Friday, January 29, 2016

Tangle in a Tangle

"Originality is the best form of rebellion."   Mike Sasso

Just stopping by for a quick post to share my entries for the Diva's challenge this week. The challenge was to use a tangle for your string, make it big, and then tangle inside the tangle. 

For my first one, I worked on Strathmore Toned Grey paper. I used my own tangle, Ringle, for my string. You can find Ringle in my e-book, Step Out in Style. This is what it looked like before filling it.



After tangling inside and adding shading and highlights, this is the finished piece.

 Patterns used inside: Static, Hypnotic, Printemps, Emingle, Keeko, Tipple, Meer


I did another one, this time on a traditional Zentangle tile. Mooka was the tangle I used as my string, adding Knightsbridge and Aquafleur.


I really enjoyed this challenge.... I should remember to use this technique more often.

 

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Never Ending Circles

"Creativity never goes out of style."    Unknown


I recently purchased Corel Draw, a graphic design program. The learning curve is pretty steep for me, not being very technologically savvy. So I've been playing with it and drawing strings for tangling, as well as designing Zendala templates. Here is one of my designs that was pretty easy to do... just circles and ovals... from which I then deleted some portions of the lines.



That was the end of the computer assistance. Next I filled it with tangles but did not blacken in any of the little parts I normally would when using these patterns. It looks kind of blah at this point.



Patterns Used: Beelight, Fassett, N'zeppel, Tipple, Baton, Frosty, Sand Swirl, Arukas, Crescent Moon, Knot Rickz, Antidots, Podzles, Maryhill


Then I added the blackened parts. I didn't do that originally because I had decided I was going to try adding color later and didn't want the black spots to interfere with my coloring. It's starting to look better here.


Now with the shading it looks much better!


Next I printed a copy to color. But I decided to start with the drawing that has the parts blackened in, rather than pre-blackened. I used chalk pencils to add the color, which, as usual, blended really nicely. Unfortunately, whenever I scan my work it's hard to capture the colors just the way they look in reality. Some sections here look a little washed out.



I like the color, but the black and white shaded one is my favorite. Black and white is what drew me to Zentangle in the first place, and generally wins out over color in my mind... but not always!


Monday, January 4, 2016

Spirodala

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."     
Oprah Winfrey

Happy New Year everyone! 

Just here with a short post while I'm working on some other projects. Several months ago, in one of my journals dedicated to zendalas, I drew some centers for future art work. I used a mini spirograph-like tool. This week I decided it was time (really past time) to create a zendala from one of those centers. Here is what I designed, pre-shading.

Patterns used: Paizel variation and Knightsbridge

 
And after shading...



Although I like the finished piece, all those tiny little circles started to drive me, and my eyes, crazy. I had to do them little by little with breaks in between!

I have a few more spiro-centers in my journal, so I'm sure that one day I'll get back to do another one.