Gift Zendala

This week I must have had Christmas on my mind.  I have been working on ornaments for the up coming craft show that I will be in so maybe that's why.  Anyway, this week Erin has given us rectangles in a circle.  I was unsure what I was going to do and was clicking through a few entries when I came to Maria Copetas beautiful zendala.  Someone commented how her designs looked like gifts and I had my idea.

I used red and green micron pens and pencil shading on this one.  I kept the shading to a minimum, just separating the layers and not shading the patterns.  Wrapping paper doesn't usually have much dimension so I didn't feel the need to shad much.

This was another fun challenge.  I've started looking forward to Friday's and a new zendala.  Thanks Erin for another great one!

Nosegay Zendala

This week the template at The Bright Owl was a doozy for me.  At first I was totally stumped on what to do with all those circles and half circles.  I almost skipped this one but I stopped myself.  Then I decided to just jump in and do something rather than sit and look at the outlines anymore.  Sometimes just starting is my biggest stumbling block.  But you can't finish if you never start, so I bit the bullet and put pen to paper.

After making 12 different choices on a test page, I opted to start with Arc Flower.  Then I decided that rather than filling the lower circles with tangles, I would give lines a try.  As I went along, I decided that the result looked rather like nosegays.  Then I needed to choose another flower for the other 6 circles.  I just made one up after a few doodles.  I say that I made it up, but it very well may already be a design already.  I then drew lines to make the nosegay "holder" for that flower.  I decided to just shade the spaces between rather than making it too busy.

I like this one but it seems a little unfinished to me.  It must be however, as I can't think of anything else to do to the design.

Thanks Erin, for this week's template.  It was a challenge for me all right.  I had to stretch my mind for this one and I'm glad that I did.

Playing with Paper: Zendala Challenge

I like to use watercolor paper when I create my Zengangles and my Zentangle inspired drawings.  It is as close as I could find at the local craft store to the original tiles that you buy from Zentangle.com.  But in all honesty, it is the paper I chose to use first before I had any tiles from Zentangle and now, it is the paper that I prefer.  I like how it shades as well as takes the ink from the micro pens.  Despite this, I was excited at the added challenge from Erin to use different paper in the challenge this week.

After reading the challenge, I decided that I was going to use origami paper.  I love origami paper.  I think that it is beautiful.  However, I didn't have any.  So, I loaded up the kids and we went to the store.  If you've ever looked at origami paper, you'll know that there is a lot to choose from.  So many colors and patterns!  It was a bit over whelming.  Plus, I didn't need a lot of it.  Let's face it.  I will not be trying the beautiful art of origami.  I get type A about some things, but I don't think that I can be as precise as the folding requires.

I know! Zentangle like!

But, I digress.  While flipping though the paper I cam across paper that jumped out at me.  The black and white patterns said "HEY ZENTANGLE!" to me.  They are quite inspirational these little squares.  I think that I may hang up some in my studio or use them as background paper to display some of my Zentangles.  One thing I learned though is that that these patters are wonderful but they do not make great background to draw on.  I find that they compete with the eye against the drawing.  If I had to do it over, I would choose some larger patterns or some that are only color.  I also used Sakura Gelly Roll pens for the drawing.  I figured that the larger lines would help.  You'll have to be the judge on that though.  The origami paper also doesn't shade as well as watercolor paper.

Without further comment, I present my tries at the challenge.  I made three on the origami paper.  One in red, one in orange and one in black.

Again, I enjoyed the challenge.  I really love the paper that I found. But I don't think that together, they were successful.  Thanks Erin for another great Zendala template.  I really like this one.  So much that I am making yet another go at this template.  This time it is on a 12" X 12" canvas and using paint pen.  When I get it finished, I'll get a photo up.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Summer Zendala

Well, I'm back.  It has been a little while since I posted anything.  Summer, the kids out of school and vacation in the Adirondacks has kept me from the computer.  That does not mean that I haven't been busy though.

I am in a mad dash to get work ready for a neighborhood craft fair, The Arden Fair, that happens on September 1st.  I love this fair so much.  It is up the street from my house and is really wonderful.  For the very first time, I will be an exhibitor rather than just a visitor.  So, my pen has been busy, busy.

But, you are here to see this week's Zendala challenge.  This challenge was a lot of fun I have to say.  At first I was a bit stymied as to how I was going to get started but once I decided to use Brayd, I had my "theme" and I went from there.  This is the first time I have used Brayd in a circle and I have to say, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Brayd, Featherfall, Raindotty, Fescu, Beeline, Arc Flower

I did the center with Arc Flower next and then the Featherfall.  I didn't stay in the lines with these two so I wanted to get their uneven edges done first.  This is my first real go at Featherfall.  It came out pretty good but no where near as good as some of you do it.  I have to keep trying it and get better at it.  That being said, I do like it here.  Keeping with "natural" tangles, I chose Beeline, Raindotty and Fescu to finish it out.

I am really thrilled with how this one came out.  The shading really added a lot of depth to it and well, I just couldn't be happier.  I am going to see if I can get art prints made up for the fair.

Now, a late entry into Challenge 11.  I had this one drawn in time but held of shading it.  I was trying to work out some ideas that I had but then I changed my mind and went back and shaded it this week.

This one was all line work.  I just couldn't think of a way to get tangles into this one.  There is good space, I used the large size template, but I was just out of ideas.  I think it was because I had vacation on my mind.

I do like it.  I am calling it "Trippy Zendala" as it looks more like a visual test than the usual zendala.

I wish I could think of more ways to add some shading here.  I think more could be done to play with the perspective but I'm stuck.  I don't want to go overboard so I stopped while I was ahead.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.  It has been very hot here and I'm sure where you are as well.  I do hope that you are all staying cool, or warm for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, and are having a great day.

Zendala Dare #9

I have been so busy with the end of school that I have not been posting.  I have been working though and hope to get caught up soon.

So, on to the challenge from Erin this week.  This is the first pattern that Erin has created that has given me trouble.  I think it is because I didn't "see" a design when I first looked at it.  Often the idea for the design has come to my eye but not so this time.  I really love this template.  The shapes and design are really beautiful.  The ovals though... They were such a stumbling block for me.  I spent a lot of time just looking at this design and thinking about what tangles to use.  In the end, I opted to keep it with line work.  Once I made that decision, it wasn't any easier though.  I started with Braids (I think that's the right name.) and went from there.  In the end, I really love this Zendala.

The outer edge on the larger pieces is Ramy by Sandy Bartholomew from her book Totally Tangled.  The larger ovals in the center I just made up a pattern.  I wanted to mimic the Braids but not repeat it.  I was pleased with how it came out.  I'm not sure if there is another pattern like it already.  I'll have to think up a name and draw up the steps.  The small ovals at the center were done to bring Ramy back into the center.  I opted to edge out the center and spaces between the tangles and fill them in black. I am so glad that I did.  I saw the star shape in the center but I had not seen it on the outer edge until I filled it in.  I love how shapes hide sometimes.

Thank you Erin for doing this challenge each week.  Zendalas are quickly becoming a favorite of mine.  Your templates are wonderful.  When is your book coming out?  :)  I'd buy it.

Cabbage Rose Zendala

It is always amazing to me how Erin creates a template for the challenge each week and how different each person's work comes out.  This week, my zendala became a flower.  At first I wanted to make it into a budding peony but it came out more cabbage.  I'm calling it a cabbage rose.  It might be pushing it to add rose, but I'll see how far I can take it.  :)

This is a really simple zendala for me.  The tangle choices are few but this one didn't want to have a lot going on in it.  I really like it and the shading makes it interesting for me.

Not a lot to write this week as I have a FULL plate at the moment.  Lucky for you all.

Patterns: Fescu and Ixorus

One last thing, I finished shading the Sheriff's Zendala from last week's challenge.  Rather than update the original post, I'll just tack it on here.

Happy Memorial Day!  Have a great week.

Starry, starry Zendala

This week Erin gave us the star treatment for the Zendala challenge.  I get excited to see what Erin has come up with each week and then I am surprised at what my mind's eye sees in the design.  In my first challenge I saw surfboards and in this challenge, I saw a sheriff's badge and gun.  I fought that idea at first though.  Guns and law enforcement are not exactly zen.  Know what I mean?

So, fighting the idea of guns, I went first to flowers.  I started in the center here and added Arc Flower to the circle. I put Knightsbridge in the center to give it a little more interest.  Next I did the points of the stars.  I was tempted with other patterns but I wanted to play with stripes.  I divided the point to give the stripes a little more interest.  I repeated Knightsbridge in the smaller circles for several reasons.  One, I wanted to repeat to tie it in with Arc Flower and the other was to bump up the graphic-ness of the zendala.  That left me with the beautiful scalloped section to work with.  I was stuck here as I wasn't sure what to use.  In the end, I kept it simple.  I divided it into sections and drew lines.  To my great surprise, the lines seemed to set the Knightsbridge circles off so I shaded them to further pop them up off the page.

I haven't gotten any of the round Zendala tiles yet.  I'm putting them on my wish list though. Maybe for my birthday this fall someone will surprise me.  I liked the idea of the circle so I just traced everything onto a piece of watercolor paper.

The whole time I was working on the Zendala above though, I could not get the badge and gun image from my mind.  So, I decided to just do one anyway.  I traced out the design on some drawing paper and went to work.  I looked at images of sheriff's badges on line to give me some ideas of what they look like.  Braided edges were often repeated so I used those.  I added a few lines to reinforce the star.  Then it was time for my gun.  I found out that the chamber of a gun is not usually decorated.  Not on the side that would be visible on this angle anyway.  I tried to make the circles look as if we were looking through the chamber of an unloaded pistol.  I haven't done any shading yet.  I may go back and add some.  The weather was so nice today that I went ahead and photographed this.

Thanks so much to Erin for creating these templates each week.  I don't know how you do them, but I am so very glad that you do.

Deco 'Dala

This week Erin at The Bright Owl created a Zendala template that reminded her of art deco design.  After I looked at it for a while, I had to agree.  I really do like the art deco style.  While it isn't a style that I would normally decorate with, I enjoy looking at examples and studying it.

I took the idea of art deco and tried to apply it to my Zendala.  I spent hours on Saturday looking at images on my computer trying to find patterns that I could adapt to the challenge.  In the end, I didn't create anything new but the top of the Empire State Building did give me some great ideas for the future. But, like my wanderings on the Internet, I digress.

Deco 'Dala in black and white

For this Zendala, I started in the middle.  I used Hi-C's here.  I really love Hi-C's because here it looks so art deco to me.  Here it looks like a lily, but if you put the pattern in back to back squares, it looks totally different.   It is a wonderful pattern because it looks so different in different places.  I used the arches on the triangle.  Does anyone know the name of this pattern in Zentangle?  It pops up a lot in art deco design.  I opted to keep the semi circle sections the same all across.  I just couldn't divide the space in a way that I liked.  I used a variation of Hibred.  It is kind of a blending of Hibred and Knase.  The black "columns" are a copy from an incredible art deco door I saw.  I wasn't sure that I liked them at first, but they came to grow on me.

After I got this Zendala done, I wanted to play with color a bit.  What I didn't want to do was to draw a second Zendala though.  I was really quite happy with what I had already done so I just kept it.  Taking some advise that Genevieve gave here at Amaryllis Creations, I photocopied the unshaded drawing onto watercolor paper.  I bought some inexpensive pearl watercolors a month ago and got them out to try.  I thought pearl would lend itself to art deco.  Lots of shiny in art deco.  :)

Deco 'Dala with watercolor

I used the silver, gold, blue, green and yellow pearl watercolor and added it right over the top of the photocopy.  The photocopy didn't smear or run with the water nor did it rub off with the brush.  After I finished painting, I let it dry for a few hours.  I noticed  that the black of the photocopy was not as dark as I now had a nice shimmer over the top.  I took my micron this morning, and went back over the lines were and the black popped out again.  I could have left it where it was but I wanted a blacker black.  I guess I ended up drawing the Zendala after all.

I hope you like them and welcome your comments and feedback.

Zendala Challenge

I'm a little late to the Zendala party that Erin is hosting over at The Bright Owl but I am glad I found my way there.  The Zentangle community is awash with Zendalas these days and everyone of them is incredible!  I have done a few and I have to say that I love them.  I'm always keeping my eye out for a new pattern to use.  I am NOT geometry inclined so creating my own is out. Thanks to Erin and her challenge, I can find a new pattern every week!

So, I am starting this challenge at week 4 and it comes with not just a pattern, but the added challenge of using the themes of sea and Mexico as well.  Erin is on a vacation cruise in Mexico so you can see where her inspiration came from.  (Totes jealous BTW).  So, let's jump right to it!

Bic Mark-It markers on Mini Canvas Panel

When I looked at the pattern, all I could see were surf boards.  The challenge of sea fit this nicely but then I wasn't sure how I was going to make surf boards.  All I could think of were flowers, so I chose some bright colors and went for it.  I'm not sure how "Mexico" this is though.  It seems a bit more Hawaii.

Thanks for taking a look!  I hope you are/had a great time on your trip Erin.  Thanks for the challenge.