Sharing Christmas Cheer

At this time of year, people think of giving.  We give gifts to our family, friends, teachers, hairdressers, babysitters, and co-workers. We send money to our alma maters, drop change in bell-ringers’ kettles, buy food for local food banks, and send checks to our favorite charities. I know that money is especially tight at this time of year, but I would like to ask you to please consider opening your pockets and your hearts a tiny bit wider.

I just learned that St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti has been without electricity for several days because with the rising cost of food, they have had to divert funds in their electricity budget to buy food. If you can spare just $3, it will feed a child for a day. If enough of us give $3, it can make a world of difference.

For more information about the crisis at St. Vincent’s, please see  The Red Thread Promise blog.

If you want to feed a child and get a gift for yourself, I offer you Seeing Stars: a Zentangle Constellation, an e-book I wrote based on a popular workshop I held earlier this month. 

This 29-page book contains 

• Complete full-color instructions and templates for creating 3-dimensional star ornaments
• 21 original tangled stars with space to color or add your own tangles
• These same stars dressed up in bright red and green or gold and silver, as inspiration or to cut and fold
• A third version of each star intricately tangled and shaded 
• 25 poetic quotes about stars for dreamers or card-makers
• A coupon for $4 off an autographed copy of Made in the Shade (good until 1/14/2014).

The book is available as an instant download on my etsy shop.

Every book sold will feed a child for a day.

Please share this post with your friends and co-workers and help send some hope - and food - to these children who need it so much.

A Little "Quib" ... a Lot of Fun

There is a new official tangle finally released to the public. It's called Quib and to me it is like a totally organic Hollibaugh.  We CZTs have had the step-outs for months and I've had this little guy done and waiting all summer.  Those who have visited the Zen Den have seen him.

Want to see more?  Check out this week's Diva challenge.

I'll try to post one or two more, but right now it is time to get back to getting prepared for tomorrow morning's Tangled Star Ornaments class.  (There are still a few seats available.  Drop me an email.)

Zentangle Fun with Metallic Gell Pens

This week the Diva’s challenge is to tangle something colorful and buggy, based on this super fun video from Sakura.  I just got this super GellyRoll Metallic collection and hadn’t had time to play with it yet, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.  (Anything to procrastinate on the book. <sigh>)
Well, these pens are absolutely luscious.  They are a bit thicker than I usually like to write with and the ink color does not match the cap color, but otherwise I have nothing to complain about.  The ink flows beautifully and the colors appear to glow.  I just love them.
So, since I am not a huge “bug” fan, I decided to stick with lady bugs.  After all, you can’t draw a crescent moon without a lady bug!  And I found an adorable lady bug pin who wanted to sit in the center of the flower with his little metallic friends.
And here are the stars from this morning’s Zentangle for the holidays class.  We had so much fun making them that we decided to do it again next week.

I hope you all have as much fun with your art as I did today.

More Challenging Than Usual

This week’s Diva challenge is to use Caren Mlot’s beautiful tangle Cruze. She makes this tangle look so easy that I didn’t bother writing down the steps when I went out to tangle. I ended up with some interesting tangleations, but nothing that looked as elegant as the original.  I'd show you those, but they are hiding in shame.

So, I got out my iPhone and checked the steps again. The same thing happened.  I thought I had it, but I still didn’t get it. This time,  the results are closer:

At this point, I resorted to drawing guidelines, something I’ve never had to do before.  I teach and believe that there are no mistakes in Zentangle, just opportunities to go off in an unexpected direction and see what happens.  Some of the most interesting tangleations  are the result of this.  So, usually I am just happy to see what happens, but this tangle is so interesting that I wanted to “get it right.”  I also thought it would be really interesting to do in a circle. This  is probably part of the reason it was confounding me.

I’m still not sure I succeeded 100%, but I really like the overall result.

Despite the frustration, I really appreciated this challenge as I have students who face these same sorts of challenges regularly and I new feel more able to empathize with their need to “get it right.”

I haven’t had this much trouble since I first tried Mooka.  

Did anyone else find this one more challenging than usual?

Fengle Frenzy?

This week, Laura, aka "the Diva" challenged us to tangle using only 2 tangles: Quandary and Fengle. Yikes. Not my favorite tangles by any stretch of the imagination. I like both of these tangles when other people do them, I just never like mine very well.

So I started, and I started, and I started. Finally, I got one with the "arms" of the fengle almost even. There wasn't enough room for another arm, so the quandary escaped and began to float away.

My next tile was a little crooked and kind of "blah", so I abandoned that and tried making one bigger to see if I could draw the arms even. This one is better, but not great.

I really wanted to add more tangles, but that's not allowed for the challenge, so I got my pencil out to see if shading would help.  Guess what?  That was all it needed.

It made such a difference on this one that I went back and shaded the second tile.  It looks OK now, too.  

As usual, if I had followed the Zentangle process to completion, including shading, and withholding judgement, it would have made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the time I spent tangling. I hope you learn from my lesson and enjoy the process!  Have a great week.

A Book Review, a Challenge, and a Book Question

This week, the Diva challenged us to create a Zentangle using pointillism style. In pointillism, the art is done using only dots.  In a similar way, stippling is a technique for creating depth and texture using only dots.  When I was writing Made in the Shade, I learned a lot about stippling and found it creates an interesting and beautiful effect.  

I had forgotten about this technique until I had time this weekend to delve into my copy of Written by four talented CZTs, this book will inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and try some new techniques. Norma Burnell, whose popular Fairy Tangles, is the artist whose use of stippling in her delicate, organic tangles inspired me to use stippling in this piece destined for my new book.

It also uses her lovely tangle Dragonair and a new one called Pubfleur which you will see more of in my book. Besides Norma's beautiful fairies and flowers, the Art of Zentangle includes four fun and funky projects by Penny Raille. If you want to "lighten up" your art, you'll love these whimsical projects. Lara Williams shows two different ZIA projects and gives advice on creating strings. I've heard students complain about not knowing what to use for a string. Lara provides practical advice on that.

Finally, Margaret Bremner shares her expertise on Zendalas. Her stunning art alone is worth the price of the book!

This is a nicely designed, sturdy book meant with plenty of room to practice right in the book. It is a worthy addition to any tangler's library and a great book to have on vacation. All you need is this book and a pen and you're ready for hours of enjoyment.

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One thing about stippling/pointillism is that it can take a lot of time. Since I don't have a lot of that right now, I decided for Laura's challenge, I would use a pen with a much larger nib than I usually use. Bigger points = less time stippling. Despite this shortcut, I like how this one turned out. The background tangle is one that my daughter developed for the new book. She based it on the windows of our church, Seton Parish, so the tangle is called Seton It is similar to several other tangles, but I haven't been able to find out exactly like it.

All of that stippling reminded me of a quilt I made many years ago. That one was stippled by hand using a needle and thread and had a pretty flower center, so I felt like the tile needed something flowery also. That is why I added mooka and flux to what was supposed to be a monotangle.

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So, you've had a very small sneak peak of the new book. This book will feature 52 different tangles and show you 6 different ways to do each of them. That's enough for a bit of tangling every day, but also enough time to really get to know each of the 52 tangles. I hope to encourage people to experiment with tangles they know and love and use their own creativity to adapt them to their own style. Right now, we're considering 2 different titles for this book. If you want to see what they are and have a chance of winning a free copy, take this quick (3-question) survey.

Catching Up

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've posted anything.  I've been pouring all of my energy into writing the book and have had none left to do anything else.

For instance, I went to painting class on Monday and managed to paint: green.

It was kind of fun just to paint with no rhyme nor reason, but I'm not sure I had to go to painting class to do it.

I had 2 very successful Zentangle 101 classes and started a Zendala class. I love getting people excited about Zentangle.  I had one lady share that 30+ years ago, as a freshman in college, she had her "teacher" tell her that he would give her a 'B' in the class if she promised to never take another art class!  I am so grateful that she took the chance to come to one of my Zentangle classes because she is now getting back her confidence in art.  What an honor to be a part of that.  It really makes me angry when I hear stories like that. Clearly, the fault was on the teacher not being able to teach, but it totally destroyed her confidence. Can you tell from this mosaic which is done by the "art failure?"

I think they all show wonderful creativity. 

It has been a stressful couple of days, so I really needed to tangle, just to save my sanity.  The Diva challenge this week was to 8s-parte-dos by Jane Eileen. I admit I've tried this one before and didn't have the focus to do it successfully. I had similar difficulty with this one, but covered up most of the poorly drawn lines with extra patterns.  It reminds me of some of the fancy screens we saw in Istanbul.  

Finally, I wanted to share what I did from art class last week. I was in a mood to do something light and fun.  Nothing makes me smile more than our geese, so I painted them.  They are pure white on the outside, but have the most colorful personality that I just had to paint them to show that.  

Hope you all have a very creative next week.

--Cris

Tippled Knight?

For the past few days, I've been deep in the "icky" part of working on book #2: organizing and research.  I was feeling kind of grumpy even, but thanks to a lucky click, I ended up at this week's Diva challenge.  Yay!  A duo-tangle of Knghtsbridge and Tipple?  I am so there.  I'm going to be featuring both of these in the book, so this is just what the doctor (diva) ordered.

Now that I've had my tangle break, my brain is clear and I am ready to think again.  I can't tell you how much I needed that.
Do you have a cool tangleation of Knightsbridge or Tipple that you think should be featured in the book?  If so, please let me know where it is in a comment below.
Thanks for stopping by.
Keep calm and tangle on -- Cris

More Color

Went to Urgent Care yesterday because I suspected that my 'flu' was really bronchitis.  I was right.  And I am happy to report that the 7 prescriptions (!) are beginning to work.  I still cannot think clearly, but I am able to at least sit up which is an improvement, since I've been mostly lying on the couch since Saturday.

I'm also happy to report that I can still tangle, even with my brain fog.  Here is today's project.  Mostly Zig markers over a watercolor wash.  With accents of Marvy white Reminisce pen, Prismacolor purple marker, Green perm opaque, and chalk.  I was also heavily influenced by a piece of Sonya Yencer's are that is sitting here waiting for our new book.

 

Color Challenge

This week, Laura, aka "the Diva" challenged us to use color.

I had already started tangling these
marbled soapstone coasters.

so I thought I would challenge myself to used colored ink
in addition to a colored background.

But when I inverted the colors using Photoshop,
I liked it even better.

Another String Challenge and a How To Video

This week's Diva challenge is to use a given string.  I like these because there is more freedom than when we have to use a certain tangle or certain tangles.  After all, a string is just a suggestion…

I like this string, though, and decided to stay within the lines. I especially like the two teardrop shapes since it gives me a place to do purk, which is one of my all-time favorite tangles.  Even though I decided I'd try some tangleations of purk.

One thing I don't like about this is that I think it is over-shaded.  Instead of getting up and looking for my regular 2B or HB pencil, I just used the 6B that I had on hand.  For me, I get way too much gray with this pencil.  That's why it is good to know your tools.  (And not be too lazy to get the proper tool for the job.)

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Last week, I had several people ask me how I got the highlight effect on my black pearls.  I thought it would be fun (I was wrong) to make a video showing you how I did it.  So, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8uzm8GT6Go

What do you think?

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And those who asked me to publish the step-outs to icing, I will do it next week.  I am getting ready for 2 full days of demonstrating Zentangle at the Ohio State Fair.  If anyone is going, please stop in the building with the quilts and cakes and say hello.

 

Quests

This week's Diva challenge is to use a two-pencil string. Fun! I took my hair elastic and put two pencils together and used it like a calligraphy pen to come up with this string:

I like the flow of this one and went on a quest for some cool "ribbon-y" tangles.  I used Onomato, Snailz, striping, and betweed but then I wanted something different. I came a new tangle I call icing.  (I even did step-outs, just for you, my wonderful readers.)

Once I filled in these, I really liked it.  Wish I'd taken a picture at this point, because once I started putting in background, I seemed to be unable to stop.  By the time I took a breath, it had taken turn for the worse.  

See, too busy.  By the way, icing, is the tangle that goes around the "equator" of the tile.  

I took this beast to dinner with Sonya and she gave me some great suggestions to help increase the contrast and now it is acceptable again.

So, if you are wondering about the quest, I went on it tonight. I looked everywhere for the step-outs for icing, with no luck. Since I did them on the back of a receipt, I am sure they are in the trash.  However, while I was looking, I did find the notice that our property taxes are due tomorrow. So, just like in Zentangle, my quest went off in an unexpected direction.

If anyone wants me to redo the step-outs for icing, please comment. 

Hope you find what you are looking for this week!

--Cris

 

 

 

 

More Challenges

Hello! We are back from a wonderful trip out west.  It felt like we were in a different world and time rather than just different states and timezones. We went from intermittent, spotty internet availability to no internet, no cell phone, and no TV.  Wow! 

As you might imagine, the unspoiled beauty was inspiring. My art skills were not up to the task of capturing it in paint, but I got some beautiful photography.  Aperture statistics say I took 2449 pictures in 2 countries, 7 states, and 33 cities.  It will take me some time to sort through them all.  

In the meantime, here are my entries for the last two Diva challenges. Last week we were to use a stencil or something on hand to trace for our string.  I had my minimal Zentangle kit with me on the road, so the only thing I could find to trace that I haven't already used was my Square reader.  (Note the beautiful Nooksack River in the background.)

This week's challenge was to create a duo-tangle using Cirquital and Opus.  As usual, I just grabbed what was handy, which happened to be a Zendala tile, sepia brush pen, and some metallic pens.  This was a fun one.  

 

Hope you enjoy them.  Now, I'm off to the challenge of laundry and mail… Have a good week.

Cris

 

Welcome to Wyoming

This week's Diva challenge is create a Zentangle without using any of the structured patterns we usually use when tangling. Since I am touring the west this week, it is a perfect challenge for me. I've never been to South Dakota or Wyoming before and I am in love. This such beautiful country.

There are so many lovely patterns also. Here is my tile called Welcome to Wyoming.



There are two patterns based on trees, one from the ranch fence, one from flowers, and one of the fossilized mammoth teeth we saw yesterday. I put in auras, perfs, and shading tanglenhancers.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:U S Hwy 14/16 E,Clearmont,United States

Birds on a Wire

This week's challenge is to use Mary Kissel's Bird on a Wire tangle.  When I first saw this one, I thought it looked very similar to my own tangle, esses. At the very least, I thought they would play well together.  Whenever I use a lacy tangle like this, I want to put it in a Zendala, so here is my first attempt, paired with esses and colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Birdie has gotten me hooked on Dr. Who and has been trying to get me "caught up." We're in the middle of David Tennant and as much as I love watching that guy, it is hard for me to just sit and watch TV without doing something else. So, here are some "wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey tangles."  

Are there any Whovians reading my blog? 

Bales

Before starting this week's challenge post, I want to thank everyone for their outflowing of compassion, support, and advice after last week's post. I am humbled by how many of you took the time to share your thoughtful advice and encouragement. I am truly blessed to be on the receiving end of so much love and good vibes.  So, heartfelt thanks to everyone who read and commented.

I was delighted to find out that this week's challenge is to do tangleations of bales. Bales is one of my favorite tangles because it is so easy to personalize. In fact, I had planned on giving this exact challenge to my Exploring Zentangle students for homework this week! I love serendipity.

Bales study 1. In this piece, I started by drawing an intentionally lopsided grid, then I changed things up with auras and shading. A few of them have parts missing, and some have diagonal lines added. After finishing this, I remembered that I had drawn a large grid because I had planned on doing bales within bales.  Forgetting to do that led to Bales study 2:

In this tangle, I started with a large square, drew my rice shapes, then inscribed a square on the diagonal. I repeated this until it was too small to draw any more. Can you see all five bales shapes?  The outermost bales had orbs filling the rice part and auras filling the open section a la crescent moon.

The next one is simply filled with orbs in a tessellation pattern. (By this I mean, draw the biggest orb possible to fill the space. Then draw the biggest orb possible in the remaining space. Continue until the space is filled with orbs.) I shaded the largest of these orbs to look like pearls.

The remaining bales have rice shapes both inside and outside of the square. The first is filled with stripes and the others are plain except for some black fill.

This is my favorite of the four and reminds me of the round-robin quilt squares I used to make, which then made me wonder what would it would look like if I tried to make a "paper quilt" using bales.  The result is Bales study #3.

Still enjoying the challenge, I drew a curvy grid for Bales study 4. 

 

Since this was getting so far away from the original bales, I thought it best to call it a night.

I hope you enjoyed this challenge as much as I did.

Dealing with Criticism

As artists and bloggers, we put little pieces of our heart and soul out into the world and open ourselves up to criticism. When I first started this journey, I was obsessed with that. If I got a nice comment, I was happy all day. If no one commented, I thought no one liked my work and was depressed. Gradually, Ive begun to let go of my need for approval.  I've come to believe that the value of art is not dictated by public opinion. I still love hearing your comments, but I no longer let them control my mood.

I had to learn this all over again after I published my book. When I got my first harsh book review, I was crushed and spent days trying to get people to tell me that reviewer was wrong. After that I began looking for the grains of truth in each criticism so I could learn and improve.  I thought I had this need for approval under control.

And then, BAM, another attack on the book. When I read,"It looks like it was put together by a grade-schooler," I was crushed again. Where's the grain of truth in that? Birdie wisely asked me if I liked it and if I thought I did a good job. "That," she said, "is the only important thing." She's right. I find it astonishing that any 14-year-old has the self-confidence to understand that her work is valuable even if no one else thinks it is.  What a gift.

I, on the other hand, still let it bug me. Are my instructions truly poorly written?  Are my examples truly very rough and badly done? I don't think so and many other people have told me they found the book very helpful, so why am I still thinking about it? After much soul-searching, reading, and writing, I've come to this conclusion: it is because I am human!

I am not the only one facing this challenge. If you are also being criticized and could use some support, I found the following articles helpful:
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-criticism-well-25-reasons-to-embrace-it/
Dealing with Criticism
How to Deal With Criticism - 9 Useful Tips For Dealing With Criticism

Perhaps my favorite bit of advice comes from Aristotle. He says:
“Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."

So, I will continue to share my art and stories with you. Maybe I'll even write another book. 

Here is today's art. I thought I would "cheat" a little on the Diva challenge and start with this:

I figured I could add whatever was required and finish quickly.  Hah! She fooled me. The challenge this week is ebony and ivory. That required some serious thought.  

Not wanting to resort to black paint, I grabbed my Graphic 1 pen and I thought I'd try to do some "negative Zentangle."  I don't mean that I was going to think bad thought while tangling (not possible), but rather that I would try and color the background with black and leave white the part I would have normally drawn with my .01 or .005.  I can tell you that it was certainly a challenge. It took about 5 hours to do the ebony as compared to 1.5 for the ivory.  Not exactly the quick finish I had in mind.

But, I am really glad I did it. Not only do I really love the result, but it took my mind off the criticism.


Dealing with criticism is something that gets easier the more you do it, so I invite you to please criticize this post. I shall attempt to learn from it and not take any personal offense.  Thanks!

The Challenge of Doing Something You Don't Want to Do

This week's Diva challenge is to use the new official tangle schway. I will admit that I do not like this tangle and was planning on skipping this week. But this little voice inside my head reminded me that I am always telling Birdie that we often have to do things we just don't want to do. Sure, it's just a Zentangle challenge, but I did set a goal to do all of them this year.  I always say that in order to achieve big goals, you have to do the little things, even when you don't want to.  But, I don't always do them.  So, I am doing this one even though I don't like it.

At first, I thought I disliked it because it was too graphic, too linear, or maybe too representational.  But, as I was looking at the 30 or more other Diva challenge entries, I realized it is because this tangle is tough to "personalize." Almost everyone's schway looks the same.  Even Shelly Beauch who usually can take any tangle and adapt it to her flowing style ended up with a tile that was very angular. (Not that they aren't beautiful.)

So, I challenged myself to start with schway, but to try really hard to do something different with it.  I told my beginner class last Friday that the string will disappear after you fill it with tangles.  I thought I would try to make the schway disappear by filling it with tangles.    So, here is my challange.

And here are some more "twirly whirly" things inspired by Justine Ashbee.

Can you tell I'm still really enjoying this?

Blind String and No Strings

This week's Diva challenge, once again, fits surprisingly well with other art I've been making. The challenge this week is to draw a string "blind."  As in, close your eyes and just draw.  I did this and then challenged myself to only use tangles that are on my Zentangle temporary tattoo.  In this case, I was limited to Poke Leaf, Flux, Umble, Purk, Pepper, Knightsbridge, and Rick's Paradox. If you've seen any of my work at all, you will know that I'm not a fan of any of these except for Purk and Flux. Surprisingly, even though I only spent about 20 minutes on this and used tangles I don't like very much, I do enjoy the result.


The idea of blind string goes very well with some other art I have been experimenting with.  I'm not sure these are technically Zentangle, but they are definitely repetitive patterns.  Some of them are done without a string at all.  Others, I drew a string and then made sure to draw over it to hide it.  I did all of these in 3 days.  I think I am hooked.  It may be time to open an Etsy store.  What do you think?  Would there be any interest in these?

Lines and Swirls

Leafy Things

Twirls and swirls

Coral Reef #1

Coral Reef #2

Coral with Pink

Flowy 

Coral with Color

Twirls & Swirls #2

Lines with Stippling