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.

 

Paradox

"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."    
Soren Kiergegaard
 
The Diva's challenge this week is to do a monotangle (only one pattern) with the tangle pattern Paradox. One of my favorite tangles. First I took a tile that I had colored with Dylusion paints a long time ago. I drew random triangles to form my string and filled them with Paradox. I LOVE lines!

Then I randomly filled in some of the spaces to add contrast. This tile was all about randomness.

Next, I decided to do something more symmetrical.

Again, I filled a few spaces with black, and added some graphite shading.

Paradox... I love the mesmerizing effect it has. At least for me.

 

Diva Duo

"A dynamic duo who work well together can be worth any three people working in isolation."      Larry Constantine

The Diva's challenge this past week was a duotangle. Just like in the challenge I've made for myself that I'm calling Zenduos (see my last blog post), that means you use two and only two patterns. The two patterns to use were Paradox and Bunzo, both on my list of favorites. 

The first tile I did in the traditional black and white. I drew in a totally random manor, no thinking. And when it was finished I added the black in the background for some drama.

Then I tangled another one, where I penciled in a box as my string to contain the Paradox. I chose one of my colored tiles for this one, and here you can see the tile before and after tangling.

Watch for another post pretty soon with the next two of my Zenduo tiles! 

Crazy 'Nzeppel

"No one can drive us crazy unless we give them the keys."    
 Douglas Horton

The Diva's challenge this week is to use the pattern Crazy 'Nzeppel. It's a variation of plain old 'Nzeppel which is a grid based tangle. The crazy variety is based on random lines rather than a grid. I've always called it Random 'Nzeppel and am not really sure when it got the crazy label. 

Anyway, I used one of my colored tiles as shown here.

I started by tangling 'Nzeppel, then added Clob and a few bits of Tipple.

At this point I wasn't too sure that I liked it, but ah! The magic of shading!

Now I like it much better. I could have done the shading in color to go with the colored tile. And I probably would have, except for the fact that I don't have my preferred supplies for color shading (pastel pencils) with me right now. So I went with plain old graphite, which worked out pretty well.

Waybop

"One sure-fire way to stay creative: force yourself to learn something new."      Harvey MacKay

The Diva's challenge this week is to use the new pattern from Zentangle headquarters, Waybop. When I first saw this tangle, I have to admit that I didn't much like it, so I didn 't bother to try it. After seeing so many people posting their Waybop creations on Facebook, I decided, for the Diva, I would give it a go. 

The first one I did on one of my colored tiles... here's the picture of the tile before rounding the corners. 

I started with Waybop, Henna Drum and some lines. Then, using a gray pen, I added Printemps inside the Waybop. I've recently started using the gray pen as a way to add more subtle designs. The finishing touches were shading with graphite and pastel pencil, and white gel pen for some extra interest.

Waybop wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so I decided to go ahead and do one more, this time on gray-toned paper from Strathmore. Also included are Pais, Purk, and Hollibaugh.

And of course some shading and white highlights, which always make a drawing on gray paper better, whether or not you like it to begin with.
 

I like Waybop more than I expected to, but it's not yet high on my list of favorites. Maybe after more practice, maybe not!

 

Hamadox

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

A quick post to share my tile for the Diva's challenge this week - to use the tangle pattern Hamadox by Diana Schreur. Hamadox, which I was using for the first time, is a combination of Hamail and Paradox, and fun to draw. 

I began with another one of my alcohol inked backgrounds (these tiles are almost ready to be added to my Etsy shop!), but this time a Zendala tile.

I drew my Hamadox, choosing to use 3/4 of the complete pattern that normally goes all the way around in a circular shape. And I added a simple background grid.

  

 
Then I shaded using graphite and added a few dots with white gel pen.

And when I finished I realized that I used a tile with the same coloring as my last Diva post. Oh well... I guess I like these colors!

Diva Duo

"Color in a picture is like enthusiasm in life."
Vincent Van Gogh

I haven't participated in the Diva's challenge for a while. But I had to jump in this week after seeing the challenge - to draw a duotangle (uses only two patterns) with Paradox and Diva Dance, two of my favorite tangles. 

Since I'm up to my ears in colored tiles getting ready for the launch of my new tiles on Etsy, I decided to go ahead and use one of those tiles. So here is the tile before I put my pen to it.

 I started with a triangle and filled it with Paradox. Then I decided to have a little Diva Dance line up next to it, and from there it all fell into place... triangle, fill with Paradox, Diva Dance, repeat. 

I added some shading with graphite and I was finished.

I love the colors in this and am so happy with the way it turned out. My end result is not always as nice as my vision of it, but this one didn't disappoint.

 

Keeko Challenge

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."    
 George S. Patton

Just here to share my tile for the Diva's challenge this week, which was to use the pattern Keeko. I chose one of my pre-strung colored tiles, which you can see here in my Etsy shop (the shop will be closed until after Thanksgiving). This is not the exact same tile, but close to it, that I started with.

I tangled the pathways using Keeko, and then shaded with graphite. I stopped shading halfway so I could scan it and show the difference shading can make.

Then I finished the shading.
 

 

That's it for this time. Hope to see you back here soon!

 

Fluxzeppel

"If everyone would look for that uniqueness then we would have a very colorful world."     Michael Schenker

I haven't participated in the Diva's challenge in a long time. But this week the challenge is to create a duotangle - a tile using just two tangles - with Flux and N'zeppel. Two of my favorite patterns. So I just HAD to do it. 

I decided to tangle on a tile that I had created using alcohol inks for a background. Just to show you my process, here is the piece of yupo that I inked...

Then I scanned it, chose the section of that design that I liked the most, cropped it into a 4x4 inch size, and printed it on Bristol vellum paper for tangling. This is what it looked like...

Then I tangled...with just N'zeppel and Flux. I decided to shade the large Flux shapes using graphite, and the small Flux shapes using pastel pencils. I really love the way this one turned out...

I hope to do another duotangle for this week's challenge... I'll see if time permits.

Diva Circles

"Life is a circle. The end of one journey is the beginning of the next."     
Joseph M. Marshall

Just stopping by with a quick post. I saw that the Diva's challenge for this week is to make a string out of circles and tangle it. Well, it so happens that last week I did just that, so I decided to post it now. 

I've been doing a lot with alcohol inks lately, and that's where the vibrant colors in this piece come from. Alcohol inks were spread all around on a piece of Yupo to make the background, and then alcohol was dropped in random places to form all the circles. 

Using a Microperm pen, I tangled the circles and added some white highlights. First I used my Uniball Signo white pen to do the highlights, but after a short time they faded  and were not very bright. So I tried my white Souffle pen and went over the same spots. This time they stayed bright and are puffed up a little from the paper, hence the name Souffle.

Patterns used: Munchin tangleation, Kuke, Marasu, and Purk

I had a lot of fun making this one. Hope you like it!

Shattuck

"Art is as natural as sunshine and as vital as nourishment."    Mary Ann Kohl

The Diva's challenge this week was to use the pattern Shattuck as a monotangle, meaning only using that one pattern on a tile. I love Shattuck! Here's the tile I did, combining my love of lines with my love of contrast.

Of course I had to do another tile. But this one is not a monotangle because I added two other patterns, Mooka and Tipple. I used one of my tiles that I colored with alcohol inks. I'm a little frustrated because I had a hard time getting the color to look right for this picture. I tried scanning the tile and then using my camera, but it just isn't quite right.

The background really has more color than what you see here, and the colors are softer. Oh well! I used pastel pencils to add some shading in greens, blues, and gray.

Now off to work on some tiles with Knightsbridge, the focus tangle on the Square One Facebook group. My tile is featured over there this week and I need to get going on some more, because Knightsbridge is another one of my favorite patterns. I'll be back soon to show you what I come up with.

 

Valentangle

"It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters."   
 Evander Holyfield

I've completed another Diva challenge. That makes three weeks in a row for me! I haven't done that in a really long time. But I have to admit, I'd already started this one when it popped up as the challenge this week... which is to do a piece with a Valentine's Day flair. 

This is the front of a card I designed for my husband. I used Tombow brush markers and white gel pen to make the heart. Bunzo, Printemps, Indyrella, and some striping completed the card.

I have to admit that I really love the way this turned out. Hope he likes it as much as I do! (Don't worry - he won't see this before Sunday)

 

Tangle in a Tangle

"Originality is the best form of rebellion."   Mike Sasso

Just stopping by for a quick post to share my entries for the Diva's challenge this week. The challenge was to use a tangle for your string, make it big, and then tangle inside the tangle. 

For my first one, I worked on Strathmore Toned Grey paper. I used my own tangle, Ringle, for my string. You can find Ringle in my e-book, Step Out in Style. This is what it looked like before filling it.

After tangling inside and adding shading and highlights, this is the finished piece.

 Patterns used inside: Static, Hypnotic, Printemps, Emingle, Keeko, Tipple, Meer

I did another one, this time on a traditional Zentangle tile. Mooka was the tangle I used as my string, adding Knightsbridge and Aquafleur.

I really enjoyed this challenge.... I should remember to use this technique more often.

 

Stripes

"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."    Joshua J. Marine

This week's Diva challenge was to create something using stripes. For my first tile I drew the pattern Rain (maybe because we've been having SO much rain here recently) as the dividing lines between the stripes. I thought I was off to a pretty good start. But then when I had to decided what patterns to use in between, I had a hard time - I think because of the jagged edges. The tile didn't excite me, but once it was shaded I started to like it better (as is so often the case), and I think it has grown on me.

Patterns used: Rain, 'Nzeppel, Meer, and Tipple

For the next tile, because one is never enough, I chose to do stripes both horizontally and vertically, interwoven with each other. The only pattern here that I've used before is Piza. The rest were all new to me, chosen from my recently organized Pinterest boards...stay tuned here for more about that next week.

Patterns used: Piza, Wavz, Tri-4, Peaks Border, and Kloonz

It was nice to get back to doing some basic, black and white tiles after having worked on other types of projects for a while. 

Around We Go Again

"The world is round so that friendship may encircle it."       
 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

This week's guest blogger for the Diva is Erin Olson from the Bright Owl. Her challenge is, of course, a Zendala. I wouldn't have expected anything else, since she hosts the weekly Zendala Dare (and I'm so glad she's back after taking some time off!) 

Rather than show you the pre-shaded version of this, I decided to shade half of it and leave the other half unshaded for my first picture. I hope you can tell which half is shaded and see what a difference it makes.

I used Crescent Moon, Cruffle, Tipple, and the ends of Dandi. Here is the fully shaded Zendala.

Next is a Zendala I completed a few months ago, after returning home from Tangle U. I used the 4N1 stencil created by CZT Ann Grasso, as a tool to help me in the design. This one sat around for a while waiting for me to do some more zendalas so I could include more in my blog post. I feel like I should have more than one creation in a post so you guys are getting your money's worth! So now that I have more, here it is, completed on a Renaissance tile.

I wasn't thrilled with it, but it sure did perk up a bit when I added shading with brown pencil and graphite, as well as white highlights.

Now take a look at the center of that one (my tangle pattern Kazoo from my e-book), and remember that this was completed months ago and then put away. Here is a Zendala I drew earlier this week on one of my hand-colored tiles.

Notice that the center is the same as on that last tile I did months ago, and had not looked at since. I was a little surprised when I saw that ...of all the patterns I could have used! Well anyway, since this tile is pink and gray, I decided to tangle it using my pink Micron (I think it's called Rose). Then I shaded using a little bit of pink colored pencil as well as graphite to tie into the gray in the tile.

So there you go... three Zendalas for the price of one! I just scheduled a Zendala class for next month. Anyone want to come?

Butterfly Kisses

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."     Nathaniel Hawthorne

This week's Diva challenge comes from guest blogger, CZT Sandy Hunter, while the Diva takes some well deserved time off. Sandy's challenge is to "Shift your focus to the negative space, so the white part of your tile is the focus of your tangle." So I chose to use a stencil of a butterfly for my white, or negative, space. I tangled a border around the butterfly and then filled the background with tangles using lines, lines, and more lines. My favorite kind of patterns. I added a couple with curves, but they are still lines. Here is the way it looked before shading.

I used Fassett, Static, Sand Swirl, Printemps,Paradox, and Baton. Very relaxing tangles for me. It was completed on a 6 1/4 inch square piece of Strathmore drawing paper. It comes out looking very white here, but it actually is a pale cream color. Here's how it looked after shading.

I enjoyed the process and like the outcome, so I will call it a success!

Circles, Circles and More Circles

"Life is a circle of happiness, sadness, hard times and good times."   Unknown

This week's Diva challenge is to use the pattern Tipple as a monotangle, meaning you use Tipple and ONLY Tipple. The pattern is just circles. They could all be the same size if you want, but I think it's much more interesting to vary the size. Circles are not my favorite thing to draw... I find straight lines much more relaxing. So up until now I've only used Tipple in small areas, sometimes as a filler. 

I decided to use the words zen and tangle, put together into one word, which I got from Jenny Perruzzi (Acadia Laser Creations) when I was at Tangle U in 2014. I traced around the words to use as my string and then started filling with Tipple. That was quite a LOT of Tipple. Not as meditative as I would have liked, but once I started I had to finish. Luckily, when you look at the finished piece you don't notice how "not great" the circles are!

I thought this would look pretty colored in rainbow colors. I used my Tombow brush markers to color them using the indirect method. That means I didn't use the markers directly on my work, but instead scribbled with the markers on a non-porous surface, then used a special blender marker to pick up that color and put it onto my letters. I like doing that when I want the color to be a little less intense than when I use the markers directly. After I finished coloring them, I added a little shading around the edges of each letter using a coordinating Prismacolor colored pencil. I could have used the Tombows to add shading, but my experience in doing that is that it doesn't blend smoothly for me. 

I love the way this looks. I may use it as a sign at my classes... or in other places where a sign is called for. However, I don't think I will attempt using that much Tipple at one time again. Think I need to go draw some straight lines now! 

A Jumble of Umble

"Whenever you have taken up work in hand, you must see it to the finish.That is the ultimate secret of success. Never, never, never give up!"   Dada Vaswani

This week's Diva challenge was to use the official (from Rick and Maria) tangle, Umble. I have probably only used this tangle once in my four years of tangling. So I decided to take the challenge and play with it some more.

The first one I did was on a Zendala tile, meaning it's round. I made it simple...simply Umble, except for some added lines. I decided to add a little color using my pastel pencils (I was out of town and that was the only color medium I had with me). Since it's only a week until our Independence Day, July 4th, I went with red and blue. I'm very happy with the simple, yet bold, completed tile. Don't save your Zendala tiles only for Zendalas...they're a lot of fun to use for any kind of tangling.

Next I started another tile but didn't really like it, so I put it aside and began over. Dividing this tile into four squares, I tangled Umble in two opposite squares (I don't know if you can picture that when you look at this tile now). Then I started connecting the lines, got a little carried away, and ended up with this.

It's interesting, but I don't like it nearly as much as the first one. Next, thinking that you never should give up on a tile (since it's more about the process than the outcome), I went back to the one I had put aside. I completed it, and lo and behold, I like it! This has happened to me many times, so the lesson to be learned here is...don't give up! See your tiles through to the end. You may very well decide that you like it after all, or at the very least, you will have spent some time relaxing and taking your mind off other things.