Diva Challenge #247 & Made by Joey #90

Diva Challenge #247-UMT: "African Artist"

&

Made by Joey #90-Ornaments

These challenges fit well together. I'm in the midst of making Christmas presents. I've been working on little pocket sketchbooks:

I made the watercolor covers using the same technique I use to make my watercolor ATC's.

This is a scan of one of the finished covers

This was the first one I made a couple of weeks ago. There are 4 sheets of medium weight sketch paper stitched inside for a total of 16 pages.

Julie Beland's tangle: "Beauchamp"

This month over at the Facebook group Zentangle: Tangled & Journaled,Too, they are featuring 25 Days of new tangles from various members. I love Julie Beland's tangle "Beauchamp". It reminds me a little bit of "Borbz" and it's the perfect vehicle for playing with gemstones. I spent way to much time doodling around on this one but it sure was fun.
As ever, many thanks to all of you for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments always make my day and I promise to return the gesture.

Wishing you all the happiest of holiday seasons!

Art into the World...

"Niuroda November"

black gesso on white watercolor paper

black ink, white gel pen, grey watercolor pencil, white Prismacolor pencil

for the ZATC Swap group

Several months ago I embarked on another Zentangle journey. I began participating in the Facebook  Zentangle Artists Trading Card Swap Group and just this month in the Zentangle: Tangled &  Journaled, Too group. For the last 18 months I'd been hoarding my little pieces of art, much of it stashed away and forgotten entirely. It was scary at first, sending my art out into the world, but I quickly became addicted to it.

There are so many layers of satisfaction in this process, from deciding on a theme (based on parameters set by the group administrators) to executing variations several times over, becoming more and more solid in my technique with each piece, then wrapping it all up and finding that perfect card to protect my piece while adding to it's presentation. It's so pleasing to create a piece of "Happy Mail" that will hopefully make opening the mailbox a joyful experience for my swap-mates. Then there's the joy of opening my mailbox to find a hand addressed envelope. I love holding original art in my hands.

It amazes me how my work has developed over these few months. I challenge myself with each swap.

My approach to the black and white set above was inspired by one of the weekly challenges over at I am the Diva where she swiped black gesso over a standard tile. White on black was previously uncharted territory for me so I challenged myself to get comfortable with it. 

The parameters of this particular swap was to use black & white only (with grey shading) and to use only patterns that began with the letter N. White on black was not required. I decided to go with one pattern, Niuroda, and  refine the hell out of it. These came out pretty cool. 

"Humanity"

for the ZATC swap group December swap

watercolor, watercolor pencil, white gel pen, blue Rollerball pen

The announcement of the ZATC December swap coincided with the tragic events in Paris. The theme was to represent support for the city of Paris. The parameters were to use Blue, White, Red and Silver and the use of Parisian themes was optional. I'm not a particularly politically charged person in my art, but I wanted to create something that represented Humanity to me, not solely a focus on Paris, but for all victims of terrorist violence. 

This concluded in pieces that were multi-layered and inter-woven. 

I started with the watercolor washed ATC then using watercolor pencils drew spirals and dots, then outlining them with white gel pen. The top layer is a blue Rollerball pen with watercolor pencil shading then finished with white Prismacolor pencil highlight. I love the way these turned out.

"Blue Renaissance"

watercolor, sepia and brown Micron pens, watercolor pencil and Prismacolor pencil

These 9 ATC's went out a few weeks ago to the Facebook Group Zentangle: Tangled & Journaled, Too. There were no parameters for this swap except the ATC format. I was in the midst of my black and white Niuroda November and was detoured by work I'd been seeing on renaissance tiles with brown tone inks and pencils. More uncharted territory so I made a set of renaissance inspired watercolor ATC's and started some more Niuroda's working in browns and blues.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments make my day!

Playing Catch-up

Aquafleur tree

"It's a String Thing" Challenge #121

 & 

Diva Challenge #246

The week of challenges commenced with the Diva's guest blogger, Dilip Patel's prompt to create a monotangle tree and Joey's "Zinger" monotangle. 

I had many ideas cooking but no time to execute. Then came Adele's string challenge to create an "Aquafleur" tree using Carol Ohl's beauty as an example. I was blown away by the beauty of Carol's tree and began a couple of ill-fated attempts at it. I've never used "Aquafleur" before. I love it but it is extremely labor intensive and requires much, much practice. It wasn't until I was well invested in this one that I realized the tree is lopsided;-)

Made by Joey Challenge #89

"Zinger" monotangle

One of my first ideas was to make a "Zinger" tree. My original attempts on tiles and ATC's did not go well, as I kept starting with the tree and getting cramped and badly balanced zinger's in the end. I went back to the drawing board, so-to-speak. I picked up the sketchbook this morning and tried drawing the zinger's first. Much better.

From last week:

Diva Challenge #245

"Hollibaugh"

It's been a super busy month and there's no sign of let-up until after the new year. Cafe time has been bountiful with swap tiles I'll share in a separate post. So here are some challenge pieces I've been trying to catch-up on:

Diva's "Hollibaugh"...got a bit over-shadowed by those dang gemstones that are all the rage over on many of the Zentangle inspired Facebook groups.

Made by Joey #88

"Yuma" monotangle

I couldn't resist a touch of gemstone on this one too.

That's New to Me #45

Explore a new "I" tangle:  "IX" by Zentangle HQ

Artist Focus: Sue Clark's "Cheers"

I did this in my little homemade sketchbook.

One of a series of nine ATC's I made for the Zentangle: Tangled & Journaled, Too Facebook Groups.


As ever, thank you for visiting my blog, Your generous and thoughtful comments always make my day. I'm playing catch-up as well with my visits and comments to your blogs too.

Wishing all of you the Happiest Holiday Season ever!

Diva Challenge #244/#243, Made by Joey #87, String Challenge #119

Diva Challenge #244

Tripoli Triptastic

Hmmmmm....Tripoli. This could have gone so many ways...for me it's usually off-the-rails. This is one of those patterns that works better in the hands of others. I started off slooooowwwly, really concentrating on the space between the lines and it was going okay until I started shading. I don't hate it but don't love it either.

Diva Challenge #243

A Tiny Taste #1

A Tiny Taste #2

This is a little catch-up from last week. The challenge was to leave more blank space than filled. This got me thinking about creating a series of labels. I'm going to try this again in just black and white.

Made by Joey #87

Xplode monotangle

The black card was an ATC I made awhile back whilst practicing the application of black gesso onto white watercolor paper. Xplode seemed to demand a trip to the dark side.

String Challenge #119

String # 11

using Adele's pattern "100", "Bublz" and "Ripples"

For this week's "It's a String Thing" Challenge, Adele's prompt is inspired by the 100th anniversary of Coca Cola, hence the bottle shaped string and the chosen tangles.


Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments always make my day!

Antonine's Throwback Thursday #6~Reflection

I just got back from a road trip to Oregon. I brought my tangling gear with me but there was just no time, so I'll probably be playing catch-up with this week's challenges into next week.

Antonine's TBT challenge struck a chord: Reflection and thinking about a piece that made you feel good and since this one was already in my toolbox, at least I could check one challenge off my list. 

I immediately remembered this Square One challenge. The pattern was Gneiss and it was one of the first pieces I ever posted. I was not all that crazy about the challenge as I started it.

I do not have a steady hand and really cannot draw a straight line to save my life. I remember being frustrated at not being able to achieve the precision and consistency of linework I was seeing in the work of others. I created and tossed several tiles before I got to this. I remember looking at the almost finished piece and being really unhappy with my rounding. After dealing with the fear of messing it up, I plunged in and started to scribble. It was then I explored and embraced my sketchy/squiggly internal aura technique. and I remember how pleased I was with the results and how it gave me confidence. 

From the road:

"Reflection"

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your generous and thoughtful comments always make my day.

That's New to Me #44 & It's a String Thing #117

TNTM #44

explore a new "M" pattern: Marble

Artist Focus: Kathy Barringer's "Antique"

It's a String Thing Challenge #117

Adele's new pattern: Sand

I don't like the way this is scanning but the photo's not so great either. Not sure which is the lesser of two evils.

This was my practice page in a little handmade sketchbook I made the other day. I fully intended to create a real tile because I really love this pattern, but time ran out and ....well. that's a total lie,.. I went all ADD with this:

Works-in-progress

As if I don't have enough to distract me from the few obligations I have in my life, I added another Zentangle ATC swap to my plate for the FB group Tangled and Journaled, Too.

I've been seeing so many beautiful renaissance tiles out there and decided this would be a great excuse to explore it as a series for the new swap. I was initially inspired by Antonine's beautiful insect series she posted for her Throwback Thursday challenge #5: Unusual.  

I started by creating a set of ATC's with my version of a renaissance watercolor background wash. I'm still working on the Black & White Niuroda series for my other swap group,  so I just played around with it on the little trimmings from my ATC cuts, auditioning every brown drawing tool in my box figuring out how to shade it.

I'm using a brown gel pen, Micron Sepia 01 & 05, Micron brown (it's actually rust) and Prismacolor pencils Henna & White.

I'm calling this one finished... for now. I'll probably do a final drop shadow.

Anyhoo, thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your generous and thoughtful comments always make my day.

Diva Challenge #242 and other stuff...

Diva Challenge#242

"Gourdgeous"

I've been noodling around in the sketchbook a lot this week. I had already been playing around with "Gourdgeous" over the weekend when the pattern was published on tanglepatterns.com. I created the one above this morning when I randomly pulled out one of my trusty old watercolor ATC's and just let it flow. Both "Verve" and "Gordgeous" came on my radar over the weekend and it all morphed together for my Inktober entry that day. To be honest "Gourdgeous"... it's not my favorite pattern. I practiced it A LOT before I had anything worth sharing.

"Verve" & "Gordgeous" with a little "Diva Dance"

for Shading Zentangle 

Made By Joey Challenge #85

"Verdigogh" Monotangle

I had some ATC's left over from last months Zentangle Artist's Trading Card Swap and Verdigogh seemed  like an appropriate fit.

Some of the  ATC's sent out into the world via the ZATC "Everything Autumn" October Swap

These next two tiles are my start to this month's Zentangle Artists Trading Card Swap. The November theme is black and white, using only patterns that start with N. I took a page from the Diva challenge from a couple of weeks ago where Laura used black gesso swiped over an old tile. 

Zentangle Artists Trading Card Swap

November~Black & White N tangles

The theme of my approach to this month's swap is Niuroda November with a touch of 'Nzeppel.

Square One Purely Zentangle

&

 Shading Zentangle 

Pattern Focus is "Verve"

Throwback Thursday #5

for Antonine's Tangles

Fun with a tangle

I think this was a Square One challenge focusing on "BB" (I never labeled anything back then).  I remember being pretty uninspired by the challenge at first and had many fits and starts until I stumbled upon "Pots 'n Pans" and it all came together. I remember having a lot of fun with it and I still enjoy looking at it.