Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Inspired by William Morris

Check out the shading on the big flower!
Ooh - love the fancy lettering.

This week's Diva challenge was to great a Zentangle inspired by the art of William Morris.  Not being a student of art history, I had to look up his work.  A quick search of Google images will return hundreds of gorgeous designs.  His work is just made for tangling.  Here are some of the treasures which inspired my work.

Love the puffy flowers and the movement of the swirling vines.
Leaves EVERYWHERE.
 

Part of the challenge was to do an "inverse Zentangle" using light ink on a dark background.  I pulled out a  piece of navy card stock and Gelly Roll pens that I got at the CZT training in February and started designing.  This was definitely ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) since there was no quick string, but carefully sketched (and erased and sketched ...)

Once I got a nice flowing design sketched, I found my "Zen."  I loved watching the design come to life as the rich ink flowed slowly out of the pen, especially the sparkly copper ink.  I haven't had this much fun working on a piece since I completed my first Zentangle back in October.  Once I had it filled, I got my silver Prismacolor to add some shading and more sparkle.  Finally, I got my courage up and did some light leaves as background filler.  I hope you like this one as much as I do.

12 comments:

  1. Like it? Um. WOW. You *really* caught the Morris feel.

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  2. I think I probably like it MORE than you do! It's beautiful!

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  3. Really this is wonderful. I am very impressed with your concept and execution of such a beautiful peice!

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  4. This is incredible. You really addressed the assignment - and much more!

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  5. This looks like a beautiful lace, just in time for the Royal Wedding!

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  6. Thanks everyone. I always like my work better when I'm inspired by great art. (That sounds better than saying I copied, doesn't it?)

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  7. WOW! You did an incredible job with this challenge! This is really beautiful!

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  8. love the look you were able to achieve.....I believe you totally got the essence of Morris!!!

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  9. Fabulous Cris, you have really captured the Morris feeling!

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  10. Cris, I don't see any way on your blog to contact you, so I apologize for this public inquiry!
    I noticed your Live Traffic Feed (interesting!) and that there was a visitor from Halifax, Nova Scotia. I'm currently there and am hoping to arrange a Zentangle class (have one or two interested so far). Is there any way you can find out who that is and contact info for them??!!?????
    Please e-mail me at margaret.bremner.artist @ gmail.com (no spaces)
    Thanks!
    --Margaret

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  11. Hi Margaret,

    I only have the free Feejit Live Traffic Feed so it doesn't tell me the names of my guests, only where they come from. I also fixed it so you can contact me in private if you go to my profile. I was worried about spam so I just made a new gmail account :-)

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