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?

 

Maryhill

"The shortest distance between two points is a straight line."    Archimedes

I love the tangle pattern Maryhill. It's all lines, so what's not to love about it? The pattern comes from CZT Betsy Wilson, and if you're not familiar with it you can see her step-outs for it here. I decided to focus on Maryhill this week, and created several tiles/drawings with it, varying each one a little (or a lot).

Just to show you a very straightforward version, here is a Bijou tile I made a while ago. I think it's amazing what movement you get with a pattern made up of just lots of lines.

Next is another one I did in my Tangle It! Journal. This time I added a center filled with Printemps. I really like the way this turned out.

Since Maryhill is most often completed in the round, I wanted to create one on a Zendala tile. Choosing a tan Renaissance tile, I used brown and red Micron pens, brown and red pastel pencils for shading, and a white pastel pencil for highlights. I like the way the pop of red worked with the brown.

Rather than making them all round, I decided to complete this one in a square. I used white pen on black, even though I'm not usually such a big fan of that. Not that I don't like the look of white on black, because I do, but working with white pens can be a little challenging. I have never been a fan of the white Sakura gelly roll pens, because they always seem to soak into the tiles and not look bright white. So I generally prefer the Uniball Signo UM 153 white pen for its brighter white look, but it's harder to get really thin lines. I used my Bee Paper Aquabee sketchbook with black paper. The paper is thinner than the tiles, but works better with the white gel pens. I decided to try my Sakura gelly roll pen again since it can draw finer lines than the Signo, and lo and behold, the pen worked really well on this paper, to my surprise! 

Notice I drew a mini Maryhill in the center, with a larger version surrounding it. I used the Sakura pen for the lines and filling in the white spaces in the border, but when it came to filling the larger white areas, I used a Sharpie water based paint marker. And added a hint of bright pink with a moonlight gelly roll pen.

Next is another Maryhill in the round, on one of my hand-colored tiles. I used a black Micron to draw, graphite for shading, and white pastel pencil for highlights. 

Oh...almost forgot. Did you notice something looks a bit different on the above tile? I alternated the direction of each section of the Maryhill, which gives it a totally unique look.

Then, for something VERY different, I started the next tile with a bunch of triangles, and then filled each triangle with a "segment" of Maryhill. I didn't really pay much attention to which direction each segment was facing. 

To give it a bolder look, I added some extra black in each section of the tile.

That's it folks! Experimenting with this great tangle, Maryhill, was an awful lot of fun. Even after so many tiles/drawings, I didn't tire of the repetitive lines of this pattern.

Presenting Zigbee

"Success is following the pattern of life one enjoys most."    Al Capp

In March, 2014, I published an e-book, Step Out in Style, with 40 new tangle patterns - mostly my own, but also with contributions from other CZTs. The book has been very well received, and I'd like to thank those of you who have purchased it. I called it Volume 1, leaving the door open for me to possibly do a Volume 2. For the last year and a half I have thought about it, and finally came to the decision that I will NOT be creating another volume. However, I do enjoy coming up with new patterns, or at least what I think are new patterns, as there are SO many out there that I can never be sure.

So... from time to time I'll be blogging about a pattern for which I've created the step-outs. Today is the first one. This pattern begins like Beeline, a pattern from Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of the Zentangle Method. But in the end, it looks totally different. I love patterns with lots of repetitive lines, and if you are a fan of those patterns also, I think you'll enjoy this one. Of course I'm hoping that you all like it, even if you're not crazy about lines like I am. 

I've decided to call it Zigbee. Zig for the zig zag lines, and bee for the fact that it begins like Beeline. Here are my step-outs.

First, a couple of notes about the pattern:

• In step #3, after you have drawn your first column of diamonds, move over to leave some space, and aura the the right side of your diamond. Do NOT draw your next column of diamonds right next to the first one. Remember to do that after each column of diamonds.

• In step #7 I show one way to shade Zigbee, but you may find your own way of shading that you like better. Sometimes shading can totally change the look of a tangle.

• In step #8 I show a tangleation (variation) of Zigbee. Notice that I have drawn the lines in the spaces surrounding the diamonds in different directions. This brings out the star shapes in the pattern, which I have heavily shaded here to make it easy for you to see.

I'm sharing several tiles I created as I was playing with the pattern, showing some of the different results you get based on shading, filling, and changing line direction. These are not in the order I drew them, but I do have my reasons for showing them this way. 

Here's one on a zendala that I colored using Ranger distress ink pads. In case you're interested, my colored tiles are for sale in my Etsy shop. This is the unshaded tile, showing two variations of Zigbee that look a bit different because I chose to blacken different areas.

This is what it looks like after being shaded.

The next one shows how to make star shapes really pop out by drawing the lines as shown in my tangleation in the step-outs, as well as creating black stripes in the stars. Notice that on the left side of the tile I used all straight lines, and on the right side I curved the lines to make it puffy looking.

In the tile below, I again drew the lines as in my tangleation, but this time just used shading to make the stars (partial stars) pop a little. This is one where your eyes can really play tricks on you. Focus on the tile one way and you will see the stars pop, but keep looking and your focus may change so that you see cubes popping out instead.

 

I did one more on a Renaissance (tan) tile. Here I used both black and brown Micron pens, graphite and brown pastel pencil for shading, and white pastel pencil for highlights.

And there you have it - Zigbee! I hope you enjoy the pattern. Have fun playing, and I'd love to see what you create with it. 

Around We Go Again

"The world is round so that friendship may encircle it."       
 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

This week's guest blogger for the Diva is Erin Olson from the Bright Owl. Her challenge is, of course, a Zendala. I wouldn't have expected anything else, since she hosts the weekly Zendala Dare (and I'm so glad she's back after taking some time off!) 

Rather than show you the pre-shaded version of this, I decided to shade half of it and leave the other half unshaded for my first picture. I hope you can tell which half is shaded and see what a difference it makes.

I used Crescent Moon, Cruffle, Tipple, and the ends of Dandi. Here is the fully shaded Zendala.

Next is a Zendala I completed a few months ago, after returning home from Tangle U. I used the 4N1 stencil created by CZT Ann Grasso, as a tool to help me in the design. This one sat around for a while waiting for me to do some more zendalas so I could include more in my blog post. I feel like I should have more than one creation in a post so you guys are getting your money's worth! So now that I have more, here it is, completed on a Renaissance tile.

I wasn't thrilled with it, but it sure did perk up a bit when I added shading with brown pencil and graphite, as well as white highlights.

Now take a look at the center of that one (my tangle pattern Kazoo from my e-book), and remember that this was completed months ago and then put away. Here is a Zendala I drew earlier this week on one of my hand-colored tiles.

Notice that the center is the same as on that last tile I did months ago, and had not looked at since. I was a little surprised when I saw that ...of all the patterns I could have used! Well anyway, since this tile is pink and gray, I decided to tangle it using my pink Micron (I think it's called Rose). Then I shaded using a little bit of pink colored pencil as well as graphite to tie into the gray in the tile.

So there you go... three Zendalas for the price of one! I just scheduled a Zendala class for next month. Anyone want to come?

Stacking the Deck

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."   Albert Einstein

A few weeks ago the prompt for the journal group I belong to was to create a stacked Zentangle. A stack is "rows of tangles that go in the same direction and touch or are close enough to appear as one solid cohesive piece rather than an assemblage whose pieces could float away. These rows in the stack may be vertical, diagonal, horizontal, circular, or semi-circular." Below is the piece that I tangled for that prompt. It isn't shaded because I knew I was going to take it one step further by adding color.

Patterns Used: Baton. Emingle, Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh, Printemps, Sand Swirl, Dex, Purk, Betweed

Here it is after adding color and shading with Tombow markers. I think some sections came out better than others.

Shortly after this, two CZTs, Alice Hendon and Jane Eileen, started a Facebook group called Zentangle: Stacked and Tangled. A place to share only art work that follows the above definition (as stated in the guidelines for the FB group.) Since I had really enjoyed doing the stacks in my journal, I decided to join the group.

Here is a stack I completed on a Zentangle tile (3 1/2 inches square). I used a stencil from Acadia Laser Creations and filled the open sections between stacks with Tipple (the little circles.)

Patterns Used: Knightsbridge, Z-trik, lines, Gerwutz, Static, Shattuck, Copada

Then I used another stencil from Acadia Laser that is similar, but meant for a Zendala tile. This time I chose a Renaissance tile and used brown and black microns with graphite pencil, brown pencil, and white pencil for the shading and highlighting. The knightsbridge (checkerboard) filled the spaces in between.

Patterns Used: Footlites, Beelight, N'zeppel, Diva Dance

 
It never fails to amaze me how the tan tiles come to life with the different color pens and pencils. Stacking is fun and simple to do. Check out the Facebook group linked above and see what it's all about.

Playing Catch Up

"The only way to have a life is to commit to it like crazy."   Angelina Jolie

Time has been slipping away from me lately. I've got my hand in so many Zentangle pots that I'm having a hard time keeping up with them all. There's my blog, my FB journal group, Square One FB group, the Diva's challenge, my tangle*a*day calendar, the zendala dare, making a tile to swap at Tangle U (a retreat for CZTs in Santa Fe next month), mass production of my hand-colored tiles that I will be selling at Tangle U, preparing for the classes I teach....did I forget anything? 

Oh yes... I plan to start sending out a newsletter once or twice a month, and I'm trying to get the first one out this week. It will include information about my upcoming classes, links to websites/videos/articles that might be of interest to tanglers, info on Zentangle products, etc., etc., etc. If you are not already on my email list but would like to receive my newsletters, just scroll down the right side of my blog and enter your information where it says "Subscribe to the Tangle Mania Newsletter."

So, with all of that going on I have missed completing the last two zendala dares. So here they are, better late than never. I'll go backwards. Here's the latest template, #99.

And here's my black and white version. 

I would have added shading, but instead of doing that I wanted to add color. I decided to try a watercolor pencil on this, but am not too happy with it. Love my Tombow brush markers more.

Here is the template for the #98 dare.

Using a tan Renaissance tile with black and brown Micron pens, here's what I came up with.

But with the Renaissance tiles the real magic comes with the shading and highlighting. I used a brown colored pencil and graphite pencil for shading, and a white charcoal pencil for highlights. Now it really pops.

Okay - at least I'm caught up in one thing! Ready to tackle something else. Where to begin?

Moondance

"It's a marvelous night for a Moondance, with the stars up above in your eyes."    Van Morrison

First, I'd like to thank all of you who purchased my new e-book of tangle patterns that was published last week. My first week of sales was wonderful! If you missed it and would like to take a peek inside the book, you can see it here on my last blog post.

This week's diva challenge was to create a duotangle (a Zentangle or Zentangle inspired art with only two tangle patterns) using the tangles crescent moon and diva dance. Since these are two of my favorite tangles, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to do this one. 

I am planning a class for next month on using the (fairly) new renaissance tiles, so I decided to work on one of these tiles for this challenge as it will give me another example to show my students. I used black micron, brown micron, white charcoal pencil, brown colored pencil, and graphite pencil. I just love the dimension these tiles have when working with the different colors and shading/highlighting. 

But now I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of my tile before doing the shading and highlighting, because it makes SUCH a HUGE difference. To me, the tile was kind of blah until I added those steps. So all I can show you is the final result.

Notice that I used this as another opportunity to leave white (in this case tan) space in the tile which was a Diva challenge last month, and something I'm not very good at. I love the way the tile pops because of the browns and whites. If you haven't given this a try yet, you really should. And if you live in my area of South Carolina come take the class with me! (And if you don't, it's a great place to visit!)