Black and White and Red All Over

"To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul."        Andri Cauldwell

 
In my last blog post I mentioned a project I was working on which had slowed down the progress I am making on my Zenduo adventure. Well, it's finally finished and I'm back to share the process photos along with the final project.

We recently moved to a new house and I wanted to tangle something to hang on one of the walls. I bought a frame that is meant to hold 10 individual photos. My plan was to design a string that would run through all 10 spaces and then tangle 10 4x6 pieces that would form a cohesive whole. I liked the idea of the 10 separate parts so if I messed up one it wouldn't mean I needed to start the whole thing over. Amazingly enough I did not need to redo any of them!  

I decided to tangle on white Stonehenge paper. The decorating scheme in my house is black and white and gray, with red accents. The style is modern, which is probably evident from the colors. Goes great with Zentangle! So in the same way, my tangling would be black on white, gray (graphite) shading, and red accents. 

I cut out 10 pieces of the Stonehenge and laid them out the way the frame was designed. I had to tape them together so I could draw the string. Here are a few pictures of the string.

I tangled Gewurtz in the "pathway", and then some Sand Swirl and Munchin. I chose tangles that I not only liked, but felt very comfortable with so there was less chance of messing up.

Then I added Fassett, N'zeppel, and Tipple. I probably should mention that I did all my tangling with my new Micron PN pens, which I love. They have a sturdier plastic nib with the same great ink.

I continued with Beelight not in a grid, Printemps, and some more Fassett.

I completed the tangling with Diva Dance, Huggins, and some more Munchin and Tipple. I was waiting to add the red accents until after all the tangling, but I had to use it on the Diva Dance as I went along.

 
Then I went back and added some more red accents using a red Identipen since I found that to be a truer red than the Micron red pen.

And then the rest of the red that I wanted. The only section that I left without red accents was the N'zeppel.

Next was the task of shading, which took quite a bit of time. And finally...

That wasn't a great photo, so a couple of close-up shots so you can see it a little better, especially the shading.

Unfortunately you can't see the red at all in the Sand Swirl in that picture. I also took a photo at an angle so you can see that the frame is actually 3-D.

And after all that, I figured I should show you what it looks like on my wall. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and think it fits in very well with the rest of my decor. I was so relieved after all that work!

Now back to my other project...Zenduos.

 

Introducing my New Tiles!

"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul."     W. Somerset Maugham

Hooray! The day has finally arrived when I can officially introduce my new tiles to you. You may have noticed over the last couple of months that I have been sharing a lot of my work on colored tiles. I've been developing this new line of tiles for a long time, and I'd hoped to have these ready a while ago, but life kind of got in the way! The tiles are now in my Etsy shop, but let me tell you a little about them. Warning: This will be a long post with lots of pictures.

I love playing with alcohol inks. I'm not very good at creating anything realistic with them, but boy do they make great backgrounds for tangling. I start with alcohol inks on yupo paper, play with them, manipulate them, and let them do their own thing. Beautiful designs emerge for tangling. I scan them and print them on Bristol vellum paper and cut them into 4 inch tiles, as well as Zendala tiles. But then I decided to take it one step further. I began editing the backgrounds in Photoshop and wow! Amazing special effects were created - waves, spirals, pond ripples, geometrics, zig-zags, etc. The possibilities are endless, and addictive too! So, after many, many hours of playing, I have created hundreds of new tiles to add to my Etsy shop. 

So let me share a few more with you now. 

Before...

And after...
 

 Before...

And after...
 

 Before... 

And after...

Zendala before... 

Zendala after...
 

Then I designed some with geometric shapes, but since these were so different than the others I decided to make them a separate group and listing in my shop.

Before... 

After...
 

Before...

After... 
 

But that's not all! I decided to also make these designs into digital papers for crafters to use in so many different ways: scrapbooking, invitations, origami, and on and on. Here are some samples of the papers...

And just when you thought I was finished... No! I also made these into lined papers for writing and journaling. Some examples here...

NOW I'm finished. That's all I've done....square tiles, zendala tiles, geometric tiles, digital papers, and lined digital papers. If you'd like to check them out in my Etsy shop, go here. (Where you will also find my pre-strung pathway tiles!) You'll be able to see many more of the tile designs in my shop photos, although not nearly all of the designs I have.

If you have tangling friends and family, or other crafty friends and family, or writing friends and family, I would be most grateful if you'd pass my shop information on to them.

And of course, if you decide to try any of these for yourself, I would LOVE to see what you do with them!

Brusho Magic

"Life is art. Live yours in color."     Unknown

Have you ever heard of Brusho paints? Maybe you already have some, but if you never heard of them you should check them out on Pinterest or Youtube. They are watercolor ink crystals (meaning they're powders) that can create some very unique effects. Some time ago I bought a pack of 12, but have done very little with them. I had a free afternoon recently and pulled them out to play. 

It was a good chance to use some of the pile of odd sized papers that I have sitting around, leftover pieces from other projects. There was some cold pressed watercolor paper, hot pressed, mixed media, bristol vellum, and even some yupo. By the time I was finished I wasn't sure what paper was what... I should have documented them in some way. I laid a wash of water on some and then sprinkled the brusho crystals on. Others were spritzed with water after the crystals were put down. On some the crystals were just left alone to do their magic, some were manipulated with a brush or sponge, and other papers were tilted to let the paint run around the surface. Again, by the time I was done, I couldn't tell you which method was used on which paper! 

Most papers were larger than tile size. Once they were dry I looked for the sections that I liked most and cut them into tiles, discarding the parts I wasn't too fond of. Here's the first one. 

The color reminded me of fire or the sun, which led me to tangle it like this (using black Micron, white Uniball Signo pen, and just a touch of pastel pencil for shading)...

Patterns used: Squid, Tipple, and Maryhill

On the next one I achieved a very different look.

I decided to run the tangling around most of the color. Then I added some shading with pastel pencils. I LOVE using them for shading on tiles with color. There is a color to match pretty much anything, and they smudge and spread so easily with a tortillion.

Pattern used: Huggins

And the last one I have to share with you today, with another different look...

When I began this one it was going to be stacked with rows of tangles, but as you can see, that's not exactly what happened! I used no shading on this one other than what was provided by the paint.

 Patterns used: Sand Swirl, Gewurtz, and Arukas

I have several more tiles prepared, waiting to be tangled another time. Have I inspired you to get some Brushos of your own to try... or to pull out the ones you may already have?

Shading with Markers

"Life isn't black and white. It's a million gray areas, don't you find?"    
 Ridley Scott

I recently (actually it's probably been a while now) purchased Eni Oken's e-book on shading with gray markers. Finally I got a chance to give the technique a whirl. I used Copic markers - N0, N2, and N4 - and worked on official Zentangle tiles. 

I wanted to see how different the shading with markers looked from shading with graphite, so first I took out a tile I completed a while ago with graphite. I erased a small section of my pencil shading and did it over with the markers. Below you can see where I used the markers on the big top section of Phicops, while the rest of the tile has pencil. The marker shading looks smoother and has a more silvery tone to it. 

I liked the way it looked, so I tangled another tile to shade entirely with markers.

Then another tile where I tried out the tangle Citrus, by Adele Bruno, for the first time. Here I show it before shading and then after shading with the Copics.

Another one using the new to me tangle Belle, by Sarah Harrison. I think the Huggins may have gotten a little overwhelmed by the shading.

Lastly, I did a monotangle of another new to me tangle, Op Art 1, by Ina Sonnenmoser.

It was fun working with the Copic markers for shading. I still need to delve a little more into Eni's e-book. I have the gray pens she suggests using to add the finishing touches, but have to admit that I totally forgot about using them on these tiles. Oh well, next time!

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!