Weekly Challenges and other artsy stuff

Diva Challenge #362

Use My Tangle Monday: "Somnee"

This weeks UMT pattern "Somnee" is by The Diva herself, created from some doodling during a bout of insomnia;-) I LOVE this pattern and it is seriously Zen.

I'm back in the DIY journal and as luck would have it, I actually had my Staedtler Triplus Fineliners out as I was pondering my first return Travelling Tangle tile. I was flipping through my journal and this watercolor page stopped me in my tracks. Circles were down in a matter of seconds. I only meant to contain Somnee to the upper left corner but I was having so much fun with it, I kept on going;-)

Before shading and misting

I like the way the Staedtler's are water soluble so I like to get them wet when I'm done, hence the bit of blur on the finished piece. That's  just my thang;-)

The start

Duo Challenge

Joey #215 & IAST#242

This is where I took my first break
I loved the IAST side but had no idea where to go next

This was a challenge and it took me awhile to get back to it. In the interim, I finished some Travelling Tangles from Heidi Whitney. She sent me a bunch of cool stuff.

Heidi's start...

I've been noodling around with "Soul star" in my sketchbook

Heidi's cute little Bijou start

I totally swiped the rosebuds from something I saw on Today's Tangles
because I love flowers;-)

Heidi sent me a blank Metaphorist tile
I LOVE these!

 Happy mail is so awesome! I've never heard of these before. I don't know if you can see the texture of the surface but it's like linen. I saw something on Today's Tangles that inspired the design and I had so much fun drawing this. I used a black Staedtler Triplus Fineliner (a recommendation from another swap pal) and I really have to refrain from misting some water on this because I didn't even want to shade it. The black fineliner bleeds out a cool shade of brown that I love...another time perhaps;-)

It's been a while since I've done the Travelling Tangles, but if anyone is not familiar with it you should check out The Travelling Tangles Project on Facebook. We swap partially started tiles and finish them off. It's such great inspiration for getting out of your comfort zone and learning something new and it makes a trip to the mailbox a lot more fun too;-)
Once I've built up a stash of them, I want to start a new mixed media journal using the cards and envelopes as the base to showcase each finished tile. Stay tuned!

More flowers...

In the DIY art journal

This was a page I'd started weeks ago. I was cleaning off one of my watercolor palettes and dropped down some murky circles that I eventually used for flower practice and then left it at that. Yesterday, I felt compelled to add some colored pencil to brighten up the colors, then I deepened some shadows with a Tombow brushpen...then...what the heck, let's do a background. I love what came out of a page that was essentially a throwaway.

"I'm trying to bathe here!"

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