schway to take center stage on this one, but I didn't want it to be a monotangle either. I put Shway in five of the spaces so that I would have several chances to vary/experiment with the patterns.   When looking at Shway unvaried and unshaded, I was afraid that the pattern would be quite flat so for the other four spots, I tried to choose tangles that would have dimension. I wanted the other spaces to pop up a little against the flat.

In the end, I'm not sure my other tangles pop up as much as I thought they might, and not all of Shway is as flat as I feared it would.  There is so much possibility for variation here and I really enjoyed experimenting.  I also like the graphic quality of Shway.  It has a pop art feel to me. I am happy with my tile this week.  Not only is it finished in time, but was done in record time for me.

I am also posting last week's Blind String Challenge.  I finished it late Saturday and was too tired to get it shaded, scanned and blogged in time to make the deadline.This was my first go at Phicops and while I certainly have more experimenting with it to feel that I have "mastered" it, I am really glad that I gave it a go and tried it.  I also experimented with Laura's tangle Versa.  I was going for another look that I have done with Versa but, I got distracted and goofed it up.  That being said, I do like the end result.  The other grid pattern is one that I did combining Z-Trick and Flwr Box.  I still need to try those two on their own, but I am pleased with how my combination came out as well.  I was just playing around with ideas when I started this one, so I wasn't sure what the end result would look like.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.  Have a great week!

Earth Day!

Guess what?!  I finally finished one of the Diva's challenges in time to post it!  Shocking I know, as it has been a long time.  I've been checking in every week, and I've even started some, but I've either not finished them or not finished in time.  So, I tried really hard to get mine completed this week.

Following The Diva's example, I too chose to do a zendala.  I don't have any of the nifty tiles though, so I made my own.  I used my circle cutter and cut out a 4" circle on watercolor paper.  I then traveled over the Erin's site The Bright Owl, and pulled my template from Challenge #52.  Being Earth Day, I wanted a template with circles in it and this one jumped out at me.

4" watercolor paper, micron pens and pencil

I knew that I wanted some blue and green on the zendala, so I decided that I'd use them in the middle.  I picked Diva's Dance in blue to be my "water".  For my "earth" circles, I just kind of made it up.  I wanted to have something that looked like fields from above.  I started with squares and then just filled them with rotating patterns or filled the space with just green.  I'm not sure how I feel about the design as a tangle pattern, but it works here for what I was aiming for.  Now, I needed to do the outer sections.  Again, I wanted to have patterns that felt organic or earthy to me.  I used Beeline because, bees!  The other sections are Zin, mostly because I messed up my Beeline set up.  But hey! There are no mistakes in Zentangle.  I had these lovely triangles and Zin fit in perfectly.  The outer edges I used Verve and Tipple.  I thought that Tipple looked like gravel or a rock pile.  After that, I added a little shading and BOOM! I was done.

I really wasn't sure how it would turn out when I got started, but I am pleased with the final result.  As is often the case, shading helped a lot.  The blue and green felt really flat as I opted to not shade the patterns in the circles.  Just the little shade on the edges where they overlap really popped them out and away from each other.

While I have your attention - if you've made it this far- I wanted to share the tile I did for last week's star theme.  I did get it finished in time, but I did not blog it in time.  So without chatter and more words, here are stars!

Well, a little more.  I used watercolor for the blue, micron pen to draw and a little silver sakura gel pen for the lines.  I wanted to give the impression that the stars are shooting stars.  Not sure it works as zooming but I tried!

Thanks for stopping by!

A New Challenge, A New Tangle

As it is the beginning of the month, it is time for a Use My Tangle challenge over at the Diva's page.  This week the tangle is Dansk from Margaret Bremner.  I cannot belive that I have not seen this one before.  Or if I have, I confess that I don't remember it.  Dansk is a fun and wonderfully easy pattern.  Mine look more like tree rings but there's nothing wrong with that.  I'll have to remember this one when I am looking for nature inspired patterns.

I managed to keep this tile really quite simple.  Somthing that I have been trying to keep in mind.  White space is ok and can even be your friend.  I borrowed the string from tanglepatterns.com.  Nothing was coming to me as I stared at the blank tile and then I remembered that Linda is collecting string ideas so I clicked over and found one.  I also used Diva Dance for the first time.  Well, for the first time in a completed drawing anyway.  I wasn't sure about this at first but I have come to like it.  All the patterns I ended up picking out all remind me of tree rings, at least they do here.  Maybe Spring is trying to work its way into my brain.  I know it's ready for some sunshine.

I also wanted to share with you the photo mat that I complete for the swap over on Facebook.  It was quite a challenge to do but once I got going at it, I was able to get some bits that I am really proud of.  I still need to spray it against smudging (not that there is a lot of pencil on it) and pop it into the mail.  Luck for me the deadline is in March.  I am HORRIBLE about getting stuff into the mail.  Well, I should say horrible when I need to go to the post office.  If I can print postage and mail it from home then I am not so bad.  I tried on a few new tangles on this as well and that was a lot of fun.

I hope you have a great day!

Another Duo: Auraknot and Bunzo

It is time for another duo tangle over at The Diva's.  I like duo tangle challenges for several reasons.  One, it is nice not having to think about what patterns to use and two, it usually makes me use tangles that I don't know very well.  This challenge uses Auraknot and Bunzo, two official Zentangle patterns.  I use Auraknot quite a bit.  I really love it.  I confess that I usually use a cookie cutter as a starting place for this pattern.  Maybe one day I'll work up to starting with a freehand design.  Bunzo I enjoy as well, but haven't used very much.  Exploring it this week has been fun.

6X6" cold press watercolor paper, Micron pen and pencil.

When I started this challenge I had no plan at all.  I first marked off the frame.  I wanted a heavier boarder than usual so I pulled out a micron brush pen to make that.  I then drew my auraknot.  There is a little mistake in there.  I almost started over but I just kept at it.  I was hoping that the lines would mask it a bit as I went along, but no such luck.  Oh well, no big deal.

Bunzo just sort of took on a life of its own after that.  For Bunzo, I just went with exploring the process of creating the tangle.  To keep the Auraknot from looking just slapped down, I surrounded it with Bunzo.  After each part seemed to "grow" where it wanted to, I stopped and took a look wondering if I should keep going.  It seemed finished to me so I stopped.  I like the off center-ness of this one.  I hope that you do too.

Have a great week!

Bunzo for Sandy

The storm has passed us by here in Delaware.  Luckily for us, we suffered nothing worse than a large branch down.  We didn't lose power or anything.  The weather closed school and work yesterday so I took advantage of the day and tangled.

The Diva's challenge was to use the newly released Bunzo.  I like this pattern but I see that I could do with some more exploration.  Like Allium, I have trouble keeping this pattern small.  Maybe I should challenge myself again and try for a tighter design.  Here is what I came up with.

 I just jumped in with Bunzo.  As I was working on it, Bunzo reminded me of Wirlz so naturally, I needed to use Wirlz.  Thing is, I just couldn't stop once I got going with the Wirlz.  I think they look nice together.

Sunday night I was playing with some Gelly pens and gave Bunzo a try with those.  I used pink and pink glitter to make this on some scrap paper.  I wanted to see what the design would look like with some variations in color.  It's fun if nothing else.

Along with the challenge I worked on ornaments.  I have them listed in my etsy and have sold some at the craft fairs I have been doing.  Several friends have placed some orders as gifts so I have been working on them when the mood takes me.  Lucky they are fun to make.  I have been making Zendalas with the snowflake shape but yesterday I thought, "Why not use Auraknot?"  So, I traced out the shape to make sure where I wanted my lines to go.  Once I had that figured out, I was off.  The center here is Fife with one step left out.  The second X in the center is too squished to use on the ornaments so I have been leaving it off.  It reminds me of a Poinsettia.  The ornament in the photo is unfinished here but is an example of how I spent the day.

I hope that all of you who were in the path of Sandy fared well.  Those who might be getting the snow from this crazy storm, I hope that you are warm.  The numbers coming out of West Virginia are crazy.  I'm continuing to be thankful that the storm was not worse for us and thinking of those who are still dealing with the after effects.  It will take a while to clean up after this I think.

Thanks to the Diva for making time for the challenge this week.  I hope that Artoo is feeling better and you are able to get some rest.  Hugs for you all.  I am thinking of you.

Stripes 2.0

Over at the Diva's blog, the challenge this week is to use stripes as a string.  I have used this several times since the challenge was first posted last year.  Using stripes can be fun and makes for a good visual.  This time, I made my design large, I used an 8" square piece of watercolor paper and added red as a pop of color.

I added the challenge of red just to see what I could do with it, use it more as an accent rather than just drawing my patterns in red.  In all it came out pretty good I think.

Thanks to the Diva for another great challenge.  I'm sticking to a short post this week as we are looking at Hurricane Sandy to start effecting us soon and I wanted to get this out before we lost power.  Luckily, we are inland.  Water and wind will still be of concern, but we won't have to contend with the storm surge.

Stay safe everyone and have a great week!