Zenduos 11 and 12

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable."      Robert Henri

Just a quick post to share my next two Zenduo tiles. Number 11 uses the patterns BB and Beelight. I included some Beelight in a grid, like the original pattern, and then added some more Beelight not in the grid. To me it looks like the Beelight is escaping from under a pile of books.

First before shading:

And then after shading:

Zenduo number 12 uses the patterns Beeline and Betweed.
I made jumbo Beeline so I could incorporate the Betweed inside it.

And that's it for today. Until next time...happy Tangling!

 

New Alcohol Ink Zendala Tiles

"Life is a circle. The end of one journey is the beginning of the next."   
 Joseph M. Marshall

I love the black and white format of traditional Zentangle. The contrast of black and white is what really drew me to the Zentangle method in the first place. But, oh what fun color can be!

A few days ago I shared my new alcohol ink colored tiles made to create interesting backgrounds for your tangling. I'm back today to show you what I've done with some of the Zendala tiles. The first one is a pretty blue and white.

I decided to tangle with a blue Micron pen. I used a stencil made by Genevieve Crabe, which has lots of holes through which you mark dots, using them as a guide to create your own Zendala design. You can see these stencils here. My theme was triangles and I tangled them with lots of Munchin and a little bit of Phroz.

Next, of course, was shading. Now if you follow me regularly, you probably know of my love affair with pastel pencils. So you think you know what's coming, but no.... this was not shaded with pastel pencils. I used Prismacolor pencils and blended them with a tortillion dipped in Gamsol odorless mineral spirits. It was the first time I've used this method, and I'm happy to say that it worked really well! In the past, the few times I've used colored pencils, I blended by layering and layering and layering and going over and over and over it with a colorless blender. Maybe some of you like that way of doing things, but I found it to be very long and very tedious and very tiring on my hand. Using the mineral spirits was so much more up my alley, much quicker and much easier on my hand. It may have been my first time using this method, but it won't be the last, as you'll see in my next tile.

I love the way the white parts of the background make this tile appear to be glowing.

Next up was a pinkish-purplish tile.

I wanted to give this one a more organic look and used Flux (one of my go-to tangles recently) and Betweed.

As I said, I again used Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits for shading this.

I added some sparkle to it by applying a clear Stardust gelly roll pen over the shading in the Flux, but you can't even see a hint of that in the above picture, so I took a closeup at an angle to show you the sparkle.

The last tile I have to share with you for now has shades of yellow, orange, and green.

I used a stencil from Acadia Laser Creations for this one. Since it is more earth-toned, I tangled with a brown Micron. It took me awhile to decide how many patterns to include and which parts of the stencil should be tangled with which pattern. This is what I ended up with, Knightsbridge and Baton.

 

Then I agonized over what materials to use for color, and after testing several things, I went with Tombow markers to fill in some areas, but no shading on this one.

I am liking this tile more than I expected to as I worked on it. Always a pleasant surprise when that happens.

Remember, if you're thinking about trying out some of these new tiles for you own tangling, you can still get 10% off until the 18th by using the code NEWCOLOR in my Etsy shop.

 

 

Cruise Tangling

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."    Andre Gide

I just returned home from a three week vacation. We cruised northern Europe and then stayed a few days in Bruges, Belgium at the end. I've been on cruise ships before, and I've traveled around Europe before, and both the ships and the cities I've visited have always been chock full of patterns to inspire any tangler. Well, this cruise ship and these European destinations were no different. First I will share photos of some of the patterns I encountered.

 I can't remember what this is, but it reminds me of a Knightsbridge tangleation:

  Some carpet doing the Diva Dance:

  Tile flooring:

Colorful design inspiration on a store window:

 This was the wall in one of the restaurants. I have a feeling this is already a named pattern, but I can't think of what it is. And if it's not, it should be!

 The pattern on a sofa in our hotel in Bruges:

A lampshade:

Tile design on the ground in a plaza in Bruges:

 

 

Munchin-like carpet:

Tippled glass lamp shade:

Hollibaugh etched glass in the pool area on the ship:

 Tipple all lined up. Can't remember where this was taken:

Carpet on the ship:

More Hollibaugh on the ship's carpet:

More Diva Dance on a metal sculpture of a cello:

How would you like some of this carpet in your home?

More carpet designs. This reminds me of a combination of N'zeppel and Printemps:

 Some zendala inspiration from a lace curtain:

From the number of photos I took (more than 2200), you wouldn't think there would be time for much else. However, I also did a bit of tangling while traveling, mostly on the days we were at sea without stopping at a port. I'll share just a little of what I did here, and will roll out some of my other pieces in additional blog posts over the next week or two. I had brought along a few pre-strung official Zentangle tiles, and I'll start with those. 

 Patterns used: Cubine, Dex, Florz, and Paradox

 Patterns used: Knightsbridge, Sand Swirl, Navaho, Brit, Munchin, Baton, and Betweed.

 

 Patterns used: Hollibaugh, Hibred, Ginili, and some lines

I'm not in love with any of these tiles, but they're okay and they did provide some good relaxation. And, after all, isn't that what Zentangle is really all about? I enjoy using the pre-strung tiles so that no thinking is involved. No debating about how to draw the string, which, although it seems like it should be such an easy thing, often gets me hung up. If you haven't tried the pre-strung tiles yet, or are in need of some more, you can find them in my Etsy shop here. 

I'll be back with another post soon to share some more of my cruise tangling. Hope you'll be back too!

 

All Strung Out

"The coolest things in life are things that you have not done before. That's the key to life: new things always."    Afrojack

Have you ever tangled on the pre-strung Zentangle tiles? I really haven't used them much... if at all... in my five years of tangling. I think it's a great concept, having a string already drawn on the tile so you don't need to draw one of your own. Strings are simple enough to draw, but somehow I always come up blank when sitting down to tangle, and that's why most of my work has been drawn without a string. I just start with one tangle and grow it from there. 

But recently I pulled out a pre-strung tile to try. Why all of a sudden after five years? Because I sell them in my Etsy shop and they are my best seller! So I decided to see why they are so popular.

Here's my first one. 

Patterns used: Aquafleur, Betweed, orbs and lines

I had so much fun with it that I decided to do another.

Patterns used: Bunzo and Diva Dance

And another.

Patterns used: 'Nzeppel, Dex, Cootie, and Pokeroot

And another!

 Patterns used: Florz and Fassett

Now I know why they're so popular. They provide guidelines. They give you a place to begin. And a place to continue. That's something that I have trouble doing on my own. Even if you do more than one tile with the same string it will look entirely different because of the patterns you choose. So now that I get it, I will definitely continue using them. What took me so long?

If you'd like to try them yourself, you can find them here in my Etsy shop. There are 24 different strings. You can buy all 24 or buy a pack of 12. See if you like them as much as I do.  

Lucy in the Sky With Gems

"There are little gems all around us that can hold glimmers of inspiration."     Richelle Mead

If you belong to any of the Zentangle Facebook groups, you've probably seen that "gems" have been the hot topic recently. I decided to give them a try, not really expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they really were to draw, and how realistic they look.

I used Prismacolor colored pencils, 3 or 4 shades in each gem. Normally I don't do a lot of colored pencil work because I find that it is very labor intensive due to all the layering and blending that needs to be done. I once colored a large piece with colored pencils and it took me forever! But it didn't take too long to just color the gems in these pieces that I'm sharing here. 

This first one just has lots of line work... back and forth, getting in the flow, never lifting the pen except to change the direction of the lines. Very soothing.  

Next, I decided to try a flower, with a big gem in the center.

Patterns used: Betweed, Sand Swirl, Diva Dance, Hypnotic, Fassett, Huggins, and Navaho.

I wanted to see how it would look with color added to the outside border of the flower, so after remembering to scan the one you see above, I added purple in the border.

I'm not sure which way I like it better. What do you think?
All the while I was working on the flower I had another vision forming in my mind, which you see below. I love the way this one turned out, full of bright, shiny color.

Patterns used: Purk and Squid

That's where I intended to end this post. However, I had another piece sitting in the corner of my desk, half finished. I started it with small size gems, and found that I really didn't like working in that small of a space with the colored pencils (you'll notice in the above pieces all the gems are larger in size.) I almost threw this one away, but at the last minute decided to go ahead and complete it.

Patterns used: Arukas and a tangleation of Fassett

I'm glad I didn't throw it away, but it's definitely not my favorite of the batch. The gems were a lot of fun to do, and I expect that they'll be popping up in my art work from time to time.

**In case you've been living under a rock and have NOT seen these gems before, here is a helpful video by CZT Chris Gerstner, on how to create them.

 

Tangling Tempting Templates

"A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament."    Oscar Wilde

It was time for tangling some more templates from Ben
Kwok. If you're not familiar with him, check out his Facebook group "Ornation Creation." Each week he posts a different template for your tangling enjoyment.

This first one is, obviously, a jellyfish. I decided to use some new Stonehenge paper that I bought, and this is the color they call Fawn. I knew it would be great for drawing with my brown micron pens and adding highlights. Of course my intention was to show you a photo before I did any shading, but in my excitement to get started (because the shading is what brings it to life), I forgot to get a picture. Luckily I caught myself before I got very far, so here you see just the very beginnings of the shading.

 Patterns used: Papyrus, Printemps, Betweed

As you can tell in the following photo, the shading and highlighting, which I did with my pastel pencils, makes such a huge difference in the look. I think the shading in this one took longer than the tangling did, but it was well worth it!

Here's another one of Ben's templates... one of my favorite foods!

Patterns used: Navaho, Emingle, Static, N'zeppel, Crescent Moon, Heartstrings, Prestwood, Munchin, Paizel, Printemps, and some line work

And again with shading...

Next time I'm in the mood for template tangling (try saying that 5X fast!) I know there are LOTS more templates waiting for me over on Ben's Facebook group.

 

Reflections of an Alcoholic

"Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."    Claude Monet

It's been about 3 months since my last post about tangling on alcohol ink. You can see that post here if you missed it. I still had several colored "tiles" all inked and waiting to be tangled. Here's the first one I decided to use this time around.

Since there were obvious circular shapes on this, I thought I would tangle each of those circles. As I was working it began to take on the look of flowers, so I went in that direction. I added stems and ended up with this little flower garden.

Patterns used: Arc Flower, Floral, Garlic Cloves/Bloom, Dandi, Betweed, Steffi, and some lines.

Then I picked another "tile" with circular shapes, figuring I'd stick to a theme. I particularly love the colors in this one.

Again I tangled in the circular shapes, but did not turn this one into flowers.

Patterns used: Z-trik, Crescent Moon, Sand Swirl, Printemps, and some lines.

I loved the colors, loved the flow of my Microperm pen on the Yupo paper, and am pretty happy with the results. This is not the last you will see of my alcohol ink creations, because I still have even more inky "tiles" all ready for tangling whenever I feel the urge.