The Twelve Days of Zentangle

For the past 12 days, I have been tangling every day along with the Zentangle Blog's The Twelve Days of Zentangle. I was a few days behind, but that didn't really matter. It has been very enjoyable, and I have learned a lot. The above tile is my favorite of all the twelve projects. In this blog post, I am going to talk about each day's project just a little. 

The Twelve Days of Zentangle are organized around the history of Zentangle, since it was first invented by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas back in 2003. Over the years since then, many new materials and approaches have been introduced by Rick and Maria. They organized the individual projects for each of the Twelve Days around this history. 

I purchased their Project Pack #2, which has all the materials to complete the entire twelve days. You don't have to do that, but I recommend it. It was nice to know that I had just the right pen, just the right tiles, etc. The pack includes the new Micron PN, a fabulous tool for Zentangling, now replacing the micron 01 in my mind. And the new GellyRoll pens where the white gel ink flows with heavenly ease. What an improvement!

Day One

If you took an Introduction to Zentangle class, the first thing you did was create the famous "Tile Number One," designed to introduce you to basic Zentangle concepts. You started with Crescent Moon and learned about aura-ing. Then you did Hollibaugh and learned about Drawing Behind. Printemps taught you how wonderful a simple repeating figure could be, and finally Bales was your first grid pattern. I would call Day One of the Twelve Days of Zentangle Tile Number One on Steroids. The crazy Crescent Moon is at the lower left. Hollibaugh was illustrated by Mr. Hollibaugh himself, but with curvy aura-ed Hollibaugh boards instead of the normal straight ones we all know and love. Printemps got little perfs inside and Bales went a bit wonky with some nice dark spots. Maria put the crazy sprout in the middle and it was off to the races. It was fun to revisit Tile Number One.

Day Two

On day two Molly Hollibaugh led us in making a construction that celebrated the introduction of the black tile. It's fun tangling on multiple tiles and cutting them out and gluing them together into forms. The top diamond shape is a black tile with the center cut out and four corners inserted into the white tile beneath, tab-a into-slot-b-style. A friend admired this very genuinely. I had set an intention to pay attention to, and if possible to act upon generous impulses during the holidays. Since I felt the impulse to give it to her, i did. This was a departure for me, as I have every Zentangle I have ever done in a book. Time to let some go and get on with it. What better goal in life than to disperse beautiful things throughtout the world.

Day Three

Day Three celebrated the introduction of the Zendala tile, and a new tangle pattern named Rumpus. I really like how this came out. 

Day Four

Rick celebrated the Apprentice tile, a slightly larger tile than the standard one. He also illustrated Diva Dance in a new way, with unexpected long tendrils of Diva Dance Rock 'N Roll weaving themselves under Diva Dance Walz. Diva Dance was named in honor of the Diva of the Diva Challenge, which I love entering each week on www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com. That aside, I found this whole Zentangle a little creepy, like it was going to come alive and cause a lot of problems any minute. 

 Day Five

This day of Zentangle celebrated the black Zendala. Once again we used scissors and glue. The white Zendala tile has two butterfly shaped cut outs so you can see the black Zendala beneath, and the Knightsbridge tangle pattern done in white fills that space. Pepper spirals look like candy fun and kissing Mooka's reach and twine. I don't think my version quite captured the magic, but I had a good time doing it. 

Day Six

Day Six celebrated the introduction of the Renaissance Tile, so named because of its beautiful color, frequently found in Renaissance work. Rick and Maria also introduced a new tangle pattern here, called Toodles. I found myself putting a square around my previously unbounded chop and really liking it. I'm happy that Zentanglers change their chops frequently without anyone considering it a sign of being fickle. Art changes, life changes, chops change. Vive La Change.

Day Seven

On day seven we celebrated the renaissance Zendala. This was a fun Zentangle to make. We started with a pre-strung tile, something I had not done before. We did some circular figures in the center. Then we filled all the individual areas with a kind of Paradox fragment, using both black and brown microns.

Day Eight

On day eight, we celebrated the introduction of the Bijou tile, the smaller tile that is named for Bijou the snail. This little character was a stowaway in Rick and Maria's luggage after a trip to Paris. When they found the snail in their luggage, they were charmed by him and named him Bijou. Bijou has lots to say and thus many aphorisms are attributed to him. The funniest part of this story is that many animal rights people complained to Rick and Maria. 

I enjoyed making a crown with a Bijou tile, then cutting off the bottom corner. This crown is mounted on our bottle of Johnny Walker Red, which seemed appropriate. 

Day Nine

I loved this one. Celebrating the renaissance and black Bijou tiles, we cut and glued to make a combo renaissance/black tile. Then we combined 4 of them into this mosaic. 

Day Ten

Hands down, this is my favorite. It reminds me of my black watch plaid pleated skirt that i loved so much in high school. Combine it with a pair of white bobbie sox, brown penny loafers (with the penny) and a blue oxford button down shirt under a navy blue cashmere cardigan, the kind with a ribbon down the front for the buttons. I was in preppy heaven. At long last I had clothes that let me fit in. But that's another story...

If you look, you can see that the large pattern over the entire tile is Rick's Paradox. But then it is treated as a reticula with the stripes fragment filling in each section. I love how the white pencil shading makes it glow.

Day Eleven

Celebrating the introduction of white and black 3Z (triangular) tiles, we glued some togehter to make stars. The gold Gelly Roll pen is really pretty but doesn't show up well here.

Day Twelve

We cut slits into 3 renaissance 3Z tiles to make a tree. Using the plate string idea, (see my Delft blue plates post from a few months ago) we drew arcs as our string and decorated the tree with tangles. The tangles were all fragments from the Zentangle Primer, each identified by it's letter/number id code. These few pages of the Primer kind of expanded the Zentangle Universe exponentially, at least for me. I highly recommend this book.

Here's to the Zentangle Universe. To all its kind and generous inhabitants and to our kind and generous leaders Rick and Maria and family. I am so happy to have found this special, gentle, creative and positive world. Gives me hope. Happy New Year to you all.

Tangle for the Season

This week's Diva Challenge #344 (www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com) was to use AfterGlo, the star-like pattern that you can see above. I have been working my way through Project Pack 01, which I highly recommend as lots of fun and a good learning tool. You can find it here. It includes nine different videos that guide you through making wonderful Zentangles that will inspire your own creativity and designs. 

Project Pack 01 emphasizes using the new Sakura white Gelly Roll pens on black tiles. The pens have been re-designed so they are now fabulous. The ink flows beautifully without any skipping. The pack comes with all the supplies you need to follow along with the videos, including 3 different widths of Gelly Roll pens. You don't have to buy the pack to participate, you can just pick up the supplies yourself and follow along. But the pack is nice, because you know you have all the pieces in place. 

The Diva Challenge tangle pattern AfterGlo looked Christmassy to me, so I remembered Merriberries, which was designed my Zentangle mentor Cheryl Wilson, CZT. I added in a few Merriberries, Those are the holly-like shapes with the white berries in the center. Finally peppermint seemed like it could hold its own in a Christmas theme so in went tangle pattern Pepper. 

At that point I felt that things did not look integrated, so I drew randomly sized, small orbs all over the remaining black spaces to tie it all together. I have always loved how a million tiny circles make a beautiful texture that brings all the other elements together. 

Thanks for reading my blog! I welcome your comments.

Project Packs

Today I felt like being guided along in my art work. Some type of project or lesson that tells me what to do next. This is something I turn to on days when opening up to "whatever happens" is hard. Which it just is, sometimes. It's a paradox because I enjoy art work tremendously. I believe in it as a wonder of continuous, lifetime discovery, and I love sharing it with people. Nonetheless. There is a part of me that wants to just get away and not explore the unknown. Let's cook or do some cleaning. Don't arouse any demons that might be lurking in the whatever happens.

This makes me wonder if my childhood had been more fortunate, perhaps that feeling wouldn't be there. Oh well, I got the life I got and I am not complaining. Bad childhood, great life! I will always be grateful to the therapists that helped me sort it out. I've always felt like I paid my dues before I was 10 years old. From then on, things just improved. Slowly, little by little, I came out of the snow storm.

So by now you are gathering that today was a "JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" day. I had gotten the new Zentangle Project Pack 01 in the mail. I didn't order it, and I don't know how it got to me. But there it was, full of the new purportedly fabulously improved Sakura Gelly Roll pens and black tiles of every shape and size. So I tried it out. The projects are a series of videos with step by step instructions you can tangle along with.. ZT Daughters Molly Hollibaugh and Martha Huggins are the excellent guides. You don't need the kit to tangle along, and you don't have to do them with black tiles, they would be very successful with white tiles.  The instructions are in Rick and Maria's Zentangle Newsletter, here. 

My friend Patty says we should call that tangle pattern up above HollyBales. It's a variation on Bales with diamonds instead of rice shapes. What I love about Bales is how the places where many lines meet, soon begin to glow. Of course, we know a good thing, so we shade those places and make them even more glowing.

I really like HollyBales. We did Bales at the recent Intro to Zentangle class in Reno this week. I love how beautiful the work is from that day. Here's our mosaic, below. Class participants were many good friends and a new friend, too: Christy Tews, Patty Charles, Lynn Newhall, Debby Enos, Gayle Robinson, Kathy Schwerin, and Ron Sutton. Seven tiles, seven different takes on Bales and the other patterns. 

I love that about Zentangle; the patterns are pre-structured, but each person's creativity transforms the simple steps into something unique. And this refers back to the discussion above. Even when people have step by step instructions, the way they follow them is all their own. So it's still whatever happens. It's always whatever happens. Here's to the WHATEVER HAPPENS!!

Diva Challenge 340 - Wibble

This week's Diva Challenge (www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com) was to use tangle pattern Wibble, a tangle pattern designed by Shawna Martin. I did not fall in love with drawing this one, instead I found it hard to wrap my brain around it and didn't feel great about how it looked. I ended up using it as a border and coloring it in with one of my favorite combinations of colors, green and violet, the IRIS colors. I used Copic markers for the first time on a Zentangle tile and discovered that they bleed a bit on the fine Fabiano paper. To make up for the wobbly Wibble, I used two favorite easy peasy patterns in the middle, Sand Swirl and Sanibelle. 

Our Local CZT Group

Local CZT Group

I was very fortunate to attend the 28th Certified Zentangle Training (CZT) in Providence, RI, in June. I was extremely happy for the entire four days, sitting in a large room with 108 other fanatics enthusiasts, drawing beautiful Zentangles guided by Rick and Maria and their daughters Molly and Martha. After 10 months exploring Zentangles on my own and with the kind and inspired guidance of my teacher (CZT16 Cheryl Wilson from Grass Valley), I was very excited to find a large, world-wide, supportive and positive Zentangle community.

On Day One, as I entered the very first class of our seminar, I took an empty seat between two friendly looking women. I introduced myself as Mary Helen from Auburn, CA. The woman on my right turned out to live in Placerville, just an hour's drive from me. And the woman on my left lives in Rocklin, a mere 20 minutes away. As far as I was concerned, this was something between an amazing coincidence and a sign from the Angels of Zentangle.

About two months later, remembering how much I enjoyed the larger Zentangle community, I looked these same women up on the CZT Index and contacted them. We ended up forming a group of five local CZTs. (Local in California means within an hour’s drive.) The group includes myself, Cheryl, Lynne, Chris and Alison. All are artists and/or craftswomen par excellence. It's a thrill to be in a group with them. We meet monthly, rotating through one another's homes, with the hostess providing a project for us all to do.

Yesterday four of us met way out in the country at the studio of one of the women. She had attended Rick and Maria's recent Zentangle: Beyond the Basics seminar at the new 1440 Multiveristy, near Santa Cruz. She wanted to share a project that Maria had guided them through. Maria had used a Zendala (round) tile, but otherwise the project was very similar. My result is above.

In advance, our hostess had prepared for each of us two Zentangle tiles, glued together. The Renaissance tile (beige) had cut outs so that you could see the black tile under it. We drew kissing Mooka in the middle between the cut outs, and tangled in white Sakura Gelly Roll pens on the black to make the black and white grid of Knightsbridge. We added some auras, and the embellishment of small circles around the border. We filled in around the Mooka with a brown 01 Micron pen. Only three tangles, but such a lovely result. Here is the mosaic of all our tiles. I feel so privileged and happy to be part of this dynamic and creative group! What an inspiration!

Tint - Diva Challenge 335

This week's challenge on http://IamTheDivaCZT.blogspot.com was to use the tangle pattern Tint, which you see as the big blossom in the lower left corner. This tangle pattern was designed by CZT Henrike Bratz. and while poking around her website learning to draw Tint, I discovered another tangle pattern that she created, Crux, the grid pattern in the upper left.

I'm still in love with the patterns used in the Delft project, so i used Hennadrum in the middle and Andante on the right.  And of course, the wonderful blue pens. Shading with Stabilo's CarbOthello pastel pencils. Where did they get that name? Who put carbs together with Othello? Oh well, they are wonderful pencils for shading. The tourtillion spreads them around nicely.

Tomorrow is our local Democratic Party Annual Fundraiser. I have never been that active in local politics, but this year felt strongly I needed to contribute as I feel very concerned for the great experiment in Democracy that is the United States. So I volunteered to be the coordinator and we have 100 people coming. Many wonderful people contributing lots of talent and energy. I am up to my eyeballs in catering, budgets, paper cups, a silent auction, ticket sales, reasonably well known and quite interesting guest speakers. It's all very exciting! 

Tangled Up in Blue

I purchased a kit on Etsy designed by Marguerite Samana, CZT, with step-by-step instructions on how to make an Zendala inspired by the blue and white crockery from Delft. I learned that the Dutch town of Delft produced this beautiful pottery in the 1600's, as an affordable alternative to the Chinese porcelain that had gotten very expensive. Between 1650 and 1750 there were over one hundred entrepreneurs making Delftware. Today there is one left. The demand dropped off in about 1800 and the manufacture of blue pottery moved to England.

The Zendala is above and you can see the borders for four imaginary Delft plates stacked one above the other.

I loved working with the blue Micron pens and using several different blue CarbOthelleo pastel pencils from Stabilo for shading. So I decided to do this week's Diva challenge #332, a square within a square, with the materials I had used for Delft. Tangle patterns here are an outer border of Flux, four corners of Crescent Moon, and inner square border of XYP (pronounced "zip,") and Frunky in the middle. I love doing Zentangles with color.

One more---the bonus project that came with the Delft Kit. Huggins to the max!

Zentangle "Plate"- Challenge #330

This week's Diva challenge was to tangle ribbon patterns into a "Plate Zentangle, so called because when you put four of them together it makes a dinner plate that you might love to have made up for you by Wedgewood or Limoges.  (You can read about the challenge here )

I put them all together so you can see the full effect:

I used Funky in the smallest circle, then Agni, a new tangle for me which i really enjoyed. Then came Rainbow Bridge and the outermost ring is Pach. Pach always reminds me of the paper chains we made in first grade, so I feel fond of it:

We all made plates at CZT28 this past June, 2017, all 110 of us tangling the same patterns in the same positions. Then we put them all together in a big mosaic of plates. I was amazed at how beautiful it all turned out to be. I don't have a picture of that mosaic. If you have it, please post a link! Thanks!

Challenge 329 - Fragment D1

It's De One

This challenge was very hard for me. I could barely follow the instructions for D1 without losing track of the pattern, and my sketch book now has several pages of D1 fragment combos that drift off into confusion. For some reason I just got lost in the lines and suddenly I could no longer see the pattern or continue to draw it. This had never happened before in my almost a whole year of tangling. I do know that I prefer curvilinear and organic patterns to this type of grid and linear pattern. But I usually can keep it straight what I am doing.

I went with the 4 D1's that mostly cover the tile and make a star like shape because it seemed the easiest to follow.  I added a D1 border. I chose my second tangle pattern by drawing a card from the Tiny Tangle Deck. This cute little box of tangle cards had just come in the mail and I am quite enamored of it! I thought it would be a great way to generate random tangles easily without going online. Just pick a card.

But I drew Jetties of all things! My first thought was, "What an awful combination!" I love Jetties, and have enjoyed them many times, making cheery piles of playful balls. But how could Jetties possibly co-exist with D1, the mathematical, geometrical, shape-maze gone mad?? Poor little Jetties, I thought. They don't stand a chance on the same tile with that kind of crazed genius! But then again it is an article of faith that if you go random, you have to stay random and use whatever the random gods have given you. So I did. But I was not happy. (I've noticed this with other of the god's previous decisions for me in various aspects of life. But back to the Zentangle...)

I did not get any happier until I added some black areas to work with the Jetties' black stripes. The dark areas added  structure. Finally I could see my way through to actually posting this one.

Doing art work can sometimes be a dream where heavenly things just fall from the pen without human intervention. But at other times there is lots of dissatisfaction. I try with varied success to be Zen about it and not get in the way, letting the artwork be what it wants to be because it seems to have a life of its own.

CZT Tangle Session

In June, as many of you may know, I went to Rhode Island to the CZT training with Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of Zentangle. It was an experience that I will always treasure. On day one, class one, I sat down in an empty seat at one of the long tables set up for us to hear and watch the talks. I introduced myself to the person on my right and the person on my left. Amazingly enough, out of the 110 attendees at our training, both of these people lived within 50 miles of me in California. 

This serendipitous experience gave me the idea of having a Certified Zentangle Teacher's get together at my house. Yesterday, it happened. We ended up with five CZT's at my house yesterday morning for a few hours. 

 

Each of us shared our Zentangles and other artwork that we had brought with us. There was much beautiful art to see. CZT's tend to be talented, interesting people! Then we tangled together, with each person having brought a favorite tangle pattern to share. You can see here one of the tiles we did, with some of the variations as each individual interpreted the patterns in their own way. The big triangle in the center, do you know the name of that tangle? We just called it the L-tangle because you draw L-shapes over and over. If you know its name, please leave a comment! I offered my favorite tangle 'Dillo, and you can see the armadillos marching around on one side. Finally we learned Cirque, on the other side. It has  cool basket-y shapes with flux-type leaves. Really easy as pie to draw once you see the step-outs. I enjoyed the effortless of it. This confirmed the Zentangle motto, Anything is possible, one stroke at a time! And I always love learning new tangles I had never seen before, especially from a person rather than from a webpage or a book.

I had a really great time with this wonderful group. Each of the people had a unique perspective and much to offer the others. We discussed meeting once a month and rotating through each other's homes. Sounds like it will happen! 

I love the Zentangle community, not only this new local group but world-wide. This was an added gift. I thought I had discovered a wonderful new art form, meditative, a straight shot into the zone. Little did I realize that I had also discovered a community that has values I wholeheartedly subscribe to. Above all, encouragement. Appreciation for whatever you have done that touches the others. Taking the time to find the gem and focusing on what is working. 

When I go online, I discover so many interesting, talented, creative people who just revel in sharing with one another. Even if I can't read the language of their websites, I can appreciate the Zentangles they post. The Zentangle community's spirit is completely supportive, never critical or harsh. It's a heartfelt group. Many people share their work and many others comment freely. I can always feel that supportive feeling when I engage with this group. And I know that believing in each other helps us all to flower and grow.

If you want to get connected to this wonderful group, please see my blog post on Online Resources.

Online Zentangle Resources

This is a list of resources that work for me. I know there is lots more out there, and I am always discovering new things. So be sure to look around!

www.Zentangle.com 
This is the website of the Zentangle originators, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. Lots of useful stuff

www.TanglePatterns.com
This website lists all the tangle patterns in alphabetical order. You can click on a letter of the alphabet at the top and look up any tangle. The tangle link will take you to all the info about the tangle, who invented it and what they were thinking about, and most importantly, the step by step instructions for how to draw it. The website also has a random tangle generator on the left so you can let fortune decide which tangle pattern to use next.

enthusiasticArtist.blogspot.com
Margaret Bremner, CZT,  is a very creative artist with all kinds of interesting ideas that you can experience in her Zentangles. She constantly amazes me.

iAmTheDivaCZT.blogspot.com
I often enter the weekly Zentangle Challenge, now going on for over 300 weeks. There is no winner, and there is no criticism. Only lots of sharing and praise for one another, in keeping with the wonderful Zentangle community's philosophy of support for one another. I too believe that emphasizing an artist's strengths will help them to grow and flower, much more successfully than harsh words, no matter how "true."

Ellen Wolters on YouTube
Watch as Ellen draws Zentangles for you a d makes them absolutely crystal clear. She is a marvel of skill and I love the music she uses. I have had to play it on my Kindle and Shazam it on my phone so I can download it and just listen while I tangle. Here's an example of Ellen demonstrating a tangle pattern you know, Crescent Moon. Just watching her draw teaches me so much. If you Google "How to Draw Tangle Pattern Whatever" Ellen's YouTube's will often come up.

The Zentangle App (Mosaic)
Download Rick and Maria's great App. The do frequent videos showing all kinds of interesting things about Zentangle. Available for all Mac Platforms and Android phones, but not Android tablets, darn.

One Zentangle A Day by Beckah Rahula
This is how I first learned basic Zentangle. It is a 6 week course in a book with step outs for lots of tangles and many ideas to try out for yourself. Get it on Amazon here.

Cheryl Wilson, CZT
Cheryl is my Zentangle teacher. She helped me to slow down and really appreciate and above all enjoy the Zentangle process. Cheryl's blog has lots of great Zentangles. She has a very steady and beautiful line quality when she draws, and she is always putting things together in creative, unexpected and fun ways. Cheryl is a painter and her oil paintings can be seen here.

Pea-nuckle Challenge #325

This week's iAmTheDivaCZT challenge was again from Guest Diva Jessica Davies. She asked that we try out the tangle peanuckle from Molly Holllibaugh. I enjoyed drawing the S-curves and the curvy basket weave and thought it paired well with Zander mostly because both of them have lots of little lines that seemed to resonate across the string with each other. I always love Zander because it looks like what I imagine sheaves of wheat to look like, not that this city girl has ever even seen a sheave of wheat, but I love the idea.

I have been working through Eni Oken's Drawing Smooth Gemstones and tried putting two red gems into my tangle. Actually they went in first and I tangled around them. I am just a beginner with this, but it is fun. Eni really teaches how to use colored pencils, also new to me. I think my gemstones are pac man cousins, but i will keep trying!

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Heart Tangle - Challenge #324

This week's challenge #324 on www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com was presented by guest Jessica Davies. She asked us to draw a heart. For me this is an expression of my gratitude and appreciation to the worldwide Zentangle community. I could not ask for a more positive, creative, supportive and intelligent group of people with whom to share the process of creating artwork and just having fun! Thank you!

Lately I have been using www.tanglePatterns.com to generate random tangles. Today I searched for tangles by type, selecting "hearts," of which there are a whopping 34 to choose from. I chose Lesley Goldberg's Hearts-a-Flutter. I love tangle patterns that are full of curves and auras on top of auras of curves! So i really liked  this new tangle. For the outer reaches, I just went with my Mac 'N Cheese tangles Joki and a little army of 'Dillo armadillos marching around the edges. They seemed to work really well with the heart pattern.

I love how the heart is in Sienna ink and the other tangles are in black. I would very much like you to be impressed with my artistic choice here, but the truth is that I accidentally picked up the Sienna pen (once again) and started drawing before I realized it! Aren't accidents great?! At the CZT training last month, I bought a t-shirt that says "No Mistakes" and has a big Bronx Cheer Raspberry on it. That's my philosophy of life too.

I almost needed that raspberry coverup when my Sakura pen exploded at the very end while I was signing my chop MHF. I This was a first for me, but where there is ink, there are ink blots, so I am not surprised. I was grateful that it waited for me to complete the Zentangle before it decided to do that.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I welcome your comments! Thank you also for following through  this record of my stream of consciousness while tangling. Please visit again!

CZT training #28

Getting on the plane to Providence in a few hours, cannot wait!

BEad Inspired - Challenge #319

This week's challenge was very heart-felt. We were told about a program that helps kids who have ongoing, chronic illness. This program lets these kids get different colored beads for each medical visit or procedure they undergo. Gradually they collect a longer and longer string of beads that tells their story. "I saw the doctor and I got a shot and then I  had to stay in the hospital and the respiratory therapist came to see me every day..." Each of those is a bead. Se we were asked to BEad Imspired. 

I went hunting around Tangle Patters and rediscovered MaryHill from Betsy Wilson, CZT. This was one of her variations where MaryHill is ruffled up into a big blossom and decorated with beads. I added Beadline for more decoration and more beads. Thank you Betsy for these ideas, I loved your Zentangle so much i wanted to draw it.

Last week I did the challenge and posted it here but somehow it never posted on IamTheDivaCZT.com. If you have time to take a look, click on "Dyptich - Challenge #318" on the right, of maybe just scroll down.

I am getting very excited. I leave for CZT training #28 in just 10 days. Let me know if any of you are also going.

Dyptich - Challenge 318

This week's challenge was to tangle a dyptich by folding a tile in half and tangling two mirror images. I used the simple tangles florz, flux, and shattuck on the two halves, then created a buckle or connector to bridge the piece, using the tangle pattern Huggins. I was recently reading in the Zentangle Primer that this tangle was named for the Huggins family (in-laws to Rick and Maria, I believe) because the Hugginses taught Rick and Maria the pattern as "something they used to draw when they were kids." 

That made me remember drawing 3-D stars and 3-Pronged Blivits. Not to to mention creating cootie catchers out of paper and Jacob's ladders out of string and eucalyptus trees out of newspaper and crowns made of white clover flowers where you thread each stem into the next one. So much fun to wear your crown once it was done. A diadem. Kids make great stuff.

Huggins can look really metallic somehow! Reminds me of the Vikings, (full disclosure, a series I am currently a bit hooked on). I decorated the connector with Mooka, which takes on an engraved feeling when set over the Huggins buckle. Vikings, Kids, French Poster Art, Mad Magazine. Every Zentangle is a journey of connections through time and art.

Challenge 317 - Tangle with a Photo

This week's challenge is to tangle with a photo. I have a box of photos for collage, so I went though it and came across this beloved detail from Hieronymus Bosch's painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights. I've always loved the idea of being inside a friendly golden bubble of light and happiness. It's something I visualize frequently.

The scanned image was pale and delicate, so I decided to use a renaissance tile and brown ink. Imagine my delight to find Bosch himself drawing Frumkey right there on there on the left in blue! All I had to do was just extend it out onto the tile. Then I used my two most favorite tangles of late, 'Dillo and Joki. I just love how they fill up a space with their curves. And how all the individual armadillos and jokers combine to flow together. Finally the whole thing seemed to call for a strong boundary and Zander volunteered his sheaves and was very welcome. 

I had fun, it didn't take long for some reason. It was quick and easy and the drawing process was a touch of earthly delight for me. Thanks to the Diva. I would never have had the nerve to paste a photo into a tangle without her daring inspiration.

Challenge 316: String Theory - Stripes

This week's challenge was to create a Zentangle with stripes. I enjoyed this very much. I used the tangle pattern Jalousie which I just love for no reason. I guess it reminds of the old window blinds that you don't see much anymore. Also Organic, a tangle that amazes me every time I draw it.

I have been working through the Zentangle Primer, and in Lesson 7 Reticla and Fragments, a number of fragments are presented that I used in my stripes. Also in Lesson 6, More Tangles, the tangle pattern Ing is introduced. It's explained that Molly saw a metal sculpture in Florida that inspired Ing with all its triangles. Then Molly herself writes about how she created Munchin  when she made a "mistake" drawing Rick's Paradox. I love it that there are no mistakes in Zentangle. No mistakes in life, either. No accidents. Everything that happens is what happens and is glorious in its own way, whether we realize it or not.

Challenge 315 - Molygon

This challenge was fun, using molygon and filling it with a tangle that i hope to identify soon! Do you know which it is? If so please leave a comment and tell me. Thanks! I love using the brown pen.

Weekly Challenge #312 - Spilled Coffee

This week's challenge was to allow a spilled drink to define the string for a Zentangle. Can't get more Zen than that! My coffee with cream and sugar made a lovely beige color. and it very cooperatively divided the tile into 4 sections.

First I filled the beige section with my latest fav tangle: Frumkey. I was too busy to enter the Frumkey challenge 2 weeks ago, so I am making up for lost time. Frumkey reminds me of Joki and 'Dillo, two other favorites of mine. All three seem to have lots of curvy fun chaos. I am new to using a sienna 01 pen. Seems VERY exciting to me to start to add color after 8 months of tangling in black and white only. But I have always been easily amused!

For my second tangle, I remembered Maria saying she liked to combine curves with grids, or maybe she said curvy tangles with more rectangular tangles. Anyway, I thought a grid would provide contrast, so I put in an area of Yew Dee.

The coffee spill created a very nice sized triangle at what was becoming the "top." That gave me the idea of using Foldz, a tangle that seems to lend itself to triangles. I didn't like how it looked, but then once it was shaded it was much improved. Shading Foldz makes a big difference. Shading everything makes a big difference!

Finally I wanted something to tie it all together. Betweed seemed just the thing. I think Betweed is an amazingly mysterious tangle, up there with Paradox. There is so little to drawing it, but so much when you look at it. Between continues to Bewitch!

Thanks to Laura Harms for putting up the challenge each week.

Weekly Challenge #311 - Circles and Squares

This week's Challenge was to use a circle and a square. A few days ago I took an Introduction to Zentangle class with Cheryl Wilson, CZT. Cheryl is a wonderful teacher! We were working with these tangles, so I decided to use them again in the challenge. Flux, Floo and Florz are flamboyant, flabbergasting little flaunters! And Bales and Keeko are old favorites.

I like how Flux works with a black background, never tried that before. I had forgotten how much I liked Keeko, especially when Cheryl showed us how to "shade across the lines," i.e. shade horizontally on the vertical lines and vertically on the horizontal ones. That just looks so good to me. I am continually amazed at the power of shading to make things so much more interesting and dramatic. Not to mention shading's power to cover a multitude of sins, of which I am plentifully guilty!

Weekly Challenge #308 - Mac N Cheese

This week the challenge is to use your favorite go-to, no-stress, just plain love 'em tangle patterns. Thank you Diva for this wonderful idea! My favorite pattern so far is Meringue. I love drawing those sinuous curves. I hoped a Meringue flower would make a great tangle moviestar in the middle. The way Drawings or Squid can do.

Dillo, in the upper right, is so named because it looks like an armadillo! You can't beat that for just plain wonderful silliness. Joki and 'Dillo go together in my head, not sure if it's just because I learned them on the same day, but I think they have curves in common. And a certain exuberant happiness. Lots of curves today! And happiness I hope.

Zander is essential Mac N Cheese, dating back to the day I first opened my new Zentangle Kit and put in the CD and drew my first tangle. You can't beat that, it's like your old teddy bear or your blankie! Finally Shattuck. Whadda background tangle! I like how all the curvy patterns mix it up together in this. Zander is the curtain in the window. Or the beach on which all the other tangles are crashing. 

Weekly Challenge #307

This week's challenge was Zingo, which seems like an inherently fun tangle pattern! I used FOLDS in the corners, and filled the FOLDS with PRINTEMPS.  Then I had fun putting PANTHE behind everything. The Pantheon seemed a very serious and historical background to use for all this frivolity and fun!

Weekly Challenge 306

Weekly Challenge #306

Amphora

I thought Drupe was a little bug-like and certainly Marasu is snakey. Then the long stringy interpretation of Amphora seemed a little reptilian to me too. Diva Dance Waltz seems completely psychedelic to me somethings. So it was waltzing with bugs and snakes night with this Zentangle!

New Paintings

These are the new paintings I am enjoying doing. I haven't felt this good about any paintings I have done for years! I am using alcohol inks on yupo (synthetic) paper. Very vivid and infinitely re-workable. I have been wanting to do plaid paintings for a long time, so finally they are here.
Your comments welcome!