Somnee

"A picture is worth ten thousand words."   
Fred R. Barnard

I'm back! I haven't been tangling much in the last few weeks as I've been preoccupied with another passion of mine. Photography. My husband and I decided to open an Etsy shop to sell prints of our photographs. It took quite a bit of work and time setting it all up, but we finally did it. If any of you would like to take a peek, you can see the shop, Seen Thru The Lens, here. And if you're interested in following us on FB, please "like" our page here. 

So, now that that's done I can get back to tangling, and I sure have missed it! I shouldn't let myself go so long without picking up my pens. I'm diving back into it with an entry for the Diva's challenge, using her own tangle Somnee. The name comes from a night of insomnia, and I can sure relate to that! I haven't had a good night's sleep in a very l-o-n-g time. 

Here's the zendala tile I used to draw on... one of the tiles I make using alcohol inks. 

The swirl gets a little lost in the tangling, but here is what I did. I drew Somnee in blue, and then added some Crescent Moon, Fassett, and a drop of Tipple in black pen. 

Then I added some shading used an indigo pastel pencil, along with some graphite.

Somnee is one of those tangles where it's hard to know when to stop. I could have just gone on and on with it (I love lines), but made myself stop so I could include some other patterns. 

Well now that I've gotten back into the swing of tangling, I hope to start sharing more often again. Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you back here soon.

 

Zenbossing

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."    
 Albert Einstein 
 
I recently completed a tile where I used my Sizzix die cut machine to emboss a border around the outside edge, and then I tangled inside. Here is that tile.

After completing that one I wanted to find other ways to incorporate using my die cut machine (which otherwise sits around collecting dust) in my tangling. So I took one of my colored tiles (which I see now is similar coloring to the one I had done previously!)...

... used an embossing folder to cover the whole tile with this swirly design...
 

... and then outlined all of the embossing with black pen.
 

Then I tangled some areas with Printemps and Crescent Moon. I stuck to just two patterns so it wouldn't be too busy, and for the same reason, only tangled some parts. It was hard to know when to stop, but here is when I did...
 

Then I went back in and added just a little shading around the Printemps with pastel pencil.
 

I don't think the above pictures allow you to get a good feel for the embossing, so I tried a closeup where I think you can see the puffiness better.

I really enjoyed the whole process and the way it looks in the end. If you have the means to do the embossing, you might want to try this idea yourself.  

 

Study of a Tile

"It's easy to make good decisions when there are no bad options."    Robert Half

I've been having so much fun with my pre-strung colored tiles! Here is one of them that I wasn't so sure that I liked at the beginning, but it has grown to be one of my favorites.

Since there are so many different options for tangling these tiles, I decided to take this tile and tangle on it using three different methods/styles. In the first one I show here, I tangled mostly on the "pathways", using one pattern. This is the way I tangled them when I first designed the tiles. I love how relaxing it is to follow the paths without any thinking about where to go next, especially when I just draw with one pattern (I've also tangled them like this using two patterns.) I didn't add any shading to this one, and opted to leave a chunk of pathway untangled.

Pattern used: Diva Dance

Another way to use the tiles is to tangle behind/in between the paths. Although this is not my favorite way to tangle them, I've learned that I like them better when I leave some of the behind spaces open instead of tangling them all. On this tile I added some color using stardust gelly roll pens and some shading with pastel pencils.

Patterns used: Purk, Fassett, Falls, Tipple, and Crescent Moon

For my last one, I chose to just tangle, kind of ignoring the pathways. Not necessarily tangling on them or behind them... just wherever my pen decided to go. By the way, all of these were tangled using a Micron 01 pen. When I first started on this one, I wasn't too sure about it. But I have to say that this is now one of my all time favorite tiles that I have ever made! What really brought this one to life for me was the shading, which I did a little differently than ever before. I shaded using pastel pencils, which is nothing new, as I use them a lot. But after that shading, I went back with graphite and added darker edges, which, I think, added more depth to the tangles. I've never combined pastel pencil and graphite shading together in the same pieces/shapes/elements.

Patterns used: Flux and Pokeleaf

So there you have it, an in-depth study of one tile. Depending on your individual tastes and style of tangling, there are so many different ways to use these tiles. No bad options - I love the quote that I began this post with. (I wish that today, on the eve of Election Day here in the U.S., I could say that this was the case.) If you'd like to give my tiles a try (they're also available in Zendalas), please check them out in my Etsy shop.

Putting my Paper to Good Use

"I go wherever my creativity takes me."     Lil Wayne

A couple of months ago I pulled out a piece of scrapbooking paper to tangle on. I have a box full of these papers which I rarely use. This is what I created with a white gelly roll pen.

Patterns used: Flux and Henna Drum

I was leaving shortly after that for my cruise and decided to take a bunch of squares of various papers to work on... they are very thin and lightweight and take up virtually no space in my suitcase. Here are the before and afters of the ones I tangled on vacation. The before pictures don't match exactly because those photos were taken of a different section from the larger piece of paper.

 Pattern used: Baton

 Patterns used: Knightsbridge, elements of Crescent Moon, Static, Up n Down, Tipple, Fassett, Printemps, and Cubine tangleation

 Patterns used: Inapod and Uncorked tangleation

If you're like me and have a stack of papers just waiting for... something... someday... you might want to pull them out and see what you can tangle up! 

Pre-strung Pathway Tiles

"The imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere."     Terence McKenna

I'm very excited to share with you my latest creations. Another passion of mine, in addition to Zentangle and photography (as I mentioned in my last blog post, here), is working with alcohol inks. They come in bright, beautiful colors and flow smoothly across your paper as they blend and form new colors. The process of painting with the inks is nearly as relaxing as the Zentangle process is for me. And you can create great backgrounds for tangling!

Recently I began playing with plastic wrap on the inks. You spread ink on yupo paper (a synthetic paper with a smooth finish), lay plastic wrap on top, scrunch it all up with your hands, and leave it alone until it dries completely. When you peel it off, gorgeous and interesting "pathways" have been created on your paper. Some of you may be familiar with the plastic wrap method on other media, such as watercolors. When I saw these pathways, I knew immediately what had to be done! The inks had created a string on my paper to be tangled within.

Maybe a photo (or two...or many...) will help you to see what I'm talking about. Here is the first one I chose to tangle. You can see the pathways that I'm talking about.

Here's how it looked after I tangled it with Baton.

I absolutely LOVED this, and went on to do more... and more... and more! The next one I did, before and after tangling with Cadent... (I remembered before I got too far that I wanted to take a picture)

 And the next one...

By this time, I started thinking that these would make great tiles printed on paper that I could tangle with my Microns. What I had done so far were approximately 5x7 inches each, and because they were on shiny yupo, they needed to be tangled with different pens. So I tested printing them on various papers and found that I liked the Bristol vellum best, as it is similar to the regular zentangle tiles in weight. 

I cut the tiles into 4 inch squares, to allow for a little more tangling space than the standard 3 1/2 inch tiles. Here is a sample of some that I made...

Next is one of my favorite tiles, before tangling and after adding Baton (obviously one of my favorite tangles!)

Here are some more of my tangled tiles. Sorry, but I don't have the "before" pictures of these. The first one uses the pattern Static.

For the next one I decided to use 2 patterns, Cadent and Huggins. You will notice that on most of them I chose to do a monotangle, meaning I used just one pattern. I also shaded this one with graphite, whereas on most of them I have not shaded, instead allowing the colors on the tile to form the shading.
 

One using Knightsbridge...
 

A white gelly roll pen was used on this one to draw Printemps...
 

Then I wanted to complete some tiles by tangling behind the pathways instead of on the pathways. Personally I don't like them as much as the others, but several people have told me they do like them.The first one is Crescent Moon and the second is Munchin.

I have had such a blast designing and tangling these tiles and am happy to share that I am now selling the untangled tiles in my Etsy shop here for you to add your creative tangling. If you decide to try some, I'd love to see what you do!

Never Ending Circles

"Creativity never goes out of style."    Unknown


I recently purchased Corel Draw, a graphic design program. The learning curve is pretty steep for me, not being very technologically savvy. So I've been playing with it and drawing strings for tangling, as well as designing Zendala templates. Here is one of my designs that was pretty easy to do... just circles and ovals... from which I then deleted some portions of the lines.

That was the end of the computer assistance. Next I filled it with tangles but did not blacken in any of the little parts I normally would when using these patterns. It looks kind of blah at this point.

Patterns Used: Beelight, Fassett, N'zeppel, Tipple, Baton, Frosty, Sand Swirl, Arukas, Crescent Moon, Knot Rickz, Antidots, Podzles, Maryhill

Then I added the blackened parts. I didn't do that originally because I had decided I was going to try adding color later and didn't want the black spots to interfere with my coloring. It's starting to look better here.

Now with the shading it looks much better!

Next I printed a copy to color. But I decided to start with the drawing that has the parts blackened in, rather than pre-blackened. I used chalk pencils to add the color, which, as usual, blended really nicely. Unfortunately, whenever I scan my work it's hard to capture the colors just the way they look in reality. Some sections here look a little washed out.

I like the color, but the black and white shaded one is my favorite. Black and white is what drew me to Zentangle in the first place, and generally wins out over color in my mind... but not always!

What's Black and White and Colored All Over?

"Be the most brilliant color in the box."    Unknown

Several weeks ago I blogged about using Dyan Reaveley's acrylic paint to make some colored "tiles." You can see that post here and read all about the paints and how I used them. I had two more tiles left over from my play date with the paints and it was time to go back to them. Here's the first one, where I used sponge daubers and black ink the same way I did on the tiles shown in my previous post.

I decided to use those black spots as part of the pattern Cadent, and attached them to make a string for the rest of my tangling.  This is what I ended up with.

I really liked it, but even though I used a thicker Micron 08 pen for drawing the Cadent string, it basically disappeared among the other tangles. So I added some white pen embellishments to make the original Cadent stand out.

Patterns used: Cadent, Diva Dance and Fassett

I love the way the white pops out against the black pen and red/pink background.

Here's the next tile before tangling.

I added white embellishments to this one also.

Patterns used: Crescent Moon and Frost Flower

I'm very happy with both of these. They were the last of my Reaveley colored tiles (at least the ones I liked), so I will have to pull out the paints and work on some more.

Tangling Tempting Templates

"A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament."    Oscar Wilde

It was time for tangling some more templates from Ben
Kwok. If you're not familiar with him, check out his Facebook group "Ornation Creation." Each week he posts a different template for your tangling enjoyment.

This first one is, obviously, a jellyfish. I decided to use some new Stonehenge paper that I bought, and this is the color they call Fawn. I knew it would be great for drawing with my brown micron pens and adding highlights. Of course my intention was to show you a photo before I did any shading, but in my excitement to get started (because the shading is what brings it to life), I forgot to get a picture. Luckily I caught myself before I got very far, so here you see just the very beginnings of the shading.

 Patterns used: Papyrus, Printemps, Betweed

As you can tell in the following photo, the shading and highlighting, which I did with my pastel pencils, makes such a huge difference in the look. I think the shading in this one took longer than the tangling did, but it was well worth it!

Here's another one of Ben's templates... one of my favorite foods!

Patterns used: Navaho, Emingle, Static, N'zeppel, Crescent Moon, Heartstrings, Prestwood, Munchin, Paizel, Printemps, and some line work

And again with shading...

Next time I'm in the mood for template tangling (try saying that 5X fast!) I know there are LOTS more templates waiting for me over on Ben's Facebook group.