Lazy Day Zendala

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

I love Zendalas. Sometimes when I'm feeling really creative I start from scratch and design my own using various methods: compass and ruler, stencils, freehand... But this time I didn't want to have to think too much, so I chose to start with a mandala pattern from a coloring book I have called Mandala Designs, which you can see here. 

This is what the page looked like before I put my hands (or should I say my pens) on it. 

I transferred the design onto a piece of off-white Stonehenge paper, one of my favorite surfaces for tangling and shading on. Cadent was used for the border, Fassett for the triangular area, and Coil for the...other sections... not sure what to call them. I love the way Coil looks, but boy did it take a lot of concentration. That was certainly not the most relaxing part of this Zendala for me! So much for not wanting to think too hard.

I'm really happy with the way this one looks and like the contrast of the dark parts. About half of the book I mentioned has designs great for tangling (the other half would be for coloring), so I have lots more to use when I'm having another lazy Zendala kind of day.

Recipe for Zentangle Inspired Art

"I just want to make beautiful things even if nobody cares."     Unknown

Zentangle Inspired Art

Ingredients:

     Stonehenge paper
     Pencil
     Black micron pen

Directions:

Using your pencil, draw a string with random curves. Then draw auras around your lines so you have space to tangle between the lines. Now take your Micron pen and fill that space between the lines with the tangle pattern Baton.

Next, aura the outside lines and fill that space with one row of Knightsbridge. Aura the inside spaces and fill the narrow area with orbs and blacken behind them.

With your pencil, add a first layer of shading. Then go back and darken the shading right along the edges.

Add a few lines to the center open areas, just because.
And voila!

Just the kind of recipe I like... one with only a few ingredients and a few steps. And one that tastes good in the end!

Wishing everyone a happy new year, one filled with lots of tangling!

Renaissance Faire

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."      Leonardo da Vinci

Here is a piece I completed recently on tan-colored Stonehenge paper. I really enjoy working on that paper because of how nicely and easily you can shade on it with a tortillion. In my opinion, the shading is much smoother than on the Renaissance tiles from Zentangle.com. 

Patterns used: Henna Drum, Mooka, Steffi, Flux, Printemps, Flowtus and Tipple

I absolutely love the way this turned out. And what a difference the shading (with brown pastel pencil) and highlighting (with white pastel pencil) made! I was never a big fan of Mooka, probably because mine just never looked good to me, but here I really like it. Those little flowery things in the upper right are my pattern Steffi from my e-book, Step Out in Style.

Coincidentally, the day after I completed this piece, Cris Letourneau contacted me. She is the author of the Zentangle related books Pattern Play (co-authored with Sonya Yencer) and Made in the Shade. She wanted to know if I'd like to contribute any of my art using pastel pencil shading (since I use that method so often) to a new book she's working on all about tangling on Renaissance tiles and tan-toned papers. (More info on her book at the bottom of this post.) Of course most artists wouldn't pass up a chance to have their work published, so I showed her the piece from above, and then worked on a few more to send to her.

The first one is light and airy with lots of open spaces for shading and highlighting. Completed on a Renaissance tile.

 Patterns used: Joki and Pokeleaf

The next one is more traditional, started with four dots, a border, and a string. Also completed on a Renaissance tile.

 

Patterns used: Cadent, N'zeppel, Leeter and Printemps

I decided to go with color (also pastel pencil) on the next one instead of the brown I usually use. This one is on tan-toned paper from Strathmore.

 

Patterns used:Flux, Sea Wave and orbs

This last one was not one I sent to Cris, but another one done on a Renaissance tile, this one a pre-strung zendala. I used both brown and black Micron pens, along with brown pastel pencil and graphite for shading, and of course the white pastel pencil for highlights.

 

Patterns used: Purk, Baton and Munchin

I have no idea which of these might show up in Cris' new book, but I enjoyed working on them all.

Cris informs me that the title of her new book will be Timeless Tangling: Art Inspired from the Renaissance and Beyond, and the publication date will probably be next summer. In her own words, "This book will be about techniques for working on tan-toned papers, using different tools, and learning some fine-art skills to make your ZIAs even more beautiful. Included will be inspirational art, step-by-step projects, and practical information to help take your tangling to the next level."

I know that I'm looking forward to the book and am confident that it will be just as wonderful as her previous publications!

 

Tangled Tessellations

A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps.

I have a book called Mosaic and Tessellated Patterns, from Dover publications. This design struck me as a perfect one to tangle, with large enough spaces to work in. Some of the other designs are intricate on their own and wouldn't be suitable for tangling.

First I transferred the pattern onto a piece of white Stonehenge paper so I would have pencil outlines instead of printed lines. I chose the patterns Maryhill (love that tangle by Betsy Wilson) and 'Nzeppel.

Then I shaded it, which took as long as the tangling did, even though it may not look like it! I love the way a pencil blends so nicely on that paper.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I'll have to look at my book again to find another page to do. The designs make great strings for tangling.

Lazy Days of Summer

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."        Sam Keen

A couple of weeks ago I told you about my new studio. Well, I have to say that I've REALLY been enjoying it! It's so bright and roomy and cheerful, and it fits all my needs perfectly.

So... you may ask what I've been creating in my new space. My latest is a Zendala, using Knightsbridge, Paradox, Printemps, and Betweed. Here is a picture of it before shading.

And here's the final piece, after shading. This was drawn on Stonehenge paper, which I've grown to love for my tangling. The pencil shading is so easy and smooth on this paper.

The shading, once again, made all the difference in the world! There is so much more dimension to a shaded piece.

I recently decided that I was going to offer prints of some of my Zentangle and Zentangle inspired art work for sale in my Etsy shop. Currently I sell supplies, hand-colored tiles, my e-books, and cards. I have started by adding three of my favorite drawings up to now, as well as this newly created Zendala. I hope to add lots more over time. There are many options as to size, as well as paper and surface finish, from glossy to matte to canvas to giclee, among others. If you're interested in taking a look at my shop, you can check it out here.

As a kickoff to my new venture, in conjunction with Memorial Day and the "unofficial" beginning of summer, I am offering 10% off any purchase made from my Etsy shop between now and Monday night, May 30, at midnight (EST). The discount will be applied to any purchase you make, including supplies, e-books, and my newly offered prints. Make sure you enter the code MEM10 before checking out of the shop.

Thanks for taking a peek at my shop, and for following my blog. Happy Memorial Day!

Here, There and Everywhere

"Well, as you can plainly see, the possibilities are endless like meandering paths in a great big beautiful garden."    William S. Burroughs

The Diva's challenge this week is to use the newly released tangle pattern called Molygon. I had a lot of fun with this pattern and just kept wanting to try something different, so I'm sharing a number of my experiments here.

On this first one I just let my Molygon wander around, and instead of filling the segments with anything, I only shaded. Using graphite on the top section, I followed the design down with a few different colored pastel pencils for the shading. The blue part was really a little more towards the color teal, but this is the best I could get when scanning it.

Next I used a piece of Stonehenge paper that has a slightly grey tone. I added some striping to Molygon and then some Flux. Shading and white highlights finished it off.

I've seen some tanglers who tangle tiny, but that's not me. I can't work tiny -- it bothers my eyes. So I knew there wouldn't be any fill inside the following one. I just shaded and added some darker outlining to some of them to give it a little more contrast.

I drew my next Molygon larger so I'd have space to add fill.

Then I wanted to try adding some color, so using my Tombow brush markers, here is what I did. Again, the colors didn't translate as well as I would have liked, and what looks pink here is really more coral colored. Something about the colors in this one makes me happy... minus the stray marker line.

Then I said to myself, "Just one more!" In all of the above drawings my Molygon segments have a bit of space between them. I wanted to try one where they were spaced closer together. And I wanted it to be really different, so I did this one with white pen on black, and added some Printemps and Zinger. The segments are closer, but I had to concentrate on each one... for some reason my hand just wanted to leave more space. This one may be my favorite one of all. 

Molygon was such a fun tangle to play with. It's really easy to draw, and you can let it meander here and there and all over the place. Leave it empty and just shade, add tangles within, add tangles among the segments.... whatever you do, it looks great!