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.

 

The Magic of Color

"I never met a color I didn't like."    Dale Chihuly

A while back I downloaded a number of stock images online. I've tangled some of them, but others have been sitting around for a really long time. Here's one I decided to pull out and tackle today.

I love the bright colors in it and thought it would look nice if I used colored Microns to tangle this. I don't often use the colored pens, but there was one to match each of the colors (except yellow) in this design and I figured it was a great idea. A gray Copic multiliner was used to tangle those circles clinging to the outside of the big circle.

I really liked the way this was going until I got to the last part (isn't that the way it always goes?) which was the blue penned part in the top green circles. Definitely not my favorite part of this piece.

The shading was done with my pastel pencils, which I have in all the colors to match the pen colors. If I could cut out the top part of this I would be really happy with it!

 

Zendala Time

 "Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous."     Bill Moyers

Way back in May I realized it had been a really long time since I had worked on a Ben Kwok template. So I decided to do one of his mandalas. But then began my crazy summer, and it wasn't until last week that I got back to this zendala that was started so long ago.

Here is a picture of Ben's template that I began with.

  
A few lines were left out so that I wouldn't have spaces that were too tiny to tangle. Here's what it looked like after I finished tangling. 

I began shading but paused after the center area was done so I could share the half shaded zendala with you. It's always so interesting to see the difference a bit of graphite can make.

Then I completed the shading, which took quite some time,  and here's the final zendala. 

Not bad, but I have to admit that after having this one laying around for so long I'm looking forward to moving on to something else!

Dingbatz Unleashed

"Unsuccessful people are busy being busy. Successful people are busy being productive."     Kevin Abdulrahman

 I'm back after a very long and busy month. In that time we packed, moved out of our house and into storage, traveled to Fl, back to NC for a couple of weeks, back to SC to move out of storage into our new home, unpacked and organized... and I'm exhausted! Needless to say there wasn't much time for tangling in all that, and I didn't always have access to my Zentangle supplies. But I'm finally back to a little bit of normalcy, which means finally some tangling time.

A while ago dingbatz were introduced in the world of Zentangle. I hope you've heard about/seen them, because I can't explain them well as I don't know that I fully understand them. Here is the first one that I attempted... a small frame-like thing divided into sections by a tangle pattern that extends outside the frame. For my first try it wasn't too bad, but I felt something didn't look right. Then I figured it out... my Mooka that creates the sections all goes under the frame, and I think some should go above and some below.  Oh well.

Next I tried one on a colored tile (which I sell in my Etsy shop, although the tiles won't be available for about 2 more weeks until everything gets settled in here). Here's the tile before tangling.

And here is my dingbatz. Unfortunately it wasn't until after I did this one that the over/under bit occurred to me.
 

Then I added some shading.

It's okay, but still not exciting me. So on to another one. This time I used Hollibaugh to divide it into sections, and remembered to make some of it go under the frame and some of it over. I added lots of auras which are always fun.

 Then I shaded, added a little more black, and an outside border.

I like this one better than the others, although I think the style kind of got further away from the "traditional" dingbatz that I've seen everyone creating. But that's okay, because I should have my own style, right?

So, back to the drawing board! Here I used some large Flux to create the sections. Definitely my own style again!

 

  
Added shading to some of it with graphite.

And added color to the rest of it with pastel pencils.

This one is definitely my favorite. Whether or not it embodies the original intent of dingbatz... I just don't know!

 

Colors of Summer

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."        Anton Chekhov

Happy summer to those of you in my neck of the woods, and happy winter to the rest of you. Summer is a time full of flowers and color, so this is going to be a colorful post.

The first tile I'm sharing with you is one of my alcohol ink background zendala tiles.

Just because it's a round tile doesn't mean it needs to be tangled with a zendala. I love the swirl in the tile, so I decided to tangle along with the flow. This is the first time I've used the pattern Floral Waves. I think it goes well with the swirl in the tile. Then I added some Mooka and Tipple to finish it off.

But (almost) no tile is complete, in my mind, without shading. So out came my trusty pastel pencils, and blues and pinks were used to add the finishing touches. 

Then it was onto another zendala tile, this time one of my "pre-strung" alcohol ink backgrounds. The designs formed by the inks can be used as a string to tangle inside or outside, or just tangle right over them.

That big shape going right up the center of the tile reminded me of a tree trunk, so after tangling that with Sand Swirl, I added Pokeleaf "foliage" to the tree. And once again, pastel pencils were my choice for shading.

In case you're interested, these colored tiles are available, along with many more, in my Etsy shop here.

Until next time, happy tangling!

Tile Preview

"Boldly dare to be a pop of color in a black and white world."    Unknown

I've been spending tons of time making new colored tiles for tangling. I recently introduced some of the new tiles, and while I'm preparing the rest of them to be ready for my Etsy shop, I'm sharing some of the new ones along the way. These are tiles I created with alcohol inks, and then twisted, swirled, waved, and otherwise played with in Photoshop to create some very cool and unique effects.

This one is a blue and green swirl.

I decided to follow the swirl, using just Cubine, and added shading with green pastel pencil. But instead of just blending it with a tortillion, I dipped the tortillion in mineral spirits first, and then blended. I think that this helps set the pastel pencil so that it doesn't rub off at all. 
 

I love the waves in this next tile.

I ignored the waves when tangling, so that they form the random coloring behind the tangles (using Static, Sand Swirl, Jobowtie and some orbs.)

Purple and pink pastel pencils were used to shade.

Here's one more tile that I've already shared on Facebook, but in case you haven't seen it there...

Just lots of pretty colors, tangled with Organic and Pokeleaf. And a touch of graphite shading.

It's so much fun tangling on the very varied backgrounds of the tiles. Stay tuned for more samples, including Zendalas.
And I'll be sure to let you know when I actually launch them on Etsy.

And to let you in on a secret, for you paper crafters out there, I am also making these into digital papers for scrapbooking and other crafts, as well as lined writing papers. I'm so excited about this! 

 

New Color Tiles

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams."   Paul Gauguin

I'm very excited about the new line of tiles I'm introducing. About six months ago I started selling what I call my pre-strung pathway tiles. They are made with alcohol inks which form pathways for tangling, or tangling between, or tangling over, whichever you prefer. They were so well received by all of you, that I started thinking about making more tiles with alcohol inks, but different from the others. And thus were born these tiles that I am introducing now.

The difference is that my new tiles don't have pathways. They just having interesting colors and designs that meander and mix and flow all over the place. You can use the designs that the inks make to define the spaces you want to tangle, or you can just tangle over the whole background however you want. The unpredictable nature of the inks is what gives such an interesting look to the tiles. 

Here is my first example of a tile.  

 I decided to outline some of it first.

And then fill that area with tangles (N'zeppel, Diva Dance, and Btl Joos.) I used some pastel pencils for shading to add extra color. It's kind of a weird and wacky piece.

Here's the next tile I chose. I love the combination of pink, purple, and teal in this one.

I let the colors serve as an overall background this time, and tangled some Garlic Cloves, Pais, and Tipple. I love the way it turned out (all those soothing lines!) and thought that it looked best turned like this.

I used pastel pencils (of course) to add shading and give it a more 3D look. I matched the shading to the color in the background, using pink, purple, and teal. A touch of highlighting was added with white in the centers of the petals.

The next tile has a more textured look to it.

When I saw the tile turned sideways, it reminded my of the ocean (good imagination), so I thought of the pattern Sea Wave.

I added some Henna Drum flowers to it.

And then added shading, again, with pastel pencils.

Love this one too. The great colors and textures on the tiles make it almost impossible to end up with something I really don't like.

I was going to end my post there, but I did another tile that I really like, so I'm adding it here. Untangled tile...

Tangled with Sand Swirl, Meer, Florz, and Maryhill.

The shading didn't show up in this picture as well as I would have liked, but here it is...

I've had so much fun playing with the alcohol inks and coming up with these new tiles. Although they look very different than my pathway tiles, the thing that is the same about them is the process: designed with alcohol inks on yupo, then printed on bristol vellum paper and cut into 4 inch tiles. I love the slightly larger size of the tiles compared to traditional Zentangle tiles, and I love the vellum surface for tangling with Microns and shading with most anything. 

If you'd like to take a look at more of these tiles, or the pre-strung pathway tiles, you can check them out in my Etsy shop here. They are available in both square tiles and Zendalas. As an introductory offer, if you order any of these new tiles between now and January 18th, you can use the code NEWCOLOR to get 10% off. I'll be back soon with a post showing you some of my new tangled Zendalas. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!