Polka Dots and Moonbeams

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."  Leo Tolstoy

I decided to dedicate a journal to all of my zendalas. Just zendalas and nothing else. I have the perfect book, a 5 1/2 inch square -

hand·book from Global Art Materials. The paper is very similar to the official Zentangle tiles so the Micron pens behave just like I am used to. A zendala the same size as the round tiles from Zentangle Inc. fits perfectly on the pages. So if I want to do a black zendala I can just glue the tile into the journal.

I expect to create some of my own designs in this journal, but to christen the book I did this week's Zendala Dare. Below is a picture of my zendala before any shading.

And here it is after shading. As always, the shading really added another dimension to it. 

I had wanted to include something outside of the rounded edge, so I tried some triangles, as you can see in the above picture. That was not successful - I didn't like it at all. What could I do to make it more to my liking? I decided to turn each group of triangles into a black blob, really a large crescent moon. Much happier with this look.

But I still wanted to make it more interesting somehow. Those crescent moons were just a little boring. Using my white gel pen, I added some polka dots, which gave it just the pizzazz I was looking for.

 

Sometimes I forget how much difference the tiniest change can make to the look of the whole piece. 

A bit of trivia...The title of my blog, Polka Dots and Moonbeams,  is the name of a song from 1940. It was Frank Sinatra's first hit recorded with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. You can listen to  the song here.

I'd better get back to work now. I have another 63 pages to fill in my journal!