It's a String Thing Challenge #207 and The Bare Bones

It's a String Thing Challenge #207

featuring: Cross-Ur-Heart

It's been a while since I've done an IAST challenge, but I've been wanting to try Cross-Ur-Heart since I first noticed it popping up in my various feeds. It's a bit surprising to me because I've always had a curmudgeonly aversion to heart inspired patterns.

                                                       

This is the string

If you've been following my blog you may have noticed I've been on a bit of a tangent with the water soluble fine liners, creating these little bubble effects everywhere I can. I wasn't aware they bled when I bought them and only through a "happy accident" in my journal where I'd used a wet medium on the backside of a page of some fine liner drawing, did I discover the blurry mistake opportunity. Anyhoo, after several explorations, I thought this might be a good theme for another "Bare Bones" process post since I had the foresight to photograph this from the start:

I started this on a tile colored with re-used art tissue
the line work is down using the purple fineliner

I dropped some water onto the tile using a straw

I let it bleed for a few minutes and then using the corner of a napkin 

I  carefully absorbed the excess water

I let it finish drying,

then, using a black 005 Micron, I added circles

I used a "Black Cherry" Prismacolor pencil  to lay in the first shadow
I use the Prismacolor Colorless Marker blender to smooth out the pencil

To finished it off I used a light grey Tombow marker to darken the edges around the bubbles, followed by white Prismacolor pencil to highlight the bubbles and final dots of white with a Signo Uniball broad tip.

I used a blue violet Prismacolor pencil to do the line work for the additional fill...and that's it.

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

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

Diva Challenge #311

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...

Made by Joey #160

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.

Diva Challenge #306, Joey Challenge#155 etc....

Diva Challenge #306

Use My Tangle Monday

featuring: Amphora by Lily Moon

The first Monday of the month challenges us to use a pattern submitted to The Diva by one of her many fans, fellow CZT's and loyal followers.

I am (as are many) a huge fan of Lily's work. She's truly a superstar in the world of Zentangle. I'm so glad Amphora is the chosen one because I needed a reason to finally get this pattern right. I've attempted it before with disappointing results and let it go. I have a really hard time keeping wavy lines consistent, especially when they need to mirror each other. I was also frustrated because I'd get it too cramped. So, I practiced this for quite a while in my sketchbook and realized the problem I've had all along with it was drawing it too small. I had my AHA! moment, grabbed a watercolor ZIA tile I'd relegated to the slush pile and...well...there ya go;-) I still need to work on Amphora in what I call "wallpaper" mode or fill. Hopefully later in the week.

Made by Joey #155

Finish My Tile Alphabet Series: J

featuring: Jellyroll

additionally: Jalousie and Jilli

This is a Bijou series I'm working through as page headers for my pattern library binder so I try to stick to Joey's parameters as best I can whilst maintaining a style consistency through out my series.

I also want to share a progression series I'm calling "The Bare Bones". I  used last week's "It's a String Thing" tile and posted the progress photos here. I'd love to hear from you if you find this sort of thing helpful and would like to see more. Many thanks to those of you who already commented on it. I know I always love seeing how others work through a tile.

Here's a Travelling Tangle I finished this week:

My finish to...

Debra Huff's starter

This was for the Year of the Rooster swap. The task was to start a tile using either rooster colors or feather like patterns. I used a dip pen and red ink to complete this. I was inspired by some work I'd seen on Eni Oken's Facebook group Shading Zentangle using Echo Lines. I love how this tile turned out.
Last week I was visiting Laurel Regan's blog, Alphabet Salad. She presented a set of beautiful note cards she'd created on watercolor paper she'd hand torn just using a metal ruler. I gave it a shot and then used tissue paper to color them.

Re-used tissue

I created this for the "Por Fin" Shading Zentangle weekly challenge

but I really don't want to shade it...yet;-)

Sketchbook WIP

Official Zentangle Patterns page

I'm trying to get all of them;-)

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

IAST Challenge #186 and The Bare Bones

String Challenge #186

Pi string featuring Pokeroot, W2 and Wacho

Adele challenges us to a piece inspired by Pi Day (3.14) with some Pie inspired patterns.

This one started off well, then took a wrong turn or two before I got it back on track. I had just made a new set of tissue paper colored tiles and found one that I thought could work with the string. I don't know why, but I started this off with a some trepidation. I'm not a fan of Pokeroot (though Pokeleaf is one of my favorite patterns) and that put me in a mood...which for some reason ignited the idea to track my process and give you The Bare Bones:

Aligning the string with the colors

The only thing I knew from the get-go was where I wanted W2

I like it big so I can decorate it

Wacho in the red corner came next...so far so good

decorated Wacho in the W2...good!

then I had the idea to try a little pattern morphing

risky move 'cuz I'm not good at it

...sigh...not going the way I'd like it to...

I think the transitions look clumsy...maybe an Aura will help (or not)

I almost chucked it at this point and put it aside

...later that day...

more auras

a little better but I'm still on the fence

shading with a Tombow paint pen

it's looking better

 a little pink colored pencil

highlights with a white Prismacolor pencil

better!

Finishing off with deeper shading, grey Tipple in the corner

some white gel pen highlights and (satisfied sigh) Done!

I actually can't stop looking at this tile now;-) So there you go. The anatomy of my tile.


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

String Challenge #175, 12 Days of 3Z, Made by Joey #144 and more...

It's a String Thing Challenge #175

"Drawings"

Hi everyone! I hope you're enjoying the week before Christmas without too much stress. I have a lot to share with you today, including the 3 recipients of my "Gift of Zentangle" from the Diva's challenge last week. You can jump to the bottom to find out;-)

This time of year I starting thinking of ways to make the blog better. What is it about other blogs I love? Besides the lovely art, I enjoy the personal anecdotes, snapshots of self, home and travel I also love shared techniques, sketchbooks and processes. So here and there you might see a photo of me, my home, my cafe, my sisters cat, my beautiful city...I'm pondering including a feature in select future posts, I'm calling The Bare Bones (for now) where I take you through a tile from start to finish and share my process. I know I love it when others  share their progress through a piece and I've gotten enough feedback over the years that I thought this might be nice way to give back. Anyhoo, I'd really love to hear your thoughts when you've made it through this post;-)

Now...onto It's a String Thing Challenge #175:

Drawings seems to be the "It" pattern this month. The step-out was released last week by Zentangle HQ as part of its 12 Days of 3Z's holiday challenge. Adele kindly left the tile free of a string. 

I was very happy to break Drawings out of the confines of the tiny spaces I'd challenged myself with over the past week, cramming into the corners of some fairly crowded 3Z's;-)

I decided to just go for it...sort of. I thought a Renaissance tile would make a nice exploration of this classic shape. This did not go well. This was the catalyst to my somewhat labored account of the process I share below...but next up is the final final of The 12 Days of 3Z's:

12 Days of 3Z's 

the final mosaic

Day 12 for the 12 Days of 3Z's

pattern of the day: Huggins

I managed to get all 12 patterns onto one tile...for better or worse;-P I loved exploring the 3Z's concept. It truly adds a whole new paradigm to our world of little pieces of abstract art. The mosaic effect is quite phenomenal.

Made by Joey Challenge #144

Finish My Tile Series: Printemps and a star

I adapted Joey's tile and starter prompt to an ATC colored with art tissue. I love drawing Printemps and I just discovered the pattern "Scoodle" whilst exploring my way through all of the HQ official patterns. It's basically Printemps in an S. I also added a bit of Tipple.

Back to Drawings:

I did the orb and initial "Spine" S-curves in pencil but once I completed all of ink lines I was not happy. I didn't like the shapes of the individual "feathers" and the resolution of the ink lines at the orb was really messy...the "take-offs & landings" felt like a hot mess to me. It was at this point Icamethisclose to chucking it and starting again. After a lengthy stare down I decided to keep going and photograph each step thinking this might pan out into a post about saving a tile...or not giving up...or no mistakes...I thought I'd look to some of Maria's sketchy works which I love and continue this along those lines-pun intended;-)...

...though it never really evolved  that way. Next was where to use brown. Renaissance tiles include some brown Micron work. I was looking at one of Maria's examples of Drawings from the Step-out page (I had this page open the whole time I worked on this) and saw what looked like "Fescu" within the feathers...the image was too small on my cell phone screen to see the detail but I figured why not?

I tried cleaning up the mass of lines with some rounding and stippling. I liked the contrast of the rounding...the stippling...not so much. I was going to aura the wing tips but ended up doing crescents instead. I don't know why, but I'm glad I did because until I started the dark fill and subsequent high light, I was still ready to toss it.

I was liking the contrast of the dark bits and kept going. I like doing graduating black pearls along curves and then added the dark bits to the brown Fescu's then had to balance out the stippling.

The white gel pen highlights came next, then I added some graphite shading. finally some white pencil highlight resulted in the finished piece at the top. I was really happy with the way this came out.

I then went on to create the tile I really wanted to make based on the hits and misses from the first attempt. Of course I realized that I never would have gotten here if I'd chucked the first piece and I like them both...now.

Drawings #2

And now, the names I pulled out of my pencil bag for The Gift of Zentangle:

Annemarie of Anne's Tangle Blog

Kate of Art Lady Kate

Denise Vitola

Ladies, please email me your snail mail address to michelewynne1 (at) gmail (dot) com. I'll get your ornaments in the mail shortly.

Many thanks to all of you who visit each week and to those who take the time to comment, you all rock!