Earth Day Zentangles

Sunday was Earth Day and I must confess that I was unable to celebrate it in an Earth friendly way.  We spent the day driving home from a wedding in Virginia.  It pleased me though to see that the challenge this week was to create a tile that celebrates our home planet.

I wasn't sure what I was going to create when I read the challenge, but I knew that I was going to use blue and green ink to draw.  Really, a challenge inspired by Earth just called for color to me.

Patterns used: Shattuck, Tripoli, Keeko

When I sat down to start my first tile, I decided that I wanted to draw the Earth in space.  I contemplated  tracing out a map or image of the Earth but then decided that I would just go for a suggestion of Earth rather than a literal translation.  Because I started while sitting in the waiting room at the orthodontist my circle is a bit wonky but no matter.  I added a few shapes to represent land and I was off.  I made my blue section first and then went and added my green.  I think that I should have stopped and not added the black, however. I think that I liked the tile better before.  I added the "stars" with the Sakura glitter pen to break up the darkness.  Plus, if we were looking at Earth from space we'd see stars too.

Patterns used: Tagh, Hibred, Baton, Pokeroot, Paradox, Organza

After finishing my first tile, I wanted to do another one.  Since I found some 4" canvases at Michaels, I've been a bit obsessed with them.  This second Earth is done on a 4" canvas "tile".  I say tile as it is solid all the way through.  It is some hard material (cardboard maybe) covered in canvas.  The tile is thin and pretty easy to work with.  I will be doing a post on the canvas and pens that I use next so check back if you'd like to see more.

I decided that I wanted this one to be more of a suggestion of Earth.  I started with a circle and then added Organza to divide the circle.  For this tile I used Bic Mark-It pens with the ultra fine tip.  The green that I have is very light and I ended up going over my lines several times to get them as dark as they are.  I am still working out the shading on the canvas though.  In some places, I think that the grey pen is successful but in others not so much.  I find that the Bic pen kind of "puddles" at the tip so that a spot of extra ink can be left when you pick your pen up.  You can see this best in the green sections.  I find though, that it I end my gray lines on a black one, that the dot blends into the black and is no longer an issue.

I like this tile and think that I will use the divided circle again.  I really like how it looks.

Thanks to Laura for another great challenge.  I hope that your foot is doing much better.