Off the Beaten Pathway

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

I'm back to share some more of the tangling I did on my recent cruise. If you missed my first blog from the cruise, about patterns and my tangling, check it out here. In addition to the official Zentangle pre-strung tiles I shared last time, I brought along some of my own colored pre-strung tiles to work on. Here are the before and after photos of the first one.

 Patterns used: Diva Dance and a tangleation of Beelight

For the tangling I used Micron pens in purple and pink, along with a white gelly roll pen.

The next one I chose was in a totally different color family.

Patterns used: Elements of Florz and Printemps

This one combined brown and black pens, as well as the white gelly roll. A brown pastel pencil was used to fill in the Printemps swirls.

Then I picked one of my gray tiles and did lots of line work to fill in the pathways. My lines are not as smooth as they could be, but luckily when you hold the tile out and look at it, it looks okay (just don't look too closely!)

If you haven't tried my pre-strung colored and gray tiles yet, you can check them out in my etsy shop. They're a lot of fun to use to fill in the pathways or the backgrounds. I only introduced these tiles in July, and so many of you have purchased them and told me how much you love them. Thanks to all of you who have given them a whirl!

There's still more tangling from my cruise to share, so I'll be back soon!

I Walk the Line

"No one ever discovered anything new by coloring inside the lines."    Thomas Vasquez

My drawings in this post are going to be a little different than my usual style. As a matter of fact, you may not even consider this true Zentangle art. But whether it is or not, I'm having a lot of fun with this. For some time I've admired other people's drawings that I would call line art, or something like that. I've wanted to try it out for awhile, but just now got around to making the time for it. 

I worked on these pieces last week, and then saw the Diva's guest challenge from Sharla Hicks, CZT, to use undulating tangles. I think what I did fits in that category pretty well. I'm sharing my first few pieces here. It took a little time to get into the groove of it, so my favorite one is the last one. 

Here's the first, completed with a Micron 01 on an official Zentangle tile. I was pretty happy with it considering it was my first. I realized after completing this that it's similar to the tangle pattern Meringue, by CZT Kelley Kelly. If I look at it that way, then it is a true Zentangle - a monotangle.

Next I worked on the one below, also on an official tile. As I drew, my hand began moving in a rhythm, and it was very relaxing. I'm not sure about those outside humps, but overall I like it. This one is not yet shaded.

Using my famous pastel pencils, I added purple coloring and then some shading and contouring with a pinkish-reddish pencil. And again, except for those humps I'm unsure of, I was happy with the way it turned out.

Then I tried a flowery design on a Zendala tile, which I colored with Tombow markers and shaded with Prismacolor pencils. Not bad, but I don't think the lines flow as well.

My last one for now ( I figured it was time to stop drawing and put these together in a post) was completed on Strathmore gray toned paper. Like I said at the beginning, this is the one I like best. I tangled with a Micron 01 pen and then added the outline with white pastel pencil. I thought of using a white gel pen but was afraid of messing it up. With the pastel pencil I knew that I could always erase it if I didn't like it (don't tell anyone I just said that!)

I found this process to be very relaxing. My pen didn't even leave the paper when completing a section. I just drew a line and then turned and went back, never lifting the pen. I will absolutely be doing lots more of these and already have ideas in my mind for changing them up a bit. So expect to see more of these type of drawings showing up here in the very near future.