Friday, May 31, 2013

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!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your thought process and progress. The final tile is really beautiful :)

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    1. Thanks for visiting Helen. I hope you'll come back again.

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  2. I am glad you have stopped lurking in the background and have come out to play, congratulations on your blog, you have an elegant style.

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    1. Thanks Shelly. Your work is beautiful and I'm a big fan. Did you notice you're on my blogroll?

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  3. Great that you join this challenge, I hope to wee more of you.
    I like your tiles but LOVE the drama of the last one.

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