The Challenge of Sankegg

Finally!  Things have settled down enough that I can get back to the Diva's weekly challenge.  I have stopped in to see what was going on each week, but have not been able to get myself sat down and put pen to paper.  Since September, I have been doing some shows and fairs in the attempt to get my art out there.  It has been a learning experience to be sure.  I'm still working on finding my audience but I'm getting there.

I have not tried Sankegg before.  I really like the look of it, but I'm not sure that I have it down very well yet.  See I have this thing with evenness, in that I get a little twitchy if things aren't even.  But, in the spirit of Zentangle, I just went with the pattern and let go of my twitches.  After just doing a quick pencil try on a scrap paper, I jumped in with both feet.  I had to refer to the step out often, I kept getting confused, but I think I got it down.

Sankegg Challenge

I knew that I wanted to put Sankegg in several places in the tile.  Nothing like a use my tangle challenge to play with variation.  After making my string, I started in the center and went with Sankegg as in the step out.  I ended up adding Tipple around the Sankegg in the upper left side mostly to cover my mistakes.  I somehow ended up with too many lines but through in a few circles, and BOOM, no more extra lines.  For the lower right side, I decided I wanted to try varying the triangles.  I stopped short of shading Sankegg as I just wasn't sure where to start.  I'll work on shading it next time.

Have a great week everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.

PS:  I got a new scanner, an Epson Perfection V33.  The above image was scanned using the scanner.  Isn't it lovely?  It's scanned in at 600 dpi and no touch up was made.  A very sweet and affordable scanner if you're looking for one.

Color in New Sizes

I am still exploring using watercolor with Zentangle.  I learn more each time and am finding this a lot of fun.  I have tried the standard 3.5" X 3.5" tile, Artist Trading cards, 5X7" and working on a 9X12 page.  Each size can present its own challenges and each brings a new experiment to learn.  The only constant that I find so far is that everything is different each time.

I think that I MIGHT have figured out how much paint is too much though.  On a few ATC that I painted over the weekend, I just dropped the watercolor on the wet card and let the paint flow where it may.  While producing a lovely effect, it left a lot of the watercolor on top of the paper.  Too much paint on the paper will disrupt the ink flow from the Micron pen.  The end of the pen, picks up the paint causing the ink to stop.  Good news is that you can write or wipe it off and the pen works fine again.  I think to finish a spot or two I will have to use a Sharpie Pen to finish.

Sometimes there are places on the ATC cards where the ink from the pen bleeds a bit.  I am not sure if this is how the ink flows on the watercolor paint, or if that the paper was wet changes how it accepts the ink.  The bleeding isn't bad though.  The line is a touch thicker and is darker in those spots.  My main concern with this however, was that the bleeding would pull the ink from my Micron faster than normal.  Then I remembered that I had a few older pens that didn't work as well any longer, they left skips and/or a lighter line, and wondered how they would work on these watercolor places.  I am happy to report that they work great!  It is almost like having a new pen. Plus I don't worry about those pens losing ink too fast.  I had already written them off but was keeping them around because I couldn't bear to part with them.  The old pens now have a home in my ATC kit that I am keeping in my purse.

Color Wash

This is the first ATC that I tried with watercolor.  Again, I just followed the paint as the string. The pattern on the left is a variation of Atorm.  I wanted to let that beautiful blue show through.  When I was photographing it, the light caught the pencil shading that I did and gives the photo a shine that isn't in the original.

I like these small sizes.  This one is done on a Bristol card.  I just bought some watercolor paper sizes that I have painted and will try ink on next.  I am interested to see if the ink will flow differently on the water color paper.

Aliens

Aliens was an experiment with less color on a page.  After I got all the lines drawn, it looked like some alien life forms.

Before I started playing with the ATC size, I started doing a 5X7" size.  I liked how it was going and was moving right along on it but then I got to a section and was stuck.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to add a tangle or not and if I did add one, I couldn'd decided on what pattern to put there. So, I set it aside and waited for an answer.


Last night I was trolling Pinterest for some inspiration and found Braids.   I love the flow of this pattern so much.  The site is in German though, so if you would like to read the great lesson that Simone Bischoff has posted I would recommend it. So, braids... This morning I flipped back to the 5X7" piece to see what new things, if any, it had to say.  I had braids in mind so I thought that I would try it in my trouble spot and see what happened.  I am sooo pleased to say, it worked great!

Color Study

The "steps" there are my try at Planateen that went terribly wrong.  I did it fine on my practice of the pattern, but once I put my pen to the paper, I lost my mind.  Luckily, I think that it came out ok despite my best effort to mess it up.  In this piece, I still used the color as a string, but wasn't as fussy about it.  I also drew on the white paper.  Some bits are more successful than others but on the whole, I like it.

Thanks to all of you for the great feedback that you have been giving me on this journey into color.  It helps so much.

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.

Time Lord Tangle

Another blog post, another gift!  This, as the title may imply is a Dr. Who inspired tangle.  I have a very dear friend that is a big Dr. Who fan.  She has turned me into a fan as well.  I'm not as versed on the lore as she is so I was walking a bit in the dark with this one.  I kept checking my self though so I hope that I didn't get anything wrong.

The symbol in the middle is the Gallifreyan symbol for either Gallifrey or the symbol for the head of the Time Lords.  (For anyone who doesn't know, Gallifrey is the planet that Dr. Who comes from.)  I found several different notes on the internet as to what it is exactly.

The language of the Time Lord is most often shown as being circular.  It is quite steampunk looking and really cool.  Because of the circular language, I decided to use a lot of circular patterns as well as other patterns that look "spacey".
After I got Rain done and took a look from a far I was so excited that it reminded me of bow ties.  The angle that I made the triangles look like bows to me which is great because the current Dr. often wears a bow tie. (Bow Ties are cool!)

I hid a TARDIS (Dr.Who's ship) up in the top with Strircles. You can't have the Dr. without his TARDIS so I wanted it to be there but to blend in as it were.  :)

Over on the right side, I wanted to further involve the TARDIS but from the inside.  In many versions of the TARDIS, there are the great panels on the sides of the wall that have circles in them.  So I created a pattern to call this to mind. My 11 year old says that it reminds him of the Daleks body (the villains in many an episode).  I confess that it does a bit so I guess this pattern will have to pull double duty.
To frame the finished piece, it is 10X10 (I think.) I picked out some scrapbook paper in "TARDIS Blue", mounted the drawing, and then put it all in a 12X12 frame. 


I am happy to report that Kara got it all in one piece and is quite happy with it as well.

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.



Birthday Gifts

Red Velvet cake.  So yummy!

Fall is a busy time of year for me and birthdays.  Not only do many of my family members turn a year older but also do many of my friends.  This year, I have made zentangles for several people.  I can't post them all yet on the off chance that they may see them.  This weekend though, I was able to gift a few and now I can share them with you.



5X5 on watercolor paper with 0.1 and 0.005 micron pens and pencil.

This is a zendala that I made for my friend Cheryl.  I found this mandala pattern on 102 Free Mandalas to download.  This is a nice place to find many different mandalas.  This one was a little different than what I used but I really liked the shape.  You can download the patterns as .jpeg or PDF files.

I really enjoyed making this and am surprised at how quickly it went.  I framed it in a 10X10 float frame, with a black piece of scrapbooking paper to fill the empty space.  I had hoped to put it in a 10X10 with a 5X5 square cutout to frame it but I made the zendala too big and none of the premade frames would work.  I waited too late to have it framed professionally.  I was quite pleased with how it came out though.  The paper had a black on black pattern on it and with the zendala in the middle it looked quite nice.  The pattern on the paper was just enough to give it interest but not too busy to distract the eye.




5X7 on watercolor paper with 0.1 micron and gold gel pen

This one is for my friend Kent.  While I didn't plan it, this one works double time as Kent is a New Orleans Saints fan and their colors are black and gold.  This photo is of the tangle in the frame so there is a little glare in the glass but not much.

I tried to alternate the dark and light patterns in this one.  I tried a new pattern Golven and I really like it a lot. It isn't difficult to do and looks great.  I look forward to using it again and again.

I am glad to report that both Cheryl and Kent enjoyed their tangles as much as I did making them.  I hope that you enjoy looking at them too.

Punzel

This week there is a new tangle from Rick and Maria called Punzel.  Naturally when I saw the email I knew that the challenge this week would be to use Punzel. This was a double challenge for me as I did not know Changing either.  I still need to work out some kinks in both of these tangles but I think I have the gist of it.  My swoops are a bit narrow and come out looking more like crescent moons than ribbon but that's OK.  I think the effect makes it look a bit sci-fi.

I used my scanner to get this week's zentangle posted so please forgive the harsh quality to the image.  There is no sun today and I don't think we'll see it for a few more days, so taking a good photo is out of the question.

Sunflower!

To honor The Sunflower Fund, the challenge this week from the Diva was to draw a sunflower.  The Sunflower Fund to support the South African Bone Marrow registry.  This is a great cause and we should have something similar here in the USA.  Maybe we do and I don't know about it.  My Mother died of acute myelogenous leukemia in 2007.  She battled to beat the disease so that she could get a bone marrow transplant but unfortunately, was unable to get to that point.  As soon as I heard that she may need a transplant I was ready to get tested to see if I might be a match.  My Uncle had already volunteered to be tested and was found to be a match.  He did this without being asked.  This makes him my hero, I guess I should tell him that huh?  I think that those who have volunteered to join the registry in ANY country is a hero.  I want to say thank you.

Now, on to my challenge tile.  I copied the Sunflower Fund sunflower and used it as a template for my tile.  I REALLY love Laura's sunflower that she tangled.  It is stunning.  I wanted to draw one just like hers.  But, after a bit of brainstorming, I figured out which tangles I wanted to use.  Drawing this tile went quite quickly for me.  I have gotten really bad at tanking my time while tangling.  I take a lot of breaks, sure, but when drawing, I just move slow.  It was nice to get this one done at such a quick pace.

I used a micron for the drawing and a yellow colored pencil for the well, yellow.  I opted to shade the outside of the sunflower and skip any shading on the tangles.  I may go back and add some, but for now I like it as it is.  I may do a few more of these this week and if I do, I'll add them.

Thanks for taking a look and visiting my blog.  Say Hi sometimes.  :)

Breast Cancer Awareness

October is National Breast Cancer awareness month.  Did you know?  I didn't until this week's challenge from The Diva.  I have had 3 women in my life to battle breast cancer.  One was my Godmother Cam.  She fought bravely but sadly was taken by the disease in the late 1980's.  Another is my Aunt who has successfully battled breast cancer with a minimum of side effects.  The last is someone I met on the Internet and who I think is truly the definition of hope, strength and courage.  Julie is battling cancer currently and I have every hope for the best possible outcome.  She is a beautiful person and I am proud to call her a friend.

It is these three women who I thought of as I drew my zentangles for this week's challenge.  I will get to send Julie and my Aunt their zentangles, and will keep the one I drew for my Godmother as a reminder of her and her strength and love.

I started each of these tiles with on outline of a ribbon. After deciding on what tangle I wanted to put on the ribbon, I divided the remainder of the space behind and finished the tangle.  I used the micron pen, a white and pink gel pen and pink colored pencils.



Tangle for Cam




Tangle for Aunt Susie



Tangle for Julie

Pinwheels for Peace

Today is the International Day of Peace!  Get out there and spread the peace because we sure could use it.

In honor of this day and the Pinwheels for Peace project, The Diva has challenged us all to create our own pinwheel.  I was afraid that I was going to miss the deadline but I got in just under the wire!  This was a fun and new way to create some zentangle.  I chose to actually create a pinwheel and I found myself thinking more about what patterns to put together and how they would translate to a 3D page.

I ended up cutting a square of watercolor paper to tangle on.  I am happy to report that my pinwheel even spins!  I took it outside on this cloudy day to try and get a photo and the pinwheel kept spinning in the breeze.  I just wish I had an outside pinwheel to tangle now.



Finished and all put together!




The inside.




Outside flaps



Happy Birthday Friend!

This year I turn 40 as do many of my friends.  To mark the occasion many of us have thrown ourselves a birthday party.  I love it.  It has been great to be with my wonderful friends and to celebrate this milestone with each other.  I also love that almost all of them will be 40 before me.  ;)

For my friend Steph's birthday, I decided that I would make her a Zentangle.  I chose to do one in a 5X7 size.  I waited until the last minute and wanted to use a standard size to make the VERY last minute framing go smoothly.  I totally lucked out on the framing as they not only had one I liked, but Michael's was having a BOGO sale on the frame that I liked.  I should have bought more as when I went back the sale was over.  Oh well, I'll have to keep an eye out for next time they have one.  I know know what frames to pick up.

Happy Birthday Steph!  I love you my awesome friend!

Steph's tangle unframed



All framed up.  The edges were lost as I didn't leave enough room but, I don't think that it looks too bad.



Trip to Tripoli: A new challenge and pattern

When I opened my email on Sunday and saw that Rick and Maria at Zentangle had a new pattern for us, I just knew that the challenge this week would be to use Tripoli in a tangle.  New patterns are always a challenge for me.  Sometimes I can pick them right up and sometimes they are a struggle.  Luckily Tripoli is a bit of both while not being too challenging.  I seem to get a bit out of sorts as the pattern extends out from the center but hopefully some practice will fix that right up.  It is fun to see the different variations in the triangles.

A little closer look at the detail in the triangles.