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. 

Works-in-Progress: Swap

This was the first tile starting with a simple looping string.

"Tuesday Tangles and Other Faves"

using only patterns from my reference binder

The first 4 tiles using a loopy string drawn with a terra cotta Prismacolor pencil

line work starts with the calligraphy pen dipped in brown ink

this needs time to dry so I'm working on a few at a time

These are tiles I'm creating for a swap for the Facebook group Tangled & Journaled: Too. The parameters are to use standard 3 1/2" tiles and use only tangles (patterns). No doodling.

These swaps are always a lot of fun for me, but mostly I use them as an opportunity to explore and enhance my toolbox. I've been assembling a pattern library (2 inch tiles in a binder using slide sleeves) prompted by the groups Tuesday Tangles weekly challenge to add new patterns to the repertoire, but I'm also collecting patterns I've used before but never remember to use . 

When faced with creating 10+ tiles (or ATC's)  for a swap, I start by finding a theme and then explore variations of that theme-generally something that I want to perfect.

I've been exploring Renaissance tiles lately, so I want to keep working on this. In its basic form it starts with a tan tile, using black, brown and red pens for line work, graphite and brown pencil for shading and then white pencil and gel pen for highlight.

I started with my hand painted watercolor wash on a 9x12 sheet of watercolor paper. This is the link to a previous post with the "How to" tutorial.

I decided to pick an artist whose technique I really admire and try to replicate some of the elements I feel I could use some improvement on. Margaret Bremner's work is incredible and her Renaissance pieces are exceptional. I love how she shades and how she uses strings. I'm using her looping string approach, mixing my microns with calligraphy pen  and Rapidograph technical pens for line work, using only patterns from my pattern library and finally, l want to improve drop shadows.

I posted the second photo (above) on the groups Facebook page yesterday and then I was asked to submit a photo for the banner art this week. How cool is that?

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments inspire and delight me.

Diva Challenge #257 & Made by Joey #102

Diva Challenge #257

Oooooh Shiny!

Guest blogger Amy Broady's challenge was to add some shine, gleam or glint to your piece this week. Specifically: metallic. hmnnnn...I was not quite sure what to do about this. My toolbox does not contain ready-made metallic or glitz or glimmer. I suppose I could have attempted to dig up a sequin or rhinestone, but I really don't like gluing stuff on my tiles. I dunno...I'm weird that way. I couldn't help but think about my art school days when my teachers would insist we learn to paint metallic with highlight and shadow. I have a background in theatrical costume design and painted a lot of glitz back in the day. That was then...

...this is now: I created another "Gem" piece. The attempt was to achieve shiny within the gem and convey the illusion of a burnished/antique-y metallic setting. I had already set out to draw in the museum cafe and had a limited amount of tools with me. I yam what I yam;-)

Made by Joey #102

String: roman numeral II

patterns: Japonica. Hi C's & Flux

This was a fun challenge. I'm sticking to a theme of using brown ink on my hand painted "Renaissance" ATC's...hoping for a fun little series for the 15 weeks of roman numeral strings.

Square One: Purely Zentangle

featured pattern: Zonked

Zonked is another one of those patterns I have a love/hate relationship with. I love how it looks when done by more capable hands but I have the hardest time getting the rounding clean and seamless. For such a simple pattern it's quite the beast. This one came out better than any other attempts I've made at it once I really focused.

The key is 100% Purely Zentangle. This works so much better when using a tile, rather than a sketchbook (which I use mostly for the Square One pieces), so you can easily turn the tile as you sloowwwly and Zen-fully work. I had to tear the page out and cut it down to tile size so I could work this one a little easier.

I'm also trying to document these pieces before shading so I can submit to Eni Oken's Shading Zentangle page. For anyone who's not familiar with this group, I encourage you to check it out. It's a great learning tool.

Anyhoo, thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

It's a String Thing Challenge #133

String Challenge #133

string #133

Patterns: Fife, Yincut & Flukes

Continuing on with my current fixation with renaissance tiles, I created this...after a few false starts. The string was just a series of angles, forming many, many areas to fill (or not to fill). Of the three patterns 2 were new to me. Yincut is one I don't use often but I really like it and it's especially nice in the renaissance zone. Every time I've seen Fife used I always think "I like that, I should use it"...then I forget. Flukes is super simple and so effective. I generally avoid grid patterns but I love how dimensional it is and it's great for a bold mark. So, yay! I learned something new.

I recently got my mitts on some official Renaissance tiles and though the above tile is just on a piece of tan flecked card stock, after working with the real deal I shall share this little nugget of wisdom:  keep a clean sheet of paper between your hand/fingers and the tile...they love to blot up your oils. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments inspire and delight me.

String Challenge #132

Going old school with pen and ink and hand painted tiles this morning. I bought a set of calligraphy tools last month and I've really enjoyed using them, especially doing the renaissance tiles. The ink bleeds a little on the watercolor paper and I tend to make a mess but that's all part of the journey.

String Challenge #132

String #132

'Dillo, Tattle & Tri-bine

This is a weird one but I kinda like it. I did not intend for this to look like fish.

This is the ensemble piece I started in the last post, complete with a big blob of ink right in the middle. Apologies for the unfortunate photos. My idiotphone camera quality has sadly deteriorated and I don't have a scanner at home.
I trimmed away the white border from the masking. The original sheet size was 9" x 12".

I ended up with six 3 1/2" square tiles and a strip I can cut down into 2 bookmarks.

Finished pieces scanned

Now I just have to find a frame that speaks to me. Stay tuned.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Jewels for Joey & Ghosts of Tangles Past

Jewels for Joey

Challenge #100 from Made by Joey

Joey's challenge  was to use the provided string, your choice of patterns and to put  Bijou, the official Zentangle mascot, somewhere on the tile. To celebrate Made by Joey's 100th Weekly Challenge, I made Joey some bijoux with a hidden Bijou.

September 2013

Diva Challenge #255-Ghosts of Tangles Past

Dig up an old tile from your beginner archives and use it as inspiration to create a new piece with all of your mad skills. I'm fairly certain that this was one of the first tiles I ever made. I never dated anything but I found this one dated and I was actually surprised that it went back that far. I can't believe I lurked around for a year before I started this blog.

Fast forward to this morning...I used the same string and the same patterns on a watercolor "Renaissance" tile. Yeah...it's a bit over-worked and took forever but it was fun exploring some new techniques and playing around with different tools. This is what the tile looked like before:

note to self: leave more paper showing next time;-P

I'm exploring the world of Renaissance tiles...again. Last night I created 3 watercolor sheets and started this practice page, using different sized coasters to randomly create a bunch of string lines:

I'm just gonna play around with a bunch of stuff and if it turns out okay I'll cut it apart and make some kind of ensemble piece like this. Thanks to Jennifer Sparrow for that inspiration.

Here's the link to the post where I did the watercolor background tutorial.


Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments inspire and delight me.