Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Diva Challenge#313, Made by Joey #162 and Travelling Tangles


Diva Challenge #313
Amanda Day
aka Earth Day

This was what I worked on during the Diva's stream on Sunday night. I had just gotten off work and was at a cafe across the street having a beer when I got the ping. I had a pen and a tile in my bag. I didn't even have a pencil. I drew a light spiral and  a few curving radials as a string and stuck with my usual suspects of organic faves. It felt a bit like a tide pool as I began drawing. I shaded it the next morning.


Diva Challenge #313 partB
Earth Day 

Later that day...I had one last watercolor zendala that begged to be included in this challenge. I started with one Mooka and the rest just emerged.


Made by Joey #162
Finish My Tile Alphabet Series: "Q"
featuring: Q-belle
additionally: Quandary and Queen's Crown


My recent round of Travelling Tangles again just using a select few patterns from my list last week:

My finish to...

...this gorgeous beginning by Gesine Pless-Petig in Germany

My finish to...

...another of Gesine's beginnings



My finish...

...to this lovely start from Margaret Blank

another finish...

...to one of Margaret's starters

Aimee says "you can just stop your drawing and adore me now"


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










Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Diva Challenge #312, Made by Joey #161 and Travelling Tangles

or Spill Your String

I love a good "spill" challenge and of course, my spill of choice is coffee...well, only in the name of art;-) I have a pile of coffee spill tiles I set up a couple of months ago. It was completely weird that I grabbed one of them when I got the email twing that the Diva was streaming live on Sunday night. I have very sketchy internet at home and wasn't expecting a stream on Easter Sunday. I grabbed a couple of tiles and a few pens and hoofed it around the corner to my cafe and caught Laura well into this weeks challenge. It took me a while to figure out what the challenge was as I couldn't see her stain on the video. It all happened very fast so I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the tile before I started drawing.
Coffee spill on watercolor
I did this one last week

I've been fortunate to be able to catch several of Laura's streams (including some of her Travelling Tangles finishes) and it only served to confirm something I've been trying establish in my work, that one only needs to master, say, 20 patterns. Patterns and variations that you can just draw from memory. The magic happens in the composition. It was this blog post by Margaret Bremner where she explores the super simple pattern "Echoism", that I try to come back to when I find myself going all ADD searching for inspiration.
I was inspired to issue myself a challenge. For the next two weeks, unless a challenge requires otherwise, I'm sticking to my top 20. Here's the list I made this morning whilst planning my Zentangle To Do list for my next two days off:

clearly, grid patterns aren't my thang;-)

Finish My Tile Alphabet Series: P
featuring: Pea-Fea
additionally: Pokeleaf, Phroz and Pixioze

Some of my recent Travelling Tangles finishes:

My finish

Andrea Karen Kine sent this "Sky" themed ATC
from Wooster, Ohio

My finish...

...to Andrea's 3Z start

My finish

This one was inspired by something I saw on The Diva's stream Saturday night where she was working on some of her Travelling Tangles. 

to Debra Huff's "Sky" inspired start

Sketchbook

This is my recently completed sketchbook page inspired by the Primer Studies exercises going on at the Facebook group Tangled and Journaled Too! There were severval Zentangle original patterns listed to be explored and "made your own". I don't own the Zentangle Primer so I follow along and interpret as best I can. There are additional patterns I've included that came on my radar last week that I wanted to keep handy.


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




Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Diva Challenge #311, Made by Joey #160, Travelling Tangles and The Bare Bones


String Theory: Circles and Squares

Many thanks to The Diva, Laura Harms for this fun challenge and her  new streaming venture. I managed to catch a couple of the streams over the weekend...sort of. My internet is veerrrrryyyy slooooowwww, so the videos spent more time buffering than playing. In spite of that, watching and listening to her even in broken up bits and pieces was an inspiration. Another upside was that I spent more time drawing than watching.

This is what I worked on while watching the stream

It's so enlightening to see how others work through a tile. It's also comforting to know that others go through the same struggles figuring out what to do next. It was a great coincidence that I managed to catch a stream she did Saturday night as she completed a couple of her Travelling Tangles at the same time I was working on one of mine.
I love this weeks String Theory challenge. Strings are the best. As much as I love venturing out into the world of free form organic creations, strings are mac 'n cheese to me and are the foundation of a dynamic composition. My string guru is Margaret Bremner. enuf said.
Last weeks "Frunky" challenge post included a batch of Travelling Tangle tiles I was getting ready to send out. I briefly touched on my process while using one of my TT starters to complete the Diva  tile. I mentioned how could understand the difficulties my swap partners may have finishing one of my tiles and one of the comments prompted me to do a Bare Bones post of my next Travelling Tangles piece.
But first, heeeere's Joey...

Finish My Tile Alphabet Series: "O"
featuring; "O2"
additionally: Opus and Oskie

This is a Bijou series I'm working on as headers for my pattern library binder. I tweaked Joey's original start by changing the font style of the O and incorporating O2 into the letter rather than the background. I really like the pattern O2 but I was confused by the step-out that Joey links to.

A Travelling Tile Bare Bones:

Raye Burnett sent me this lovely ATC. She uses the same tissue paper coloring technique that I do so I thought this would be a comfort zone piece to start with.
Step 1: Stare down and study. Determine what tools you're going to use. What did she start with? Do I have them? Do I want to keep going with it or start something new?
My arsenal of colored fine liners is pretty sparse. My favorite liner is a black Rapidograph refillable pen, so I generally decide where to introduce black if it's not already there. Raye's line looks like dark blue.

Step 2: String or no string? On a tile like this I keep rotating it and study the shapes emerging from the colors. I saw another band shape emerging and drew in a light string line.
Raye's graphic beginning and the break up of color at the top had me thinking to go graphic below and organic in the V shape.
I have a mantra "Contrast equals interest" a quote from one of my art teachers in grad school, so I chose to go bold in the blue.


 Step 3: I need reference to decide what patterns to use. Sometimes I can just wing it if the tile awakens something instinctual. I try to avoid going online to search for patterns because it's such a huge time waster, but I do it. I find Eni Oken's Shading Zentangle Facebook group my go to stop. Mostly I have my sketchbook. I chose "Rockpool" to contrast the bold lines of Raye's start.
Step 4: I use Margaret Bremner's Prestwood a lot. I wanted something wavy and dimensional to compliment Raye's start.
I was about here when I got the twing that the Diva was going live...

...so I missed photographing some steps.
Diva Dance came next. I filled in the rest of the blue areas with a Prismacolor pencil.
I was actually planning to do something organic and freeform in the V section like Fescu, Pokeleaf and Zinger, suddenly Frunky just came out of nowhere.
I shaded with warm grey Tombow brush pens and added highlight with a white Prismacolor pencil and a Signo Uniball white gel pen.



I'm calling this "Hey You're Just Too Frunky For Me" (Thank you George Michael)

So that's it for now!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you. Any questions or comments are welcome, encouraged and much appreciated.




Tuesday, April 11, 2017

IAST #191, Made by Joey #159 and Travelling Tangles

Adele's Easter Egg String
featuring: Zenith, Keeko, Echoism and Mel Mel

I had planned to post this last week but time just got away from me. I'll keep this short and sweet as I've got a pile of Travelling Tangles to share along with these challenges.
First up IAST #191: I'm a bit resistant to holiday themed challenges, so the challenge always is to disguise it. I really tried to make the egg go away and I was doing pretty well until the shading;-) I used one of the sunset tiles I created for the current Travelling Tangles swap. It's kinda Faberge.

Finish my Tile Alphabet Series: N
featuring: Natty
additionally: Namaste and Nipa

A few weeks ago I instigated several Travelling Tangle swaps. Here are some of my finishes followed by my starts finished by my peeps.

Bustin' out some Bijou's (or is it Bijoux?)

Raye Burnett sent me this li'l gem
from Eugene, Oregon

Stacey Furtado sent me this cutie
from New Hope, Pennsylvania

Heidi Whitney sent me this Zingo
from Murray, Utah

My finish...

...to Stacey Furtado's lovely beginning

Stacey also sent me this beauty

I pondered it a good long time before putting my pen to it:


I had been looking at Simone Menzel's "Noom" Diva Challenge and thought how lovely Noom and Aura-leah looked together. This seemed like the perfect place to try it out.


Now for my starters:

I sent this to Debra Huff in Oceanside, California

This is her fun finish


This  was my start to the Rooster Swap I sent to Debra

...and her vibrant finish

I sent this ATC to Heidi Whitney 

I love her seamless finish!

I sent this to Margaret Blank in the UK

I love how she finished this!

Another ATC I sent to Margaret

...and her fantasy finish. Cool isn't it?


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