Forgotten Patterns

"I don't trust words. I even question actions. But I never doubt patterns."   Unknown

A couple of years ago I published an e-book, Step Out in Style, which has 40 tangle patterns in it. Most of the patterns are my own, but I also included several from other talented CZTs. So many patterns I developed, yet when I'm tangling I rarely use them. Why? I don't know! I just don't think of them, as strange as that may sound. So I decided to devote this blog post to some of those patterns.

This first one was created on a piece of tan paper. The pattern I did in brown pen is called Robo. This is one of my favorites from my book, maybe because it's made up primarily of lines. I love using a combination of black and brown pens on tan paper, and then, of course, adding highlights with white pastel pencil. 

Patterns used: Robo, N'zeppel, Garlic, and Tipple

For the next one I used one of my hand-colored blue tiles. My pattern that I highlight here is Danza, the one going down the center of the tile. I used a blue Micron pen to tangle this, and found it interesting to see how much darker the pen looked when it was used to fill in the areas, compared to when it was used to just draw lines.

Patterns used: Danza, Sand Swirl, lines, and orbs

For the last one I used a traditional Zentangle tile. The pattern you see on the right and left sides is called Baldosa.

Patterns used: Baldosa, a tangleation of Florz, and Dandi

Now that I've shown you a few of my tangles, maybe you'd like to try them out. If you've read this far, and you don't already have my e-book, I'd like to offer you a $2 discount to get a copy for yourself. You can find the book here in my Etsy shop. Use the code 2OFFBLOG before you check out. This code will be good through March 31st. I hope you enjoy it!

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?

Initial Thoughts

"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.

Moondance

"It's a marvelous night for a Moondance, with the stars up above in your eyes."    Van Morrison

First, I'd like to thank all of you who purchased my new e-book of tangle patterns that was published last week. My first week of sales was wonderful! If you missed it and would like to take a peek inside the book, you can see it here on my last blog post.

This week's diva challenge was to create a duotangle (a Zentangle or Zentangle inspired art with only two tangle patterns) using the tangles crescent moon and diva dance. Since these are two of my favorite tangles, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to do this one. 

I am planning a class for next month on using the (fairly) new renaissance tiles, so I decided to work on one of these tiles for this challenge as it will give me another example to show my students. I used black micron, brown micron, white charcoal pencil, brown colored pencil, and graphite pencil. I just love the dimension these tiles have when working with the different colors and shading/highlighting. 

But now I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of my tile before doing the shading and highlighting, because it makes SUCH a HUGE difference. To me, the tile was kind of blah until I added those steps. So all I can show you is the final result.

Notice that I used this as another opportunity to leave white (in this case tan) space in the tile which was a Diva challenge last month, and something I'm not very good at. I love the way the tile pops because of the browns and whites. If you haven't given this a try yet, you really should. And if you live in my area of South Carolina come take the class with me! (And if you don't, it's a great place to visit!)

Time to Step Out

"Wish it, dream it, do it!"   Leslie Levine

I'M SO EXCITED! Sorry if I scared you with my screaming, but I am...SO EXCITED! I have completed my e-book of new tangle patterns and it's in my Etsy shop, ready for the world to see. At least I hope the world will see it. 

It's been a few months in the making, and with my self imposed deadline of completing it by March 8th, the last couple of weeks have been hectic. Why the deadline you ask? Because I am teaching a class on that day where I'll be sharing some of my new patterns with my students, and I promised them all a free copy of the book. Even with a last minute glitch of finding out that it is too big a file to have on Etsy (we figured out how to get around that), I still managed to meet my deadline.

I thought I'd share a little bit about the book with all of you. Here is a picture of the cover. I have to give my husband credit for coming up with the name Step Out in Style. Get it? Step-outs for the patterns.

31 new tangle patterns, along with 11 patterns from guest contributors, makes 42 new patterns, for a total of 46 pages. There are clear step-outs as well as notes and tips to go along with many of them. Lots of Zentangle art work using the patterns is included to inspire you and spark your creativity. Here is a sample page so you can get a feel for what the book is like.

And a page with art work containing several of the patterns.

Between my time creating the pattern step-outs, researching that the pattern wasn't already out there in Zentangle Land, and doing the art work, along with my husband's time taking care of the computer end of things, we have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours on this project. And of course I can't forget to give credit to my daughter, a professional writer, for giving it the final proofreading. Although this is an e-book, I had to have a printed and bound copy for myself, and when I got that done at Staples last night and actually held it in my hands and flipped through, it was a thrilling feeling. 

If you are interested in getting a copy of my e-book, and I won't be shy in saying that I hope you are, you can link to my Etsy listing directly from here. The cost is $9.95.

Thanks for taking a peek at my book here. Now I'm back to reading my book (a different one), if I can remember what it was about after putting it aside for so long.

Wide Open Spaces

"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me."   Blaise Pascal

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. I've been so busy working on my book that I haven't been doing much else Zentangle related. In case you didn't hear, I'm publishing an e-book containing over 40 new tangle patterns. My target date is the first week of March to have the book available, but we'll see if I can do it, or if life gets in the way. I'm so close, and so excited!

This week the Diva's challenge called out to me so I decided to make some time for it. And I killed two birds with one stone by including one of my new tangles so I can use this tile in my book also.The challenge was to leave open white space. This is something that I love when I see it in other people's work, but find it so hard to do. If I see a space I need to tangle it. Someone stop me!

Here is my tile. I really love the white space and must force myself to do it more often.

Now back to my book. I'll let you all know when it's ready.