Tuesday, March 31, 2015

TangleBomb Tuesday

Square One: Purely Zentangle Facebook Group~pattern of the week "squid"

It's the last day of the month and I've been saving up;) This is "Squid". I've enjoyed exploring this one. I love organic patterns and breaking out of the confines of a string.



Someone in the group called this Mooka Pizza. I love it! In fact, I'm loving Mooka almost as much as I love pizza and that's high praise indeed.



One Tangle Facebook Group Challenge week 13-an infinity string

I did a similar challenge back in January for I am the Diva where I had done a similar kind of web attaching the Moebius strip to the frame.

That's New to Me Challenge week 13 "L" patterns & Diva Challenge #211 "Flux"

I'm killing 3 challenges with one tile. I've got some new "L" patterns going on. There's "Lantern", "LinQ", "LoobyLoo" and a little "LaBel". Then I've added the two versions of "Flux" for the Diva Challenge. This is a throwback of sorts to the very first It's a String Thing Challenge using string #1 and to include your choice of "L" patterns in honor of Linda Farmer at tanglepatterns.com. I'm adding my own personal shout out to Lily Moon at Lily's Tangles as she's one of my inspirations in going for the color here. I'm trying to be more precise in my line work and I'm always amazed at her attention to detail.


for Jane Monk's One Tangle Facebook Group weekly challenge.

Another throwback in my game of Catch-up. My sketchbook has many pages like this with strings and prompts from previous challenges from all of the groups and blogs I follow. The strings can sit here for weeks and weeks, waiting for my creative lightning to strike. I also include notes as I draw. Early on in this one I was displeased with how sandswirl started out, most notably that I had way too much coffee to attempt such fine line work and that this sketchbook can be a bit clumsy when I have to turn it to get at a pattern better.

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Thursday, March 26, 2015

Playing Catch-up Part 2

One Tangle: 52 Tangles in 52 Weeks
Mooka in a spiral string line

One Tangle week 12
featuring "Trio"

One Tangle Challenge week 10
with Marasu and Orbs-la-dee

I've had a very productive week tangle wise but at the expense of everything else. There's a sink full of dishes and a pile of laundry waiting for me at home.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

String Challenge #85 & More



It's a String Thing Challenge #85 with Mumsy, Kelp and Printemps

This was a relaxing challenge. I love drawing Printemps, It's my go-to filler but I rarely use it in larger chunks of space.

Mooka for Square One Purely Zentangle

This week's challenge at the Facebook group Square One: Purely Zentangle was Mooka. I have a love-hate relationship with Mooka. I love how it looks when drawn by the folks who get it and of course, and most especially, the elegance and beauty of Maria's work (creator of Mooka and co-founder of Zentangle). I've hated every single attempt I've made at it...until finally, I think I've got it! I still can't go at a blank tile without warming up first. The most important lesson I've learned with mooka is the shading and fill space really makes a difference.

O patterns: Orbs-la-dee and O-zone 

Here are a couple of new patterns I was playing around with at the museum today. I'd packed up all my gear and pedaled off. I like to sit in the beautiful cafe, sip on some tea and draw. I got myself all settled in and realized I forgot my bag of pens. All I had were two red/orange Microns and my little watercolor set that I'd tucked in my backpack at the last minute.  Anyhoo, I just made do with what I had. Today's sketch plan:

I just happened to come across O-zone this morning whilst making note of the challenges I wanted to catch up on at Jane Monk's One Tangle Facebook Group. At the museum I literally just started doodling a bunch of sketchy circles then filling in the gaps, so this is a bit fussier than Jane's original step-out. I had been practicing "Oof" this morning for catch-up on last week's Square One: Purely Zentangle Challenge. 

Update 3/27:
Tangle a border print

I came up with this border pattern riff on the O pattern challenge from the other day whilst pondering this week's Made by Joey challenge. It reminded me of a futon bedspread I used to have waaayy back in college.

Thanks for stopping by. Your comments always brighten my day!


Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Diva Challenge #210~Tangle a Spiral

I made a sampler of sorts including the patterns:
Wud, Printemps, Sandswirl, Black Pearls, Nzepple, Crescent moon 
& a couple of others I can't remember the names of

This week's challenge over at I am the Diva was to tangle a spiral. I need to do this more. I love spirals and always forget about them. 
The challenge, it seems, with spirals is that they're continuous and open ended. Not a problem here since I took the easy way out and drew a series of  bands intermittently across the great divide and created little boxes which were then easy to fill. 

Thanks for stopping by! I love your comments. 

Saturday, March 21, 2015

That's New to Me Week 11~B patterns

Btl Joos, Bly, Balawat & Black Pearls

Yay! I was able squeak in some drawing time last night and this morning. That's New to Me Challenge Week 11 was to introduce a new B pattern into our repertoire. I've been wanting to do Btl joos (Tanglepatterns.com) for a while now. I like the Dr. Seuss quality of it. I found Balawat (the central flower) at Perfectly4med. I love the patterns Neil Burley creates. They are not easy and quite a triumph when one is achieved. This is one of the simpler ones.
This was a fun challenge. All but Black Pearls are new to me.Bly was found on Tanglepatterns.com 

Plus a few random tiles. I was playing around with some watercolor washes on my hand cut bristol vellum tiles. This one began with the pattern I drew along the string line and I cannot, for the life of me, find the name of the pattern now. I had drawn it in my sketchbook weeks ago. I know it's from texasdoxiemama. If anyone out there knows what it's called please comment.
Artoo, Black Pearls, Printemps, Arc Flower, Tipple & a mystery pattern

Bunzo, Barberpole, Squavolution, Crescent Moon
and a pattern (maybe Copada) I saw on Lily Tangles 

This was just a random doodle I did the other night during my Downton Abbey marathon.

Thanks for stopping by. I love your comments!

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

TangleBomb Wednesday~Playing Catch-up


&

I didn't complete the string challenge in time to submit it, so I greened it up for the Diva.

Use My Tangle "Unbatz" by Sandy Hunter
also used "Copada" within Lily Moon's string #146

a duo-tangle using patterns Cubine and Pokeroot

So many tangles, so little time. I had an unexpected day off today due to a very unpleasant virus cramping my style, and after a 12 hour sleep, I had to get out of the house. It's a Green Tea & Creativity day today as the coffee just isn't gelling right now.
Otherwise, it's been a busy couple of weeks around here and it's really cut into my cafe time so I'm way behind on my challenges.
Much of my free time has been spent studying the wonders of cheese. I work at a specialty food market with the most amazing cheese counter I've ever seen and I've applied for a cheesemonger position. It's an extremely extensive subject and me being the Type A overachiever that I am, I've been pretty consumed. So we'll see...
I'm also having technical difficulties with my idiotphone taking foreeeeeevvverrrrr, if at all, sending my pics to both my image hosting site and my email, so when I have been able to carve out the teeny windows to draw I've been vexed in my attempts to get the pics here to the blog.
It's a String Thing Challenge #84-string 83 using patterns:
Antique, Amphora, Amoeba & Arrowheads

I finished this one this morning. This was supposed to be a practice piece hence the wonky cut corners. I have piles of bristol vellum and cardstock that I cut up for my tiles so I've never used an official tile, but I got this in the mail the other day:
Isn't that cool?
I wanted to use my special tile for Adele's challenge and I didn't want to screw it up so I was attempting to rough out the pattern placement. It's a little busy and I didn't intend to use all of the patterns, but I just let this one take it's course.  I spent so much time on it and I knew I wasn't going to have the time or the zenergy to repeat it.
Amphora & Alabastro

I love these two patterns, both new to me. I did this tile last week but never submitted it. I used Amphora again today for the String Thing challenge, hopefully with a little more finesse.

Lastly, another String Challenge from two weeks ago:
Patterns: Dutch Diamonds & Daggerly

I had this all finished and ready to submit when my idiotphone crapped out on me.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Made by Joey Challenge #49

patterns: Night 'n Day, Hypnotic, Phroz, Scrumble,
& I can't remember the other two

This weeks Challenge #49 over at Made by Joey is to stack boxes 3-2-1 and fill with tangles of your choice.
Currently, in my toolbox, I have a stack of watercolor "twinchies" (2" square tiles) I made from several large watercolor wash samplers I did before the holidays, trying to re-familiarize myself with my old art school watercolor palette and watercolor technique in an effort to make these as Christmas gifts:



Last week, during one of many Pinterest procrastination sessions, I was inspired by a cool mosaic of cut up and reassembled squares from a larger, abstract watercolor wash, I pulled out the stack of washes I'd tucked away and cut everything up, like these pieces I re-assembled in my sketchbook. I'm going to draw something over it but I don't know yet what.

Thank you for stopping by. Your comments and questions are welcome and appreciated.