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;-)