Illuminated Letter

I have finally finished a piece that I have been working on for several weeks.  Some friends of ours are getting married next weekend and I made a piece for them.  Usually I would get a couple something from their registry but these two don't want anything.  They have been together for a while and have bought or collected most of what a couple starting out would want.  Something they do have is a new home.  The house is really beautiful and has lots of wall space.  Naturally, I thought that I would make them something to hang on them!

I really admire the work done at the Zentangle Illuminated Letters master class that was held in Rhode Island.  What incredible art was made there.  Taking the idea, I decided to try my hand at making one of my own. 

I am not a calligrapher nor is my handwriting very good, so I chose a font that I liked and traced out my letter L.  From there I divided the space and kind of made it up as I went along.  I am quite pleased with the final product.

I toyed with the idea of adding some light washes of color with watercolor paint but I think I need to learn more and practice before I add to this work.  It is hard to see the shading here but the patterns really popped out once the shade was added.  This was done on 12"X18" watercolor paper using micron pens, pencil, and the Sakura Pen-touch gold marker.  I was going to use my gold leafing pen but it was not working well.  I think the pen-touch did a great job.  It covered really well and the shine is nice.

Christmas Ornaments

It is that time of year again!  The holidays are here and the level of activity grows more everyday.  So what do I do?  Find a new project of course.  What? Doesn't everyone?

This year there is no shortage of teachers to buy for at my house.  My 5 year old is in two different pre-school classes, each has a teacher and an assistant.  My 11 year old may have just one homeroom teacher but there are helpers, assistants and other teachers as well.  I have started with the idea of gifting just 5 people, but I will need to see if my 11 has any one he would like to give something to besides his homeroom teacher.



Pens and star ready to get to work.

 I saw a zentangle ornament on Pintrest a few weeks back and thought it was great.  I also thought that ornaments would be a cute way to "dress up" a teacher gift.  So Monday, I found myself wondering the aisles and looking for something to tangle and hang on the tree.  I thought of using a plain ball ornament but I have found that curved surfaces are not always my friend.  I found some flat porcelain shapes that I thought would work.  I ended up choosing a star shape.  As I was not sure how the micron pen would work on porcelain, I next went looking for a pen to use.  I almost got Sharpie Oil based markers to use, but the color options that were available were not to my liking and the nibs were also fairly large.  I still want a pretty fine tip to use.  I ended up going with Marvy Uchida Decocolor oil pens.  They have an extra fine tip and work well.  The paint flows nicely and so far, doesn't clog or skip.  I am also using the Sakura Pen-touch gold pen.  It is a larger tip and not fine point at all.  The end though, it just large enough to make a nice gold dot where I want it.

I bought an extra star to create my sample on.  At only $1.50 per star, I can afford to make a mock up.  I can make my mistakes there and work out any kinks I may encounter with patterns, pens, or problems there first.  I ended up using Tripoli on the stars.  I wanted a pattern that I felt comfortable doing free hand, looked good without shading, and I could embellish as I wanted. 



Getting started



I left the background white and started with the red pen. I almost stopped right here.  I thought that the red really popped out and that my Tripoli was quite a success.  However, I wasn't sure if all the remaining white space was a good idea.  I didn't want it to look unfinished.  As I really loved the red, I didn't want lose it and decided to switch to green.  After that I went in and added green dots to the red and red dots to the green.  Next, I went back again and put a small gold dot in the center of the groupings. 



Detail of final Star.



After I finished the first one, I took a break so that I could see it with new eyes and see what changes, if any, I would make to the next ones.  I decided that while I liked the added dots, the pattern was too busy.  On the next star, I did Tripoli the same, but left out the red and green dots but kept the gold ones.

I like the design this way.  The open triangles keep it from feeling too busy and the gold dots add a focal point for each "section" of Tripoli and just a little sparkle.  I bought a different red ribbon that I'll add to them before we give them away.  I got a clear sealer to go over top of the pens.  They are said to be permanent but I figure that the clear coat will help to prevent scratching over time. 



First try



The kids and I will work together and decide what to note on the backside.  I am still debating what else we may give them, a gift card maybe, but this is a great start.  These don't take that long to tangle.  In a few days, after they have had more time to dry, I will clear coat them.  I am really enjoying making these.  I may have to go back and get some more shapes to try out.