Up for the Challenge

"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way." Edward de Bono

After lurking around in the background for so long, watching everyone else's entries to the Diva's challenge, I've decided now that I have a blog it's time for me to jump in too. For those of you who may not know what the Diva's challenge is, fellow CZT, Laura Harms, puts out a Zentangle challenge every Monday, and at the end of the week she posts a slide show of all the entries to that week's challenge. Not only is it sooo inspiring to see what all the other tanglers come up with, but sometimes it really does challenge you to step out of your comfort zone. I often find myself using the same tangle patterns over and over again, so this will force me to try new things, to "look at things in a different way" as it states in the quote above. I'm sure I won't always be happy with the results...but that's creativity!

This week's challenge is to use only the official tangle "Bales" and tangleations (variations) of Bales to complete a tile. Here is my first attempt.

Not too happy with it. I must admit that I like the look of Bales without the little squares in the center much better. Without the centers they remind me of flowers, and flowers make me happy (as long as they aren't too smelly and make me sneeze!). I like the upper right section of the tile best. So...I decided to try it again.

I like the feel of this tile much better. I stretched out the grid and squished the grid and curved the grid. I puffed out my flower petals and added extra petals. I left out all the little squares. And voila! A tile that I can live with. But...it still needed something more. I am a fan of lots of contrast, and that's what's lacking in this tile. So I went in and added some black background, and of course some shading, a little different in each section, and now I have a tile that I am really happy with.

So now that I have officially entered the Diva's world of challenges, I know that I will return. But while I am waiting for the next challenge I am working on something very unique that I'll be back to show you soon. I hope that you'll join me again!