Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."  Leo Tolstoy

I decided to dedicate a journal to all of my zendalas. Just zendalas and nothing else. I have the perfect book, a 5 1/2 inch square -
hand·book from Global Art Materials. The paper is very similar to the official Zentangle tiles so the Micron pens behave just like I am used to. A zendala the same size as the round tiles from Zentangle Inc. fits perfectly on the pages. So if I want to do a black zendala I can just glue the tile into the journal.

I expect to create some of my own designs in this journal, but to christen the book I did this week's Zendala Dare. Below is a picture of my zendala before any shading.


And here it is after shading. As always, the shading really added another dimension to it. 


I had wanted to include something outside of the rounded edge, so I tried some triangles, as you can see in the above picture. That was not successful - I didn't like it at all. What could I do to make it more to my liking? I decided to turn each group of triangles into a black blob, really a large crescent moon. Much happier with this look.


But I still wanted to make it more interesting somehow. Those crescent moons were just a little boring. Using my white gel pen, I added some polka dots, which gave it just the pizzazz I was looking for.
 
Sometimes I forget how much difference the tiniest change can make to the look of the whole piece. 

A bit of trivia...The title of my blog, Polka Dots and Moonbeams,  is the name of a song from 1940. It was Frank Sinatra's first hit recorded with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. You can listen to  the song here.

I'd better get back to work now. I have another 63 pages to fill in my journal!


10 comments:

  1. Nice to see the progress of the zendala it loooks great.

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  2. Wonderful zendala! I love the perfect balance between black and white! Also Paradox in the center is absolutley great!

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  3. Me too; I LOVE Paradox in the center. Thanks you for sharing photo's of the steps.

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  4. Thank you for a lovely and inspiring post! It's always fun to see a progression and to see things worked through various stages. Can't wait to see more form your Zendala journal!

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    1. Thanks Amy. Right now I'm working on a zendala to glue on the cover of the journal.

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  5. I love the center and find it so mesmerizing. I need to learn how to do this tangle! Very beautiful work.

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