Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair

"I do maintain that if your hair is wrong, your entire life is wrong."
Steven Patrick Morrissey

I love the idea of tangled hair. No, not the kind that hurts when you try to comb it, but the kind where you draw a face with lots of hair and then tangle the hair, as in Zentangle. My problem is that I really can't draw faces. I've tried unsuccessfully, believe me!  

So I found a set of stenciled faces from Jane Davenport. First I stamped the stencil onto my paper with archival black ink. Then I began to pencil in the hair. After many lines drawn, erased, and drawn again, I got to a point where I thought the hair looked pretty decent. Then I went about the business of tangling it.

I'm not sure if I made all the best choices I could have for the patterns I used, but in the end I think this girl is having a pretty good hair day. After scanning the first version, just in case I messed up, I added a touch of color in the eyes and lips.

I have to say, the stencils were the way to go for me! The set came with four faces, which means I have three more styles to try out. Maybe I should have been a hair stylist.

Tangled Up in Color

"True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I've been immersed in color for the past couple of weeks. Literally, color all over my hands, because I don't remember to always put on my gloves. Playing, testing, experimenting, deciding what to include in my color class scheduled for next month. This week it's all about alcohol inks, which need to be used with glossy cardstock, rather than regular paper. I'm here to show you a bit of how I've been spending most of my time recently.

This first "tile" reminds me of the Rorschach inkblot test (according to Wikipedia - a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation) that was popular when I was growing up. Here's the before (before MOST of the tangling) and after. Let me know what you think the inkblot looks like, and I'll analyze your response and get back to you!

I tangled that one using different tangles in the different color/areas formed by the inks. I used the same approach for this next one, although the inks were applied differently so that it doesn't have the same inkblot look.

 

Those tiles seemed a little busy to me, so in the next one I decided to keep it simple. After all, the coloring is so pretty on these that I wanted to let it shine through some more. And shine they do on this glossy paper, although some of that shine gets lost in the photos.

Next  came a blue/green tile which begged to be filled with an underwater garden.

Again, on the next one, I left open space so as not to cover all the luscious color splotches.

Finally, here is one of my favorite tiles, in shades of blue.

So...now I'm ready with all sorts of ideas for my all day color class/workshop. If you plan to be in the Mt. Pleasant, SC area on July 26th, I'd love to have you join in on the fun.

I've Got the World on a String

"Creativity itself doesn't care at all about results - the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it."
Elizabeth Gilbert

This past week's "It's a String Thing" posed the challenge to use string #044 from tanglepatterns.com, along with any or all of four tangle patterns beginning with the letter N. Those tangles are N'zeppel, Nipa, Neuron, and ... Navaho. That's my pattern! How could I not participate? 

I chose to use another one of my hand-colored tiles like the ones I was playing around with in my last post. I intended to take a picture of the tile before tangling on it, but, as is par for the course, I forgot to take the picture. Not too far into the tangling I remembered that I had forgotten (if that makes sense), so here's the picture.

Continuing with my tangling, I decided to keep it to two patterns. I have recently come to the realization that often, when I am not happy with my completed work, it's because it looks too busy. So, I'm trying to simplify my pieces by cutting down on the number of patterns I include. For this tile I stuck to only two, my pattern Navaho (in three variations), along with one of my all time favorites, N'Zeppel.

I like the empty space in the center (another thing I often forget to include), and I'm happy with the not too cluttered look. And of course I love the colors.

Paint With all the Colors of the Wind

"Colors are the smiles of nature."     Leigh Hunt

Back in April when I attended Tangle U in Maine, I bought some hand-colored tiles from fellow CZT Sue Jacobs. This first one, a blue Zendala tile, was completed using a stencil from Acadia Laser Creations, along with blue pen and colored pencil for shading.

I was very happy with the way it turned out, so I went on to do another one, this time in pink. It's okay, but I think my tangle choices could have been better. However, I was loving the whole colored pen and pencil thing.

Then I decided to try making some of my own tiles. I used several methods, including watercolor paint, Ranger distress ink pads, alcohol inks, and Tombow markers. So much fun, and the results were so interesting! Here's one I did where I tangled the green parts of the tile and left the pink parts as open space.

 

This next one in pink and purple, I decided to tangle using black pen, along with colored pencils and graphite pencil for shading. This reminds me a little bit of the trees that I've recently seen Margaret Bremner post. I like the combination of colors here.

Next is another tile that I made. I decided to try a red pen on this tile colored with orange and yellow. I love the way these colors look together.

I thought I'd share some of the other tiles I created, just waiting to be tangled.

This last picture is a group of leftover pieces of paper that I colored using various methods. They're smaller than tile size. I was just fooling around with the scraps rather than throwing them away (recycling).

Who knew working with color in this way could be so much fun!

Who-o-o, Who-o-o!

"A wise owl lived in an oak. The more he saw the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard. Why aren't we like that wise old bird?"   Unknown author

I recently joined a Facebook group called Ornation Creation, where the very talented Ben Kwok posts weekly templates (mostly animals, but also some other things) for us to tangle. I completed my first one, an owl, this past week. It took some time to complete, partly because the hardest part was deciding which tangles to use where, so that it didn't look too busy.

Here's the owl completed, but without any shading.

Next, as I began to shade, I decided that since the owl is symmetrical, I would shade one half and post a picture so you can see the difference. You can see it, can't you? (Just in case you can't, the left side is shaded and the right is not).

Then I completed the shading and decided to color the eyes. I wish I had looked at photos of owls before doing the eyes, because if I had, the eyes would be yellow! Oh well.

Although it was not a quick little project, I enjoyed doing it and am happy with the result (except for those green eyes!) I have the zebra template printed and all ready to tangle...in between some other projects I'm working on.