Weekly Challenge #204 "Valentangle"

Well it is February and we are snowed under. Here in Boston we have had record amounts of snow for the year with more to come. Valentines day should be a bright spot in all this cold and confusion, but I have never bought into this holiday. My husband, thinking he is being cute says, "every day is valentines day!" We also know this is not true. I do like the idea of brightening things up with a touch of red. My red pen hardly gets much use so it was juicy with ink and a pleasure to draw with.

I did find it intriguing that the Diva used a tan Zendala tile and with the use of red made it look very pretty so I got stuck on that idea. My first tile I did on a 3.5" square tan tile and the only thing I really liked about it was how the red hearts with the highlights looked so striking.

Flux, Bumper, Rain, Dragonair, Bleeding hearts, Scribble hearts

Since I have many tan Zendala tiles and almost never use them (because I really don't know how to start), I visited my favorite artists blog  Enthusiasticartist.blogspot.com and got some inspiration from her on a post about spirals. This tile took me what seemed to be forever to finish with all its detail and Zendala space, but it was fun to do and I really like the results, hearts and all.

Mooka (sort of),  Marasu, Diva Dance Scrible hearts, red pearlz

Thank you, Margaret for letting me take your "style" out for a spin. It was a wonderful ride!

Weekly Challenge #203: Athitzi by Seven

One thing, of many, that I love about Zentangle, is that our community is so large that I have met many people from around the world just because we share the love of tangling. The tangle chosen for this week comes from Germany created by Seven and it's name is Athitzi. It is a tangle that is very simple and mesmerizing to draw. I was unsure where to go with this, but I had a tracing of a stencil I purchased from Jenny Perruzzi (Acadia Laser Creations) that was just sitting on my desk waiting to be finished. You can buy Stencils (or rather Zencils!) from Jenny here.

I had fun with this tangle and will defiantly keep it in my "go to" tangles.

Weekly Challenge #202: "DuoTangle: Chebucto vs Copada"

The challenge for this week is to use two "border" tangles from the very talented Margaret Bremner. You will find Copada and Chebucto at her site the Enthusiastic Artist where you should take some time to browse because she has a wealth of information and beautiful art.

I am not sure I did her tangles justice but this was my result:

After posting this I felt it was a little unbalanced. I added black to the inner Copada brackets and it feels better to me now.

What do you think? Should I blacken in the outer ones too? I may just do that to see what a difference it makes. Back soon.

I think I like the last one best! 

Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable.

The prompt this week for our journal group was to try your hand at something that you struggle with, are afraid to do, is not your "Mac 'n Cheese" go to thing.

One of my goals this year was to become comfortable with hand lettering. I don't want it to be perfect but, I do want it to be nice to look at. So with the recommendation of the talented Sandy Bartholomew I purchased this book for myself, The Hand-Lettering Ledger by Mary Kate Mcdevitt.

So I decided that this was a good time to start with lesson one "Serif." Serif refers to a small line, flourish or embellishment trailing from the main stroke of a letter. Aside from a decorative element, serifs were added to augment the legibility of the letters.

Here is my page for my journal:

I even drew the cup! who knew it was in me. This book contains eleven lessons, lots of space to practice in and many tips that encourage and enhance your style. Lots of fun to be had. Thanks Sandy!

Challenge #201

This is my fourth Moebius awareness tile since starting the challenges with The Diva in 2012. I really wanted to put a little more effort into this tile and so maybe I will return with another, but I am already playing catch up on my many projects and feeling a bit over wrought. So simple is the way to go these days. Here is my tile for Artoo and Moebius Awareness 2015. If you would like to join in, wear purple on January 24th and show some support.

Moebius Symbol and Ticking

I found time to do a second simple Moebius tile. This one is again very simple because I loved how the color came out on this tile and did not want to cover it up. I used Tombow markers on a mixing palette and sprayed with water then inverted my tile on top of it to soak up all that lovely color.

Pendrills, Flux

Challenge #200 Bi-Zen-Tennial Celebration!

Wow! 200 Challenges! I have been here for many, but not all the challenges. This weeks challenge from the Diva is to go to your favorite tangle and fill a tile completely with it. Also to add 200 somewhere in the tile. This challenge may have cured me of my Printemps addiction because at the moment I do not really want to draw another printemp to soon! Here is my tile for the week:

Challenge #199 Hitch

This is the first challenge of 2015 and it will be a quick post for me as I am already playing catchup with the many projects I have started this year. This weeks tangle is Hitch.

Brown and black micron, white signo pen, Hitch, Wud

And so it begins........

This is my first entry in my 2015 Tangle Journal. I now belong to a Certified Zentangle Teachers group that was formed out of some frustration.  Joining other journal sites was exciting but usually got abandoned somewhere through the year because they usually focused on things to far from what we know and that is Zentangle. Hence, Our Tangled Lives was formed in a closed Facebook group that 150 lucky CZT's are members. Our goal is to complete one entry a week for a year! And so it begins.....

Our first entry was setting an intention for the year. Choose a word that describes your intention and make a string of that word to tangle or do what ever you would like. Having such a diverse group there have been many unique beginnings and I have already started learning for others.

My intention for the year is Wellbeing, the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy. I have let myself become lost in the last several years and that was ok, I needed to go through it, but now I am ready to change up a few things so that I will be comfortable, healthy and happy. I hope to achieve these goals buy giving up a few things, adding a few things and being very grateful for what I have in the present.

Here is my first entry:

It makes me happy just to look at it. Score!

For those of you who would like to know the names of the tangles, their names begin with the letter enclosing them. Wud, Emingle, Lacy, Borbz, Itch, 'Nzeppl, Girlande

COLOR

I know I am not alone when I say I have a phobia about color. I have tried to add color to some of my art work without very satisfying results. So with the purchase of this book:

I have decided to face it full on and get some help using mixed media. Each chapter is a new exercise using color and supplies. So far my work looks very similar to the authors but I figure I need to learn somehow and if copying in the beginning is how I am going to build this muscle, so be it. Hopefully as I work through this book a little more of my artistic genius will come out. The first two exercises:

 COLOR WHEEL

COLOR WORDS

I need to go back (something I have never done before, done is done) and add some tangles and spruce up the first page. I think this challenge is going to be fun.

I am also hoping to finish a complete journal this year. A journal that I will be doing along with about 150 other Certified Zentangle Teachers. I hope to share many of the pages of this exciting experience during the coming year. I will also try to keep up with the Diva's challenges and also Square One Facebook Focuses. It will be a busy year. I might even consider daycare once a week for the dog to free up some time!

One last thing. A word of my intent for the New Year. Last years was Forgive, this years is Wellbeing!

Looking forward to a happy, fulfilling year. Thanks for stopping by.

Simplicity

I know I have been drawing many feathers lately but the challenge from the Diva this week is "keep it simple silly" aka K.I.S.S.

There is nothing so simple as drawing a line. This feather is made up of many single lines that come together to form something the looks much more complicated and beautiful!

Sakura spelled backwards is Arukas

Arukas is a new tangle which Molly Hollibaugh came up with and it is our challenge tangle this week. This will be the first time for me to try this tangle as I haven't found the time to play. It happens that today we are experiencing a Noreaster' here in the eastern states and it has provided me some down time. The weather is nasty (although the dog and I have been out in a lot of it today) and I have rescheduled some things so I could stay home and mostly out of the weather.

I did two tiles, one white, one black. After adding the "bubbles to the black tile I felt it took away a bit from the Arukas so I did not continue with them. I like the results anyway.

Playing with feathers

I have always loved feathers. As a child I would collect all the feathers I found and stick them in around my mirror in my bed room. I don't know what eventually happened to all of them. I'm sure my mother had a field day when I left for college throwing them all out. I still love feathers. Since loosing both my mother and my eldest son in recent years past, I feel a special connection to feathers that happen to be in my path, as I think it is their way of keeping in touch with me.

I had recently been inspired by the talented Linda Barrett of a feather she had photographed with water droplets on it. Linda not only is wonderful photographer but she also is a bookbinder and crafty in many ways. She knows of my attachment to feathers and is generous with her findings along her way.

Here is her picture:

I have drawn feathers in the past but it has been some time and I have never drawn one with a water droplet. So I have been practicing, practicing, practicing. 

Here are some of my attempts:

And then I think I got it:

Thank you Linda for the inspiration. I feel very relaxed when doing these drawings. It might be the beginning os a series!

Challenge #195: "Turning Old into New"

Thank you Sandy Hunter for a creative challenge to look at our tangles in a new way. We are to take a grid based tangle and make it free flowing or take a fee flowing tangle and put it into a grid. I tried one tile with Skein used as a border and Verve put into a grid. Here are the results:

There are so many great examples at iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com you should really take some time and check them all out.

I have not taken up challenges or focus tangles at Square One lately because I have been hooked on my inkblot pictures.

Here is the latest one I have finished.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am already looking forward to spring!

Larger Scale

I have been experimenting with a bit bigger format.

"Explosion" 6" x10"

Auraknot, Diva Dance, Rain, Printemps, UNME, Cubine, Tripoli

 "Lost in the Garden" 5" x 7"

Auraknot, Mooka, Springle, Fescu, Printemps

Mooka as a String 5" x 7"

Diva Dance, Crescent Moon, Betweed, Bunzo, Camelia

Challenge #191 Betweed Monotangle

Betweed filling some very odd shapes:

Challenge #190 Breast Cancer Awareness

Because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month the challenge this week from the Diva was to use pink in some way.  I color washed my tile with pink watercolors and because I was worried I had used to much water I added salt to soak it up. The result was many "halos" with a center pink spot looking very much like adorable breasts. I decide to just highlight those spots.

Pepper in Pink

Challenge #189 YUMA

Yuma, a new tangle by Tina-akua Hunziker. You will see step outs for this tangle on her blog HERE.

As you can see I took it for a ride but, I'm not sure if I don't have enough rice shapes or what, as I ended up having many long lines in each of these tiles. I still like the results. Very simple tangle to get lost in. Thanks Tina!

India Ink and what you may not see!

I have recently taken up india ink "splotches" as a way to spark some creativity that has been lacking lately. The method is simple and has probably been described many times but, simply you transfer some india ink with a straw onto paper (I am using a Fabriano Cold Press watercolor paper 140Lb) and then blow out the drop in any or every direction that it will go. The first one I made I did not take a photo before I started adding Zentangles but, I will tell you, both my husband and I thought that it was a very dark looking thing indeed. I added some red zentangle designs and added aura's here and there and I thought it looked a bit better. My son came to visit the next day and he came out of my room and said "I love your piglet!" I didn't know what he was talking about but, you will now see nothing else!

It is amazing to me that I did not see it before. Sorry for the horrible picture but, you get the idea. The next one my husband was anxious to see what developed because he thought it was much more "delicate." Here is the "splotch" before picture:

Well the lines may be delicate but I managed to make something "sinister" out of it. Yes I have a dark side! I am not sure it is done quite yet but here is a look:

This has been fun and it is a nice way to use India Ink as a string for Zentangle art work. I would encourage you to try it out.

Weekly Challenge #188 Supporting the LGBT ommunity

The Challenge this week from the lovely Diva actually comes from a big hearted 12 year old boy who's name is Daniel. He has a friend who is gay and he thought that the Zentangle community could lend some support to the LGBT community by tangling with color or using tangles that begin with L, G, B, and T.  

I am definitely a supporter. We all share this earth and if we were all the same what a boring place it would be. We should celebrate our differences and learn from them.

I just had to use color as it seems that is a way to identify the community. I was afraid I would cover up to much of the beautiful colors but, I think enough shows through. 

Thank you Daniel for asking us to open our eyes and lend support.

Tombow markers, Aquafleur, Printemps

Challenge #187 Blind String

I love a blind string but, eyes open or closed, my strings always have loops in them! I combined this weeks challenge with Square One's Focus tangle, "Pendrills".  When I was finished with the "Antidots" and "Pendrills" it reminded me of Carole Ohl's "Bridgen" so I added in all the circley
lines.

 Blind String

Pendrills, Antidots 

Weekly Challenge #185: Phicops and DivaDance

This was a fun challenge as I had spirals on the brain. I had been playing with Alaura and had also just spotted Margaret Bremners post on "curvy ING" , she is so amazing, so a spiral or curving Phicops it was to be.

Tan Zendala tile, brown micron, black micron, white and terra cotta prisma colored pencil.

Phicops and Diva Dance

Challenge #184: ING by Molly Hollibaugh

I have been away from challenges for a couple weeks so it is nice to be back. This is the first time I have used ING and I can already see how flexible a tangle it can be. I started this tile one day and finished it over the next two. I was not liking this tile at first but, with persistence and refusing to acknowledge the little voice in my head that said "throw it out" over and over, I am submitting a tile that I think works.

Ing, Mooka, Flux, Printemps

Back to Basics

I was fortunate enough to attend Rick, Maria, Molly and Martha's presentation at Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshires of Massachusetts this past weekend. It was open to all, so there was a nice mixture of CZT's who just can't get enough and people very new to the practice. It was refreshing to be instructed on the basic tangles that teach you so much about the Zentangle method and also be reminded that you only need a handful of tangles to reap the benefits.

Many of us have moved from the simplicity of the 3.5 inch square tile, pencil, and pen to boat loads of supplies that overtake our desks and need totes upon totes to lug them around. It is very refreshing to get back to the basics and feel the freedom from pencils, pens, and markers.

If you have not yet found the facebook page called Square One: Purely Zentangle, check it out! It is a community that only works with the basics of 3.5" square tile, pencil and black pen. There are tangles suggested weekly to get your juices following and it is a place to share your daily black and white tiles. With almost 1000 members, there is a lot to be learned from others work. The photo section is an amazing resource to learn how individuals have used tangles in so many different ways.

Here are some tiles from the retreat:

Tripoli

Munchin

Marasu, Poke Leaf, 'Nzeppel

Remember where it all began!

Random Acts of Zentangle

Random acts of Zentangle are usually tiles that have been lovingly tangled and left on a bench, at a restaurant, on a train or airplane, for someone to find and be surprised. Since where I spend my summers is full of shells I have tangled on shells and returned them to the beach for some one to hopefully find. We had a horrific storm last night and when I went to the beach the tides had been extremely high. I only found one shell that was cleverly hidden by a friend that was in a structure unreachable by the waves. Someday maybe where you least expect it you may find one of my swept away shells. Would that not be cool? Here are a few:

P.S. I had the pleasure of meeting three young ladies who have found my shells! One who actually had participated in a Zentangle class in school in MA! After the huge storm and very high tides, this morning brought a super low tide and the shells had been moved around but, obviously still findable! Lovely.

Weekly Challenge #180: MacDee

The tangle for this week is by Anneke Van Dam and looks like classic Scottish, checkered fabric. You can she her step outs HERE.

As my father is Scottish on his dad's side, his last name being Buchanan, we have a Tartan as all Scottish Clans do. I thought I might try to incorporate some colors in this tangle but, as I am a color phobic and it looked a bit difficult to pull off I decided against it!
                           


            What I did come up with is adding a MacDee background to an existing Bijou tile:

                                                                 

And then a second one I tried intertwining the leaves and Mooka in the fabric:

I think there is a bit too much white space for me so I may go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and try this one again.

Bijou!

New tiles have been introduced from headquarters and they are an adorable 2"x 2" tile. You can read the Zentangle Newsletter for a better introduction HERE.

While waiting for my Bijou tiles to arrive I thought I would cut some from watercolor paper to try it out. They are delightful! I did not realize until my Bijou tiles arrived that I had cut them to 1.5" x 1.5" square, so I have a variety to show you. I also want to show you a calling card that Joyce Crucitti gave me at Tangle U that was only 1" x 1" square! Here are all the sizes:

On the left are the Bijou tiles, upper right a regular 3.5" square tile, just below that two 1.5" and Joyce's 1" tile mounted on a backing. Who know's how small one could go.

Here is my tile for the Bijou challenge today.

This is a Bijou tile displaying Mooka!