Diva Challenge #327, Made by Joey #176 and other stuff...

Diva Challenge #327

Guest Blogger: Henrike Bratz

Lisbon Fragment & Diva Dance

Henrike introduced us to her pattern Lisbon Fragment, inspired by tiles she'd encountered during her trip to Lisbon.

I chose a tile I'd made quite a while ago using art tissue transfer coloring thinking it would make a nice host to diva dance and capture the tile aspect of Henrike's inspiration. I'm using the Staedtler Triplus Fineliners I recently purchased. It didn't take me long to discover that these pens are water soluble and bleed...but that's ok. I'm now seeking ways to embrace that:

Using a straw, I added a few drops of water...

...and let it bleed

I had a lot of fun with this tile.

Made by Joey Challenge #127

Guest Blogger: Trudi Taylor

Trudi challenges us with a string she created using her variation of the pattern "Tropicana" as a string. The challenge is meant to be a vehicle for dimension and shading. I had so much fun with this one too! I had absolutely no plan as this was so far out of my comfort zone. I'd chosen an ATC I'd made a long time ago using tissue paper transfer coloring. It was in a weird combination of orange (a color I really don't use) and blue, then the murkiness that ensues when one combines complementary colors. I'd be lost without my colored pencils;-)

My most recent Eco-printed paper creation

I was looking up the pattern "Venetian" on Pinterest for one of the "92 Days" prompts and was inspired by all of the gorgeous Venice Carnival masks that appeared. Prior to that I had started this piece on the mirror imprint of this:

I'd used the green Staedtler pen to outline all of the green leaves and added a few big Mookas and after that I was stuck and put it aside. Later, I saw the mask! I wish I'd taken a picture of it at that point, but it was really a hot mess, with all the lines converging, sort of, into a...mess.
As I started playing around with the mask idea, I was sure I was going to abandon it. I watered down the the center of the splaying leaves and the bleeding created a very cool transparent effect. Anyhoo...this turned out to be my favorite piece to date. Lesson learned: Give a Hot Mess a Chance!

This is a swap I'm finishing up for the Tangled and Journaled Too! group, the masterminds behind my "92 Days" sketchbook series...which I'm totally behind on again. The parameters were to use any of the "92 Days" prompts as a theme, as many or as few as you liked. I had a lot of fun with the "Text" prompt and used it a couple of times in my journal. I had found an old and sadly dilapidated book of poetry on the bookshelf at the cafe I draw at in the morning.

kittypic of the week

For anyone interested in how the art tissue paper transfer technique works, here's the link to Susan Rink Olsen's tutorial.

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

Diva Challenge #326, Made by Joey Challenge #175 etc.....

Diva Challenge #326

Guest blogger Elisa Murphy

"Nzeppel Monotangle"

I was done...

then decided I wasn't...
I shouldn't have done that

"Nzeppel" is one of my Top 20 faves so I was anxious to jump right into this one as the perfect motivator to monotangle the crap out of it. I grabbed one of the extra rope string tiles I'd started for the Joey Challenge I guest hosted a couple of weeks ago and got going. Somewhere midway I was not gelling with the tile at all. The sections were too similar and I wasn't getting the contrast I wanted. I sat it aside after I got all the line work down and thought I could fix it in the shading and mucked it up even more. But, that's ok. It's all part of the journey.

I started again.

"Nzeppel" Monotangle

take 2

Made by Joey Challenge #175

Guest blogger Stephanie Jennifer
"Naida"

I've been following Joey's challenges for a couple of years. Very early on in this pursuit I decided to make ATC's my format for these challenges and I've been known to tweak the prompt to fit.

Here's the latest in my Eco-print Series:

I got a little behind with my "92 Days" prompts last week:

I had a little more play with "Peanuckle" after last weeks Diva Challenge. 

It's growing on me;-)

One of the challenges with this project is dealing with the bleed through from some of the various mediums that I use. I learned a long time ago not to be fussy or precious with my art. So instead of limiting my tools to avoid the bleed, I try to embrace it. It's not easy sometimes.

...and on the Travelling Tangles Project front:

I sent this ATC to Sue Bailey in Australia...

...Sue's gorgeous finish

I need to amp up my Betweed game

this is lovely

me: "Aimee! You better not be on Chewy.com again!!!" 🐾💞

Aimee: "What. Ever."

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

Diva Challenge #325, Made by Joey #174 ETC....

Diva Challenge #325

Guest Blogger: Jessica Davies

"Peanuckle"
colored fineliner and Prismacolor pencil
on art tissue colored paper

Whilst visiting my sister in the burbs last week, I wandered into Target and was excited to find this set of Staedtler Triplus fineliners in a color palette that was sooooo me... $6!!!! It was the last one. Serendipity!

Now, those of you who are familiar with my work see a lot a fun with color when it comes to my backgrounds but, for line work I'm all about black. Sometimes I venture into brown and blue so this colored pen thing is new to me. I tried them out on the eco-print piece below first and then on this Diva piece.

Jessica Davies is back this week with a challenge to use "Peanuckle". It's another one of those patterns I like the look of but have had a hard time executing, thus, I never use it. So after my whiney groan, I took a deep breath and thought "Great! Let's do this!"

Made by Joey #174

Guest Blogger: Susie Ng

Finish My Tile 
"Asian Fans" 
art tissue coloring on an ATC

This week's guest blogger at Made by Joey's Weekly Challenge is Susie Ng from Fleeting Time. Susie's artwork is unique in its remarkable contrast of bold graphics and elegant finesse that results in the most outside-the-box creations in the best way possible. I've never seen anything like it.

Susie provided us with a simple string and a gorgeous start of  "Asian Fans". I loved it. It scared me;-)

My latest on Eco-printed paper:

4"x 6" Zia

Staedler fineliners and Prismacolor pencils

Here are some of the Travelling Tangles I've recently finished:

My finish...

...to this inspiring start by Elena Greer

My finish...

...to this fun beginning by Betsy Kent

My finish...

...to this lovely start by Sue Clark

It was back to basics black on white this last round. I love that so much...especially since I've been so pre-occupied with color lately;-)

Sue generously sent me a black pre-strung Zendala, a pre-strung 3Z and a Renaissance 3Z to have some fun with. What a treat it was when this lovely envelope arrived. I don't have the budget or bandwidth to acquire official Zentangle products, so it's always a joy to work with them when my amazing tangle peeps send me the "real thing". Many thanks Sue! I can't wait to get my mitts on these and to Elena and Betsy for all of the drawing pleasure I got from your lovely beginnings

Aimee pic of the week

This cracked me up

At first I thought she was just stretching

she slept like this for a long time

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

Diva Challenge #324 and more...

Diva Challenge #324

Guest Blogger: Jessica Davies

"Tangled Heart"
on a watercolor tile
Tippled

There are two things that vex me in my pursuit of Zentangle Zen. Hearts and Monotangles. 

Laura, our Diva is taking the Summer off to enjoy family time and we'll be treated to some challenge fun by a series of guest bloggers for the next couple of months. Jessica challenges us with hearts (the monotangle angle is my own). Her hearts are Fab (click the above link to see her awesomeness) .

I'm not a "hearts and flowers" type and always dread the dreaded heart/valentine inspired challenges that come around once a year. But, I always try to be a good sport and I thought I'd mash this up with my self-challenge to do monotangles. Besides, a heart is just a string, right?

Now, speaking of guest bloggers, I made my guest blogger debut at this week's Made by Joey's Weekly Challenge. You can see the challenge here, and if you haven't participated, I'd be delighted if you did. Within that post I touched upon on what I'm calling 20 Monotangles, inspired by my concept of mastering my Top 20 Patterns.

Last week, I made my first attempt at Eco-printing on watercolor paper and here are some pieces I created this week:

4 "x 6" ZIA

on eco-printed paper

These are just too much fun!

more eco-print paper inspiration

5"x 7" Zia

This week's "92 Days" prompts from the Facebook group "Tangled and Journaled, Too!"completed:

Aimee sez: "Put that sticky down and rub my head!"

Thanks for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me;-)

Made by Joey Challenge #173: My Guest Blogger Challenge

Made by Joey #173

Margaret Bremner's "Rope  String"

Dingbatz'd

This week I'm honored to create a guest blog post for Joey's weekly challenges. She's much deserving of a break after 170+ inspiring posts. Seriously...to do this week after week requires a lot of dedication, discipline and IDEAS! I pondered...and pondered several half-baked ideas to come up with one I thought would be an inspiring challenge to Joey's followers (and to me too).

I am almost always challenged by strings, but I do love getting back to basics by laying some thing down on paper so I have a place to start. I like the structure the string provides and I like the challenge of making that string disappear. The great thing about this particular string is that it works well whether you embrace it or make it go away. 

from my archives

my sketchbook set-up

still a work-in progress...I think;-)

I always have a string page going on in the sketchbook to collect inspiration from my travels around the blogs, Facebook and Pinterest. It's my version of a sampler and this string is a great host for every type of pattern out there, grid, organic, ribbon, vine, fill....whatever and it shades beautifully.

The second part of the challenge was the real challenge for me. Disconnect. Pen, tile, self. That's it.

I spend sooooo much time noodling around the internet looking for inspiration, I forget that I can be my own inspiration. I clicked with this after watching several of Laura's (I am the Diva) live streams. She (as do all of us whether we think we do or not) has an arsenal of patterns she uses most frequently. Laura seemed to ponder "what should I do next?" briefly and decide on something as simple as say...Tipple. I came to the conclusion that if one masters, perhaps 20 patterns tops, that's all you need in 90% of the drawing you do so you can call upon them by instinct. 

Mastering a pattern is a challenge too. It includes taking the time to explore as many variations you can of a pattern in a monotangle by varying size and line weight to create contrast. I ALWAYS cringe when I'm called upon to do one, but they usually end up being super fun in the end.

Printemps

I did this tile awhile back and didn't notate the prompt but I think it was for a Square One Purely Zentangle weekly challenge. It illustrates a concept that was drilled into me in art school "Contrast Equals Interest". I'm also a big fan of "the elegance of limitation"-Rick Roberts. I used to describe it as not crippling yourself with choices but Rick's words are so much more Zen;-)

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have fun with this challenge. I would love to hear your thoughts;-)

Diva Challenge #323, Made by Joey #172 and a New Technique

Diva Challenge #323

"Home"

4 x 6" ZIA on my first eco-printed paper

my "audition" piece

 trying out a bunch of colored fine liners, colored pencils and markers

This week, Canada celebrated Canada Day and here in the U.S. we celebrated Independence Day. Laura challenged us to create a tile that celebrates home.

Yesterday was my birthday and I'd arranged to have a couple of extra days off this week. It was cold and overcast and I was perfectly happy to spend the day at home with Aimee doing what I love, drawing with a cup of tea (later on, a glass of wine) and watching BBC/PBS Mysteries. I'm currently on season 8 of The Murdoch Mysteries, a Canadian TV series. Somewhat apropos since I am Canadian, born on the 4th of July;-)

On Monday I made my first Eco-printed paper (some of the results below).  When I read the Diva's post yesterday morning, it was the perfect prompt to put pen to my new paper, created by my local flora. The entire drawing experience was "Home" for me. 

The urge to eco-dye was presented to me few months ago whilst oogling these remarkable images from Margaret Bremner's blog, The Enthusiastic Artist where she generously led us through her first attempt. I was amazed at the beauty of the artwork that resulted from the gorgeous organic colors and shapes that emerged from the paper alone. I put it on my back-burner To Do list and decided my birthday week stay-cation was the perfect time to  take the plunge. 

I spent my last two work days collecting all manner of leaves and wild-flowers on my walk to and from the bus stops, including a short detour through Golden Gate Park. I work at a gourmet market with a lot of fresh flowers so I asked one of the florists  to save me any trimmings/culls thus ending up with a great pile of foliage all total, most of which I can't name. The best results came from the Eucalypus leaves and some lovely magenta wildflowers I gathered on my short walk from my apartment to the cafe around the corner. 

This is the one I finally got the nerve to draw on for the Zia above:

  

the first reveal

I can't even describe the joy I felt opening up my packets of paper

pretty cool huh?

Made by Joey #172 from Guest Blogger Ilse

"Auraknot"

sepia dip pen on a water-colored tile

Joey's taking a Summer break so she's lined up some guest bloggers (mine appears next week). I was delighted to see this one from Ilse at Zentangle Zoo. I love Auraknot yet rarely use it. Great challenge!

Here are the results of this weeks "92 Days" daily drawing prompts from the Facebook group Tangled and Journaled, Too!

Rewind day was a chance to revisit a favorite. 

I loved the Text prompt so I did it again.

It's sort like black-out poetry

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me;-)