Weekly Challenge #18 - EGGZZZZellent

Last week I was traveling and missed the challenge so I was anxious to do this one. I've wanted to do an egg-y Zentangle for a couple of weeks, but held off hoping that Laura a.k.a "I am the Diva" would issue an egg related challenge. This one was a lot of fun for me.

This is my first attempt...the idea was to show the egg in a basket. Remember the Easter egg hunts of your childhood and that feeling when you found your first egg? That is the memory I tried to capture in this ZIA I call "The hunt is on."

I continued to play a bit more and ended up with the next two pieces. Drawing both took me back to memories of Easter Sunday and my grandmother's house. She would already have a big bowl of decorated eggs waiting when we arrived. She was more excited than we were to hide the eggs.

When she issued the challenge, Laura reminded us of the Pysanky tradition (The Ukrainian art of decorating eggs). I'm working on another Zentangle and will put more effort into the egg design than I did on this first piece. I went to the library where I found a few great books with lovely photos of the eggs and patterns for inspiration. Here are a few of them...ENJOY!

Home Sweet Home

After a week long business trip to Indianapolis, Indiana I am soooooo glad to be home. I brought my sketchbook and a couple of pens with me, but never stopped long enough to Zentangle. I'll have to find a better way to organize my time next trip because I really missed it. I didn't even do Laura's challenge. Today I am resting and hoping to recharge my batteries for the new week. No doubt that I'll make time to Zentangle today.

It is what it is.

Imagine

I'm traveling this week and won't be able to blog, but I scheduled this post to go live in my absence. It is what it is.

Zee

I was playing around with a pattern the other day and came up with what I am calling "Zee" I think it has potential for variation used in combination with other tangles. For an example of it in use see the "Live, Laugh, Love" ZIA in the previous post.

Sweet 16: Mooka

Appropriately, Diva Laura selected the lovely new tangle "Mooka" for the Week 16 challenge. If you haven't seen it yet, Maria and Rick introduced a new, official tangle pattern in their April 3 newsletter.

Mooka looks complicated, but is actually very easy. Interestingly is it created using one, continuous stroke. The result is quite elegant. This was a fun challenge.

This first try is from my sketch journal. I did it Sunday night before I knew what the challenge would be. I was so excited when I read the Zentangle newsletter that I had to use the new tangle as soon as possible.

The next two examples were explorations of Mooka. I wish that I was as skilled as the rest of you had keeping my hand steady and keeping the distance between lines consistent. As I keep saying...practice, practice, practice will hopefully help me improve in those areas.

Now that you are getting to know me you have probably realized that my imagination far outstretches my skill. In this last piece I decided to experiment with my sparkly Sakura gel pens. The result is a bit garish in person, for once I am glad that the camera tones the image down. :-) Oh well, It Is What It Is!

As always, I am learning so much from you expert Zentanglers and welcome any tips/advice. Until next time...

Tangled Obsession.

How can such a simple practice such as Zentangle so quickly become an object of obsession? When I'm not Zen-doodling in my sketchbook, working on a new tile, maybe going back and tinkering with a piece that I thought was finished, or practicing one of the hundreds of tangle patterns, I find myself pouring over the thousands of photos other Zentanglers have posted online, or seeing patterns everywhere I look. :-)

Over the weekend I played around a bit with using watercolor pencils. Here is the result. I'll show you both the before and after. I must have put the colored pencil down to heavy, because the color is heavy even after the water wash. I see more experimentation in my future.

Qudele

I decided to put together a 'How To' for one of the the tangle variations that emerged from the Venntangle exercise. This is Quedele and an example.

Venntangle Challenge

Double the challenge, double the fun--this week ptrish40 issued the Venntangle Challenge This time the challenge is to merge two or more tangle patterns so they morph into a new pattern. My contributions turned out to be better as ideas than in execution, but still were challenging and fun. :-)

This first attempt is a combination of Adele and Quip. I call the new tangle "Qudele." The new tangle that emerged in this venntangle is my favorite of the three creations that I worked on last night.

Take two is a blending of Cadent and Quiltz into the new tangle "Quildent." In the end, the new tangle just gets a little muddy.

At the end of the night I was either punchy or bold and decided to go for a 3-fer with this combination of Claire, Finny's Florets and Pinho into "Hoclrets." Rather brassy for a newbie, don't cha' think?

More curves...I can't help myself!

I can't stop sketching curves! Here are a few more pieces of ZIA inspired by the weekly challenge. Since I had problems with my scanner I've been photographing my work. Unfortunately, I am unable to get out of my own way...thus explaining the shadow. Perhaps I could have let you think it was a skillful shading, but I'm not that good! Ha Ha

This one looks futeristic to me so I named it "Space Odyssey." What do you think if the use of wiggly lines with the Nipa tangle?

I named this next one "More curves" it is another piece that I played with early on right after the challenge topic was announced.

Finally, I call this last one "Tossed at sea" because when it was done it reminded me of an old wooden ship with sails. What do you see in this one?

I'm lovin' my curves, baby!

Diva Laura has done it again, this week's challenge: "Love your curves, baby," called on us to use only curved lines...a curved string paired with curved tangles and curved lines...WHEW! what a relief after the previous challenge to only use straight lines. I found this much easier--my pen seemed to flow across the tile (or page in some cases). Here are a few examples of the fun I'm having this week. As always, I would appreciate your feedback.

I am very pleased with how this piece turned out. I did not use a string; however all of the tangles are constructed of curved lines. Even the shapes in the center--they may look like they are made of straight lines, but I tried to make each line concave or convex. I do not have a title for this one yet.

I call this one "Going in circles." It is my first response to the challenge. I was really just playing around and I think that the lack of seriousness shines through. I drew this in my sketchbook, so the other edge (the only straight-ish lines) are the ones that I drew ti mimic the edges of a 3.5 x. 3.5 tile.

I have a few more that I have created in response to the challenge and will try to post them later.

Experiment

I have noticed that some of my fellow tanglers have created tile ensembles. One type is created by framing tiles created in workshops in 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 etc arrangements. The result is quite lovely. Another type of ensemble is created by laying blank tiles side-by-side, drawing a string over all of the tiles in the set, then drawing the tangles on each (without referring to any of the other tiles in the set). After all of the designs are complete the set is reassembled. I experimented with this second type of ensemble and the result is shown here. What do you think?

What happened to spring?

Less than a week ago we welcomed the official arrival of spring and the weather forecast for tomorrow predicts an inch of snow. This is when I really feel homesick. In Louisiana spring has fully arrived in all of her glory. When I close my eyes I see the beautiful azalea blooms that were the landscape of my childhood.

I picture the old, heirloom plants that thickly lined the fence. The bushes were so heavy with blooms that you could heardly see the leaves for the shades of fuscia, pink or lavender. Nearby dogwood and japanese magnolia trees contributed their tender blossoms to the vision creating an explosion of color everywhere.

Shades of yellow, white and green from plants and flowers who's names I have long forgotten added offerings to the scene. Ah, to be surrounded by the beauty of a Louisiana spring.

Star Gazing Part Deaux

When I got home from work this evening I was anxious to re-do the "Star Gazing" piece. (See first attempt in previous entry.) I think this one is better, but again I have spots that I do not care for. Using a straight-edge definately made a difference with the border. What do you think? I added color to version 1 and will also color this one at some point. This time, instead of using colored pencils I might give this one a watercolor wash. Hmmmm, that might be interesting.

Star Gazing

This is the result of doodling while watching American Idol last night. Perhaps I was influenced by the notion that I was watching the creation of a future star. There are parts of this that I really like, and other parts not so much. When I began, the intention was to fill the entire star space with big flowers such as you see on the points, somehow I lost that plan along the way. If I had a do-over I think I would stick to the original plan. I'm trying to hold true to working freehand as suggested by Rick and Maria; at the same time, I know this piece in particular would have benefited from the use of a ruler. I was working in my sketchbook and did use a stencil to create the initial string. I think I want to add color to this one, so I took this black and white photo so I can later compare the before and after. As always, I welcome your critique:

UPDATE

Here is the same piece with a touch of color. I used Prismacolor pencils.

I walk the line

Here are my initial attempts at the Diva's challenge. The challenge is to draw only using straight lines. As you can see, my work is rather primitive. I think that I work too quickly. If I can develop the habit of drawing in a slow, methodical way I think my stokes will be cleaner and the overall design more cohesive. Well, that is my personal critique--as a newbie to Zentangle I welcome your feedback.

I titled this first one "Constrained" as in constrained by the straight lines. The idea was for the focal point image to be tied down (held back) by the outer lines.

I elected to go very simple in the second attempt titled "Lightning Strike."

Finally, with "I walk the line" I decided to stick with straight edge tangle patterns.