Fade to Black

"In the beginning it was all black and white."  Maureen O'Hara

The Diva's challenge this week is to work in white on black. It's been a while since I actually participated in her challenge, and also a while since I've worked on black. So I decided to accept this challenge. 

I am not a fan of how the white pen (Uniball Signo - the only one I use) performs on the black Zentangle tiles, because I think the tile sucks up too much of the ink. My preference is to use black paper instead, when working with white pen. Either Strathmore Artagain paper, or my Big White Bee sketchbook, which is what I used this time. 

I decided to keep it fairly simple, using just Mooka and Mak-rah-mee. The shading was done using my white pastel pencil which felt like butter on this paper.

Although the challenge was white on black, and said nothing about color, I couldn't resist adding just a tiny drop of color - with Moonlight Gelly Roll pens. The color is a little brighter in person than in this picture, but I really like the pop that it adds.

Now back to the larger project I'm working on for next time. Thanks for stopping by!

Dancing in the Moonlight

"Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars."   Les Brown

A while ago Sakura (pen company) came out with new Moonlight Gelly Roll pens that have a finer tip than the originals. In case you haven't used them and don't know about them, the Moonlight pens are nice bright, neon type colors, and some even glow under black light. They can be used on white tiles or paper, but I love them for the way they look on black. I've had the original pens for some time, and always wished they made them with a finer tip since the wider tip makes it hard to tangle many patterns. Well, my wishes came true, and they now come in a finer tip. I was very excited about them, bought them right away, then put them aside for when I had time to play with them, and as things go, that time didn't come for a few months. 

I finally got around to it, and here is my first try. I used Strathmore Artagain black paper, cut into 3.5 inch squares. I found that the pens work better on this paper than they do on the black Zentangle tiles, which seem to soak up the ink more. But even on this paper, I had to go over some of my lines to get the real bright color I wanted. After I had tangled with the Moonlights, I did a couple of auras with my favorite white pen, the Uni-ball Signo UM 153, and then added some shadowy effects with a white charcoal pencil. 

I wanted to work some more with the pens, so when I went out of town last weekend I brought them with me. I never travel without some of my Zentangle supplies, but unfortunately this time I forgot to bring my rings full of patterns to inspire me. Luckily I have Sandy Steen Bartholomew's tangle library app on my phone, so I pulled that out. Here I used the pattern Dyon, along with some embellishments. And again, some white charcoal shading.

I decided to do one more "tile."  I chose Sandy's pattern Falls since I had spent some time viewing and photographing waterfalls that afternoon. Because it was Halloween that day, I used the orange Moonlight Gelly Roll, along with white. Then I added another of Sandy's patterns, Quiff, which reminds me of clouds, in remembrance of the cloudy skies that hovered above us at the waterfalls. And of course some shading.

I love the way the white pen looks with the neon colors. If you haven't tried the Moonlight Gelly Rolls yet, you really should. They're quite fun as a break from the traditional black and white (which will always be my favorite way to tangle).