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.

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

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

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.

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?

OZAD - Almost done

Interest seems to be dwindling here, but that is OK. We've had a great time and we're almost done. Spring is in the air and the outdoors is calling.  The garden and bike are calling and the beach is waiting. Does your tangling slow down this time of year? At home, I find myself tangling less.  But then I travel and have marathon sessions.  

I think I am done with the book, but if you are still working, please keep sending me your creations. I would be happy to collect and post them, probably once a week.

So, here are all of the tiles I've gotten in the last week in the order I received them.

First from Sonya Yencer:

OZAD 35

Once again, I am not fond of the string that began the Zendala. However, after decided to give it a whirl, my personal goal became to figure out how to soften the transition between the geometric and organic sections of the string, bringing harmony to the design. I'm happy with the results, especially the BETWEED star as the centerpiece to the "flower".

OZAD 36

Used ZANDER  for most of my string and love it! However, STICKERS is for the birds. It was an epic fail—thus my Bronx Cheer on top to salvage the tile. Love the background tangle with the dotted lines, stripes and "flowery" shapes, but have no idea what it is called. Does anyone know the name of this tangle? I will definitely be using it again!

 

 

OZAD 37

I'm not sure I see much of a difference between WARMTH and KEEKO (except that one uses straight lines while the other uses curved), but maybe I just need to practice each more. I used WARMTH as my string instead of a filler on this tile. While interesting, I'm not in love with it. Next time I will choose pens that provide more contrast - you can barely tell I used 2 different sized nibs. I'm even less thrilled with my orbs. Overall, don't care much for this tile but, as usual, the exercise was entertaining and kept me busy during my 1.5 hours of waiting time for my daughter's sports practice!

 

From Ellen Gozeling Day 38:

As I don't have a bleach pen, I was thinking of skipping this day.

Then I decided I just do a tile and send that in. And THEN I realized I have bought 2 white handkerchiefs, ages ago, and maybe I could tangle on them. But then there was the "problem" of holding the fabric. So I gave it some thought, and then I came up with an embroidery-ring. I like it! And I will go on with it, but not today. So here is my photo of my finished tile and my just started fabric work.

From Marty Deckel:

 

I didn't do the second lessons on day 38 and 39 (fabric and mica)...but did do a tile for each day.  Day 38 I tried doing just a few tangles, Floo, Paizel, some Perfs and a bit of Fescu...tried to keep it more open.  Day 39, Drawing Texture; is not open and very tight...but it does appear to have some texture  :-)  I used Printemps, Shattuck, Black perfs (Perlz, or Buckeyes), and Tipple.  I also used a white Gelly Roll pen in some areas.

Wow!  Only 3 more lessons to go...

Finally, from Maria Vennekens:

Attached day 39. I used Maria Thomas’string #50 (tangle patterns) and went back to my calendar again. I wish I knew where to buy mica. The work shown in the book is beautiful. I only know mica from my childhood . I used to watch the fire trough  “windows” of mica. They always were a bit dirty because of the smoke of the fire. The combination of the dirt and the flames had the same look as the artworks show on page 111.

As I have holidays this week I decided to finish the book today and send my contributions to you. I enjoyed the first part of the book much more than the last. But once said that I would participate I find I have to contribute till the end. So here are the last three.

40 (m, h and M)

This was fun to do. I used a twin pencil to draw the letters. I depends on the patterns used how the letters show up . The more contrast between letter and background pattern, the better you can see the letter. It also can help to leave a millimeter space around the letter (see h). I think my capital M came out the best.

 

41

I used some of the folk patterns suggested in the book. I like the result but don’t think it is different from using tangle patterns. Again I regret not having the opportunity to use the material suggested on the right page. I looks interesting and it is a material/technique that will create even more dimension in a zentangle.

42

As one tile would not be big enough to give space to my favorite patterns I decided to do the line drawing suggested on the right page. I had better not.

 

Thanks for all the efforts you did to put our works on your blog. It was fun to see what others did with the 42 (or must we say 84) challenges.

 

Lots of great eye candy today.  I hope you enjoyed it.

 

 

 

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