Zendala Dare #16

This week’s zendala for the dare is simple and sweet.  Here’s what I’ve done so far.

The first one is a duo-tangled piece, using only Betweed and Rick’s Paradox.

This next one I colored with Prismacolor pencils slightly when it was finished.

Tangles: Cheers, Onamato, Auras, Crescent Moon (a variation) and flowers and leaves I saw in Totally Tangled by Sandy Bartholomew.

Here’s a third one done this morning.   I really like this template.

Tangles: Betweed, Umble, Purk, Crescent Moon

And another one.  (Can you tell I’m having a good time with this simple template?

Tangles: Rick’s Paradox, Frickle, Baton, Scallops

Hmm, I see that paradox and/or betweed are in three of four of these tiles.  Sorry, about that; but when I see “triangle” shapes, that’s what comes to mind.

Hope you like my tiles.  I might mention that on this one, I preferred the tile, because it gave me more room to add another tangle.  If you are so inclined, please let me know you were here, and don’t forget to grab the link on the right and head over to The Bright Owl to see all the wonderful entries.

Until next time, Happy Tangling.

Weekly Challenge #80: “Mi2! Mi2!”

This week the Diva’s challenge is to use the tangle Mi2 (Me Too) by CZT® Mimi Lempart.  This is a tangle I had never drawn before, so I started with a uni-tangle after practicing on some scrap paper a little.  It’s not that difficult once you figure out how to get your little rice shapes headed in the right direction.  I did it about three ways, and found a way that is comfortable for me.  Here’s the first one.

That was fun, but I wanted to try a couple in color.  The first one is with watercolor, and I had mixed feelings about it.

I added some flowers and leaf shapes, all found in Sandy Bartholomew’s two books, Totally Tangled and Yoga for Your Brain.  Then I used Derwent watercolor pencils and water.  I thought some of the background looked kind of muddy from mixing colors, but it was at least minimally acceptable.  I also thought it looked a little structured, and didn’t flow as well as I had wanted.  So I did one more.

This one includes Angelfish, Chainging, and some “organic” shapes I just drew.  It is colored with colored pencils.

All in all, this week’s challenge was very satisfying for me, and I had the added bonus of learning a brand new (to me) tangle.  Thank you for stopping by, and I’d love it if you’d let me know you were here.  Now, I’m headed over to The Diva’s website (see link on right sidebar) to post these and gaze at all the gorgeous eye candy waiting there for my enjoyment.

Weekly Challenge #79: Citius, Altius, Fortius

This week’s challenge is brought to us by a guest, Rho Densmore, a CZT, who offered to run it while The Diva and her family are in Philadelphia.  Rho selected the 2012 Olympics as the challenge topic, featuring the five rings Olympic symbol.  To read more about the meaning behind the rings, go to the Diva’s website, located here; and while you are there, be sure to look at all the lovely interpretations of this challenge.

For me, this challenge was initially a real “challenge”, because I couldn’t draw those big rings to save my life.  My original intent had been to make the big interconnecting rings, and then tangle them in the colors of the rings.  Bad idea.  I know it’s about the process and not the results in my head, but I just couldn’t show the junk I ended up with.  So, I put it aside for a while, to think about it.  I was reading Suzanne McNeill’s book, Zen Mandalas, when I saw a couple of zendalas in which she had tangled a human hand.  Suddenly, I had my inspiration.  Here is the result.

“The original of this tile, is quite large, about 8 inches, and was drawn by tracing a dinner plate.I used a lot of “non-zentangle” tools to make this, starting with the large circle, which I darkened with a micron pen and scanned into Photoshop.  Then I traced my left hand, darkened it too, and scanned it into Photoshop.  Then I reduced the size of the hand, copied it five times, and rotated them around the outside of the large circle.  That was printed on watercolor paper and represented my “string”.  Next I tackled the five connecting circles.  I found that by making them not so big, and drawing them first in pencil, that I could get them not so wonky, so I darkened them, drew a parallel circle inside, and added an aura all the way around it.  Then I colored them with colored pens.  Next I tangled Chainging all the way around the outside of the hands, connecting them, and added an aura around the hands and the chains to connect everything.  Then I hand printed the name of the five continents represented by the circles in each of the five divisions created by the auras and added the banners.  Only then was I ready to tangle the hands.  I think I used 20 different tangles, so I’m not going to bore you by naming them all.  They all can be found at the tangles patterns website by Linda Farmer.  All that was left to do now was shading.  Simple, huh?  NOT!  I think this particular ZIA zendala took about 6 hours to do.  But I didn’t do it all at once since I could treat each hand as a separate tangle tile, so I did it over two days.  I’m pretty happy with it and I would call it “The Olympics – Connecting the People of the World.  I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Thanks to everybody who has recently stopped by and left me a comment.  I look every day to see if I got any comments.  They make my day.  Now I’m off to see what everybody else did with this great challenge.

And lastly, a big thank you to the Diva, and to Rho, for stepping in so we didn’t miss a week.  Happy Tangling.

Zentangle Dare #14 – The Bright Owl website

This challenge at Erin’s The Bright Owl I found to be a real challenge.  However, I love challenges, so I took it on.  The first one I’m showing is actually the third one I did, and the one I personally like the best.  I’ll explain why in this post.

I transferred this one so that I could ignore some of the circle shapes if I wanted to.  The published tangles I used were Becki by Sandy Bartholomew in her book “Yoga on the Brain”, and Organza by Ruth Howell.  After that, I just drew lines, did some fill, and added some watercolor.  I like the effect, but the problem I ran into with this template, was knowing what to put in all those circles.  This speaks “organic” to me, and I spent a lot of time looking for tangles I thought would look right, and I flunked so I just colored them in.   However, don’t get me wrong; I do like the look of this finished zentangle, although maybe it should have Ixorus or something like that in the center.

Next is the first one I drew.  There are things I liked, and things I didn’t like, and I’ll explain after I display the tile.

This tile was copied in photoshop, lightening the lines slightly, but evidently not enough; because the circles couldn’t be ignored, so I used them.  The published tangles I used were Flutter Pie by Carole Ohl and Becki again, by Sandy Bartholomew.  The leaf or petal shapes with the stamens I drew I don’t know what to call.  Those leaf/petal shapes show up all over the place, in Ennies, in Totally Tangled and Yoga for the Brain by Sandy Bartholomew, and in several of Suzanne McNeill’s books, just to name a few.  These leaves/petals are used in many, many tangles.  I added the stamens, and I’m not going to name this it is so common.  But I really like to draw it.  The one thing I didn’t like much was that the visible circles constricted the shape of the Becki petals, and I felt they didn’t end up looking like flowers.  I may go back later and put a tangle in the center; not sure yet.  This one  is what caused me to draw the one I showed first, by transfer, creating lighter lines, and allowing more freedom in the use of Becki.

The third one, is actually unfinished, and I’m not sure when I’ll get back to it.  Got other things to do.  I just received my new set of Sakura Micron 01 colored pens, so I broke them out and used them to do this one.  It’s on the full size tile, and measures about 8″ square.

Okay, so I got a little carried away with trying out my pens, too many colors, makes it too busy.  Also after drawing Y.A.F. (yet another flower) from Yoga for the Brain by Sandy Bartholomew, and those leaf/petals again, and Stipples, I ran out of steam.  I ended up putting in some swirls in red.   Haven’t had time to finish coloring it in, and this one definitely needs something in the center, and maybe something around the outside edge.  It will go in my “unfinished” hold file, and I’ll look at it in the future and see what I might do.

That’s it for me this week; and I hope you’ll let me know you stopped by.  Any suggestions for improvement would also be appreciated.  Don’t forget to grab the link on the right and go on over to The Bright Owl and look at all the wonderful submissions.  Until next time, Happy Tangling!

I Am the Diva Weekly Challenge #78 – New Tangle – Auraknot

This is an exciting challenge; because the tangle is brand new, step-out instructions were just introduced, so we’re all “beginners” if you get my drift.  I did one ZIA before I knew this was this week’s challenge, and I’ll show that last, but first I want to show you the new ones I did after I read about the challenge.  This is my latest one, and the most ambitious:

As you can see, it’s an obvious ZIA, original is 6″ x 9″, and I used not only Auraknot, but Sandra Strait’s ribbons, tipples, verdigough, Sandy Bartholomew’s beedz, and a new tangle I drew for this, which I’ll call bulbz.  It’s done on watercolor paper with Micron pens, and colored with sharpie colored pens and watercolor pencils.  The background is sponged ink from ink pads.  It’s my “Christmas in July” drawing, which will possibly be used for some hand-made Christmas cards this year.  I’ve made two cards, one 5 x 7 inches, one a size A2, shown below.

I’m not sure if they’ll get used as is or be recolored in ways I like better.  I saved an uncolored copy so I can change it if I want to.

Here are three more that I did, one is a monotangle on a zentangle  , the other two are on “scraps” of scrapbooking paper left over from the zendala dare this week and they have some color added.

The one on the top left has “Ahh” added, and the one on the right has some little circles and the ribbon that Maria did on one of her tiles.  I don’t know what to call the middle flower; it just shows part of the lines that were on the template.

And here’s the last one which I actually drew for the zendala challenge over at the Bright Owl.  It’s Erin’s template, and when I first saw auraknot, I knew it would look good on this zendala template , so I drew it.

I hope you like what I did this week, and I hope you’ll leave a comment.  I actually got done on the second day of the challenge, so I’ll have lots of time to look at all the other entries.  So can you, just grab the link on the right and hop on over to The Diva Challenge.  In the meantime, happy tangling.

Zendala Dare #13 – “Play with Paper”

Wow!  What a great time I had with this dare from The Bright Owl!  I’ve picked five of the 12 I did to show you.  The first one I did will be shown last, because while it is done on watercolor paper, and not a zentangle tile, it occurred to me that it doesn’t meet the “spirit” of the challenge, because it is a paper I use all the time for ZIA’s, zendalas, and even 3.5″ zentangle tiles.  Once I figured that out, I went to my 12″ x 12″ patterned paper stash, which is SUBSTANTIAL!, and did several 5 or 6 inch tiles with Erin’s pattern on it.  What a blast!  Here’s the first one:

I love this plaid paper because of the colors.  A really simple zendala with only two tangles:  Nightsbridge (two variations) and Ennies, with and without the tipple; plus a little line work.  I liked the crisp, clean look of this one.

Next I picked a heavily patterned paper, and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.

This one has three tangles:  Afterglow (and I messed up on some of the auras) paradox, and one of Sandy Bartholomew’s flower shapes from her book, Totally Tangled.  I drew it in   Purple Ink.  I was a little surprised that I actually liked it, even though the background is pretty busy.

For the next one I used a blue Micron Pen on paper that was light blue, with white flowers. It also had some butterflies in different colors on it.  The photo colors aren’t really true, because the flowers and leaves look yellow; but they are not; they are a creamy white.  Oh, Well.

For this one I drew Hollibaugh, poke leaf, facets, and the outside triangles are either a variation of ennies, or one of Sandy Bartholomew’s flowers with an aura and tipple.  Terrible when I don’t even know what to call what I just drew.  The butterfly I cut out from a scrap of the same paper, mainly to cover up a tiny piece of a butterfly under it, which didn’t add anything positive to the tile.

This is the first one I did.  It is drawn on an inexpensive watercolor paper I use all the time:  Biggie Jr. by Canson.  It comes in 9″ x 12″ 90 lb pads of 30 or 50 sheets, and costs only about $5 or $6, depending on if it’s on sale.  It has some tooth, so will take water, but is so inexpensive and I love it.  It also takes rubber stamps very well.  Color was added with Derwent Inktense pencils, water and a brush.  This one has ixorus in the center with an aura, ennies, and two brand new tangles I just learned – Angel Fish by Marizaan van Beek,  and the border is Girlande by Simone Bischoff.  Both are great new tangles.

Here’s one last one ZIA type zendala.  While I was working on these, Rick and Maria published step- out instructions  for their brand new tangle; called Auraknot.  It only took me a minute to figure out that this zendala, which is essentially an 8 pointed star was perfect; so I drew it.

I drew it on one of the papers I had already used, only used some of the lines in the zendala, and added the flower to the center.  Basically, a monotangle.

I hope you will leave me a comment; since I absolutely love reading them, and don’t forget to grab the link on the right and hop on over to The Bright Owl to see all the great art!

Until next time, Happy Tangling!

Diva Weekly Challenge #77: UMT v. VI “Fiore di Pietro”Challenge #76 – UMT –

This week is a very special challenge, dedicated to Rho Densmore, CZT; creator of the tangle.    Fiore di Pietro tangle is a beautiful loving tribute to Rho’s brother-in-law.  Please go to the Diva Site to learn more about this and other challenges.  Rho has asked for permission to use our zentangles, ZIA’s and zendalas to create books for the immediate family.  A special note to Rho:  My deepest sympathies and I would be honored if you chose to use any of the pieces that end up on this post.  I. too, know the pain of loss, having lost my Father, my Mother, and two younger brothers within the past two years.

This first one I’ve called “The Lives We Touch”.  I decided to do a zendala, because circles and spheres speak to me of eternity.  In this piece, the outside lines connecting each of the Fiore di Pietro’s represents the ties that bind us to others in our lives.  It can be the bond of love, or blood, or friendship, beliefs, and common interests just to name a few.  The auras on the inside of the lines speaks to me of our sphere of influence.  Be it narrow or wide, who we are and what we do influences others.  I hope you will enjoy using all our art for your tribute to Pete.

If I have time, I will do another tile using this beautiful tangle.  Until next time Happy Tangling.