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!