Zenduos #3, 4 and 5

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."     
Pablo Picasso

I've been working on a few more of my Zenduo pieces and have three to share with you today. If you missed my post about my challenge to myself, you can read it here to understand what I'm talking about. 

My third Zenduo incorporates the tangle patterns Amalea by Chrissie Frampton and Angel Fish by Marizaan. I chose to do this one on gray-toned paper by Strathmore.

It looked kind of unfinished, but not after adding some graphite shading along with white pastel pencil and gelly roll highlighting. I love the way this glows.

My next two patterns are Ansu from Lori Manoogian and Antidots from Anita Roby-Lavery. They are similar patterns so they were easy to combine. A little blackening and a little graying the background with pencil and voila!

The last one for today was done on one of my colored tiles. Sorry, but I don't have a picture of the tile before the tangling. The two patterns here are Aquafleur from Rick and Maria, and Arc Flower by JJ LaBarbera.

They were all fun pieces to create and I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I'm a little more worried about the next combination I have to do, but you'll have to come back for that another time.  

Waybop

"One sure-fire way to stay creative: force yourself to learn something new."      Harvey MacKay

The Diva's challenge this week is to use the new pattern from Zentangle headquarters, Waybop. When I first saw this tangle, I have to admit that I didn't much like it, so I didn 't bother to try it. After seeing so many people posting their Waybop creations on Facebook, I decided, for the Diva, I would give it a go. 

The first one I did on one of my colored tiles... here's the picture of the tile before rounding the corners. 

I started with Waybop, Henna Drum and some lines. Then, using a gray pen, I added Printemps inside the Waybop. I've recently started using the gray pen as a way to add more subtle designs. The finishing touches were shading with graphite and pastel pencil, and white gel pen for some extra interest.

Waybop wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so I decided to go ahead and do one more, this time on gray-toned paper from Strathmore. Also included are Pais, Purk, and Hollibaugh.

And of course some shading and white highlights, which always make a drawing on gray paper better, whether or not you like it to begin with.
 

I like Waybop more than I expected to, but it's not yet high on my list of favorites. Maybe after more practice, maybe not!

 

Gray Magic

"You just do the best you can with what you've got... and sometimes magic strikes."     Sally Field

Just stopping by with a quick post to show you what I worked on today. Time for some gray-toned Strathmore paper. And of course with gray paper comes a black Micron, white pastel pencil for highlights, white uni-ball Signo UM 153 pen for accents, and graphite for shading.

 Patterns used: Porky, Flux, Phicops, Printemps, and Tipple

I'm happy with the flow in this, and love the magic of the highlighting and shading on gray. That's it for now. Told you it would be quick. Hope to see you back here next time!

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.

 

Narwal

"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."                     Mahatma Gandhi

When the tangle pattern Narwal came out several months ago I thought it was interesting. I added it to my list of patterns to try out, but that list can sometimes get pretty long before I actually sit down and play with them. I've been noticing a lot of people posting their work using Narwal, and it has spurred me on to tackle it. As recommended by many, I found the YouTube video by Helen Williams (A Little Lime) to be quite useful in figuring it out.

Here is my first attempt in a journal of mine (after some practice on scrap paper). I probably would like it better if I had left off the little Narwal on the right side. And if it didn't have that stray pen mark on it!

Next it was on to trying to make it look a little better while integrating it with other tangles. Here I used gray-toned Strathmore paper, and added some Henna Drum and Bunzo. I shaded with graphite and added highlights with my trusty white pastel pencil. 

I like that one SO much more than my first, but in an attempt to show how important practice is, I included them both. Don't ever underestimate the importance of repetition for those patterns that may give you more trouble than others!