Phototangles

"Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks."     Yo-Yo Ma

Besides Zentangle, one of my other creative passions is photography. What could be better than combining two of your passions to create something new? I recently ordered 5x7 prints of some of my photos that I thought would lend themselves nicely to being tangled. 

Here is the original photo of a feather that was floating in the water.

I used my Sakura Microperm pens to tangle this because of the glossy surface. The Microns that I normally use to tangle on paper don't work on these.
 

Patterns used: Diva Dance and Bask-it

One of my favorite things to photograph is flowers, using macro (close-up) photography. Here is one of my flowers. It's not 5x7 because I thought it would look better as a square.

 

For this one I decided to outline the petals in white, using a gel pen. The tangles were, again, completed with the Microperm pen.

Patterns used: Florz and Printemps

Another close-up of the center of a flower...
 

  
And the tangled version...

Patterns used: Shattuck, Indyrella, 'Nzeppel, Sand Swirl, Printemps, Diva Dance, and Munchin

It's wonderful how well Zentangle can be combined with so many other creative endeavors. If you enjoy photography, take a look at your pictures and see if you might have some that would look great with tangles. 

Just in case you'd like to try this with some of your own photos, I've been printing my photos through an online service called iprintfromhome.com. I find their prices to be very reasonable and their quality to be excellent. (My local CVS did not do an acceptable job with my prints.) If you decide to give them a try, you can get a $10 credit when you create a new account by entering "TWEET-Caren Mlot" in the "referred by" box.

All Strung Out

"The coolest things in life are things that you have not done before. That's the key to life: new things always."    Afrojack

Have you ever tangled on the pre-strung Zentangle tiles? I really haven't used them much... if at all... in my five years of tangling. I think it's a great concept, having a string already drawn on the tile so you don't need to draw one of your own. Strings are simple enough to draw, but somehow I always come up blank when sitting down to tangle, and that's why most of my work has been drawn without a string. I just start with one tangle and grow it from there. 

But recently I pulled out a pre-strung tile to try. Why all of a sudden after five years? Because I sell them in my Etsy shop and they are my best seller! So I decided to see why they are so popular.

Here's my first one. 

Patterns used: Aquafleur, Betweed, orbs and lines

I had so much fun with it that I decided to do another.

Patterns used: Bunzo and Diva Dance

And another.

Patterns used: 'Nzeppel, Dex, Cootie, and Pokeroot

And another!

 Patterns used: Florz and Fassett

Now I know why they're so popular. They provide guidelines. They give you a place to begin. And a place to continue. That's something that I have trouble doing on my own. Even if you do more than one tile with the same string it will look entirely different because of the patterns you choose. So now that I get it, I will definitely continue using them. What took me so long?

If you'd like to try them yourself, you can find them here in my Etsy shop. There are 24 different strings. You can buy all 24 or buy a pack of 12. See if you like them as much as I do.  

Lazy Days of Summer

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."        Sam Keen

A couple of weeks ago I told you about my new studio. Well, I have to say that I've REALLY been enjoying it! It's so bright and roomy and cheerful, and it fits all my needs perfectly.

So... you may ask what I've been creating in my new space. My latest is a Zendala, using Knightsbridge, Paradox, Printemps, and Betweed. Here is a picture of it before shading.

And here's the final piece, after shading. This was drawn on Stonehenge paper, which I've grown to love for my tangling. The pencil shading is so easy and smooth on this paper.

The shading, once again, made all the difference in the world! There is so much more dimension to a shaded piece.

I recently decided that I was going to offer prints of some of my Zentangle and Zentangle inspired art work for sale in my Etsy shop. Currently I sell supplies, hand-colored tiles, my e-books, and cards. I have started by adding three of my favorite drawings up to now, as well as this newly created Zendala. I hope to add lots more over time. There are many options as to size, as well as paper and surface finish, from glossy to matte to canvas to giclee, among others. If you're interested in taking a look at my shop, you can check it out here.

As a kickoff to my new venture, in conjunction with Memorial Day and the "unofficial" beginning of summer, I am offering 10% off any purchase made from my Etsy shop between now and Monday night, May 30, at midnight (EST). The discount will be applied to any purchase you make, including supplies, e-books, and my newly offered prints. Make sure you enter the code MEM10 before checking out of the shop.

Thanks for taking a peek at my shop, and for following my blog. Happy Memorial Day!

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?

 

Jaysix

"Life is a moving, breathing thing. We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation."    Nia Peeples

A couple of weeks ago I moved all the patterns I kept on a Pinterest board for my reference, to a newly created Evernote notebook. There were issues with Pinterest which prompted the move, but now I'm glad I spent all those hours doing it. One major advantage to Evernote is that all the patterns can be sorted in different ways, including alphabetical order. I can look for a particular pattern easily, which I couldn't do on Pinterest (unless I just wasn't aware of how to do it!) 

Anyway... while I was moving them all, I realized just how many patterns I had collected that I'd never tried. So I decided to do a few tiles, which each include at least one 'new to me' tangle. One of the patterns I tried is Jaysix, a new pattern from Eni Oken. It's a tangleation of my own pattern, Cruze, and I loved what she had done with it. I did a tile, and loved Jaysix so much that I had to make more. So... I got sidetracked and this blog post is no longer about tiles with different patterns new to me, but instead, several tiles with Jaysix! That other post will be coming another day. 

The first one I did is a monotangle - just Jaysix and nothing else. I started blackening in the background to add drama and really liked the way it looked about halfway through. I stopped to take a photo to show you.
 

Then I continued and filled in the whole background. I love drama in a tile! I found Jaysix to be one of those patterns that I could have just kept going, and going, and going with, kind of like the Energizer bunny.

For my next one I chose another one of my Dylusions painted tiles that I blogged about in my last post. Before tangling...

 And after...

 Patterns used: Jaysix, Onomato, and Tipple

I did a little bit of shading using pastel pencils, and a little bit of highlighting using white, but for the most part let the variations in background color be the shading.

One more - on a Zendala tile.

 Patterns used: Jaysix, Knightsbridge, and 'Nzeppel

This is not my favorite of the three I created, but it's not bad after adding the shading.

Thanks, Eni, for sharing Jaysix. It was so much fun to see how you transformed Cruze! I will be using this one more, for sure.