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?