Challenge #206 Tangling with new tools

I must admit, I think I have to much on my plate as I am not getting to all the things I had planned for this long hard winter. I did not take into account that the simple task of walking the dog would become harder and take much longer in the winter muck. Driving to the store or even taking the train for errands takes up so much time in the winter snow and ice. I find I am starting to remove some things off my list but also have added "going to the gym" daily as a must do, so some good things are happening.

Our challenge this week is to use other tools then what we are used to for tangling. I believe it was at the Last Tangle U in Portland Maine that Marie Browning from Tombow had taught us to use black tiles with a stylus and colored pencils. I have not revisited that since so I thought it might be a good time to try it again. Color is always and issue for me, so I am not very pleased with the final result and the scan of this tile does not represent it's true colors, but I do believe the more I do the better I will get. Experiment and "grow my color muscle" so to speak.

The celtic knot was one borrowed from Jean Chamberlin Theurkauf's blog post on Celtic knots http://artofthetangle.com/celtic-knots-tangling-coloring/

And the background is printemps. Design was "drawn" on with a stylus then color with Irojiten pencils was added over it. You can see Marie's work HERE

A New Frontier

Yes, I have gone to see the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, with my husband.  I am not a trekkie, but sometimes we do things for others to make them happy.  I enjoyed the movie even if my mind was wondering to things I enjoy more.

My "new frontier" is watercolor.  Watercolor with Tombow markers to be more exact.  I took a class with Marie Browning and have been fascinated ever since.  I tried out the markers on this Lotus flower that will be a gift for a friend and I was thrilled with how it came out.  I was a bit leary to tangle over it, but with help from some amazing Zentangle teachers/friends I found my way to finish this flower.  I did not want to distract from the colors to much, but in my world everything should be tangled.  I do like the outcome.

Challenge #118 Kuke

The challenge from the Diva this week is to use Katy Abbot's tangle "Kuke".  You can see her post here and instructions for her "cool" tangle.

My first tile was a literal interpretation of her discovery (cucumber on the floor) so it is Kuke on Florz. Haha! I used a tile I had colored with background techniques from Marie Brownings  Time To Tangle with Colors book this past weekend. This is a salty-splash background using TomBow markers and the colors were just right for a Kuke.

Kuke and Florz

Since the "Y" in the string reminded me of a Tripoli Tangleation I used a black tile and Pentel Slicci pens in silver and blue to finish a second tile.  The Slicci pens are very smooth and a pleasure to work with.  

Tripoli with Kuke, Fescu