Paradox

"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."    
Soren Kiergegaard
 
The Diva's challenge this week is to do a monotangle (only one pattern) with the tangle pattern Paradox. One of my favorite tangles. First I took a tile that I had colored with Dylusion paints a long time ago. I drew random triangles to form my string and filled them with Paradox. I LOVE lines!

Then I randomly filled in some of the spaces to add contrast. This tile was all about randomness.

Next, I decided to do something more symmetrical.

Again, I filled a few spaces with black, and added some graphite shading.

Paradox... I love the mesmerizing effect it has. At least for me.

 

Zenduos # 7 and 8

"If you're not being challenged, you're not getting any better."     Bart Brooks

As promised, I'm back with another segment of my Zenduo adventure. For #7 I grabbed a colored tile that has been sitting in my pile for a LONG time. It was colored using Dylusions paints, some pink and some purple. The next two tangles in my collection were Atorm (by Mate Mavromat... sp?) and Auraknot from Zentangle.com. They are two very different tangles, so I chose to focus on Auraknot and make a border for it with Atorm. I like the off-center Auraknot and was very happy with my tile.

Here it is with some shading on Auraknot. I used my purple pastel pencil to help pull out some more of the purple in the background.

I also completed Zenduo #8. Talk about two very different tangles... here's a grid, B'Twined (by Pegi Schargel), and a very organic pattern, B'Dylan (by Mary Beth Schoonover). It was tough figuring out how to put these two together, but I managed to come up with something...

One thing I am loving about my Zenduo adventure (besides it forcing me to use a lot of my seldom used tangles), is that it makes me come up with creative combinations. Many of the pairings I will be doing are not tangles that I would normally put together. The challenge is good for me!

In case you are new to my blog and have no idea what my Zenduo adventure is all about, you can get informed here. 

My Zenduo Adventure... or... It Takes 2 to Tangle

"Miracles sometimes come in pairs."     Unknown

I've decided to undertake a little Zentangle adventure. No, let me restate that... a BIG Zentangle adventure. I'll explain. I use Evernote to catalog all of the pattern step-outs that I like. I find it's a great system where I can search for a particular pattern, I can tag them with descriptive words, I can order them in different ways. Right now I have 343 patterns in my Evernote "notebook."  Most of them I have used and love, or at least like enough to want to use again.  However, there are a fair number that I've added to my list but haven't tried yet for whatever reason. 

So... I've decided to start at the beginning (in alphabetical order) and I'm going to tangle using two at a time. The first pair, then the next, and on and on for all 343 patterns (which is an odd number, but by the time I get through them all I'm sure I will have added some more.) No more than two at a time, but embellishments will be allowed. I enjoy using just two tangles at a time so that it doesn't get too busy looking. The challenge will be somehow making the two work together even when I would never in a million years think of pairing them up. Some will be easy and others not so much. 

The other challenge will be seeing this adventure to the end and making it through all 343+ patterns before giving up. That's more than 170 tiles/ZIAs. I'm not going to pressure myself to do one every day, or even every other day, so this could turn into a very l-o-n-g  adventure. I've decided to call the pieces I create Zenduos and will refer to this as my Zenduo adventure.

So without further ado, I present to you my first two Zenduos. Here is the first tile before I tangled it, a background I made with Dylusion paints.

The first two patterns in my collection are 4 corners (numbers come before letters in alpha order) and Abeko.

Here's the tile after I added a little pencil shading.

For the next one I chose to work on a black tile, which I don't do very often. The next two patterns were African Artist and All Boxed Up. Lots of lines in this one. And some shading with the zenstone. Not too happy with my African Artist here, as I can never seem to get the squinched parts to look right. One thing this project will do for me is help to weed out the patterns that I don't like enough... or can't do well enough... to keep them in my collection. This may be one of them.

So there you have it, my first two Zenduos. Anyone out there want to challenge themselves to go on a similar adventure with me?

Moowa

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home."     Twyla Tharp

I was supposed to be on the road to FL right now. However... we've had a lot of rain in the last 24 hours, and at 11:00 last night we found that a roof leak that we had last year has returned for a visit. So we postponed our trip for a day (the roads would have been bad anyway and it probably would have been a  s-l-o-w trip.) I turned to tangling as a way to take my mind off our problems. 

The Diva's challenge this week is to use the tangle Moowa, by Anya Ipsen. This pattern was the focus of the Square One FB group a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't have time to give it a whirl then, so this is my first time trying it out. I decided to use one of the tiles I made a while ago using Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions acrylic paints. And this is what I did...

Patterns used: Moowa and Aquafleur

I probably should tell you that I planned it that way, but the way those Moowa lined up was pure coincidence. A happy coincidence. I used graphite to shade the Aquafleur and pastel pencils to add a touch of green shading to the Moowa, and I was pretty happy with the tile!

Well, that took my mind off the leak for at least a little while. Now back to reality.

New Tangles and New Studio

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

 I haven't been tangling a lot the past couple of weeks. I've been busy setting up my new studio space. With the help of my husband, I converted our sunroom into a dedicated art space. I love it! I'll add some photos at the end of this post.

In my last post, I mentioned how I was going to write about creating tiles where I used a "new to me" pattern in each one. But I got sidetracked with Jaysix. Now I'm back to show you some of those tiles I did with new patterns. In this first tile I used Borbz (the one on the diagonal), and added some Phicops and Bunzo. I enjoyed doing Borbz and am happy with the way this turned out.

Next I pulled out a pre-strung Renaissance Zendala tile. I haven't used one of those in forever. It was my first time with Peaks Border, which I used around the outside, and then added Munchin in the whole center area, and some Henna Drum flowers. Of course I shaded and added white highlights which are so important (at least to me) when working on tan tiles or paper. I love the contrast between the tan, brown, black, and white.

The tile below was completed a couple of weeks after the first tile above, and when I looked back afterwards I realized I had used Bunzo in both tiles. Guess that shows how much I like that pattern! But the tangle that was new to me in this one is Biscus, in the center. And I threw in some Zingers for fun.

Time for another one of my Dylusions painted tiles. Here's the before.

And the after, where I used mmmforestry (for the first time) along the sides, and added some Rixty. I decided to leave this one light and airy to let the beautiful colors shine through.

Well, that's it for my tiles. Now for my studio. I now have space not only to tangle (on my new drafting table that tilts up so I don't strain my neck), but I also have space to do the messy stuff like painting and inking, without worrying about ruining our new kitchen table. And without having to worry about setting up and putting away all those supplies every time I feel like doing something messy.

And did I mention that there are walls of windows on 3 sides of the room for some amazing light for working? And the wonderful view I sit and look at (whenever I look up from my paper)?
 

The studio has only been complete for a couple of days, but it's such a great space! Have I said how much I love it?

 

Love, Love, Love my Dylusions Paints

"If everyone would look for that uniqueness then we would have a very colorful world."     Michael Schenker

I'm back with more tiles I created with my Dylusions paints. Let me say again how much I LOVE working with these paints (remember, these are acrylic paints, not Dylusion sprays.) What could be more fun than painting with baby wipes and your fingers? If you missed my blog several months ago explaining why I love these paints so much, I suggest you read it here.

I spent an afternoon, just me and my paints, including 6 new beautiful colors! I tested out 3 types of paper since I couldn't remember what I had used last time. Not liking bristol or hot press watercolor paper, I went with my mixed media paper which worked well. Ended up with lots of tiles that, if I may say so myself, are beautiful. Here's the first one I decided to work on. I love the combination of tealy blue and purple. 

I wanted to try out the pattern Auraknot-Bunzo flower, by Helen Williams. Only mine is really Auraknot-Knightsbridge flower since I changed up the center. This was a fun one to play with, just letting it flow all over.

 Patterns used: Auraknot-Knightsbridge flower and Flux

Next up:

This one began with drawing a random string, something I don't often do these days. Usually I just start with a pattern and grow more patterns out of that one. And I often go all the way to the edges of the tile. But I went back to basics with this one.
 

Patterns used: XO, Purk, Baton, Florz, Diva Dance, Pokeroot, and Sand Swirl

It's hard for me to refrain from talking about how much I love the paints, but I've already done that, so I'll leave it to you to check out my prior blog post if you want to hear more. Now I have a nice pile of painted tiles waiting for another day. 

 

What's Black and White and Colored All Over?

"Be the most brilliant color in the box."    Unknown

Several weeks ago I blogged about using Dyan Reaveley's acrylic paint to make some colored "tiles." You can see that post here and read all about the paints and how I used them. I had two more tiles left over from my play date with the paints and it was time to go back to them. Here's the first one, where I used sponge daubers and black ink the same way I did on the tiles shown in my previous post.

I decided to use those black spots as part of the pattern Cadent, and attached them to make a string for the rest of my tangling.  This is what I ended up with.

I really liked it, but even though I used a thicker Micron 08 pen for drawing the Cadent string, it basically disappeared among the other tangles. So I added some white pen embellishments to make the original Cadent stand out.

Patterns used: Cadent, Diva Dance and Fassett

I love the way the white pops out against the black pen and red/pink background.

Here's the next tile before tangling.

I added white embellishments to this one also.

Patterns used: Crescent Moon and Frost Flower

I'm very happy with both of these. They were the last of my Reaveley colored tiles (at least the ones I liked), so I will have to pull out the paints and work on some more.

Bright and Beautiful Colors

"Never be afraid to try something new because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know."    Unknown

For a while I've been a fan of Dyan Reaveley - her art and her products, sold under the name of "Dylusions". If you're not familiar with her, just google her or go to YouTube and you'll find LOTS! What attracts me to her work are the vivid colors and whimsy. I own most of her ink sprays, and have used them to make colored tiles. However, things tend to get quite messy when I use them, and there is lots of cleanup, especially on my hands. And one thing you should know about me is that I am a clean artist. That's one reason why I love Zentangle so much... there's no mess.

Some time ago - I'm not sure how long it's been - she came out with a line of "blendable acrylic paint." I was reminded of the paints recently, and started looking into them some more. With some advice from other CZTs, and armed with lots of info I found online, I decided to order them. They come in 12 colors, I think, and I ordered 11 of them (I'm not a big fan of brown). There are white and black, and the rest are beautiful, bright colors that match her ink sprays. 

Dyan's video that I watched and loved is here. She uses baby wipes and her hands to paint with. That sounded intriguing, and since she kept saying how easy it is to wash/clean up, I decided to give it a try. 

I cut up various papers into rectangles approximately 3 x 5.5 inches. I gathered my paints, baby wipes, and paper towels and got to work creating a number of "tiles". As in any new endeavor, I didn't love them all, but did end up with several that I liked. Here is the first one I decided to tangle.

I created the small black circles using a stencil, and the larger ones using a small sponge dauber. Then I added my tangles.

 Patterns used: Crease and Frosty

I was going to let the shades of paint be the only shading, but I decided to give it a try with graphite. First I had experimented with colored pencils, which is normally what I would use to shade a colored tile, but didn't like it. Here's the little bit of graphite shading I added. I'd be interested to know if you really notice a difference, and if so, which you like better. 

On the next "tile" I added the border using a stencil of flames along the edges.

And then I tangled and added shading.

Patterns used: Olb, Arukas, and Tipple.

I had to fight with myself to leave that space in the upper right corner open, without tangles. I love open space but find it hard to leave it that way.

Final verdict? I LOVED working with these paints, for all the reasons Dyan points out in her videos, and more:

• the paints are smooth and liquidy
• the colors are beautiful
• I love the striking contrast of the colors with my black pens
• they spread amazingly well with a baby wipe - no streak marks
• quick drying so I can tangle on them right away if I want
• they blend very well (and yes I did use my fingers for that purpose)
• they wiped up off my craft mat with a DRY paper towel
• they came off my fingers mostly with just soap and water, and a quick swipe with my craft scrubbie
• they were very neat to work with, compared to sprays

Is that enough reasons to convince you to go out and try these paints if you haven't already? I think so. And if you do, let me know what you think.