Renaissance Faire

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."      Leonardo da Vinci

Here is a piece I completed recently on tan-colored Stonehenge paper. I really enjoy working on that paper because of how nicely and easily you can shade on it with a tortillion. In my opinion, the shading is much smoother than on the Renaissance tiles from Zentangle.com. 

Patterns used: Henna Drum, Mooka, Steffi, Flux, Printemps, Flowtus and Tipple

I absolutely love the way this turned out. And what a difference the shading (with brown pastel pencil) and highlighting (with white pastel pencil) made! I was never a big fan of Mooka, probably because mine just never looked good to me, but here I really like it. Those little flowery things in the upper right are my pattern Steffi from my e-book, Step Out in Style.

Coincidentally, the day after I completed this piece, Cris Letourneau contacted me. She is the author of the Zentangle related books Pattern Play (co-authored with Sonya Yencer) and Made in the Shade. She wanted to know if I'd like to contribute any of my art using pastel pencil shading (since I use that method so often) to a new book she's working on all about tangling on Renaissance tiles and tan-toned papers. (More info on her book at the bottom of this post.) Of course most artists wouldn't pass up a chance to have their work published, so I showed her the piece from above, and then worked on a few more to send to her.

The first one is light and airy with lots of open spaces for shading and highlighting. Completed on a Renaissance tile.

 Patterns used: Joki and Pokeleaf

The next one is more traditional, started with four dots, a border, and a string. Also completed on a Renaissance tile.

 

Patterns used: Cadent, N'zeppel, Leeter and Printemps

I decided to go with color (also pastel pencil) on the next one instead of the brown I usually use. This one is on tan-toned paper from Strathmore.

 

Patterns used:Flux, Sea Wave and orbs

This last one was not one I sent to Cris, but another one done on a Renaissance tile, this one a pre-strung zendala. I used both brown and black Micron pens, along with brown pastel pencil and graphite for shading, and of course the white pastel pencil for highlights.

 

Patterns used: Purk, Baton and Munchin

I have no idea which of these might show up in Cris' new book, but I enjoyed working on them all.

Cris informs me that the title of her new book will be Timeless Tangling: Art Inspired from the Renaissance and Beyond, and the publication date will probably be next summer. In her own words, "This book will be about techniques for working on tan-toned papers, using different tools, and learning some fine-art skills to make your ZIAs even more beautiful. Included will be inspirational art, step-by-step projects, and practical information to help take your tangling to the next level."

I know that I'm looking forward to the book and am confident that it will be just as wonderful as her previous publications!

 

Forgotten Patterns

"I don't trust words. I even question actions. But I never doubt patterns."   Unknown

A couple of years ago I published an e-book, Step Out in Style, which has 40 tangle patterns in it. Most of the patterns are my own, but I also included several from other talented CZTs. So many patterns I developed, yet when I'm tangling I rarely use them. Why? I don't know! I just don't think of them, as strange as that may sound. So I decided to devote this blog post to some of those patterns.

This first one was created on a piece of tan paper. The pattern I did in brown pen is called Robo. This is one of my favorites from my book, maybe because it's made up primarily of lines. I love using a combination of black and brown pens on tan paper, and then, of course, adding highlights with white pastel pencil. 

Patterns used: Robo, N'zeppel, Garlic, and Tipple

For the next one I used one of my hand-colored blue tiles. My pattern that I highlight here is Danza, the one going down the center of the tile. I used a blue Micron pen to tangle this, and found it interesting to see how much darker the pen looked when it was used to fill in the areas, compared to when it was used to just draw lines.

Patterns used: Danza, Sand Swirl, lines, and orbs

For the last one I used a traditional Zentangle tile. The pattern you see on the right and left sides is called Baldosa.

Patterns used: Baldosa, a tangleation of Florz, and Dandi

Now that I've shown you a few of my tangles, maybe you'd like to try them out. If you've read this far, and you don't already have my e-book, I'd like to offer you a $2 discount to get a copy for yourself. You can find the book here in my Etsy shop. Use the code 2OFFBLOG before you check out. This code will be good through March 31st. I hope you enjoy it!

Color on Tan

"Life is art. Live yours in color."    Unknown

I'm experimenting with color on a tan background. For the tiles I'm sharing today, I used Strathmore tan toned paper. And for the color, I used pastel pencils, my favorite way to do color these days. My first piece was drawn with a green Micron pen. Color was added using three shades of green pencils which blended together beautifully. I love the way it turned out.

Patterns used: Mooka and Shattuck

 

For the next one I tangled with a black Micron pen. Then I used a combination of two green pencils and two blue, to add the color. I don't like this one as much as the first, but it's okay. 

Patterns used: Hamail, Pokeleaf, Zinger

I love being able to use white highlights on the tan paper. I'm looking forward to trying out some other colors too.

Wishing everyone a happy, tangled Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much!

 

More Lines

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk."   Paul Klee

I promised you I'd be back with some more of my line drawing (like it or not), so here I am. I absolutely LOVE this first piece I'm showing you here. Drawn on Strathmore tan-toned paper, I used a black micron pen, graphite for shading, and white pastel pencil for highlights. This did not start out to be a flower. It was just random lines, but as it progressed it started looking more like a flower, so the stem was added. My daughter, who was visiting from Scotland, loved this, and believe me, she's very honest and tells me when she doesn't. 

For the next one I used a stencil of a heart on black Artagain paper and filled it with a Signo Uniball white gel pen. I don't love it as much as my flower, but it's not bad.

I did some shading with my white pastel pencil. This may be one of those very rare occasions when I like it better unshaded than shaded. What do you think?

Now that I've had some good practice with this type of drawing, I'll try incorporating it along with other tangle patterns. Stay tuned for more!

A Little Birdie Told Me

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."    Maya Angelou

On my way home from a recent trip to Florida, I stopped in Savannah. Although Savannah is a great city, one of my main reasons for making a stop there was to go to Dick Blick (as well as Leopold's, a wonderful place serving up delicious ice cream, a couple of blocks from Dick Blick). Those of you who are artists of any kind will understand why I would make a special stop there. And for those of you who don't know Dick Blick, take my word for it, the store is an artist's paradise. 

One of the things I picked up during this stop is a journal called "Avian Friends Activity Journal." It has some pages for writing, some for coloring, and some with pretty borders or cute pictures in the corner, for tangling on. Well, they're not necessarily for tangling, but that's how I choose to use them. Here's what I created on the first page I did. It started with that cute bird, mushroom, and flower in the bottom corner, and I added the rest.

I had a lot of fun doing this and love the way it turned out. The paper is tan toned, so I was planning to add white highlights like I have done on the tan toned paper from Strathmore, but for some reason the white doesn't really show up well on this paper. You can see it's very faint on my drawing. I tried both white charcoal pencil and white Prismacolor pencil, but neither really stands out. Maybe it's because the paper is a little smoother than the other papers I've worked with. Oh well... I'm still happy with it. (The white going up the right side of the page is just the way it scanned...it didn't lay perfectly flat on the scanner because of the binding.)

Here's a picture of my journal. I don't know if all Dick Blick stores carry it, and I couldn't find it on dickblick.com, but I did see it on Amazon in case any of you are interested.