Diva Challenge #337, IAST#215, Inktober...

 

Diva Challenge #337

"Artoo"

This week, The Diva's young son "Artoo" turned 7 so to celebrate we're to use the pattern Laura created in his honor shortly after he was born (introduced in weekly challenge #9).

This was an experiment and there were two points in this process I almost gave it the boot, but I'm glad I stuck to it. I used a tile colored with art tissue. I'll re-use the strips of tissue until I've bled out the last dregs of color that I can. At the final stage, I usually just wad up a bunch of damp strips and smoosh them down onto a tile, saturate some more and using a piece of acetate press the wad flat and let it sit for a bit. I end up with just hints of color, which I really love.

I just bought a light grey Staetdler Triplus Fineliner and had an idea to play around with some layers and a bit of a monochromatic color scheme. I started with the darker of the two purples, then the lighter purple and finally the light grey. I thought the line work looked a bit clumsy and thought about ditching it at that point, but I had to keep reminding myself that the purpose was practice and play, NOT about a finished Instagram-worthy piece. Then I spritzed it with water to get some diffusion going, noodled around with a grey Tombow brush pen and then, "what the heck" let's see what a final stem in black on top of everything will look like. Love it! if I do say so myself;-)

IAST #215

Rope String
featuring: "Clob" & "Delys"

I've had a lot lapses with It's a String Thing challenges. Many of them mental. I completed this challenge very early in the week because I gelled with it right from the get-go (usually my first lapse if I don't feel the challenge right away) Rope String? One of my absolute Faves! The creator of "Clob", none other than Jem Miller aka "The Ragged Ray", another Fave! She and I have had several Travelling Tangles collaborations and I'm a huge fan of her work. "Delys"? gorgeous and new to me. I was super inspired by this challenge and got right to it.  Then, I completely forgot (a frequent lapse) to email it to Adele;-(

<<<heavy sigh>>> Story of my life;-)

Moving on... I'm quite pleased with myself for sticking to my Inktober guns. Last year I bailed after the first week. Here's my concertina sketchbook. I'm one page away from finishing the first side:

Day 11
"Run"

Day 12:
"Shattered"

Day 13:
"Teeming"

Days 14, 15 & 16
"Fierce"
"Mysterious"
"Fat"

Aimee Baby!
guess who just celebrated her 6th birthday
Isn't she just adorbs?!?


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

Diva Challenge #336, Joey's Weekly Challenge #186 and Inktober

Diva Challenge #336

"Striping" Monotangle

Laura's challenge was to get to know "Striping". Whenever I have used Striping, it's usually been as small filler or in some cases as a framing device. I've never had any inclination to put it front and center. I found a tile left over from my guest blogger appearance on Joey's challenge earlier this Summer where I used Margaret Bremner's "Rope String".

I can't say I'm all too happy with this. Those skinny stripes on the top are a little weird, but they can't all be winners. I did enjoy drawing this though.

If you don't already know, The Diva has a YouTube channel now where she's been posting her daily Inktober challenges as well this weeks "Striping" challenge. Very inspiring. 

I had originally decided to take a pass on the Zentangle Inktober challenges because I wanted to focus on the official prompts, but after watching Laura's videos I chose to follow her lead using Bijou tiles and dip pen & ink. I have a box full of "Twinchies" I made from tile trimmings and watercolor sheets made to test out watercolor sets. I'm also adding color by layering and blending out colored pencils.

"Zentober"

following Stephanie Jennifer's prompt list

Joey's Weekly Challenge #186

9 piece ensemble series

ATC #9

featuring: Pokeleaf

additionally: Striping, Caviar and a spiral thingy

This ATC brings me to the end of my ensemble. The spiral was originally going to be Marasu but for some reason I started drawing scallops instead of stripes. Gotta follow my muse:-) 

This series has been my most favorite challenge to date!

Ensemble

It's been a bit problematic getting decent photographs today. The atmosphere here in San Francisco is quite murky from all of the smoke from the Napa/Sonoma fires.

The start

I began with two different (but similar) sets of ATC's using the art tissue paper coloring technique. The darker set was the first pass with the tissue and the lighter set was the second pass. At the time I made the sheets, it was a test to see what happened with each re-use of the tissue. I was going to use them for Travelling Tangles but I felt the colors were way too saturated and might be problematic for others to attempt to complete, so I stashed them away. Then this series began and I figured this would be a good challenge for me to see what I could do on a background this dark.

I've been really pleased with how this project progressed. I purposely chose not to carry patterns from one tile to the next so that each piece was its own composition. I just made sure the string was continuing to line up and that patterns were similar but different moving onto the adjoining piece.

The best part was that I taught myself more about highlight and shadow and overcoming the darkness of the colorful base. The white gel pen was the star of this show;-)

I've also challenged myself with participating in the official Inktober prompts and attempting illustration of actual stuff using only black ink (for now). I'll probably go back and add a bit of color at some point. I made a concertina sketchbook (accordian) to create a journal of my days.

Day 5: "Long"

Day 6: "Sword"

Day 7: "Shy"

Day 8: "Crooked"

Day 9: "Screech"

Day 10: "Gigantic"

My muse

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