Finally Finished

Here are some I did with templates from the book

This has been a good week for me in terms of finishing up a few creative projects that have been keeping me busy lately.  The first one I want to tell you about is my ebook - Seeing Stars: a Zentangle Constellation. It is my 3-D ornaments class in book form.  You don't even have to know Zentangle since I there are 3 different versions of each: one is ready to color and 2 are already done for you so all you have to do is cut and fold.

But the absolute best part of this book is that each one sold feeds a hungry child. See the details on yesterday's post.

The second big project is my painting of Mendenhall glacier. This thing has gone through many iterations and growing pains. It will never be my favorite piece of art, but it brings back wonderful memories.

If I hadn't done it on a gallery wrap, I think I would have cropped it:

Have a great Paint Party Friday, everyone, and Merry Christmas!

Merry Happy

This week’s Diva challenge is to do some Zentangle Inspired Art inspired by whatever end of year holiday you celebrate.  I love this since I’ve been doing workshops on tangled cards, ornaments, and candles.  My favorite and quickest was this little card.

As my holiday gift to you, I’ve written up a little instruction sheet so you can try it yourself. If you do, please let me know how it goes.

Chicago Tardis, Part 1

Having just returned from Chicago TARDIS and also working on a book about Tangleations, I’ve been thinking a lot about naming things.  For those who don’t know, Chicago TARDIS is a con for fans of Dr. Who, a British sci-fi show that just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Dr. Who travels around in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) and the big mystery is that nobody knows his real name.  We've seen it written (in Gallifreyan), but it is partially obscured, so no one knows exactly what it is.  It looks so cool that I had to buy a T-shirt with it on.

Birdie is a much bigger fan than I am, so I spent some time tangling during the presentations.  I love using Gallifreyan as a string, so I couldn't resist tangling this.

This was so fun that I think I need to do more. Next time, though, I think I’d like to use a compass to get “circles” instead of “orbs.”  Want to try tangling in Gallifreyan, here is a generator you can use to get a string using whatever phrase you’d like. For instance, here is “Zendala Dare.”  Wouldn’t that be a fun one?

I also had fun playing with the new Renaissance Tiles from Zentangle.

This is the first time I’ve tried the new Zenstone and I like it.  I don’t think it completely replaces the GellyRoll, but it makes a nice addition. I also like adding gold and silver like on the Dalek.  I don’t like regular graphite shading on the brown ink though.

I do love these tile.  Want to try them out?  I have them in my new Etsy shop.  I also have a sampler kit with the pens you need to try them out.  Here are the first 3 tiles I tried.

Well, I’ve been requested to go watch the Sound of Music and this post is getting long as is, so stay tuned for the rest of the fun from Chicago TARDIS tomorrow.

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.

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.

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.

More From Hoot

Today was a great day at the HOOT conference. We did more make & take tangled shell necklaces.   It can be a bit difficult trying to draw a straight line on a lumpy surface, but we told them that there are no mistakes and to just "let go and let Zentangle."  I was really impressed with how well these newbies did.  These ladies love theirs and were great ambassadors for Zentangle.  We had a lot of people come by to make their own.

Alexa and I also got to tangle on porcelain. The nice ladies from Porcelain Treasures of Ohio wanted to see how Zentangle would look on their wares and gave us a few gratis to try. Wow. The texture is simply fabulous. The ink spreads like cream and it has just enough tooth to allow for some great shading.

I love Birdie's cross. 

Finally, the highlight of my day was a private painting lesson with Donna Dewberry.  

She's doing oils now.  Fun!  Have a great weekend.

 

Greetings from HOOT

This week the Heart of Ohio Tole painters is having their annual convention and I am a vendor!  Here is our booth (#317) with Sue Jacobs.  We have Zentangle supplies, a dozen different books, and lots of art for sale.  The convention lasts until Saturday at 2 and is at the convention center in Columbus, OH.  There are artists from all over the country.  

Here I am with Donna Dewberry.

One of the cool things they do there is to paint memory boxes for parents that lose children as infants.  Here is the one I am working on.

(Sorry for the sideways picture.  Not a lot of time today.)  I used this week's Diva Challenge tangle, Henna Drum by Jane MacKugler.  I love it painted.  I also did it on this mat. What a lovely tangle.

Hope to see some of you this week. 

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?