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.

 

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? 

Beginnings and Endings

 

New Beginnings

This weekend was the grand opening of my new studio, nicknamed The Zen Den. I met some talented ladies and announced my summer workshops and classes. I'm very excited about teaching my first class here this week.  At first, I was worried about working in the basement, but after all of the cleaning, painting, and decorating, I think it is a very nice place to work. It is comfortably cool on hot days and will be cozy warm in the winter with the wood stove down there.

For those who couldn't make it to the open house, here are some photos of what you missed.

 

I had time to start a black Zendala during the open house and spent a few minutes this morning finishing it up. I wanted to try something different on this one, so I used metallic belly roll pens along with glaze pens and metallic colored pencils. (It is much more sparkly in person.)

 

OZAD Wrap-up

Working on the One Zentangle a Day virtual book club was so much more rewarding than I expected it to be. Not only did I love seeing all of the beautiful art, but I really appreciated hearing others' experiences as we shared this journey together. This common bond brought us together even though we were separated by hundreds, maybe thousands of miles.  I hope we can do it again in the fall.  Does anyone have Margaret Bremner's book?

 

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It looks interesting and I was wondering if it might be a good one to explore in the fall.

But for now, here is the last of the One Zentangle a Day goodies I've received.

From Ellen Gozling:

Uw bericht kan nu met het volgende bijlagen of koppelingen worden verzonden:
day 40

day 41

day 42

 

From Marty Deckel:

Thanks so much to you and ellen for hosting!!!  It was a long haul, but it was worth it for all the work and lesson's learned, not only from the book but from each other...so THANKS to ALL who contributed!!!!

 

Here is my Day 40 tile:  Letters as Strings, as well as 2 that I didn't ever send.  Day 16 Achromatic Scale on Midtoned paper, and Day 32 Borders and Frames, which I redid, because I had misunderstood the lesson...so there are 3 tiles attached.

 

I found todays lesson #40 fun to do, as I really love calligraphy and just love the W2 that Angie did behind her letter "a", so I used that tangle and adapted it.  I shaded with my pencil and then used the gray Fabrico marker around the letter and some areas of the background tangle...loved it!!

Well, here is Day #41:  Folk Patterns.  I have a tile and then2 jpg's of the Folk Patterns I found...it was an interesting lesson and one I never would have thought about doing.  I included a jpg of my sketchbook with the patterns I found...I planned out the tile so I could be sure to use all the patterns...interesting, but my tile is jam packed!

and the last Lesson for OZAD!!!  It's been great to meet so many new CZT's and lovers of Zentagle, and to have the privalege to work with and learn from everyone!!!  Thanks to Cris and Ellen for hosting...great job!!!

 

Here are my tiles for Day 42:  Simple Line Drawing. 

Tile one has some of my favorites and I added some Sepia, Inktense pencils and water, and a Fabrico marker for shading...I didn't use the Bronx Cheer, although, I have used it several times on my tiles out of necessity :-)

 

Part 2 of this lesson, Line Drawing...I used a Cala Lily as my line drawing string, and shaded with pencil, Fabrico, and a grey Pitt pen...I really like shading with these markers!  When I showed it to my husband, he asked if I was going to color it...so I decided to color it and I'm glad I did.  I used Tombow Markers.  If we hadn't had all the lessons in this book, I may never have used the markers to shade, or added color with the Inktense pencils, markers, Gelly Roll pens, etc., etc.!  Lots of fun!!!

 

 

 

 

What a nice way to finish the book, Marty.  Beautiful, as always. 

 

Fun With Color

My family watched basketball this weekend.  To be sociable, I sat in the room with them.  But, I don't like basketball, so I got a lot of tangling done.  This is a piece I started over the weekend, but it lacked something.  Color, I thought, so I whipped out my new Sakura Koi watercolors.

It was  still missing something, so I put it aside for later. When I saw today's Diva challenge was to use LeeAnn's new tangle Tuxedo, I knew what was missing: that tangle.  I used it in 3 sections that had just been color-washed and the strong contrast with the black was exactly what it needed.  

I finished up by coloring in the few black and white sections using Prismacolor colored pencils brushed and blended with baby oil.  I just learned that I can use baby oil instead of odorless mineral spirits to color-wash pencils.  I love the technique.  Does anyone know about the long-term effects of baby oil?

 

Auraknot & Bunzo, Take 2

This week's Diva Challenge was so interesting, I had to try again.  To spice things up a bit this time, I used a black ATC.

First, I drew the string with a white Prismacolor Verithin pencil. I like these for strings because the lead is much harder than a regular Prismacolor, so you can get a fine, light line.

Done tangling. I used a Sakura white Gelly Roll pen for the AuraKnots and my Faber-Castell metallic colored EcoPencils for the Bunzo.  I was thinking 4th of July, so I used red and blue stripes to go with the stars.

"Shading" the AuraKnots with my silver metallic pencil. I tried going around the inside of the bunzo to clean up the edges and add a subtle shadow, but it's almost impossible to see.  Bummer. It's still kind of plain. What to do?

Since adding a new tangle is "verboten," I thought about using a tanglenhancer, in this case, perfs. I used the silver pencil again.  It's getting there...

It needs more more color, but I dropped my blue on the floor. The lead broke and I didn't have a pencil sharpener with me.  So, no more patriotic colors.  The stars are purple.

I got the Gelly Roll pen out to jazz up the perfs and add some around my AuraKnots. This I really like. Finally, another tanglenhancer: auras around the outside edges. Since my glaze pen won't write, I pronounce it finished.

It was really fun to use new materials and think outside the box.  I highly recommend it!  I know I am not the Diva, but I would like to offer a challenge to you to try a new material or try a new tanglenhancer. If you accept my challenge, please comment and let me know how it went.  

Have a delightful week.

Snowflake Zendala Revisited

Thanks to everyone who helped me decide what to do with my snowflake Zendala. I decided to go with Cat's advice and use blue. I used about 10 different colors of Prismacolors in shades of blue, white, and silver and used them as if I was shading it. I really enjoyed this process and think I will have to explore it more. Here it is in blue.

And, since I accidentally had my scanner set to black and white mode for my book; here it is in black and white. I think I achieved my goal of "shading" with blue. Except for the center, it looks just like it would have if I'd done it with pencil.

I'd love to hear which you prefer.

Fun With Markers

Here are a few 8.5x11 inch ZIAs I did a while ago. I was playing with my Prismacolor markers and pencils. Obviously, I was feeling playful :-)

I've been debating whether or not to share them because I thought Birdie hated them.  Oh, well. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What's yours?

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

One of the things I learned during CZT training was that inspiration is all around you.  Birdie had a diving meet at Wright State University this weekend and this is the wall you walk past to get to the natatorium.My first thought was, "Wouldn't that be an interesting string?"  Birdie is a beginning diver, so watching her fellow competitors held little interest.  Instead of following the divers, I tangled.

This week's Diva challenge was to use "earth" as an inspiration in honor of Earth Day.  I didn't want to be too cliche, but knowing that the earth is 70% water, I figured I could use this same string for 3/4 of a circle.

Earth Day - colored with ZIG pens & shaded with Prismacolor pencils

Where are some interesting places you've found tangle inspiration?

Knowing When to Stop

I was tangling the other day and Birdie commented, "You ruined it.  You just don't know when to stop."  That got me to thinking.  How do you know when to stop tangling?  I mean on any given tile.  Not that we would want to stop tangling altogether!

I did a quick search and found the following quote by Dan Rockwell:  “It takes more courage to stop than to start. Anyone can start something new. It takes real leaders to stop something old.”  As a struggling perfectionist, I can relate to this.  I keep thinking that if I just work a little more on something, I can make it better.  Often times, this is not the case.  I know he was talking about things on a much higher level, like dumping bad habits to make room for new and better ones, but I think it might apply here as well.  

I will sometimes spend significantly longer on my "bad" tiles than on my "good" ones.  Sometimes I can turn them around, but sometimes not.   So the question of the day is how long do you work on a tangle that is not turning out as you'd like?  When do you quit and move on to the next?


By the way, here is the tile Birdie was talking about.  I happen to disagree with her.  I like it.  I did my tangling with a sepia pen then shaded with a Prismacolor French Gray 90%.  Then I added some Prismacolor gold.  

Iris

tangled Iris done with Prismacolor colored pencils

I made this months ago for a challenge, but never entered it because I didn't think it was good enough.  It was sitting on my desk when Boo, who is never known to mince words, said, "That's pretty."  She thought I should put it on my blog, so here it is.  

Birdie's Ducky

This blog is about inspiring art and today my DD Birdie is inspiring me.  She is entering the Junior Duck Stamp contest tomorrow and has been working like crazy.  I'm really impressed with her dedication and talent.  I didn't know she had it in her, but don't tell her I told you.  She's not quite done, but I think it is lovely.  Here is Harold (he's got to have a name, don't he?)