"Possessing a healthy imagination is a necessary ingredient for creativity." Steve Vai
A couple of weeks ago when I was at Tangle University, I bought a few Dreamweaver stencils. They're heavy-duty stencils made from metal and I suspect that they will survive any abuse I send their way. One of the techniques we learned from Sandy Bartholomew was how to make prints on black paper, using these stencils and scratch-foam. I hope to share more about that in a later post once I receive the foam that I ordered from Dick Blick. In the meantime, I played around with a couple of my new stencils, just tangling them in the traditional way.
One of the stencils I got was a very cute elephant. I traced the stencil, tangled it, and shaded it, and here is what I got.
Part of him (or her?) was shaded using a graphite pencil, and part using Tombow dual brush markers. Can you tell the difference? I love my elephant, so I decided to try some variations. Next came a colored version, but first I scanned it after tangling and before coloring.
Then I went ahead and created a fantasy elephant, more like something you'd find at Disney, very unrealistic, but nevertheless cute.
I used Tombow markers to add the color. It looks a little better in person, but clearly I need some help and practice with using these markers proficiently, and that's why I registered for Marie Browning's Time to Tangle in Color online class. Haven't had time to begin the class yet, obviously.
For my final elephant in the series, I decided to use gray toned paper from Strathmore. After all, elephants really are gray, unlike the previous one.
I love how this guy turned out, and always love the look of the shading along with white charcoal pencil highlighting on the toned papers. But I decided to try one more thing. I took my original elephant and played with it in Lightroom to come up with this.
Remember that horse of a different color that Dorothy met in the Emerald City? I guess this is an elephant of a different color!
I had a lot of fun playing with my elephant and can't wait to use him for printing when my new supplies arrive.
"A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament." Oscar Wilde
I just returned home from a 10 day trip. First to visit my sister in Massachusetts, and then on to Maine for three awesome, inspiring, jam-packed days of tangling and socializing with more than 100 other CZTs at Tangle University. More on the latter in the near future. Right now I thought I'd share some of the tangling I did while visiting my sister, who also does some tangling of her own.
I recently published my e-book, Step Out in Style, in which I included tangles from 10 guest CZT contributors. I really haven't had much time to play with their tangles, so that's what I set out to do. Here's the first tile I did, which focuses on Sochi, the tangle submitted by Cris Letourneau, author of the book Made in the Shade, as well as a new book due out very shortly. I really like the swirly feel of this tangle, and the swirls actually became the string.
Next I decided to use a zendala tile. I incorporated patsy monk's tangle (yes, her name is legally spelled with only lowercase letters), Kornel, in the center, and Karen Crittenden's tangle, Bones, radiating out on the four sides. Although I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, and even though it is a little off center, I was very happy with the look of it when it was finished.
After that, I attempted three new tangles in one tile. Forming the diagonal on this tile is Just Great, by Mary Ann Scheblein-Dawson. I added two variations of Donna Hornsby's tangle Kardz. It's the one with blackened rectangles in one version, and lines with sparkles in the other version. Then I added Alyss Amster's tangle, Grate (with the lines radiating out from the center) and finished it off with one of my old favorites, Baton. I like the contrast between the light and airy center and the darkness surrounding it, but I'm not sure if I tried to squeeze too much into the space.
For my fourth tile I pulled out a tan colored Renaissance tile. I included Shrumps, with a slight variation from the original, by Kathryn Jacoby. It's the pattern on the upper part of the tile, with the black "centers". On the lower half I drew Grace, by Deb Prewitt. I liked the way the brown and black pens went together with the white highlights in both of the tangles. I finished off the four corners of the tile with some Betweed and Huggins.
At this point I had two more tangles to play with. I started with Sharon McKenney's Mimi-Meemer in the center of this tile. Here it reminds me of a layer cake about to topple over! Then I added Radhost, by Yvonne Westover. I chose to use single strands of the pattern, criss-crossing behind the "cake". Florz made a nice open background for the tile, after which I added a few pops of red.
And there you have it, my examples of 10 new tangles from the contributors to my book. It was a lot of fun playing with them, and although some look a little different than in the original step-outs, that's what makes Zentangle so great. You can take a pattern and make it your own and have a completely unique piece of art!
"When I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought that it would pay off." Vanna White
I am very excited about spending this coming weekend in Portland. Maine, at a three day retreat for CZTs. More than 100 like-minded people, all as addicted to Zentangle as I am. (In case you missed it, you can read my very first blog post about my Zentangle addiction here.) I expect that when I return home next week I'll have lots to share.
But in the meantime I thought I would show you how my ABC book for my grandson, Hudson, is coming along. I blogged about it back in December, here. I'm making progress, little by little, in between all my other projects. He will have to pass it on to his sister, Brooklyn, once he learns the alphabet, as she was born last night! I'm very excited, as you can imagine.
I'm pretty happy with the way these letters turned out.
I'll eventually make it to the end of the alphabet...someday!
"Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas." Leo D. Minnigh
Another week, another Diva challenge. This time the challenge was to use Rixty, the newest official tangle. When the tangle first came out, I played around with it a bit, but never actually put it into a tile. So this was my opportunity. Rixty is a fun tangle that can meander around in all directions. I love meandering tangles, but my trouble with them is that I don't know when to stop! I just keep going and going. On this tile I did just that, and then couldn't decide what else to put with it. So I started adding auras, and more auras, and more auras. And this is what I ended up with. Just Rixty and auras, and of course some shading.
Then I decided to add some color to it.
I used stardust gelly roll pens, but of course you can't see the shimmer because you never do unless you see the piece in person. And then I added some soft color in the background with Irojiten colored pencils. The verdict is still out on whether or not I really like it with color. One minute I think yes, and the next I think no. Oh well! I'd love to hear which way you like it better, black and white or color?
"Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere." Gilbert K. Chesterton
The Diva's challenge this week is to use your initials as the string for a Zentangle. Well, believe it or not, my initials, CM, are hidden in here. I scanned my tile with the string on it, but I had already tangled half of this before I realized that the scan didn't turn out good enough to show here. So, you will just have to take my word that the initials are in there. At least I remembered to scan it before I starting shading and made sure it looked okay before continuing.
Here it is after I added shading.
I used a couple of tangles from my e-book, Step Out in Style. If you missed the post about my book, you can read it here. The round zendala tiles are fun to use for something a little different, even when I'm not creating a true Zendala.
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