Rainy Wednesday

Diva Challenge #264-Stripes

patterns: Maeby, Oybey, Snails, Wud, Kisses and Golven

This is the latest set of watercolor ATC's I made. I started with a brown and rust wash then splattered with blue. Here's the link to my watercolor tutorial from a previous post. These are some of my favorite ribbon patterns along with a new one, "Maeby" by Julie Beland. I love Julie's patterns, they're so whimsical. Snails came up in this weeks Square One challenge.

Made by Joey #110

Roman Numeral Series: X

patterns: Diva Dance, Ticking, Showgirl, Wedge and Snookums

This one was a bit of a challenge as I wasn't too crazy about the string-it was too symmetrical for my taste but that's why they call these challenges;-) I like the way it turned out even though I'm much too reliant on the crutch of color.

Organic swap

for the Facebook group Zentangle Artists Trading Card Swap group

This is a swap I just finished. I was so inspired that I completed these first 4 ATC's in one evening. The parameters were just to create Spring themed ATC's using organic patterns. I started the page below in my sketchbook a few weeks ago on one of the several watercolor sheets I dashed off before heading out on a road trip with my sister and nephew to Newport Beach. I started a few organic patterns in the top left corner. We stopped in Pismo Beach for some cave kayaking and I was inspired by the kelp beds we were paddling around in.

I've talked about my love of swaps in previous posts. I always try to teach myself something new by studying the work of artists I admire. The repetition of creating 7-10 ATC's or tiles secures those new techniques in my toolbox. 

When the word Organic came up I immediately thought of the work of Sharla Hicks. She's the queen of organic ZIA's. The rest just developed from there. I had also seen some examples of works called Tints on Tan on Cris Letourneau's blog, in which she reviewed a kit and tutorial on adding color to tan Renaissance tiles. I don't really know what that kit involves but by looking at the work on Cris' blog I played around with colored pencils and grey tone Prismacolor markers. I have the colorless marker blender which works beautifully on the Prismacolor pencils. As you can see, I borrowed quite liberally from Cris' work. Thanks Cris!

Sketchbook-playing with organic patterns

Eventually, I will give this to my nephew as a birthday present. The cave kayaking was my sisters birthday gift to him so I thought he'd appreciate the inspiration.

I started writing this post whilst having my morning coffee at the cafe, when a burst of rain and a sketchy internet inspired my burst creativity to attack this week's It's a String Thing challenge.

The challenge was to use Quib as the string and fill with variations of Echoism. I only meant to practice in the sketch book then go at a regular tile. I may still do that. Maybe.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments inspire and delight me.